Page 26 of A Case of Extreme Mistaken Identity

“Hey, it’s okay,” Austin said, unsure if now was an appropriate time to pull her close.

A tear escaped and rolled down her cheek. “He wants me to keep working here until I earn enough to come home. Which will probably be never because I have to use that money to buy food and stuff.” Her fingers shook. “I already owe you—”

He put a finger on her lips, silencing her. Her lips were warm and soft, and he instantly regretted that decision as desire shot through him. He lowered his hand. “You don’t owe me anything. You don’t have to pay me back. Consider it my kind deed for the day.”

“But I can’t let you keep paying—”

“Dani.” He hooked his finger under her chin and slowly raised it until he could look into her eyes. “I want to help you. Please. Let me be good for something right now. I’m feeling pretty useless.”

He hadn’t meant for those words to come out, but for some reason, they spilled out of him without warning. And now Dani was staring at him, her eyebrows pulling together. “Useless? What do you mean?”

He couldn’t really tell her how he felt useless because of his injury. She thought he was a maintenance guy. He covered it up with a cough. “It’s nothing. The point is, I’m happy to help you. And soon you’ll get your first paycheck, and you can start saving up to get that plane ticket home. You can do this. I know you can.”

An urge to show her that she was capable surged in him. He wanted this for her. Dani had to succeed, so she could see how she was more than what the people on social media thought. She could learn to do anything she put her mind to. And Austin was determined to show her that.

Chapter 13

Dani changed into her new pajamas, and even though they were only fifteen dollars, they felt soft against her skin. Maybe because she was simply exhausted and couldn’t muster up the strength to care anymore about cheap fabric. Or maybe her brain was trying to cope with the situation, and fooling her into believing everything would be okay. Either way, she could tell her give-a-crap meter was at its breaking point.

She came out of the bathroom and plopped down on the couch beside Austin, where he was scrolling through his phone. Then she remembered that she’d never watched that embarrassing video of hers and balked. She couldn’t look at it now. Not with Austin sitting next to her. But a moment later, he got up and said he was going to brush his teeth, and he disappeared into the bathroom.

Perfect timing. Dani put in her ear buds and searched YouTube for her name. The offending video came up first. She pushed play. Man, it was bad. Worse than she’d realized before. She looked so messed up. Not only the makeup, but the way she did everything that Victoria and Steph said to do. Pathetic. How had she never seen it before? Why was she trying so hard to please those two? Was she that way all the time?

The video continued and Dani waited for the part she’d seen, where she talked about Rafael. It was definitely cringe-worthy. She told the world everything that happened, even the most embarrassing parts. How he’d fooled her, why he’d done it, and how she’d totally believed him and fallen in love with him.

Dani’s face heated as she watched herself spill the entire story through slurred words. And it wasn’t as if Victoria or Steph cared. They were delighted to get everything on video. How could she have trusted them? There was something definitely wrong with her internal sensor.

But watching the whole awful video reminded her that trusting people was simply a bad idea. No matter how much she wanted to take Austin at face value, she had no idea what his motives really were. Yes, he looked like he was helping her, but it looked like Rafael was sincere at first, too. She didn’t find out the truth until it was too late.

She had to be more careful around Austin. It was just like her to give her blind trust, and then be destroyed. She kept forgetting that, probably because Austin looked so trustworthy. He was handsome, and had been kind to her. But those were the most dangerous people. Why did she keep forgetting that?

Austin came out of the bathroom and Dani jumped. She paused the video and tucked her phone behind her so he wouldn’t see her horrible clown-self on the screen.

He gave her a weird look. “What’s that?”

Shoot. He’d seen her. She decided to play dumb. “What’s what?”

He squinted. “Why are you hiding your phone?” He motioned to her hand behind her back, and the trail of earbud cord leading to it.

Busted. But maybe if she distracted him, he would not keep bugging her about it. She wrinkled her nose. “Why are you asking what it is, if you knew it was my phone?”

A look crossed his face, and she wasn’t sure if it meant he was amused or he was losing patience with her. “Why are you not answering my questions?”

“Why are you asking so many questions?”

“Why are you being evasive?”

“Why aren’t you?” she shot back at him, before she could really think about it. Her face heated. What a stupid thing to say.

He opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. He closed it, opened it once again, then clamped his jaw shut and shook his head. “Never mind. I forgot what we were talking about in the first place.”

“Me, too.” She waited until he walked to the small room fridge to pull her phone out and close the YouTube video. She’d watch the last thirty seconds later. She was pretty sure how it ended anyway. She must have passed out and Victoria had nothing else to video.

Austin held up a water bottle. “Do you want something to drink?”

“No. I’m ready to sleep. I can hardly keep my eyes open.” She had been exaggerating, but as soon as the words came out a yawn took over, and the exhaustion from the day set in.

“You can have the bed. I’m fine on the sofa again.” Austin pointed his water bottle toward the king-sized slice of heaven by the sliding door.

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