“What do you mean, play his game?”
“That answer isn’t so simple, and I don’t want to have that conversation here.” He slaps his hand over the bill and pulls it toward him.
“Let me,” I offer, feeling like I owe him since things are very different than when I accepted his offer for breakfast last night.
His face falls into a scowl, and he gives me a chastising side-eye before rising from the bench seat and extending his hand to me in a sweet gesture. I rush to slide across the seat, then I take his hand as I stand. Our fingers stay linked, even as he walks up to the cash register at the end of the bar.
A thrill of excitement catches me off guard. How can I get butterflies in my stomach from him holding my hand at a time like this? I’m so wrapped up in my own head, I don’t even realize he’s towing me toward the back of the restaurant. “Do you need to go?”
“Go where?” I question, looking around.
“To the bathroom. I had too many cups of coffee.” He gestures toward the doors.
“Oh yeah, I better,” I agree.
“If you’re out first, don’t move from this spot.” He eyes me.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t just like to come in?” I joke.
“That’s probably a good idea.” Boone crowds closer to me, and I laugh softly.
“Thank you for that. I can’t believe I can even laugh right now, but no. I will be going in alone, as will you be.” I pull my hand from his and turn to enter the bathroom. I doubt he was being serious, but I don’t know him well enough yet to know—yet. I get hung up on that word, because I do want to know him that well.
Boone is standing right in front of the door when I exit the bathroom. He doesn’t offer me his hand again, but I wasn’t really expecting him to—hoping maybe but not expecting. On the short walk to the car, reality starts to set in again. As much as I hate toadmit it, I’m afraid to go back to the condo. How am I going to sleep there tonight, or any other night, after knowing someone else was inside?
“How do you think he got in?” I buckle my seatbelt, unsure of where we’re going but glad to be with Boone.
“How did you get details for the rental? Email or phone, I’m guessing.” He looks both ways down the street before pulling out of the parking lot.
“Mostly email, which I have on my phone, but the confirmations came through text.”
“Immediate thoughts. He’s had a lot of time to enmesh himself into your life and learn how you operate. He could have cloned your phone or found another way to learn your passwords and checked your email. Clearly, he found some way to gain physical access. I didn’t notice any security features at the condo besides the camera in the doorbell, but everyone has those. I’m sure he would have taken that into consideration when he went in.”
“Clone my phone, like spy shit?”
“Spy shit?” Boone glances at me with a small, wry smile.
“What else should I call it? I thought that kind of stuff only happened in movies.”
“I assure you, it happens in real life more than you might think. Hell, you can find tutorials on how to do shit like that on YouTube.”
I have a hard time wrapping my head around that. “You think he was just letting himself in using the door code I set up?”
“Unless it’s a number you use all the time, and he could have easily guessed it.”
“I mean, it’s not like it’s my birthday or anything, but I did want to make sure I would remember it.”
My tone must be defensive, because he says, “Hey, I’m not blaming you. We all do the same kind of thing. It’s just something we need to take into consideration.”
“Sorry,” I murmur.
“You don’t need to be sorry.” He glances over at me.
“I don’t need to be snippy either.”
“I grew up with sisters, remember? That isn’t snippy.”
I take his offer to let me off the hook and steer things back to what really matters. “So, what do we do next?”
