Page 14 of Villainous Summer

Long stretches of silence never bothered me. My friends would fill up those moments with idle chatter but not me. There was a power in not saying anything at all and staring down your opponent.

Unlike most of the men I would level, he didn’t appear ruffled. He chuckled softly to himself, nodding, as if I was confirming something for him.

“Here’s the deal. I need a date for the parade. My boss has a house on the route, and every year, he throws a big party at his place. I need you to come with me and pretend to be my girlfriend for the day.”

I snorted, cocking my head. “Your date? Yeah, sure, big guy.”

“I’m serious. You owe me.”

He didn’t seem to be lying.

Back flush with the cold wooden booth, I crossed my arms. “You’re a good enough-looking guy. I’m sure you could be charming if you weren’t so pushy. That’s a week away. I’m sure you could find some other random gal to take with you.”

“I can’t use some random gal. It has to be you.”

“Me? Not that I don’t think I’m a catch, but I doubt I made that great of an impression that you’ve been lusting after me dripping rain all over your rug.”

This time, he looked away, his mouth turning to a grimace. After grumbling and huffing, he finally looked at me. “Because I already told my boss that you’re my girlfriend.”

A burst of laughter wheezed out of me.

“Wait, what? Why?” I choked out between laughs.

He leaned back in his chair, studying me, as I tried to contain my snickering. “You done?”

Lips pursed, barely containing a smile, I nodded.

“It came out. My boss asked me to take his granddaughter out, who I’m sure is a perfectly nice woman, but I don’t date anyone seriously, and I can’t risk my job if I broke the heart of some barely-out-of-college girl. So, I told him I had a girlfriend, and when he asked for a name, I gave him yours.”

“Mine? I’m the first person you thought of?”

“Unfortunately.” He glared at me with a murderous expression.

I drained the rest of the wine and set the empty glass on the edge of the table. When the server saw it, he nodded at me.

“I still don’t know why you would ask me to do that. You don’t even know me.”

He held my gaze, and for the first time in what felt like forever, I was the first to look away.

Years before, I went on a road trip to California. Autumn had talked me into hiking near Mammoth Mountain to see Rainbow Falls. We saw this towering formation of basalt columns there, the geometric rocks dwarfing us.

His eyes were the same gray of those boulders, striking and enigmatic.

Copying my pose, he crossed his arms, mirroring me. “I have a good feeling about you. It’s one night and then you can go off on whatever breaking and entering fantasies you like to conjure up.”

“First of all, there was no breaking, only entering. You left your front door unlocked. And second, I told you my ride let me off in the wrong spot, and I was lost.”

A smile quirked on his face.

“Sure, let’s go with that.”

“Why would you trust me? I could be a serial killer for all you know.”

“A female serial killer who mails a check for dry-cleaning your rug in the comment line?”

My steady gaze faltered.

“Yeah. It’s a devious move, obviously.”

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