Page 31 of The Silent Note

If I’d known more about him that night, it never would have happened in the first place…

I stop and inhale.

Why am I arguing with someone who’s not even there.

I am here.

No you’re not.

Sloane undoes her seatbelt and twists fully around, looking into the backseat.Why do you keep acting like you don’t want this as much as he does?

I don’t.

You do.

I don’t.

Says the girl who’s worried about lingerie.

The lingerie’s not for him. It’s for my own confidence and what do you know anyway?

Sloane rolls her eyes mockingly.

She’s trying to goad me.

Which isn’t possible because she’s not here.

“She’s not here. She’s not here. She’s not here,” I mumble under my breath.

“Tiger?” Zane’s deep voice prompts me to open my eyes. He’s undone his seatbelt and he’s sitting closer to me now, inspecting me.

He thinks I’m crazy.

Am I crazy?

I think the informal term for ‘seeing the ghost of your best friend who was murdered in high school’ iscrazy.

I’m not a ghost.Sloane huffs as if offended.I just don’t have a body.

That’s literally the definition of a ghost! No, she’s not real. She’s not real.

“Maybe we shouldn’t do this tonight,” Zane says thoughtfully.

“No!” I blurt.

For some reason, he finds that funny. A smile flirts with the corner of his lips and it’s so sexy that it’s painful to look at.

There’s a reason Zane Cross has no problems getting girls at Redwood.

I swallow hard. “I’d rather get this over with.”

“Just what every husband wants to hear on his wedding night.”

I gesture between us. “This isn’t a wedding night.”

“What do you call a bride,” he points at me, “and groom”—he gestures to himself— “going off by themselves after they sign the papers?”

“A pre-mature divorce?”

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