Page 4 of Property of Bob

His expression went completely blank for half a second. “You keep calling him that.”

Oh no.

I knew that look.

I pointed at him. “Don’t.”

“Ashland?”

“That is his name,” I mumbled.

“Ashland,” he repeated.

“Yes.”

He pressed his lips together.

“Are you laughing?”

“No.”

“You look like you’re about to.”

“I’m thinking.”

“About?”

“How long I’m going to wait before telling everybody Bob’s name is Ashland.”

I closed my eyes. Fantastic. I’d been on Skull Island for maybe five minutes, and I’d already managed to betray Ashland without even seeing him. “I didn’t realize it was a secret.”

“Didn’t say it was.”

“You didn’t know.”

“Nope.”

“Which means he didn’t tell you.”

“Nope,” he agreed.

“And now you’re enjoying this way too much.”

“Yep.”

I dropped my arms and sighed. “You’re an asshole.”

“So I’ve been told.”

“Can we pretend this conversation never happened?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Worth a shot.”

He finally smiled, although it didn’t last long. His eyes moved behind me again, scanning the parking lot before moving toward the trees and then back to me. There was something deliberate about the way he did it. He wasn’t just looking around. He was watching.

I noticed because I had spent the last several weeks doing the same damn thing.