Page 29 of Four Steps to the Perfect Fake Date

“No?” Harry asked, brows arched high on her wrinkled forehead. “The pretty ones are always the laziest.”

“We didn’t have sex,” Daphne hissed, then pushed her stool back and stood. “I need some air.”

She stomped across the bar, feeling the patrons’ eyes on her back, ready to march across the island, find Flint wherever he was, and demand that hefix this, and fix it right now.

But she didn’t have to march far. Halfway to the door, Daphne watched it swing open to reveal the sheriff himself standing in the opening, a thunderous expression on his brow. And when his eyes landed on Daphne, his lips pinched into a thin line.

The bar was utterly silent. Someone had even turned down the music, which put one more person on Daphne’s shit list. Everyone in this bar would hear every word between her and the sheriff, and their gossip-addled brains would twist it to suit their purposes.

She would kill him. She’d kill him for being such a jerk about the uniform, for making her act out to the point that she’d stripped it off in the street. She’d kill him for making her feel off balance all the time, for pushing her off the foundation of safety and stability that was her happy place.

Hewas the cause of all this. With all his dark-haired, hazel-eyed good looks. With his stupid, glorious return to the island that had absolved him of all his teenage sins. With his authority and his uniform. He was the reason everyone on the island was talking about her.

And all he said as he stood in the doorway was “We need to talk, Cupcake.”

Chapter 11

Calvin watched as steam came out of Daphne’s ears. She ground her teeth as the two of them faced off, the only sound in Mickey’s Bar the wolf whistle of a patron hidden in the corner. After tearing his gaze away from Daphne, he glared in the direction the sound had come from and heard a smattering of laughter ripple through the crowd.

He stepped out of the doorway and held the door open for Daphne to stomp through.

“Talk,” she said, stopping just beside the door to cross her arms. She’d left her jacket inside, and Calvin could see goose bumps already rising on her arms.

“Let’s talk in the truck,” he said, gesturing to his vehicle. He ignored her impatient huff and got behind the wheel, turning on the heat while he gathered his thoughts.

The call he’d received from his mother an hour earlier had been unexpected. The fact that she thought he was sleeping with Daphne Davis even more so. But that wasn’t the worst of it.

“There’s some chatter,” he started, “about you and me.”

Daphne let out a bitter snort. “So I’ve heard.”

Good. That made things simpler. “My mother just called me.”

“Before you say anything else, can I just say that this is all your fault?”

Calvin jerked back. “My fault?”

“Yes!”

“Am I the one who ripped your shirt and then stripped down in the street?”

“No, but you’re the one who gets pleasure from driving me crazy! I’m normal around other people. I’m quiet, I do my work, and I go home. I don’t get why you make me so insane.”

“Well,” Calvin said, leaning back. “I tend to have that effect on women.”

“Give me a break.”

He laughed. “Listen, this is as inconvenient for me as it is for you.”

“Maybe if we ignore it, it’ll blow over.”

Cringing, he turned to look at her. The streetlights illuminated her profile, and in this light, he could hardly see her fading bruises. She wore a low-cut shirt with short sleeves and a few little white buttons that drew his eye to her cleavage. Earrings dangled in her lobes, and she’d brushed a bit of sparkly makeup on her lids at some point. Her lips looked pink and glossy. She was pretty and feminine and delectable, and he wanted to haul her over to his lap so he could taste her. He wondered what color her bra was, then tore his gaze away and chastised himself for letting his thoughts wander in that direction.

They had a problem.Hehad a problem. He couldn’t afford to mess this conversation up.

“My mom thought I was cheating on my date to her vow renewal with you.”

Daphne met his gaze, then hummed. “I see. And did your date get wind of it?”

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