Jessica
“I don’t know why she refuses to explain herself.” I remain moot while my older brother relays the entire debacle to his fiancée and their friend Darcy Strong. A woman who—because I’m really paying for all my sins—happens to be my boss’s wife.
The smart move would have been to ditch Ryder and Charlie once I got back into Hailey’s jeep. But I’m not about to let the sheriff think he has me on the run.
So here I am. Once again, I’m sitting in a dive bar next to the man of my nightmares. Only this time, we have company, and I’m forced to be on my best behavior, which is exactly what I’d been trying to avoid.
Hailey warned me. She’d told me my plan was stupid, but I didn’t listen. The ulterior motives she’d warned me about, that I swore I didn’t have, were there all along.
I wanted to get Sheriff Charlie Radcliffe alone.
Ryder, Sophie, and Darcy all stare at me, the questions clear.
Charlie has played dumb and hung me out to dry. I’d be annoyed, but I can’t blame him. If the situations were reversed, I’d do the same. I could have made him my cohort in crime, but I’d panicked when Ryder pulled up and my mind went blank. I hadn’t been able to think of one reasonable, plausible story as to why I’d been stalking the sheriff.
I blame Charlie for the failure. He deliberately antagonized me with his stupid remarks about being quick on my feet and taking his lead.
Like I’d trust a mere man with my fate.
So, when all else failed, I went with obstruction.
Some people might disagree with my strategy, but those people would be wrong. In the face of the unexplainable, I decided on a lawyer’s response by refusing to reveal evidence that would incriminate me. It’s not like my brother can force me to talk. The worst he can do is grumble and annoy me with questions to which I will provide no answer.
It’s the best of both worlds. I don’t have to lie, which means there will be no threads to tie up. There is no way Ryder will guess the truth.
The way I figure it, there are two eventual outcomes. He’ll either stumble on to a reason his mind can make sense of, or he’ll get bored, and I’ll never hear about it again.
Sophie’s pretty brown eyes dart in Charlie’s direction. “You know nothing about this?”
“If I’d known, we wouldn’t be sitting here.” His voice is smooth, that hint of Southern peeking through again.
If he’d known, I wonder what we’d be doing right now.
Talking. Surely we’d be talking.
I notice, like me, he’s careful not to lie outright, telling me the sheriff cares about his relationship with Ryder. Which makes this whole situation that much more unfortunate.
If only we’d met before I sat down next to him in that bar, but we didn’t. Ryder hasn’t lived in Revival long and has been busy establishing a new life. Our hometown is far enough away that drop-ins and after-work dinners aren’t the norm. The few times our paths potentially could have crossed, something got in the way.
That’s fate for you, always fucking you over when you least expect it.
Sophie shifts back to me. “And you have nothing to say?”
“I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to discuss the situation.” I pick up my glass of bourbon and lean back in my stool, crossing my legs.
As the fabric slides up my thighs, Charlie tenses.
Even though we sit a reasonable distance apart and aren’t looking in each other’s direction, our chemistry feels like it has a seat at the table.
It’s probably a good thing Ryder won’t let us out of his sight.
To help the cause, I tug my hem back to my knees.
The first lady of Revival, a stunner with blue eyes and raven-black hair, points a finger back and forth between us. “How do you two know each other?”
“We don’t,” Charlie and I say at the exact same time.
Technically, it’s the truth. Not counting sex, orgasms, and all those things I told him in the dark, we hardly know each other. I’m sure, in real life, we’re completely incompatible.