“We’re like two minutes away,” I say as I round the front.
“I need to clear my head.” He steps away.
“You sure you're not just putting off the inevitable?”
“Inevitable?” He scoffs and continues toward the house.
I hop in, roll out of the parking lot, and ease into the twenty-five-mile-an-hour zone. No going anywhere fast in this town.
The small moving truck is waiting when I get to the house. They followed directions and backed into the driveway. Can’t have nosey neighbors judging how much we brought.
Our cover is that we’re developers moving to the area and need a rental until we find a place to buy.
I pull up along the curb. It only takes a second for a spontaneous decision to make me explain that the mismatch of boxes labeled ‘B’ go in the bedroom on the left and the brand-new boxes labeled ‘Lennox’ and a number go in the bedroom on the right.
Lennox wanders in as I’m untaping boxes. “I thought we agreed that you’d take the bedroom with the paisley bedspread.”
“Changed my mind.”
“Let’s switch then.”
Wadding up a strip of tape, I toss it into the corner with the rest. “I’m taking a liking to the plain blue bedspread.”
I’m not. And when I note his irritation, I question that I shouldn’t have used bedspreads as a nudge to encourage him to embrace a little fun. We have much bigger issues. But I commit.
I tear tape off another box, wad it, and toss it into the corner.
“You could throw them all into a box, not get the carpet sticky,” Lennox mumbles before crossing the hall to his bedroom.
“I wasn’t sure if you were just trying to get rid of me so you could hang out with—”
He reappears in the doorway. “Let it go, Blake. Completely.”
I grab a handful of clothing. “Can’t do that, Lennox. In fact…” I hold up my boxers. “I might go shopping to replace these. Didn’t expect to be fantasizing about where else Ceci might want to put that icing.”
He waits as I drop them dramatically into my drawer, then says, “Our assignment is clear. In and out, no fanfare, break up the check-whitewashing ring.”
I gather up the socks I haphazardly packed. “The department doesn’t own us. We’re allowed to have personal lives.” I hold up a sock with a big hole in the heel. “I should replace these too.”
“You should, but not to impress a girl half your age.”
I kick the box out of the way and grab the next one—shirts. “This whole thing about making it look like we’re developers planning on staying for a while seems overdone.”
“Small towns get suspicious of newcomers.”
“Banging your long-lost son’s ex girlfriend would be the perfect cover. No one would suspect you’re a cop.” Having emptied the shirt box, I toss it at Lennox. “Be honest with me.”
“Fine.” Lennox removes the tape from the bottom of the box, flattens the cardboard, and sets it against the wall.
“If by total chance, you met Ceci in a diner and she let you lick icing off her finger, would you walk away?”
“I would—just like I made you do.” He turns away, untapes another box and adds it to the first flattened box. I think it’s kind of pointless, but that’s when I notice him adjusting his pants.
“We both know you’re lying. And if you weren’t attracted to her, you would have sat beside me and we’d still be at the diner with her.”
“I’m able to control myself.”
Annoyingly so, at times. Yet he could blow me off by going to his room. It’s like he needs me to convince him it’s okay to want Ceci.
