Page 65 of Keeper
“Tulips. Those are tulips,” Tanner said as we stopped for more pictures. “I gotta say, Marta, I’m not really buying the story that you come here all the time.”
“I do, too!” she protested. “Why would you even say that?”
“Because you don’t seem like you know the first thing about this place. Or plants.”
“Ohmigod, Vaughn.” She doubled over with a ditzy laugh, using it as an excuse to get closer and rub her assets against his body. “I’m slow, okay? Don’t be mean.”
After a few pictures, we moved along. We stopped at a pavilion with a garden display inside. A sign posted on the door made clear that guns were restricted.
Marta tapped the sign. “Sorry, Vaughn. No guns allowed. You can’t come in here.”
“Huh?”
She bit her lip. “I mean, youarepacking some serious heat.”
His brow grew furrowed. “Excuse me?”
“Oh, don’t act so coy, Tanner,” she said. “I happen to know you’re hung like a horse, okay?”
“What gives you that idea?”
She pointed at his crotch. “First of all, you’re not exactly hiding it. Second of all?” she asked, pressing her shoulder into his. “I may or may not have seen pictures.”
His nose wrinkled and he leaned away from her. “What pictures?”
Oh no,I thought.
“Oh, don’t make me say it,” Marta said.
“I think you should say it,” Tanner insisted.
She rolled her eyes. “Jeez! I’m just joking around.”
The vibe was weird, but it wasn’t my place to get involved. I busied myself with my camera, flipping through the hundreds of photos I’d taken today, when the camera suddenly powered down.
I interrupted. “Hey, guys? My battery died. I’ve got a backup but I have to run back to the car to get it.”
Marta attached herself to Tanner’s side. “No problem. We’ll wait right here!”
“I’ll be back in a few, then.”
I turned and hurried away, happy to have a break.
A minute or so later, an agile pair of footsteps came trotting behind me. I hoped it was a passing jogger, but I had a funny feeling in the pit of my heart it was Tanner. Sure enough, he stopped running once he caught up to me.
“Ainsley,” he said, brushing up against my side. “Can we talk?”
Paranoid, I looked over my shoulder. “Where’s Marta?”
“I left her back by the pavilion.”
“Please tell me you didn’t tell her you were chasing after me.”
“Hell no. If I’d told her that, she would’ve tried to come with me.”
“So what’d you say?”
“I told her I had to make an important phone call.” He stopped walking. “Hey, can we please talk?”
