I didn’t know what to think about my current reality.And to be honest, I hadn’t really had time to think about my thwarted date withJessie. Since that fateful Friday night, my thoughts and actions and decisionshad been focused solely on Sayer. I’d even somehow let Gus slip through thecracks. I was pretty sure he was following me around town. I kept seeing ablack Mercedes creeping behind me, but since I never had Juliet with me duringthose times nor was I doing anything particularly interesting other than randomerrands, I had let it slide. I should probably say something to him though.Maybe offer to log my activities for him and save him the trouble.
“Things have been crazy at the ranch,” Jesse explainednot quite looking me in the eye. “We’re getting ready to go to auction.”
His excuse made me feel funny, rejected in a way Ihadn’t felt in a very long time. He didn’t owe me an explanation and I wishedhe hadn’t given me one. It would have been better for him to pretend likenothing was weird between us. But acknowledging it shed light on it. Now I wasembarrassed and flustered. I wanted to kick it all back under the rug.
I swiped my hand through the air.“Oh,no worries.I mean, that’s cool. Auction sounds… busy.” Holycrap,put the words back in my mouth. What was wrong withme?
Jesse took mercy on me and nodded. “It is busy.”
“I’ve been busy too,” I blurted when the silence hadstretched between us for longer than three seconds.“Sobusy.”
“Oh, yeah? You got a lot going on?”
I let out a puff of air that forced my hair out of myeyes. “Yeah, I do. Work has been… swamped.” As a matter of fact, before Jessewalked in I had been trying to stack the new keycards into a tower. It was atruly frustrating endeavor because of how slippery they were. “And, you know,getting ready for Halloween has really, uh, taken up a lot more time than itshould have.”
He laughed. “I forgot about Halloween. What are yougoing as?”
I plopped my chin in my hand and tried to relax. Thiswas Jesse after all. I needed to chill out. Gosh, ever since Sayer showed up Ihad been acting like a crazy person. He’d gotten under my skin and startedbringing out the worst in me within seconds. Was this always how it had been?Had I been too infatuated to see it? Had he always brought out the shady in me?My baser instincts? The dangerous criminal?
“A bank robber,” I told Jesse. “Juliet’s idea.”
He laughed because of how absurd that idea was. Whorobbed banks anyway? Oh, wait...
Okay, I had never robbed a bank.
Bankers, sure.But not an actualbank.
Sayer’s Jeep pulled up outside and I wrinkled my nose.I didn’t want to deal with him right now. I was trying to have a conversationwith Jesse. Argh! Why did he have to ruin everything?
“So auction is a big deal?” I asked him, vaulting theconversation away from Halloween and Juliet and my life.
His attention was on Sayer. “Yeah, it is. We’re buyingand selling this year, so it’s a great big effort to make it all run smoothly.”
Out of the corner of my eye I watched Sayer jump downfrom his Jeep. He was back to businessman in gray dress pants and a bluesweater that would bring out the already vivid color of his eyes. His shorthair was pushed to the side, styled to stay in place. And he was wearing hisglasses again.
I focused harder on Jesse, realizing I hadn’t evenpaid attention to what he was wearing. “Oh, I bet.”
Jessie was wearing a button-up plaid shirt and jeans.If Sayer hadn’t walked into the office, ruining the entire morning, Jesse wouldhave been one of the hottest guys I’d ever seen. I mean, who could resistplaid?
But alas, Sayer was here. And no matter what ourhistory was or if he was trying to kill me or not, impartially speaking, theman looked delicious.
You know, from an objective perspective.
“Good morning,” Sayer greeted as he entered. “Man,it’s cold out there today.”
I was slightly taken aback because he hadn’t said morethan two pleasant words to me since I’d seen him naked last week—and he’dsubsequently berated me.
“M-morning,” I mostly whispered, which ended up beingbetter for my self-esteem when Jesse said the same thing louder and with moreconfidence.
Then the two men proved we were in some kind ofalternate reality and not real life by shaking hands.
What just happened?
“How’s it going?” Jesse asked Sayer.
“Good.” Sayer responded casually, nonchalantly, normally.“How are you? How’s your dad?”
“Good.” Jesse was comfortable and at ease. “He’s goingto meet us down there if that’s all right?”
