“Now that we’ve found a dress, I guess I should probably change.” Addy stood up. “We’ve been in here long enough that even my mom might have noticed.”
Addy disappeared into the dressing room, returning a few minutes later wearing jeans and a T-shirt, the blue gown draped over an arm. “Your boyfriend will be coming to the dance with you, right?”
Rachel frowned. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
Addy looked puzzled for a moment, but then smiled as if she’d just figured something out. “Oh, I get it. You two work together, so you aren’t supposed to let anyone know you’re dating. That’s so romantic.”
Rachel knew she probably looked like a fish out of water standing there with her mouth hanging open. “Okay, I think we need to stop and back up because I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about you and Knox.” Addy grinned. “It’s obvious you two are together. I see the way you’re always looking at him when you think no one is watching. Then there’s the expression he gets on his face when he gazes at you, like you’re the only person in the world he even sees.”
Rachel was so flabbergasted all she could do was stand there continuing her impression of a carp.
“You two are dating, right?” Addy asked, the expression on her face changing back from amused to confused. “I mean, you guys are perfect together.”
Rachel almost laughed at the idea that she and Knox were perfect together. He was a former hunter and she was a werewolf. There was too much that separated them—not that she cared, of course.
“It’s not like that, even if Knox and I did have dinner at my apartment the other night,” she said, wondering who she was trying to convince.
“You are dating!” Addy said, all smiles again. “I knew it!”
“We aren’t dating,” Rachel insisted. “He came over so we could discuss some training techniques. It was nothing more than that.”
“‘Training techniques’?” Addy mimicked with air quotes. “Is that what adults are calling it these days?”
Rachel made a face. “Very funny. Get your teenage mind out of the gutter. Knox came over to my place. We had dinner. We talked. Then he left. That’s it.”
“What’d you talk about?”
“Normal stuff. Family. Work. The fact that both of us happened to be in LA at the same time recently and the odd turns that life can sometimes take.”
Addy nodded, a very knowing look on her face. “Let me get this straight. He came to your apartment. You had dinner. And you talked about personal stuff. I know I’m only sixteen and not nearly as experienced with guys as you are, but that sounds like a date to me.”
Rachel opened her mouth to deny it, but Addy cut her off.
“I know, I know. It wasn’t a date. But why wouldn’t you want to date him? He’s cute even if he is almost old enough to be my dad. And he seems really nice. He even played video games with Ben and me the other day.”
Rachel was pretty sure Knox wasn’t nearly old enough to have a sixteen-year-old daughter, but she didn’t point that out. Mostly because she was too busy trying to come up with an answer to Addy’s question.
If Rachel were simply judging Knox on looks, then she’d agree he’d be a catch for anyone. But while she’d enjoyed their dinner together—and yeah that kiss that almost happened had her more than a little curious—she simply couldn’t let herself trust the man. She had no idea if it was because she didn’t have faith in her own judgment or if it was her instincts screaming at her to stay away from a guy who was a former hunter.
Regardless, the sensation had been strong enough for her to run a background check on Knox. Yeah, it was horrible, but hey, he’d been the one who’d assaulted the SWAT compound with his hunter buddies, then he’d stalked her halfway across the country. In her opinion, that was good justification for snooping.
In the end, Rachel hadn’t found anything to justify her suspicions—not in the normal criminal check through the DPD or through the deeper federal scrub her STAT friend, Alyssa, had done for her. According to everything she’d found, Knox had told her the complete truth about his life. Not that it helped. She still couldn’t ignore that sensation inside telling her to stay away from him.
“It’s complicated, that’s all,” she finally said.
Rachel expected Addy to tell her it wasn’t complicated at all, but instead the girl gave her a knowing look and reached out to squeeze her hand. “Aaron and I have a very complicated relationship, too. For one thing, he’s older. Then there’s the part about my mom positively hating him.” She sighed. “I so completely feel you on this.”
Rachel didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or simply hug the hell out of the kid. So she did both. “Come on, we’ve been in this store for more than an hour and we still have to find a pair of shoes to go with your dress.”
Thankfully, the mention of shoes was all it took to focus Addy’s attention on something other than Rachel’s messed-up life.
* * *
Knox glanced at his watch. How long did it take to shop for a dress? You went to the store, saw one you liked, and bought it, right? Apparently not because Rachel and Addy had been in the upscale boutique full of wedding and prom dresses for almost an hour and a half.
Thinking he should probably check to make sure they didn’t get sucked through a mirror into an alternate dimension, he left his post by the entrance where he’d been standing guard and walked into the store.
