“Actually, I do. Somewhere no one else will think to look for us. It’s not exactly a tourist trap.” I reach for my phone and type in the only local address I know, the one I’ve memorized. Why I trust Dylan Wild to accompany me I have no idea. Maybe because he’s a stranger, and in three days, I’ll never see him again. Without allowing myself to analyze it further, I hand him my phone. “You can be my copilot and tell me when to turn.”
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, we pull onto a residential side street on the outskirts of town.
Number Twenty-One. I read the address on the mailbox across the street, and I put the car into park so I can get a closer look.
The house is painted a pale green with yellow shutters. It’s an adobe-style home and has seen better days. An older model sedan sits in the short driveway, but no one’s outside. A few kids are playing basketball in the driveway next door, and the ball bounces across the lawn and lands by the wheel of the sedan. A little girl jogs over to retrieve it, and I watch the way her blond curls bounce as she runs and how her little legs carry her effortlessly back to her home.
To her home. With her family.
I want to be able to do that, to give my mother back her home and to maybe heal the part of my heart that broke in half when she left me as a child. I can save her. She couldn’t save me, but I can save her.
Shit. Coming here was a terrible idea. An ache starts in the back of my throat and threatens to engulf me. I turn my head away from the house and stare out the windshield as I wrack my brain for funny memories, neutral memories, anything I can think of to stop me from breaking down in front of Dylan.
“Um, do you know someone here?” he asks me eventually, after five minutes of silence.
I start the engine back up. “I’m sorry I’ve wasted our time.”
But his hand is lightning quick to gently catch my wrist before I can put the car into drive. “Do you want to talk about something?”
I turn my head to face him. His eyes have lost their cockiness and are filled with…kindness and warmth. Concern.
I nearly start to bawl when I look into Dylan’s eyes. Because no one’s ever looked at me that way before.
Before I realize what I’m doing, I’ve shifted in my seat so I can put my arms around him. His sharp inhale reveals his surprise, but he quickly pulls me into his lap and wraps his arms around my back.
I bury my head in his neck and inhale him. Not just his amazing smell but him. Because he feels like my opposite in all the ways I need him to right now: strong, solid, and stable.
He holds me close, running one hand up and down my spine. I know he means for the gesture to be soothing, and it starts out that way, but before long the warm pressure of his hand through the thin fabric of my blouse is too much.
I want more.
But I can’t. Not without some sort of a plan. My experience with Joel taught me what I should have already known—no relationship can stand the test of time, and the sooner I emblazon that fact into my brain and heart, the better off I’ll be.
I pull away from Dylan abruptly and return to the driver’s seat.
He clears his throat and looks at me. His eyes burn into mine, and I nearly hurl my wanton body back onto his lap. Instead, I look over at my mother’s house.
And I make a decision. It may be the worst decision I’ve ever made, to agree to take money in exchange for being someone’s date. But the reality of my mother becoming homeless and me turning down a way to help her doesn’t sit right with me. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try. So I will.
I turn to Dylan and tell him yes.
Chapter Seven
“Yes,” he repeats, his eyes shuttered from me so I can’t read his expression.
“Yes. I’ll be your date in Tucson. I’ll help you out with your charity, and you can help me out with my…financial situation.”
He hands me his phone. “Type in your bank account number and I’ll have half the money wired over by tonight.”
I tap on the screen and hand him back his phone. “But no sex for money.” I don’t want to have to say more, but our crazy chemistry forces the next words out of my mouth. “If we have sex, like you said, that will be on our private time. It’s not part of this deal.”
His lips part as his gaze shifts to my mouth. “Of course. If I kiss you, I can promise you it will be because I want to, not because of any charity or deal we have in place. There will be no confusion between the two.” His eyes darken as he raises them to meet mine. “I do want to kiss you, Jasalie. I have since I first saw you. Just so we’re clear on that.”
I swallow hard. “Thank you for your truthfulness. But let’s be brutally honest, shall we? I can handle the truth, Dylan. I’m not some delicate flower who will wilt at the first taste of rejection.”
Dylan furrows his brow. “I don’t get where you’re going.”
