“You’re joking, right? The woman hates me.”
“Yeah, I don’t think she does.”
“And what makes you say that?”
“Because I know how much she’s been checking on you over the past year.”
My stomach drops and my heart begins to race. “What? How?”
He taps his temple. “I’m a sheriff, Elliot. I patrol this town at all hours of the day.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah. Plus, Laney kind of let it slip one night when she was drinking at the winery with me and my dad. She swore us to secrecy, but she really loved how Dilynne wanted to make sure you weren’t going to let this derail your entire life.”
I roll my bottom lip between my teeth as I contemplate my reply. “I told her to stop, but…”
“It’s Dilynne. She doesn’t know how to listen,” Rhonan finishes for me.
I laugh. “Yeah, pretty much.”
“So how serious are these feelings?”
“You mean my hard-ons?” I ask sarcastically.
Rhonan shrugs. “Sure, those too.”
“My feelings are…”Annoying. Complicated. Irrational. “I don’t know what they are, honestly. I just know that she doesn’t annoy me as much as she used to, and she interests me more now that I know her a bit better.”
“Okay. How so?”
“Well, part of the reason she suggested this little ruse is because she has to face her ex, Vinnie, at Motorlux, and wanted a buffer, kind of like what she’s doing for me with Tori.”
Recognition dawns on Rhonan’s face. “Oh, that makes much more sense.”
His words make me perk up in my seat. “Why’s that?”
“Oh, that piece of shit did a number on her,” he continues.
I scratch the side of my head. “I’m trying to remember him, but…I think I only met him once.”
Rhonan nods. “Yeah, probably. She dated him when you were in your last year of law school and doing that internship in Charlotte. You weren’t around much.”
“Aw, okay. That timing lines up.”
“But she took the breakup pretty hard.”
“I find that hard to believe. That woman doesn’t let anyone tear her down.”
“This guy did, though. It was…bad, Elliot.”
Something about the tone of his voice makes this anger build inside of me on Dilynne’s behalf. “Well, now you know why she’d suggest something like this.”
He nods. “Yes, now I get it. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need to be careful—because until you know just exactly what you’re feeling, you need to keep this strictly platonic.”
“Not sure that’s going to be a problem for her.”
“I’m not talking about her, Elliot. I’m talking about you.”