Page 48 of Wolf's Chance

“Is he kidnapping you?” Caleb failed to smother his laughter,and I heard Lily’s gasp. “Is he there with you now? Oh my God, are you okay? I’m coming!”

She hung up on me, and Caleb burst out laughing as I looked at him helplessly. “I…I’ve got nothing.” He was still laughing, and I could admit it was a little bit funny.

“She doesn’t even know where to go,” Caleb said, still chuckling. “Hopefully, she brings a truck with her.”

I tried to call her back, but Lily didn’t answer. With a frustrated sigh, I turned my attention back to Caleb. “We should start walking. Whispering Pines is small; if she misses us at the house or here, she’ll pick us up halfway.”

“Or we wait here. We need the truck. We don’t need your friend, as amusing as she is, to overreact completely when she can’t find you here or at home.” He tried to keep a straight face, but I could see the amusement dancing in his eyes. “She seems the kind of woman to blow things out of proportion, and we don’t need the cops’ attention on us.”

“We don’t, oryoudon’t?”

He gave me a level look, and I saw him assess me one more time. “You can’t walk back anyway. You look ready to drop.”

He was right. I was exhausted. I didn’t have the kind of healthy body that coped well with a mixture of excitement and adrenaline, and since I went home today, my body had been in one mode or the other. Leaning against the counter, I watched as Caleb stacked everything for loading into the truck or car, or whatever Lily brought, and I prepared myself for that conversation with her.

It wouldn’t be easy. She knew me well and could read me like a book. A really simple book, with pictures. “We need a lie,” I blurted to Caleb.

“For someone so high and mighty about the moral high ground, you surprise me,” he quipped, looking over his shoulder at me.

“Shut up.” Walking over to him, I grabbed his arm for support when I swayed. “Lily knows me.Reallywell. She won’t believe I’m just taking off with you, especially after I told her I thought you were watching me and it creeped me out.”

“So?” He didn’t seem bothered at all. “People’s opinions change all the time. Simply tell her we’ve had a chance to talk more and you like what you see. This trip will give you a chance to explore that further.”

“If I were interested in you, which I am not, I would have told her today.” I paused. “And I told her earlier that you left, without a goodbye, so there’s that.”

Caleb looked past me to the front door of the store just before it was hammered on.

“Shit. She’s here!” Hurrying over to open it before Lily drew too much attention to me that I didn’t need, I welcomed my best friend. “Hey.”

She brushed past me, stopping in the middle of the floor when she saw Caleb casually checking the wrapped paintings, and I saw her look at the empty wall behind him.

“Hi.” Caleb smiled as he straightened. “Lily, right? We haven’t been properly introduced, but I’ve heard so much about you.”

My best friend was stunned for a moment, and then she turned to look at me, mouthingwhat the heck?“Lily.” She told him, walking forward and extending her hand. “I’ve heard not much about you, and what I did hear wasn’t good.”

Caleb looked at me and I looked down at my feet. “Well, that’s disappointing, Willow.”

Now they were both staring at me, and I would have liked very much just to leave. “Yeah, it’s…”

“Complicated?” Lily was drilling me with her stare, and I looked to Caleb for help.

“Not complicated,” Caleb assured her with a smile I’d never received from him. I hated that I noticed that, and I hated it worse that I felt a stab of jealousy. “Willow and I have been…testing the waters, would you say?” I caught myself from snorting and simply nodded. “It’s been a back and forth and all kind of new.” The smile he sent my way would make a girl’s knees weak.

Not my knees. I wasn’t stupid. Or that’s what I was telling myself.

“New?” Lily was laser-focused on my face now, and I had nowhere else to look. “I thought it was morecomplex.”

“Well, there’s that too,” Caleb admitted with a low laugh, but Lily was in seek-and-destroy mode. He could flash all the bashful smiles he wanted, but she had me in her sights now.

“Willow, can I talk to you?”

I flicked my eyes to Caleb, and his head dipped slightly. “Sure.”

“Would it be presumptuous to start loading the truck?” he asked Lily with all the charm of a trickster. Lily was caught off guard, and I watched in disbelief as he plucked the keys from her outstretched hand when she said sure. “Thanks.”

He came over to me and led me carefully to the stool I had been sitting on earlier. “Sit while you chat. You look worn out.” His look of concern was all for her benefit, buteven knowing that, I would still be fooled. Lily was, and I saw the moment my friend softened and her guard dropped.

Manipulative bastard.

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