I fold my hands in front of me. “I met Ryder’s boss in a bar, took him to a seedy roadside motel, and fucked him like he was an Olympic sport and he was my one shot at gold.”
My sister’s jaw unhinges as she stares at me without blinking. “What if he’d been a serial killer?”
“I didn’t get a serial-killer vibe.”
“Serial killers can be very charismatic. How do you think Ted Bundy got all those poor women into the car?”
“How is that relevant? He’s worse than a serial killer—he’s a cop.”
She rubs at her temples, as if the conversation is giving her a headache. “A cop whose name you didn’t get?”
I slide my gaze away, looking over her shoulder, and watch a mariachi band serenade a young couple. “It, uh, didn’t come up.”
“How could it not come up?” Her voice rises an octave.
“That’s not the point.”
“All I’m saying is, when a man puts his penis in you, names are usually on the table.”
“Well, they weren’t.” I shove a chip into my mouth and take several huge gulps of my drink, hoping alcohol and carbs will soothe me. “We agreed not to talk about anything personal.”
“A name isn’t personal. The checkout girl at the grocery knows your name. You deliver your name with a handshake. So, how does one go from I can’t be bothered with your name to motel rooms?” She’s distracted now, wanting to understand something that’s so counter to her nature.
“We can talk details later, but a plan is more important. What am I going to do, Hailey? We’re moving there. I quit my job. We got rid of our house. There’s no going back.” I cross my arms and rest my head on them before I wail, “I’m going to see him all the time. This is a nightmare.”
Her eyes are wide with a horror that reflects my own. “I don’t understand. Didn’t you meet him when you interviewed at city hall?”
I throw my hands up. “Obviously not.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask. Why would I? He wasn’t on the schedule, and our paths didn’t cross. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been a bit busy dealing with the fallout from the Travis debacle. Our brother has always given his boss and close personal friend glowing reviews. He told me how great he is and how good he is to work with. I trusted him, and now look what’s happened.”
“That’s unfortunate.” She presses her lips together like she’s trying not to laugh.
I scrape my hair back and push it over my shoulders. “It’s just sex, right? I mean, it’s not that big of a deal. It was one night.”
“How was it?”
“Did you see him? How do you think it was?” Why does he have to be so hot? If only he’d been a typical law enforcement beefcake, but he wasn’t. I’ve run across a lot of cops in my day, and the sheriff hadn’t given off that vibe at all. If he had, I would have stayed away.
Hailey retrieves her phone from the table and starts tapping. I have no idea what she’s doing, and my mind is spinning about the wrong thing too much to care.
Instead of figuring out my next steps, I can’t stop looping through last night. The images of what we did replay like a pornographic montage.
How dirty and intimate and orgasmic it was.
How, even in the seediness, there was something almost romantic between us.
No. Stop thinking about it. It can never happen again.
Cell in hand, Hailey clears her throat. “How can I get arrested by this guy?”
I snap back to attention. “Excuse me?”
“Lock me up, Sheriff Hottie.” Reading from her phone, she grins. “He can protect and serve me anytime.”
Horrified, I sputter, “Are you reading YouTube comments during my time of need?”