Page 46 of Axe Marks the Spot

I wordlessly agree. We walk away from the other parents, and I glance at Kas. She’s not paying attention to me, her eyes still on Tyler. They’re talking about something, and she’s smiling so wide I smile, too.

“Which one is yours?” Dane asks, his hand still hovering above my lower back, its force field guiding me to the bathrooms. God, he’s tall.

I lick my lips, and I don’t miss how he observes the action. “Auburn hair, pink shirt, jean shorts. Her name is Kasandra.”

He nods but doesn’t say anything else. A moment later, we’re next to the bathrooms, the cement structure blocking us from the prying eyes of the other parents. Maybe I should have said no to talking alone or lied about knowing him, but they’re going to have questions regardless and will probably start rumors.

Not that they wouldn’t have anyway. The visible reaction I had to Sir—I mean, Dane—and the way we stared at each other, they’re going to talk no matter what. The downside of a small town.

I find it’s better to accept your fate and let people think what they want. That’s what Morgan, Fox, and Nathan do when people talk about their poly relationship, and it’s worked out for them. That’s what I did when I first moved here and people wondered where Kas’s dad was. Eventually, the gossip blew over, and people got to know me. Now, it’s old news.

Dane stands with his back to the cement wall of the bathrooms, and I face him. I don’t know if he placed us this way on purpose, but I appreciate that I’m not boxed in and that if I want to, I can flee. Not that I will, but it still feels safer.

A warm breeze blows through the strands of my hair, and the corner of Dane’s lips lifts.

“Hi, Lindsey,” he says. The warm rumble of his voice, a voice I cried to last night, seeps through my skin.

“You know who I am.” It’s not a question, it’s a statement of truth.

He sticks his hands in his pockets, veins in his forearms straining. “And now you know who I am.”

I want to say How could I not? but instead counter, “How long have you known it was me?”

“Not long. We ran into each other at the games. Then I saw you again at the hospital, and that’s how I put it together. You signed my friend Levi’s cast.”

That day, I’d been so in my head about making my decision to work with Sir, the very man standing in front of me. I remember when Levi asked me to sign his cast, but I would remember if Mr. Perfect Nose had been in the room, and he wasn’t.

“I don’t remember meeting you. And trust me, I would have remembered.”

His mouth forms a full smile. It’s disarming.

“You passed us in the hall on our way out. You were looking at your phone, and Levi asked the nurse with us if that was you. He said your name, and I put it all together.”

More pieces click into place, and heat rises in my cheeks. Was I emailing him at the very same time I passed him in the hall? My mind feels as if it’s about to explode.

“You knew this whole time?”

“What did I know the whole time, Lindsey?”

His question, the way he asks it, the way he says my name with so much authority, don’t help my nipple situation, but they also anger me.

“That I was the Lindsey emailing you,” I say.

He shakes his head. “I couldn’t have. Not until I saw you at the hospital.”

“You should have said something.”

“I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. You know my business is based on anonymity. There wasn’t a reason for me to tell you.”

I could argue a million points in the other direction, but I can also understand his. I nibble on the inside of my cheek before I ask, “Did you know I have a daughter?”

He shakes his head. “Of course not.”

“You didn’t google me or something?”

Dane’s lips twitch in another near smile and his eyes sparkle with amusement. “No, I didn’t. What I know about you has come from you. That’s it.”

“And you live in Starlight Haven?”