“It’s a warm night,” he says. “Care to join yourboyfriendon the porch and watch the world go by?”
“Sure, Rhett. That sounds nice.”
He leads me to the door, holding his gun in the other hand, then places his gun down and takes a coat from the rack and drapes it over my shoulders. As he tightens it around me, making sure I’m warm, I can’t lie…
I feel like his girlfriend.
CHAPTER 11
RHETT
Ipull up a chair beside her. Hesitate for a moment. It should probably be for more than a moment.
But then I slip my arm over her shoulder. As gentle as a man like me can be. Slow and steady. She shivers.
“Is this too much?” I say softly, getting ready to snatch my arm away.
But then she makes ahummingnoise of contentment, and I know it wasn’t a bad shiver. “No,” she says. “I like it, Rhett. It feels nice. Safe. New. And a bunch of other things too.”
We sit in silence for a while. We stare into the night. Bright stars shine from a clear sky, and the moon is a crescent. Like a smile.
“Are you practicing?” she asks. I don’t have to look at her to know she’s smiling.
I make small circles on her shoulders. “Isn’t this what boyfriends do?”
“I’m not sure,” she murmurs. “I’ve never had much practice.”
“Me neither,” I say. “But if we’re going to make this convincing and scare off whoever that was, we better get our act together.”
“Maybe you should start by telling me what you liked most about your girlfriends, then,” she says.
I laugh softly. “Girlfriends? Do you take me for some kind of Casanova or something?”
“Maybe I did until you saidCasanova.I didn’t know people still used that term.”
“I’m ancient, Sunshine.”
She looks up at me, lips pursed, eyes vulnerable and sleepy. “Did you just call me Sunshine?”
“I think I did. I promise I didn’t plan it. You can puke if you want.”
“Explain first. Then I’ll decide if I want to puke.”
“It’s what you said about finding the light. Your old photography motto. Guess it stuck with me. And it’s what you do, Elle. You find the sunshine where others can’t.”
“I don’t know about that,” she murmurs. “What makes you say that?”
Yeah, Rhett, what exactly are you talking about?
It’s her past. Obviously. The secret I’m holding. I think about what Mira said earlier—about living in the dream a while longer—and look out at the night sky.
“Call it instinct.”
“Hmm. Anyway, you’re not ancient.”
“Compared to you, Elle. I’ll be thirty-six this year.”
“And I’ll be twenty-five.Thatisn’t a big deal unless we make it a big deal. It’s…” She hesitates, then laughs gently. “Believable. I think it works for our fake-dating angle. People would believe people of our age would date. But don’t avoid the question. I needdata.”
