Page 29 of Summoning my Grumpy Demon Boss

“They do, don’t they?” I’m not looking at the tiles. I’m looking at him.

The corner of his mouth lifts as if he knows what I’m thinking. Thathereally works in this space.Myspace.

I take a step closer. I expect Luke to step back, but he doesn’t. We’re standing so close we’re almost touching. He looks down at me.

A buzz from my pocket makes me jump. Fishing my phone out, I mutter a swear word when I see it’s Oliver. “I should probably take this.” I stare at the phone in my hand, an unpleasant feeling in my gut like the floor just turned to quicksand.

Luke frowns. “Is it him?”

I nod, still not answering. My phone keeps buzzing.

“You OK?”

I nod again. I am. I can do this. I can’t hide from him forever.

Luke’s warm, rough hand on my arm grounds me and the floor stops sinking in on itself. “You’ve got this. Just tell him how you feel.”

I still don’t answer.

“Or don’t. Just block his number and run away and live here in Kraken Cove forever.” He gives me a wink. “I’ll cover for you. If anyone comes looking, I’ll tell them I killed you and buried the body in the backyard.”

This is so totally not what I expected him to say it makes me laugh. I shoot him a grateful look and scurry out of the ensuite to answer the phone.

“Hello?”

“Mia! I thought you were going to keep ignoring my calls forever.”

I’m taken aback. I thought Oliver would at least sound a little bit sorry or embarrassed. “Ah, yeah. I guess I just needed a little while to process how I’m feeling.”

Oliver makes a little noise in the back of his throat. “Listen. That’s what I called to talk to you about. I wish you’d answered me sooner. Then we could have cleared all this up and you wouldn’t have been left feeling bad.”

“We could?” I walk to the window in the bedroom, looking out at the gum trees in the yard below. The leaves are still. There’s no breeze. “I wouldn’t?”

“No, Mia. That’s just it. I don’t know what crazy story Tegan told you, but I can guess, and I promise you that’s not what happened at all.”

I frown. Tegan can be a bit dramatic, but it’s not like her to lie. In fact, she’s much more likely to tell the truth, even if it will hurt someone’s feelings. “Well, what happened then?”

Oliver sighs. “Rebecca Owens and I were going through her statement again. The case is heating up and I knew that the defence wanted to cross-examine her.”

“Wait. Wait.” I shake my head, trying to clear it. “So you’re saying there’s nothing going on between you and Rebecca?”

“No, Mia. Look, you know that Tegan has never liked me.”

“Oh, that’s not true.”

“Mia, let’s face it. She’s had it in for me ever since we first got together.”

I bite my lip. Technically, it was when he thought we should take a break in our final year of high school, but that’s not important. He’s right. Tegan isn’t his biggest fan. Isn’t that why Tegan wanted to dig the dirt on Oliver in the first place?

I sigh. “Yeah, but if there’s nothing going on, why did you invite her back to our place?”

“Look, either you believe me or you don’t. What it comes down to is trust. And after everything we’ve been through together and how long we’ve known each other, I’d like to think we could at least trust each other.”

I swallow around a sudden dryness in my throat. I didn’t think of it quite like that. I’m not quite ready to let this rest, though. “I hear what you’re saying, but there is more than just this one thing. The late nights, not answering my calls...”

“All with good reason. You know how busy I’ve been.”

“And it’s not that I don’t trust you, but you have to admit it looks bad. And you never want to sleep with me anymore.”

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