So now, I had to keep a secret from her, too.
I had to, until I figured this out.
“If this goes wrong in any way ...” Simon’s words echoed in my ears all the way home.
The trouble was, I couldn’t tell right from wrong anymore.
MY PHONE BUZZED.
“Did you finish off the protein bars, or did Walter get to them first?”Rio texted.
A small smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.“Maybe I did. Maybe I didn’t. What’s it worth to you?”
I could almost hear her exasperated sigh.“Worth debating which flavors to bring this time, so you better make it up to me.”
The words sent a hum through my bloodstream, a flicker of warmth beneath the weight in my chest. She wasn’t thinking about Simon. About threats and warnings. About things I wasn’t telling her.
I tapped out a reply.
“I always do.”
What the hell was I doing?
I had no idea. Simon was right.
And that didn’t help. As it was, I had no idea what I’d do once Rio got home that evening. I wanted to act normal—as normal as the last few weeks had been. Now even that small piece of heaven felt tainted.
But when she stepped through the back door, her hug was the question, the answer, and the balm.
Brief but grounding. Arms around me. Her scent wrapping around me like it had every night. A quick touch of her lips, a hint of her taste before—
“Damn ungrateful slugs. I should salt them all,” Walter’s shuffling and muttering was heard from way too close, and a second later he appeared in the kitchen.
Rio managed to pull herself back from my arms on time.
I barely let her go.
“Oh, there you are.” Walter eyed the time on the oven clock like a man who had nowhere to be but still liked to keep track.
“Here I am,” Rio said with a smile. “But don’t get too used to me ‘cause I’m going to take a shower. I reek.”
I couldn’t repress a small smirk. She didn’t reek, her smell was intoxicating.
She headed upstairs, leaving me alone with Walter, who started grumbling about slugs again while crushing eggshells he kept especially to spread in his garden.
Maybe it was good that he kept me from going after her, because Simon’s metaphorical gaze over my shoulder still loomed.
“The doorbell,” Walter said.
“What?”
“The doorbell? Didn’t you hear it?”
I hadn’t noticed, too lost in the swirl of my thoughts, but at his words, I bolted toward the front door, hoping Simon’s shadow wouldn’t turn into him.
A pretty blonde with a mop of curls and a knowing smirk leaned against the doorframe, her blue eyes scanning me up and down.
“Ruby,” I said. She was familiar, and now that Rio had told me about her, I could see the girl she once was underneath. Now she was the kind of woman who made herself known the second she stepped into a room.
