Page 81 of Strictly the Worst

“That’s very wise.”

“Where’s your car again?” I ask him, and his eyes crinkle, like he knows he’s won.

“Over there.” He points at a sleek black Audi. Zoe runs over to it and we follow behind.

“Just so you know, I’m absolutely expecting you to put out since I got the tickets,” Linc murmurs in my ear.

I start to laugh. “We’re not even dating.”

“Yeah, well. We’ll be talking about that very soon.”

I turn to look at him. “Zoe’s watching,” I remind him. And yes, I let him kiss me in the auditorium. It felt good. Too good.

But here, in front of her, I need to be the mom again.

“I know. I’m keeping it completely PG.” He looks over at Zoe. “You can pull the handle. It’ll unlock automatically.”

She does as he says and sure enough the door opens. “Cool,” she says.

“Talking about putting out isn’t PG,” I tell him in a low voice.

“The talking is. The doing isn’t. And the things I fucking want to do to you, Carmichael. It’ll make Exuma look like a Disney movie.”

I start to laugh again. It’s a mixture from the high of the concert and the way he’s so persistent.

It’s nice. I like feeling wanted.

And I’m stupidly attracted to this man even if I don’t want to be.

“You’re driving us home and then you’re leaving,” I tell him. “That’s it, right? You know you can’t come in for coffee.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he says, looking absurdly pleased with himself. “I just want to make sure you both get home safely.”

Oh. He’s gone from being dirty to sweet in one easy move.

The Linc Salinger effect gets everybody eventually. Including me.

LINC

“What the fuck happened to you last night?” Ryker asks me. It’s late morning and we’re eating brunch in his hotel room. He looks exhausted, but the band has another show tonight, so he can’t sleep off the hangover he managed to cause himself.

“I needed to get Tessa and her daughter home,” I tell him, taking a bite of a pastry. My stomach growls with appreciation.

“The chick from last night. Did she like my song?” He gives me a sly look, and I know he’s trolling me.

“She kept her panties on, if that’s what you’re asking,” I say dryly. I’m not worried about him. For starters, Ryker can’t hold a relationship down for two seconds.

“For you too?” Ryker asks, grinning. “Oh man, you’ve lost your touch.”

“I don’t have a touch,” I say, rolling my eyes. Because that’s the problem that Tessa has with me. She thinks I’m not serious. That I’m drama.

I need to clean up my reputation.

It’s not a completely unfair reputation either.

“How do you know her anyway?” Ryker asks. Sondra comes in with a pile of photographs for him to sign. He takes the pen and squiggles across each one, while still looking at me.

“We work together.”

---