“I appreciate that you didn’t watch the whole thing, that you saved me that embarrassment,” she said to see how he’d respond and could tell he had indeed been lying. Instead of accepting her gratitude, he barely murmured a response and then acted overly preoccupied with the food the waitress was carrying to their table.
Fortunately, however, he no longer seemed eager to talk about the video.
“I’m sorry about what you’ve been through,” he said when the waitress left. “You deserve to be treated a lot better than you were.”
Then why didn’t he treat her better when he had the choice? He could’ve chosen not to watch it.
Or was she being too hard on him? Measuring everyone by Dallas’s reaction, which she’d found so comforting and supportive?
He said something she’d missed, so she tuned in again. “Excuse me?”
“I said it would be fun to go to a movie after this. Would you like to do that?”
“Not tonight,” she said. “I’m pretty tired. And I can’t be out too late, since I’m staying with someone. I wouldn’t want to wake up the whole household when I got home.”
“Aiyana wouldn’t mind.”
So he didn’t only know she’d been the victim of cyber-exploitation, he knew where she was staying? No wonder he hadn’t asked. “Maybe she wouldn’t mind, but her wedding’s Saturday, and I wouldn’t want to be the reason she isn’t able to get enough rest. Besides, she’s not the only one at the house.”
His gaze met hers. “Dallas is there, right?”
“Yes. So are Liam and Bentley,” she felt the need to point out.
“But they’re younger. Dallas is our age.”
“That’s true. Do you know him?”
“I know of him. My mother says he’s a hothead, always looking for trouble. I’d be careful of him, if I were you.”
Somehow she managed to swallow her food. “What makes you say Dallas is a hothead?” she asked, and then it dawned on her. “Oh, you’ve also heard about the fight at the Blue Suede Shoe.”
“It’s a small town,” he said by way of explanation, but he knew so much about her she had to wonder if he’d truly been surprised to see her when he walked into the cookie store—as he’d stated—or if it had been orchestrated in advance. Was the fact that she was working there something else his mother had told him?
“Yes, it is,” she said and did what she could to maintain the conversation from there, but midway through the meal, she needed a break and escaped into the bathroom. Cain had set her up. He knew all about her and her situation and was trying to date her. She supposed she should be flattered, but she was more irritated and upset than anything else. He’d lied about being surprised by their meeting at the cookie store, and she felt sure he’d lied about viewing that video of her with Ethan. He’d even lied about tonight being about old friends getting together to catch up. Maybe they were polite lies, innocuous lies, lies any person might tell in his particular situation, but they were still lies. He was using her situation to try to get her into a relationship with him, and that bothered her.
Her phone chimed, so she dug it out of her purse.
She’d received a text from Dallas.
What are you doing?
Wishing I was with you.
She told herself not to send that, but did it anyway. It was true, and she needed truth right now.
He responded:
Want to go out and see the Christmas lights?
She knew the answer should be no. The way she was craving his touch, she’d end up back in his bed before the night was through.
Her thumbs hesitated over her phone before she finally typed her answer.
“How’d it go?” Cal murmured.
Aiyana knew he’d been dying to ask ever since she met with Robert, but this had been his first opportunity. She’d played off her early departure from the ranch by acting as though she’d simply gone to start the tacos she’d just served for dinner, and it had worked beautifully. No one had questioned her absence.
Now they’d all eaten, but the boys were still hanging around the kitchen table, talking and laughing while she cleaned up. “I’ll tell you later,” she mouthed so she wouldn’t draw their attention.
“They’re caught up in their own conversation,” Cal said. “Just tell me if he’s leaving.”
She nodded.
“That’s a relief. How much did it cost you?”
“A thousand dollars.”
His scraggy eyebrows shot up to indicate he was shocked by the amount.
“I know it’s a lot, but I needed some reassurance that he wouldn’t come back until January. This is really important to me. Now he will have no excuse.”
“Mom, where’s Emery tonight?” Bentley asked, breaking into their conversation.
Cal opened the cupboard closest to the sink and got out a toothpick as though that had been his purpose in going over near Aiyana in the first place.
“Still at work, I guess,” she said as she glanced back at her son.
He didn’t seem convinced. “It’s nearly nine o’clock. I don’t think the cookie store stays open that late on a Sunday. Not in the winter.”
She added more hot water to the suds in the sink. “Then I don’t know.”
“Do you know, Dallas?” Bentley asked.
Dallas glanced up from his phone. “Haven’t talked to her.”
“That’s bull,” he cried. “Who have you been texting if not Emery?” He tried to grab Dallas’s phone out of his hand, but Dallas snatched it away.
“No one,” he said with a scowl designed, no doubt, to warn his brother off.
“It has to be a woman,” Bentley insisted. “Or you wouldn’t have freaked out a minute ago when Liam wanted to use your phone so he could download that game he’s been telling you about.”
“That has nothing to do with it,” Dallas said, but he didn’t sound very convincing, even to Aiyana.
She told the two younger boys that it was time
