“The coast is clear.” He tilted his head to see what she was reading. “You ready to giddyup? The store is mostly empty now.”
“I’m ready.” She handed her basket to him and he rolled his eyes but didn’t balk at carrying it up the stairs.
“Who’s your girlfriend?” When Sawyer appeared confused, she said, “The blonde wearing Fort Knox around her neck and on her wrists. You too looked quite cozy, chatting next to the Riedel stemware.”
“Jealous?” He winked and flashed another one of his I’m-sexy-and-I-know-it smiles. “That was Tiffany, Jace’s former campaign manager.”
“Campaign manager?” This didn’t seem like a place where one needed a campaign manager. But what Gina knew about small towns and politics she could fit in a quarter-teaspoon. “For what election?”
“Sheriff. It was a pretty contentious race.”
When it was their turn at the counter, the cashier graced Sawyer with a blinding smile that hurt Gina’s eyes, even with her sunglasses on. The woman mostly ignored Gina while she paid for her items. It appeared that as long as Sawyer was around, Gina didn’t need a disguise.
“What do you mean by contentious?” Gina asked as they were leaving the store. The idea of small-town life intrigued her for some odd reason.
“Jace had a fierce opponent.” Sawyer rolled his eyes and laughed. “A local hardware store owner with zero law enforcement experience ran against him and almost kicked his ass.”
“Holy crap, I’m living in freaking Mayberry.” God, she missed LA: the smog, the crime, the corruption, the bullshit. At least she understood those things. Everything here was so…quaint.
“Not Mayberry.” He tweaked the brim of her hat. “It’s just folksy. Nothing wrong with that.”
She didn’t understand how someone as erudite as Sawyer loved living in the sticks. She did, however, like the hot cowboy shtick he had going on.
Her purse rang. Sawyer stopped on the sidewalk until she rescued her phone from the bottom of her bag. She checked the caller ID and grimaced.
“Who is it?” Sawyer glanced over her shoulder at her display screen.
No sense keeping it a secret, since she’d already confided in him. “Danny Clay,” she said.
Sawyer’s expression darkened. He pierced her with a long, hard look and took off toward the car at a swift pace.
“Hold up,” she shouted, then remembered she was in public and in a quieter voice called, “Sawyer!”
He didn’t stop and she had to jog to keep up.
By the time she got to the car she’d worked up a sweat in the blazing heat. “What? Now you don’t believe me?”
“You told me you barely know the guy and yet he’s calling you on your private cell phone number. What do you want me to believe? I’m not that fucking gullible, Gina. I was trying to help you but I don’t like getting used. Or played.”
“Can’t you let me explain? He’s a victim in this too. His reputation is shot and his wife won’t talk to him anymore. All because someone did this to us.”
“How do you know his wife isn’t talking to him? You told me you’ve never said more than a few words to the dude. Now, suddenly, you know his whole goddamn story.”
Gina let out a long breath and unlocked the car. Sawyer put her shopping bag in the trunk and folded himself into the passenger seat. Granted, she hadn’t known him long, but she’d never seen him this angry, not even when he’d found her squatting in his apartment.
She got in the driver’s seat and turned on the ignition just to get the air-conditioner going and rested her forehead against the steering wheel. “He’s been calling me. I don’t know how he got my private number, but it wouldn’t have been terribly difficult. We all run in the same circle. He’s just as confused about what’s going on as I am. Neither of us has a clue about who would want to ruin us or hurt Candace. Because—let’s face it—she’s probably been the most wrecked by this. According to Danny, she believes he’s been unfaithful and is absolutely crushed.”
Sawyer didn’t respond. Gina got the impression he was deliberating on whether she was telling the truth. She couldn’t blame him for being skeptical. The whole story was like something out ofThe Twilight Zone.
After a long stretch of silence, he turned in his seat and looked at her. “Have you told my mother that the two of you have been in contact?”
She squirmed. “No, not exactly.”
“What doesnot exactlymean?”
Not exactlymeant Gina hadn’t broached the subject at all with Wendy, who would have a complete shit fit if she knew Gina and Danny Clay were exchanging regular phone calls. “I was afraid she would have the same reaction as you. The first time he called, I didn’t pick up. But he left a long message, begging me to return his call because he was just as baffled as I was about the pictures, the texts, the entire crazy story that we’d been having a love affair for the ages.”
“And you did, of course.” Sawyer banged the back of his head against the seat. “Let me drive.”
