“No, I did.”
He stilled as he looked at me.“Beautiful and talented.”
Such a simple compliment but it made me blush.
Then he was turning toward the door and opened it for me.But I was fumbling with my keys trying to lock the door.
“Let me.”
He took the keys from me, locked the door, then put his hand on my elbow and guided me down the steps.
And for some reason that gesture made my heart skip.Ridiculous.
He opened the truck door for me but it was going to be awkward to climb inside in a dress holding a vase of flowers.Without asking, he took the vase from me.We stood there in the open truck door for a long minute, the midday breeze ruffling his hair and something inside me nearly cracked.
For the briefest of seconds the thought that Owen McAllister was too good for me pounded through my head.
He held out his other hand to help me climb inside and I did all sorts of ridiculous adjustments to my skirt, fluffing it over my knees.He watched with an intense amusement that made me regret my choice of outfit.
Once I was settled, I held out my hands for the vase.He handed it over, our hands brushing and my heart flipped.Then he leaned in and kissed me.
“Oh,” I breathed.“What was that for?”
“For being you.”
Then he closed the door, rounded the hood, and climbed in the driver’s side.My heart was pounding hard now, my nerves on edge.
He started the truck and pulled out of the driveway and then we were off down the road.The truck smelled like him—faint traces of his cologne and country road dust and something that reminded me of being tangled up with him in his arms.That didn’t help my nerves.The radio played low—a country song I half-recognized.
“Voss paid me a visit yesterday afternoon,” I blurted.
His gaze cut toward me.He didn’t look happy.“What did he want?Why didn’t you call me?”
I ignored his last question and forged onward.“He told me if I didn’t get the Crossroads closed in seventy-two hours, the Council was replacing me as Guardian.”
His hands tightened on the steering wheel.A muscle ticked in his jaw.
“Also,” I added before he could say anything, “I have to return Tani and Red to their realms.”
“You should have called me,” he said.
“So you could do what?Glare at him appropriately?”
“Piper—”
“You couldn’t have done anything,” I said.“He was there with a ticking clock and an ultimatum.I have to find a way.”
“Piper,” he said again, more slowly.“I thought we were a team.”
He never looked away from the road as he said it and something in his voice told me his pride was wounded.
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said nothing as trees flashed by.
We were a team?All this time I’d been operating from the fact that I was figuring this all out on my own.Even though I knew he was there to help me, I didn’t want to depend on him like a safety net.
“I did want to call you,” I admitted.“But I… I don’t know.I thought I could find something in Alice’s files.And I did.Tani helped.”
This time he did glance my way.“What did you find?”
