Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 103356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 413(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 413(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Yeah. He nodded and walked out, aware of Devon walking behind him. When he entered the bar, his gaze instantly went to her. He couldn’t help it. She was like a beacon pulling him in, tugging him home.
But he finally took the time to take stock of her.
Fragile.
Yeah . . . now that he could think clearly, he saw it.
So thin. Painfully so. Why? She’d been curvy and gorgeous before. Smiling. Happy.
Or was that what she wanted you to see? What if it was all an act?
How would he know? He was beginning to see that he hadn’t known her at all.
“She’s gorgeous.”
He startled, staring down at Carlie, who had come up beside him.
Fuck.
“I’m two for two on the asshole charts tonight,” he muttered.
“Are you?” She raised her eyebrows.
“I’m so fucking sorry, Carlie. I understand if you’re completely pissed off with me for leaving you like that. It’s just . . . I haven’t seen her in six months. It was like seeing a ghost. But that’s no excuse for being a dickhead.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Tanner. Yeah, if this was a regular date, I’d be hurt. But we both agreed to do this to keep Raid and Hannah from nagging us.” She winked at him.
He blew out a sigh of relief. “I don’t deserve you being this good about it all, but thank you.”
“What are you going to do? She seems like . . . like she’s in trouble.”
He ran his hand over his face. “You could sense that, huh?”
“You’d have to be blind not to see it.”
Fucking hell.
She walked off after squeezing his arm.
Looking around, Tanner spotted Devon giving him a dirty look.
Fine. He was leaving.
But he wouldn’t be going far.
14
“Come on, honey. Time to head home.”
Lilac jolted awake. Shit. Had she fallen asleep? How had that happened?
She was still in the staff room at Dirty Delights. Devon had asked her to wait for a few minutes so he could drive her home.
Oops.
At the end of her first shift, Devon had insisted on walking her to her car. Instead of telling him she didn’t have a car, she’d chosen one at random.
As they’d gotten closer, he’d beeped the locks.
Yeah . . . to her embarrassment she’d chosen his car.
So now he insisted on driving her home until she had her own mode of transport.
She felt terrible that he kept having to drive her home after every shift.
“Sorry I kept you waiting, honey,” he apologized as they walked out to his car.
A chilly wind hit her. Soon, it would start getting colder and she didn’t have the wardrobe to cope with cooler weather.
“You don’t need to apologize, Devon,” she said. “I feel awful that you’re driving me around. You really don’t have to. I’m fine walking home.”
He opened her passenger door. He really was a gentleman.
“One thing you need to learn about living in Haven is that no man here is going to be comfortable with you walking around at night. If I don’t take you home, anyone who sees you is going to offer you a ride. Or they’re going to call Jake. Did you have a meeting with him yet?”
“Um, no.”
He shut her door and walked around to the driver’s side. His car was fancy, with leather, heated seats.
Ahh, heated seats. So deliciously decadent.
“You’re going to have to.”
“Because of that whole silly guardian thing?” she asked.
“It’s not silly,” he told her sternly.
Right. Maybe it wasn’t, but it seemed awfully unrealistic. People just weren’t this nice.
Mind you . . . everyone she’d met so far had been pretty nice. But surely there was an ulterior motive to it all. Opal had suggested that maybe the entire town was like a giant cult.
To be honest, it made the most sense.
Both she and Ryleigh had warned Opal not to say that out loud anywhere that anyone in this town could hear her.
With Opal, it was a fifty-fifty chance of whether she’d listen to them.
“Linc will probably act as your guardian if you ask him, since you’re staying in his guesthouse.”
“I can’t ask Linc to do anything more for us.”
“Us?” Devon asked.
Shit. Had she not mentioned the others?
“I’ve been traveling around with my friends.”
“You didn’t say anything about them,” Devon said.
“I must have forgotten. Thanks, Devon,” she said as he pulled up outside Linc’s. She undid her seatbelt.
“Before you go, there’s something I want to talk to you about.”
She tensed. Great. Was he going to tell her that she couldn’t work there anymore? Shit. That would be a blow. Still, she’d get it after everything that had happened during tonight’s shift.
“I’m sorry about tonight. I won’t break anything else. I just got a shock, seeing Tanner—”
“Hey, you’re not in trouble.”
“I’m not?” She was jittery with nerves. Her heart felt like it was beating too hard.
“No. Of course not. I just wanted to let you know that if Tanner is upsetting or bothering you, you can let me know. I’ll ban him from the bar if I have to.”