“Lucky me.” Concentration transforms her face into a frown, and when she’s satisfied, Diana picks up a fry and eats it, still frowning. “You know she likes you?”
“Of course.”
“You don’t care.”
“Why should I care?” I throw two fries in the air, open my mouth, but only catch one. “Damn,” I mutter as the other skitters across the floor and is immediately stepped on and squashed. “You want that?”
“All yours,” Diana smirks.
“You can keep up. I like that.”
“Maybe you should be quicker.”
“Oooooo!” I laugh, holding my chest. “Burn.”
“Crash and Burn.”
Admiring her style I nod slightly, “I miss those places,” shoving a few fries into my gullet.
“I’ve been warned against you, Wyatt.”
I blink, chewing on food and bad news, because even though she’s saying it in a teasing manner, I can tell Diana’s serious this time.
She’s been warned?
Against me?
That’s what’s bugging her?
It’s not about Grams.
“By one person?”
She shakes her head.
I nod, sucking on my teeth as my blood pulses with growing outrage. I’m keeping it at bay, self-control unwavering, but who the fuck would do that?
Washington is the only one she knows, right? And he would never do that to me. We give each other a hard time because that’s our thing, but he’s got my back no matter what.
So does my brother.
Then who?
Wait.
Hold up.
One is easy.
“Ronnie! Listen, don’t listen to Ronnie. She and I had a fling but nothing more. She knows that.”
Diana blankly asks, “Who’s Ronnie?”
“The server who dumped food on me.”
“Oh!” Her fingers reach for the thin stem. She takes a sip, eyes on the bartender. “Yes, she warned me.”
Irritated, I shrug, “Who cares about the other one.” After a second I can’t help it. “Who was it? Who warned you, besides Ronnie?”
Diana stares at me. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
My anger flickers, the fire inside burning hotter. I mutter, “Yeah,” and take a sip from my new bottle, wondering who the hell is darkening my name.
Probably her friends.
Cockers are infamous.
I’m not the only one of us with a reputation.
But here’s a fact: a man doesn’t want the woman he likes to think ill of him.
This ale is cold, but my blood is white hot.
“What’d they say?”
“Wyatt…”
“What’d they say?”
She tilts her head. “What do you think they said?”
I nod, get out my wallet. “Can we have the check?” I call out.
Diana frowns, putting down her glass. “What are you doing? We’re leaving?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to take you home and not try to sleep with you tonight. I’ve got some cash, don’t need to wait for the bill to come. Nobody carries cash anymore, but I find in situations like this…” Dropping down enough bills to cover it, I take Diana’s hand and guide her to standing. “How’s your leg?”
Her eyelashes flutter with confusion. “Okay.”
Lacing our fingers, I lead the way. I mutter, voice dead, “This has been fun.”
She whispers, “Wyatt,” and doesn’t say another word until we’re almost at her house.
CHAPTER 28
DIANA
Why did I open my big mouth?
Fear. That’s why.
I couldn’t get it out of my head — their warnings.
The bartender was the clincher. After the teenage popcorn girl, our server and the hostess who brought us the wine menu. Three times.
He only had eyes for me and they only had eyes for him. It was too many eyeballs, unreal, intense, like something conspiring to make me run. Especially after how many people said not to let him in.
My chin is on my palm, elbow on the armrest as I stare at our city passing us by, just like this chance.
A chance at what?
I might!
Isn’t that what I’d shouted impatiently to Lita? I was seriously considering having sex with him tonight. Because I didn’t want her telling me not to. Because I thought if I can’t have him as a boyfriend, a lover would be enough.
But would it?
Casual sex would be extremely fun with a man like Wyatt. Everything about him suggests that he’s good in bed.
Throwing caution to the wind and fear out the window — and every other proverb or adage or whatever you call them, that I can come up with — meant that taking this date light-heartedly seemed like a smart idea.
But that was before I enjoyed being with him so much I never wanted it to end. Before I brought the ending on myself because suspense for my inevitable demise was too much.
I steal a glance to my left, see hard eyes focused on late-night residential streets, lamps few and far between, porch lights having little effect on his dark mood.
I quietly tell him, “I shouldn’t have said anything,” watching his bearded jaw tick. “Wyatt, I—”
“Is it true? You were warned? That’s the truth?”
“Yes, but—”
“Then you should have told me. And you did. Doesn’t mean I’m happy about it but I have a right to know what’s going on behind my back.”
Turning in the seat, my dress’s fabric rustles. His sound system is off. We’ve been riding in silence. I can almost hear the pounding of my heart. And it’s fading. “One of them was kind of for a good reason.”
He cuts an angry glance my way, then back to the windshield so he can turn left onto my street, his grip around the wheel nearly breaking it.
I’m not going to tell him about Nathan. I can’t. Not now. He’ll flip out. I don’t want that. And I certainly can’t tell him what May said, his Grams. Imagine if he knew that she also was one, and that her hunch about us was nonexistent, a mystery.
I want to ease his anger.
The betrayal he’s feeling.
His pain.
“My roommate, Lita, she was the last girl — I think — that your brother Nicholas was with before he met…”
“Madison?” Wyatt blurts, eyes narrowing as he goes back in time. “Lita Scott is your roommate?”
“You know her?”
Hitting the steering with an oh-damn-that’s-it slap, Wyatt shouts with relief, “Didn’t recognize her with the mask on!
