Page 60 of Tell Me Something True

Leaving her with a half-full water bowl, a wet spot on her shirt and an irritating moral dilemma.

With a sigh, she pocketed Tabitha’s key and opened the door.

Only to have Reed, standing in the same exact spot he’d been when she’d fled moments ago, duck his head.

Like he hadn’t been staring at the door waiting for her to come back outside.

This boy and his mixed signals.

He killed her.

Head held high, she stepped onto the porch, shut the door behind her, then handed him the water—without looking at his face—before heading down the porch steps.

And she’d thought Tabitha sneaking out of Miles’s house last month had been a walk of shame.

Oh, how young, how naïve she’d been!

That was nothing compared to this.

Humbling oneself sucked, even if it was deserved.

Especially when it was deserved.

When she reached Tabitha, the other woman had just ended a phone call.

“Was that Mr. Roberts?” Verity asked.

Tabitha studied her a moment, not hostile, exactly, but not even close to warm and fuzzy, either. “It was the place I rented the truck from.”

Paying for an extra hour or two of a rental wouldn’t be a big deal to you because you wouldn’t be the one paying for it. But to her? It’s a hell of a big deal.

The guilt. It would. Not. Stop.

Throat tight, Verity dug the key from her front pocket and held it out to Tabitha. “If the rental place charges you extra,” she said as Tabitha took the key, “I’ll pay for it.”

With her own money, thank you very much. She may not have to pay for her car or her insurance or anything necessary for her own survival, but she wasn’t completely spoiled.

Just mostly spoiled.

But Tabitha was already walking away. She stopped on the sidewalk to talk to Reed while Titus, at Reed’s side, lapped up the water Ian had gotten him.

Verity headed toward the other woman with slow, dragging steps. She noticed Ian on all fours on the porch, the bag of dog treats at his side forgotten as he studied a spider in its web between porch posts.

Verity wished she was that easily distracted.

Being in your own world meant you didn’t have to deal with people in this one.

“—sorry for the delay,” Tabitha was saying to Reed when Verity reached them.

“No problem,” he said, way nicer than he ever spoke to Verity. “It’s not like it was your fault.”

And he sent a pointed look Verity’s way.

God. Hit her over the head, why don’t you?

Tabitha glanced her way, too, but with a lot less smirkiness. “Maybe not,” she said. “But as the one who hired you, I feel responsible all the same.”

Reed lifted his chin in Verity’s direction, a stupid smirk on his stupid handsome face. “You got something you want to add?”

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