Page 55 of Dear John

“No, I always lose!”

“I’ll play fairly this time. I swear!” She pouted, her eyelashes batting in a way I couldn’t say no.

“You say that every time, and every time, I end up losing to some trickery! I’m going alone and that’s the end of it.”

“But it’s New York,” she whined. “The land of the free and idiotic.”

“And that makes you want to go?”

“Well, at least there I can escape to someplace other than a field.”

“You can’t go anyway. Remember, you’re supposed to go to that conference this weekend.”

Her shoulders slumped and she kicked the chair, pissed that I remembered that. “This sucks. I want to get away.”

“Maybe with me out of the way, you’ll get along better with Bowie.”

“Yeah, because too many people in the house is the reason he’s getting under my skin.”

I knew it was. There were things Bowie liked to do that he couldn’t because I was here with Kavanaugh. I made the mistake of walking in on them once before, and ever since then, things had been much more tame in the bedroom.

“You know, I really don’t like you right now,” she glared at me.

“Then you’ll be happy to see the back of me,” I smirked, heading out the front door with my cup of coffee. Finally, I would get some distance from my overbearing boyfriend and feel the breeze of freedom on my face.

“Oh, Kavanaugh!” I heard Riley call.

My eyes widened and I jumped to my feet, sloshing my coffee all over me, slipping in the liquid and falling on my ass. I stared up at the porch roof and groaned, knowing I had missed my chance to stop her. That stupid bitch went behind my back, and now I would be stuck with Kavanaugh for the duration of my trip.

20

KAVANAUGH

“Areyou sure you want to do this?” I asked Isla again.

I watched her pack her bag with just a little too much excitement. She was all for going to New York City, but did she really understand what she was getting herself into? There were tons of criminals there. Not that Kansas was completely safe, but it wasn’t anything like what she was used to.

She stopped packing and turned to face me. “I think I can handle a client meeting on my own.”

I frowned, not liking her choice of words. “I’m sure you can, but it would still be safer if I went with.”

“What’s so unsafe about this?”

“You mean besides the fact that a client emailed you out of the blue, offered to pay for your flight and expenses, all to interview you for a job that could take a month to complete?”

“Yes, aside from that,” she said snidely.

“It doesn’t seem at all odd to you?”

She sighed heavily, plopping a few outfits on the bed to be hung in a dress bag. “Sometimes this happens. This is a big company. I looked into them and they are expanding rapidly. They need a designer like me to take over and help them explode.”

“But still…it all seems too good to be true.”

“Kavanaugh, don’t you have something else to do?”

I had plenty to do, and it all included keeping her safe. There was nothing about this job that sat right with me. It felt like they were luring her out to New York City.

“Besides protect you? I know I fucked up before. I wasn’t there for you, but it’s not like I have a job right now. I will be there for you every step of the way. You’ll never feel unsafe while I’m next to you.”

---