Rufus laughed. “I actually wasn’t going to ask you that. But for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.” He took my hand and I stiffened. He paused, his gaze searching mine. When I relaxed, he smiled. “I hope whoever did that to you is suffering a thousand deaths right now.”
“I doubt it.”
“But what I wanted to ask was if you would like to help me hunt for spells.”
I shook my head. “I’m too busy with my own company.”
“On the side, perhaps?” He squeezed my hand, and the air tightened, along with my chest. I was drowning in his eyes and maybe it was the punch or the darkness or even the romantic lights strewn about, but I felt myself falling into Rufus.
From beside me, someone cleared their throat. I jerked my hand away and turned to see Shane.
“Oh, Shane! You scared me!”
Shane smiled bashfully. “Sorry. I tried to call you, but my calls kept going straight to voice mail.”
I peeked inside my purse at my phone and sighed. “It’s dead. Sorry. Everything okay?”
He raked his fingers through his hair. “I believe we had plans.”
I nearly jumped from my skin. “Right! Of course! I’m so sorry. It’s been a heck of a week.”
He smiled kindly, and I knew that I had not lost my chance with Shane Prader. Thank goodness! He was hot, y’all, and a decent guy—a thousand times better than you know who.
“It’s no big deal.” Shane’s gaze darted to Rufus. “We can reschedule.”
“No, absolutely not. I’m ready to go.” I turned to Rufus. “See ya.”
He gave a little wave, his eyes betraying nothing. “Have a good time. Don’t stay out too late.”
Oh my word. How embarrassing. Who did he think he was, my protector? I shot him a scathing look, but it didn’t seem to matter to him. He shot me a devilish grin.
We walked down the street, admiring the scene. “I hope that I didn’t interrupt anything.”
“With Ru—I mean, John? What could you possibly have interrupted?”
Shane shrugged. “I don’t know. It just seemed like you two were having a pretty intense conversation.” He glanced over his shoulder at me, and my heart fluttered. “Seems like you hit it off.”
Why were we talking about Rufus? I wanted to be talking about us—about me and Shane hitting it off.
“Seriously, it’s no big deal. He was just asking me about something. He doesn’t have any friends, you know? Unless you count the old lady squad.”
Shane laughed and the tightness in my chest softened, making me feel better. Good. This was going well. If we could manage to discuss something other than Rufus, the date might actually be salvageable.
“You know, Clem,” Shane started, “I felt bad about those men accusing you of hurting them. I didn’t like the way Sluggs let it all play out.”
“It’s okay.” I sneaked a peek at him and found that he was studying me. “They were bad guys and deserved a lesson.”
His mouth widened into a grin. “Some bad guys do deserve lessons, don’t they?”
“I guess they do.”
We smiled at each other, there under the sparkling lights and the buzz of conversation from everyone in the anti-social party. We smiled and I knew that there should have been chemistry, that my palms should be sweating and that my head should have fogged from liking Shane so much.
But for some reason I felt nothing.
I wanted to cuss out Rufus. Look at what he’d done to me. He’d messed with my mind, making it so that when I was with another man, I still thought of him.
What was wrong with me?
