Page 110 of Rest In Pink

I shook my head. “It’s nothing.”

I tried to put my arms around his neck, and he took my wrists and put them back against my body.

“No,” he said. “You tell me what’s bothering you.”

“It’s stupid and I don’t want to.”

He folded his arms. “Well, you’re not getting sex until you come across with the truth, so ante up, Danger.”

“Well, hell, Cooper, we’ll have nothing to do then.”

He straightened a little. “Liz, you’re more than sex to me. You know that. And I’m more than sex to you, or you wouldn’t be upset.”

“We have a lot of sex,” I said, trying for neutral ground. No accusations. He didn’t deserve that.

“Whenever I can get you alone,” he said. “You drive me crazy. But we also have a lot of phone calls where we talk about Anemone and George and Peri and bears and a dozen other things. We have drinks and dinner with Molly and Mac and Rain and talk about a hundred other things. We look out for each other. Yeah, I know you come out here sometimes because I sound tense and unhappy. You don’t need to but I’m never going to say no. We talk, Liz. We are not just sex. Hell, I just fixed the Big Chef light for you. Trust me, there was nothing sexy about that.”

I took a deep breath. “Okay, then. What are we?”

“What do you want us to be?”

“Nice job passing the buck.”

“You’re leaving in September,” he said.

Maybe not,I thought.

“I don’t know what I want,” I said. “No, that’s a lie. Right now, I want your arms around me, and I want to be naked with you, and I want you to make me forget we ever had this conversation for atleastfifteen minutes. I want sex. Forget I even mentioned the other stuff.”

“Yeah, we’re definitely doing that,” he said, but he was looking at me like he was thinking.

That couldn’t be good.

“I love the Big Chef light,” I said.

“Good.”

“I love my Candy Apple Red car,” I said.

“Good.”

I love you,I didn’t say. It just didn’t seem like the right time.

He stood up, like he’d come to a decision. “Okay, you talked. My turn. Come on.”

I got up to go to the bedroom, but he opened the door to the outside.

“Vince, there are mosquitos—”

“Just come on.”

He led me out into the glow from the Big Chef sign and opened the door to his Gladiator. I climbed in, wondering if this was some new adventure. I didn’t see any rope. He drove toward town, then turned right onto Factory Road and I wondered if he was taking me back to the Blue House. Sex in the pool maybe. We hadn’t done that yet. But Peri was there, so I didn’t think so.

But after passing Margot’s, Vince turned onto Short Hill Road which I knew because it was now part of my morning run. And then he turned off that onto a dirt road and I began to wonder what his idea was this time. As long as it ended in orgasm, I’d be okay with it, but this was . . . a little creepy.

When he pulled up at the base of a big metal tower, it got creepier. The tower rose high into the sky and there was a flashing red light at the very top.

“What the hell?” I said.

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