Page 53 of Save Me

“Who’s Fallon Murphy?”

“His childhood nemesis. His worst nightmare.” Her smile grew. “It would be the best kind of payback!”

“As fun as that sounds, I can’t do it this weekend,” he said, taking her hand in his. He was going up to Virginia Beach for a tattoo convention. He was scheduled to speak and had a full schedule of clients he was going to be working on. He considered asking Ryleigh to go with him, but he wouldn’t get to spend any time with her while she was there. Plus…he still couldn’t tell how she felt about the whole tattoo culture.

Then maybe you should open that dialogue…

Yeah.

That.

“Oh? Big plans?” she asked with a sassy grin.

“Actually, I’m heading out of town on Thursday and won’t be back until Monday. I probably should have mentioned it sooner, but…”

“Ryker, it’s okay. Really. You don’t have to run your schedule by me. This is…I mean…you know we’re just…”

“Fake. Casual. Yeah, I know,” he murmured before taking a massive bite of his brownie. He waited for her to ask where he was going or what he was doing—and he could totally tell she wanted to—but she was too stubborn to say anything.

So he was going to put it out there and see how she reacted.

“It’s a tattoo convention,” he blurted out as soon as he finished chewing. “It’s been on my calendar forever and it’s the first one I’ve been to in years so it’s kind of a big deal for me to go. We never talked about it and…”

“Really? Like a big convention?” she asked, her eyes lighting up.

“Um…yeah…”

“Is it open to the public or is it sold out?”

“I think there are still tickets available,” he replied. “Why? Do you really want to go?”

“Remember the client I told you about? The one who wants me to do his website?”

He nodded.

“Well…I think this could be great research! Oh, what an awesome coincidence! Can I go with you?”

Shit. It all seemed like a good idea, but…

“I have a full schedule, Ryleigh. I won’t be able to walk around with you. I’m one of the speakers and…”

“Oh! That’s amazing! Because you’re an artist, right?”

“Partly…”

“I have to admit that I’d love to go and check it out, but I don’t know if I’d feel comfortable walking around by myself.” Pausing, she took another bite of her brownie. “Will there be any more anytime soon? Someplace local, perhaps?”

“They tend to take place in bigger cities,” he told her. “Last I checked, there aren’t any close to Laurel Bay.”

She snickered. “You got that right.” Then gave him the most adorable pout. “Well, shoot. I wish I’d known sooner. I could have asked Ivy to go with me.”

This was the perfect opportunity to talk to her about what he did for a living, and he got comfortable and was about to speak when she did.

“Can I get your opinion of the mocks I’ve done for this guy’s website?”

“Um…what?”

Nodding, she stood. “Come into the office and check it out. I only sent him my auto-generated response, but I’ve been doing some research on other sites and I’d love to get your input.” When he didn’t immediately respond, she added, “Please?”

---