Also need to breathe in the cold night air to try to get a grip on my body.
I’ve been around people having a difficult time before. Been around women having a difficult time.
And I’ve never wanted so badly to be the shield protecting them from all of it.
Has to be because it’s my fault.
If I wasn’t looking for the treasure, Dixon wouldn’t be looking for the treasure, and he’d be leaving Sloane alone.
If I hadn’t let her take photos of me to tell her grandma that I was her fake boyfriend, we wouldn’t be fake engaged, getting fake-married, and?—
And the two have nothing to do with each other. I didn’t ask her family to be controlling, manipulative dicks.
I blow out a slow breath in the chilly evening.
Then another.
And a third.
My phone rings.
I move as far from the trailer as I can before I answer. “Hey.”
“I always assumed that the day you got in over your head with a woman, it would be with someone who had a criminal record for trespassing and being a public nuisance. An activist type. Maybe a hacker who robbed from the rich to give to the poor. But you have managed to find the squeakiest-clean woman on the entire planet.”
“I’m not in over my head,” I tell my sister.
I am completely over my head.
And as much as I want to blame seeing those dildos—I can’t.
I was already in over my head.
Sloane smiles, and the world gets a little brighter.Myworld gets a little brighter. That’s not supposed to happen with strangers.
Vanessa makes an amused noise on the other end of the line. “Keep lying to yourself. That’s a fabulous tactic that’s always ended well for you.”
It has never ended well for me, and we both know it. “Where’s Dixon?”
“Ah, the distraction so we don’t talk about how you wanted me to call a woman to vouch for you for the first time in a decade.”
“Yes.”
“Thank you for your honesty. Refreshing change in this conversation.”
“My pleasure.”
“And I suppose you want a reward of information for that honesty?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. I lost Dixon south of Shipwreck, which feels off. He shouldn’t have been going south.”
“You on this officially?”
“Something about this entire situation is off. I’m missing a vital piece of a puzzle, and I don’t like it.”
“That wasn’t a no.”
