Page 29 of Out of Bounds
“Of course, I’ll give you my special Jack D blend,” Heather says with a proud smile. She looks like she’s loving being the cook far too much.
“I still find it hard to think of you as a burger person,” Ethan says from behind me.
I turn to face him while Logan’s dad starts talking to Heather.
It’s dark. We’re lit by the host of outsight lights and the moon that have cast a silver amber glow on everyone else, but it’s made his eyes look otherworldly.
They seem even more striking than in the daylight.
“Why is that?” He made that burger comment to me before. It was a while back when I had the misfortune of running into him at the diner in town Quinn and I practically lived in in our teens. “You’re not going to tell me some shit like you think I look like I should stay away from them because it will go straight to my ever-growing hips.”
He chuckles. “You have ever growing hips?”
“I’m not skinny.” I’m curvy and athletic and I like it that way. I tried skinny before and it made my boobs sag.
“No, you look like Marylin Monroe.”
For a moment I just stare because I don’t know how to take that. I’m not used to this guy saying anything other than shit to me so when he pays me something that sounds an awful lot like a compliment I don’t know how to react.
“I’m sorry, did you just give me a compliment?” I squint at him and look him up and down.
“I guess I did. And if I were you, I’d be careful who you tell about those ever growing hips especially with the assholes you tend to attract.”
I’m sure I’m not going to be able to forget my trip to the police station any time soon, and if not for him I could have ended up at Guantanamo Bay with no hope of ever seeing another sunrise again.
“I didn’t get a chance to thank you for saving me from the same fate as Liev.” I don’t want to know what happened to Liev since the arrest. I’m assuming it could have been any of the number of things Ethan listed. All I say is, serves him right and may he have whatever comeuppance God has in store for his lying ass.
“That’s okay. I think you learned your lesson.”
“I did, but honestly, thank you for taking care of it. I don’t know what I would have done if you didn’t help me the way you did.”
This feels like something new for us. I’m about to explore when laughter steals the moment right away before it can even take residence in my mind.
We both look at Bryce standing paces away from us. He’s holding a bottle of beer and looks wasted. There’s a Jack Nicholson from the Shining smile pasted on his face, and it grows wider when he looks from Ethan to me and settles on Ethan.
“I don’t think this is fair,” he slurs. “She gets to thank you because you look like the good old cop while I look like some creep.”
“Bryce you’ve had too much to drink. Why don’t you go take a walk,” Ethan tells him.
I was inclined to agree, but Ethan looks guilty. I’m used to that look too.
“Are you kidding me? I’m notthatdrunk and she shouldn’t be thanking you when you set up that whole arrest with Liev to teach her a lesson.”
My mouth nearly smashes into the ground, and I snap my gaze to Ethan so fast I nearly break my neck.
“What is he talking about?”
“Nothing,” Ethan says quickly. “Bryce stop.”
“No, fuck you. She should know the truth.” He turns his attention to me. “Bree Ethan set that whole thing up to scare you, so you’d think twice about dating men like Liev. You were never implicated in any way. The cops could have left you alone, but they were under strict orders from their senior, Detective Carson to bring you in as you were.”
“Oh my God!” I rasp out looking at them both. My gaze settles on Ethan and I just know everything Bryce is saying is true. “Did you really do that to me?”
I’m so loud everyone is looking at us.
“Yes, but… I can explain.”
“Oh my God.” I ball my hands into tight fists getting ready to punch him.
