Am I okay?
Let’s see: I drove into a fucking parade float. Desire is flaring as loud as a broken alarm system for apparently every person I run into. And now Hayes Whitlock is back in front of me, making my hindbrain go full feral for reasons I don’t even want tothinkabout.
So, no. No, I am not okay.
But I lie. Obviously.
“Yeah,” I say, too fast. “Just… hot.”
Hayes arches a brow. “It’s fifty degrees out.”
“I know,” I mutter. “Maybe it’s the humidity. You know how this place gets before the first snow.”
Cool lie, Lo. Very convincing.
He leans back a little. Not away, just giving me a breath of space. As if he can feel it. The edge in the air. The scent I’m pushing out, no matter how hard I fight it.
My stupid body. My stupid, traitorous hormones that apparently don’t give a shit that this isHayes. My best friend. Well, my former best friend. The boy who used to sneak me moon pies and cover for me when I bailed on Sunday service.
The boy I thought I could trust with everything.
Until I tried to tell the truth, and he didn’t stop me. Didn’t fight for me. Just… let me go.
Maybe it was all for the best.
He shifts, reaching for his coffee, and his arm flexes, and I hate how fast my brain short-circuits. What I wouldn’t give to have those arms wrapped around me, trapping me against?—
Nope. Not happening. I am not doing this. I amnotscent-drunk for Hayes, of all people. That’s not my story. That’s not this story. Thatcan’tbe this story.
I chew the inside of my cheek until it hurts.
“So,” Hayes starts, clearly trying to keep the conversation flowing as smoothly as we can manage, “tell me more about it. The investigative… whistleblowing thing you do.”
I laugh. Out loud. Like a normal person.
Because yeah, let’s just dive right into that. No big deal. Just the reason I got exiled from my hometown at twenty and turned into public enemy number one by my own family.
“You’ll have to be more specific. I’ve done a lot of blowing and a lot of whistling since then.”
Hayes chokes on his coffee, and I grin. Good. Let him be off balance for a second.
But he rallies fast. “I heard about that pack in Knoxville, the Alpha that got arrested. That was you, right?”
I smile proudly. Honeysuckle Grove didn’t believe me, but others have.
“Yep. Him and two enablers on the board of regional ethics. Also, a very smug legal team I will never stop suing.”
He exhales, something between impressed and stunned. “You really did it.”
“Yeah, well,” I say, lifting my mug with a perfectly steady hand that isdefinitely notshaking, “figured if I was going to get blacklisted by the council here, might as well go big.”
Hayes grins. “Still loud as ever.”
“I preferprincipled,” I say with a smirk, even though I can’t actually focus on the words coming out of his mouth because,holy god, his scent is everywhere. It’s in my nose, on my skin, clinging to the fucking air in static.
Clean, honeyed, magnetic. Exactly as I remember, but sharper now. Older. Stronger, with the subtlest hint of citrus.
Wrong timing.Verywrong timing.
