Page 47

“I was working.” he says, like that should explain everything.

“You’re allowed to talk at work.”

“Not during the Hunt.”

“Ah.” I nod solemnly. “Union rules.”

His eyes narrow, but something betrays him at the corner of his mouth. Barely there. Gone almost as soon as I catch it.

I point at him. “Was that a smile?”

His expression immediately flattens. “No.”

“It was.”

“It wasn’t.”

A laugh slips out of me. “You’re terrible at this.”

His brow furrows. “At what?” he asks.

“Being mysterious.”

For a second, he just stares at me, and there’s something almost warm in his expression. Something that makes me wonder what he looks like when he actually smiles instead of fighting it.

Then his gaze drops straight to my wrist.

Whatever softness I imagined disappears.

His entire body seems to tighten as his attention fixes on the red ribbon. “Take it off.”

I glance down at it before looking back at him. “What is your problem with this thing?”

“Sage.”

The sound of my name in his mouth wipes the smile from mine. He knows my name. Then again, half the fucking farm knows my name now.

He steps closer, his voice dropping with it. “Take it off.”

“No.”

What the fuck is his problem?

His jaw tightens.

“Why?”

“Because everyone keeps telling me to, which has made me emotionally attached to it out of spite.”

He stares at me like he genuinely doesn’t know what to do with that answer.

I smile. “Also, apparently I won a gift basket.”

His expression doesn’t budge. “You didn’t.”

“Excuse me?”

“You didn’t win anything.”