Page 68 of The Long Game

He pulled out his truck keys and unlocked the doors with an elegantclick.

I opened my mouth, but he cut me off with a “Don’t bother.”

“How do you know I was going to speak? You were not even looking this way.”

“Because I’m not the only one who operates in two single modes,” he delivered in a sharp tone. “You do, too. You either overthink, or object. Both tirelessly, and usually directed at me.” He threw the copilot door open and shot me a look over the hood of the car. “You didn’t seem that bothered by me when I had my arms around you, so save the complaint and jump in the car.”

My arms around you.

My face flamed. “That’s different. Pottery and getting into an enclosed space with someone who could very well be planning to murder me and throw my body into some creek in the woods, hoping that putrefaction and scavenger creatures dismember it in a week so the bones sink straight to the bottom and all traces of the remains vanish are two very different things.”

“Oddly specific.” He tilted his head. “But creative.” The corner of his lips twitched. “I think you’ll survive this one drive, come on. I’ll call Robbie on our way back and let him know your car will stay the night on the farm.”

“That’s… completely unrelated to what I was saying, but okay.”

Cameron shifted on his feet, casually resting an elbow on the hood of the vehicle, looking like someone who had all the time in the world to pick my words apart. “Okay, you’ll get in the car? Or okay, I’ll continue bitching around out here, in the middle of the night, without a jacket on, just to spite me?”

I frowned. Spite him? I… All the fight left me. “I don’t do things to spite you, Cameron.”

“Jump in then,” he said, and I swore his voice softened like never before. “I promise I won’t feed you to the fish.”

“Thanks,” I clipped, closing the distance to his truck. “Just forthe record, I want to state that I could know how to change a tire.” I didn’t. “You made an assumption.”

A strangled sound left him when I reached him and slipped under his arm to get inside. I ignored it. I also ignored how horrible I felt for being purposefully difficult and how good his car smelled. Just like he did. And when Cameron pushed my door closed, walked around the car, folded his large body into the driver’s seat, and did that thing where he placed his flexed arm behind my headrest and reversed the car, I ignored how squishy that made me feel inside, too.

Generally speaking, I did a whole lot of disregarding how he made me feel on the drive back to Lazy Elk. And Cameron must have been doing the same, because neither of us spoke a single word until he killed the engine in the driveway.

“I’ll ring Robbie when I get inside,” he said, his voice sounding so… deep and low and intimate inside the confinement of his truck. “We’ll get the tire sorted tomorrow.”

We.That we again, as if we were… an item. A team. My chest did some of that squishing at the thought.

“Thanks for doing that,” I told him. I was so tired of antagonizing this man. “I’d insist on calling Robbie myself, but I don’t think he likes me very much.”

Cameron seemed to think about something. “His kids adore you.”

I wasn’t sure if he’d said that to make me feel better or because it was true. “I wouldn’t go that far. María likes me, but a part of me believes she’s trying to prove to the rest of the team that I’m not a witch.” I shrugged. “And Tony is a teenage boy who calls mema’amand barely talks to me.”

Cameron’s eyes roamed around my face. “Tony doesn’t know how to act around a beautiful woman.”

Beautiful.

I ripped my gaze off his face and let it settle on the dashboard. “What do you mean?”

“The kid fancies you, Adalyn.” Right. “That’s why he gets tongue-tied. That’s probably why he calls you ma’am, too.”

So Tony believed I was beautiful. Not Cameron. That was fine. I’d never been insecure about my looks or needed anybody’s reassurance to feel good about my appearance. I definitely had other insecurities. But it didn’t really matter, and it was foolish of me to think Cameron would ever look at me like that after how… our relationship had gone.

“I didn’t say thanks,” Cameron shocked me by adding. I looked over at him. His eyes were on me. “Tony recognized me back at the facilities, and you covered for me. I appreciate it.”

I shook my head. I didn’t deserve his gratitude. I… I fumbled with my seatbelt, overwhelmed by the sudden urge to exit this car. It released with aclick, and I threw open the passenger door. “Thanks for the ride. I will, hmm, see you tomorrow. Game day. Big day ahead. Good night!”

And jumped out without wasting a minute. I shot in the direction of my cabin but quickly came to a halt.

“Oh no,” I muttered, patting the pockets of my borrowed dungarees. Nothing. Empty. I groaned. “Oh God.”

I turned around. But I—

Collapsed against a hard wall. One that smelled like a pine forest and felt boiling hot to the touch. I stumbled back. “Cameron.”

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