Page 20 of Make Me Stay

He sighed. “Six weeks.”

“Christ, did you ghost her?”

“No. Used the app and told her I had a lot of work.”

“Yeah, like she believes that—you probably talked all the damn time before that.”

“Look, you barely call a girl back after you bang her. Don’t be handing out advice you never take, asshole.”

I pushed back my chair. The weight of Lexi’s text sat heavy on my shoulders. The first woman I wanted to text me in...forever. “You’re right. My bad.”

Wyatt growled out a sigh. “Whatever.” He stalked out, leaving me to stop at the bar and pay.

The ride home was silent.

He was right. I had no right to push him, but there was a reason he’d been seething for the last week or more.

When I was gone, I’d feel better if he had someone around other than Lexi.

I rolled down the window, letting the evening air into the cab of the truck. But the night air didn’t help push away the unease. I didn’t want to stick around. The jobs were good enough now, but the road was calling.

Wasn’t it?

Chapter8

Lexi

I parkedmy car near the library and headed across the way to the park. The night was quickly creeping in, but fireflies were still out in full force. I walked the path around the pond to an out of the way bench and fluffed my skirt before sitting down.

It was weird to go sans underwear, but I wanted to do things out of my comfort zone.

A late evening rendezvous sounded like a good start. Now I just had to wait for him. I checked my phone to make sure I was sharing my location. Maybe I was stupid to do this little hunt.

The house had been oddly stifling, which wasn’t like my brother. He was brooding about something, and guilt had been gnawing at me for sleeping with his best friend.

Well, not that we’d doneanysleeping.

I closed my eyes as the morning’s interlude came in a hot flashback. Kai Murdock crouched in front of me had not been on my bingo card, but now it had been added to my all-star fantasies.

When I opened my eyes, I caught a shadow in the distance.

Was that Kai?

I really hadn’t thought this thing through. Anyone could have been walking the path. But my heart rate evened out into the usual racing with excitement instead of fear. Indigo Valley was a safe, small town, which was why I’d been so bold.

But the shadow moved with Kai’s easy walk and those shoulders were unmistakable.

I crossed my legs, dangling my slide-on sandal as I leaned back against the bench. Did I look relaxed or like an idiot?

But when he moved into view and the solar lights put his tanned and golden hair into an honest-to-God halo, his smile arrowed right into my chest.

Shit.

This was just for fun. Reminding myself of that, I let the slit in my skirt show off my thigh. His gaze dipped down, then slowly up the flowy tank of the top. My nipples beaded under his gaze, and he licked his lips.

Did he remember this morning too?

“Is this my treasure?”

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