Only, I’d be worse. Because they’d all have to go through me to get to her.
There’s no one here right now to save her from me.
No one except myself.
19
SINCLAIR
“It’s pretty here.Ashton would love it. He could find you a waterfall to bathe in while he drew you looking all wet and sexy.”
Zoey laughs down the phone as I sit in the passenger seat of Denver’s car and gaze out of the window as we drive. Monty sighs happily from his position in the backseat where he’s curled up on Denver’s sweater again. I roll my eyes. Denver’s probably rubbed corned beef smell over it to get him to like it or something.
“Well, don’t get too comfortable there. I miss you, and we want you home. Mikey was asking after you. And Brad was too when I bumped into him.”
“Brad?”
I steal a glance at Denver as he drives. His jaw is set with his mouth in a grim line.
“Yeah,” Zoey says. “I ran into him getting coffee this morning. He was with a girl. They looked cozy.”
“Really?” I bite my lower lip, wondering who she could be. Brad’s never mentioned a girlfriend before. Maybe she’s just a new client he’s going to work with.
The trees lining the road start to thin out and glimpses of rooftops start to peek through.
“Zoey, I’ve got to go. We’re almost there. I love you. I’ll call again, okay?”
I squint through the windscreen, wondering where ‘there’ is as Zoey says she loves me too and hangs up.
“Thanks.” I hold Denver’s phone out to him after he parks the car on a patch of dirt that’s supposed to represent a parking lot.
“You’re welcome. Do you feel better now that you’ve spoken with her?”
“Uh-huh,” I reply, frowning at the tiny rundown store through the windscreen. “You’re not always an asshole. I appreciate you lending me your phone.”
“Not always?”
I flick my eyes to him as he sits relaxed in the driver’s seat, his face straight as he looks at the store as well.
“That’s what I said. Of course, if you hadn’t broken my SIM card in half, or turned off the Wi-Fi, then you might even progress to ‘barely ever an asshole’.”
“I see,” he says, still looking out of the windscreen. “I guess ‘barely ever’ would be an improvement.”
“It would,” I agree. “Are we going in?”
“We are,” he replies, his attention traveling to a small blue pick-up that’s parked nearby.
“Great,” I say with fake enthusiasm as I reach for the door handle.
Denver’s head whips to the side like he has a sixth sense for what I’m doing.
“I told you,” he grits, leaning across me and grabbing my hand before it reaches the handle. “When you’re with me, I do that.”
I study the tense line in his brow as he stays inside my space, his large body crowding mine as my fingers remain wrapped inside his.
“Won’t that look suspicious here?” I ask, my breath fanning over his cheek and causing a muscle in it to clench.
“What? A man looking after his girl? If anything, it’s more expected out here in the country. Just because folk work with their hands here, doesn’t mean they don’t know how to be gentlemen.”
