“Are you prepared to go on the record?”
“I am prepared to tell you to back off and leave me out of any town gossip. You’re with theExaminer. Why not cover real news?”
The reporter cleared his throat. “Well, numbers have been falling with the launch of the Back Fence. I’ve been ordered to sex things up.”
“Well, there’s none of that here.”
“Care to sit down then for a round of twenty questions tomorrow afternoon?” The reporter pushed, undeterred. “Build up the buzz before the silent auction.”
Pepper frowned. “What buzz?”
“Every year the Village Pillage holds a silent auction. All the downtown businesses donate. Plus, there’s always two popular extras. The condo timeshare in Key West and the Night with Mr. Scallywag.”
“What’s that?” Tuesday asked. “Sounds tempting.”
The reporter chuckled. “That’s the idea. An eligible local bachelor is auctioned off for a real date.”
“I see.” She didn’t, though. Rhett was auctioning himself off as Mr. Scallywag?
“Do you have anything to say about that?” The reporter shoved the voice recorder back in her face. “Confirm the rumors of a secret fling?”
“Rhett and I are good friends. He offered me a job and helped me through a rough patch.”
“So there’s nothing romantic between you two?”
“Me and Mr. Scallywag?” She glanced to Rhett. In the top secret corners of her mind, hidden behind caution tape and classified stamps, she’d kept a hope that their so-called fling meant as much to him as it did to her. But he’d signed up to be put on the chopping block for all the single ladies in Everland. Agreed to go on a date.
A date!
Perhaps they’d made a pact to keep their fling a secret, but they hadn’t discussed seeing other people.
“I’ll be going to Chicago and looking to restart my planned career in law,” she set her jaw and announced firmly. “Like my sister said, we have no future here.”
“Over to Rhett.”
Her stomach tingled with an unexpected fluttering, the lightest gossamer kiss to her core. Tiny hope taking flight. It was so stupid. So impractically stupid, but for a moment it seemed possible he’d do the thing she couldn’t. Recover the situation. It was like they were at a Choose Your Own Adventure cliff-hanger and he had the power to get them to the next chapter. She rose up on her toes. Leaned in.
Please.
A wordless whisper, a word written in white crayon on blank paper. This was the chance. The chance for him to prove—
“Pepper Knight is my neighbor.” His growl was so rough that the words were barely comprehensible. “She’s a dog walker. That’s it. End of story.”
Their gazes locked. All the butterflies from her stomach flew into a pesticide cloud of practicality and dropped stone dead. She locked her face, erasing all emotion.
Rhett was absolutely right.
This was the end of their story.
