Page 31 of Shadow Dance

“I took her home,” he blurts. “My date. On my birthday.”

“Oh.” My face flames. “Okay."

“Her home, I mean. Didn’t feel like bringing her back to the guest house.”

I nod, staring out the window. I don’t know if that means he hooked up with her, but either way … “It’s none of my business.”

“No, it …” He pauses as we pull up to a light, and I can tell he’s been thinking about this. “I shouldn’t have said what I said. We’re obviously closer than we were, and we should be. We see each other every day. I mean, this arrangement could last awhile."

I stare at my lap, listening to his very uncharacteristic rambling. “It sounds so mechanical when you say it like that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like you’re being paid to be my friend.”

“I'm paid to take care of you. Being your friend is free.” He touches my arm, and I glance up. “Okay?”

It’s one thing to trust him with my life, quite another with my feelings. But, against my better judgment, I do. He didn’t have to backtrack just now. He doesn’t have to play nice.

But he does.

Chapter 9

Jaime

Maeve examines an eggplant, rubbing her thumb over its glossy, purple skin before tossing it into her shopping cart. We’re at Berkeley Bowl, which is busy to the point of chaotic. But it’s not bad. It’s just veryBerkeley, with its quirky mix of customers and eclectic world music drifting from the speakers. I’m half expecting to turn a corner and run into Florian with his flowing pants and headband.

I follow Maeve down another aisle, where she grabs an enormous avocado and lifts it for me to see. “Not on my list, but I can’t pass this up.”

I give her avocado a thumbs up, pausing when a familiar-looking fruit catches my eye. Shit, I haven’t seen guanábana in years. I grab a couple and drop them in the cart, my mouth already watering at memories of their sweetness.

“What’s that?” Maeve asks, curious.

“Guanábana,” I say. “We used to eat them all the time when I visited my grandparents in Puerto Rico.”

“What does it taste like?”

“Creamy and sweet, a little tart. Hard to describe.”

“I want to try it,” she says, running her fingers over their spiky, green skin.

“That’s why I got two.”

Her mouth curves into a smile. Even in sweats, she’s beautiful.

I need to be careful, getting chummy like this. There is absolutely no reason for me to get close to her, to let things get personal. She’s just a job. And she’s not even the main job—her boyfriend is.

But no matter how much I tell myself that, it’s obvious that it’s bullshit. Maeve is more than just a drug dealer’s girlfriend. She’s solid, authentic. She’s the kind of person I’d be friends with in another life, the kind of girl I’d go out with. I didn’t like making her feel bad earlier, even though her questions reallywerenone of her business. I mean, what the fuck? Why did she need to know about what I did on my time off, especially when it came to women?

Unless she’s catching feelings. I know she likes me more than she lets on. It doesn’t matter that she’s taken by the boss, that they’ve been together so long she might as well be his wife. I see it in the way she looks at me sometimes, and I know because I feel it, too.

My phone vibrates, and seeing Cal’s name is like a cold splash of water. I need to get my head on right. Playing games could put Maeve’s life, and mine, in jeopardy if her boyfriend ever found out.

Not that he makes any of this easy—now he wants me to keep Maeve out a little longer because they’re meeting a potential client at the house. Sounds like I need to keep an eye on the video feed.

“Do you like salmon?” asks Maeve.

I look up, glancing at the seafood counter just ahead. “It’s all right.”

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