“What’s your birthday?”
“I guess that’s a problem for you.”
He slid the phone into his jacket pocket. “I’ll live.”
“People say that before they die of curiosity.”
“I’m comfortable with risk.”
Dex stepped back from the car and looked over the tire, the locked gate, and the narrow road behind his pickup. He took outhis own phone, snapped a photo of my car, the plate, and the nearest trail marker. Then he opened the back door of the sedan and pulled out my light overshirt.
He draped it over my cuffed hands.
I stared at the faded charcoal fabric hanging over my wrists. “Are you worried the trees will judge your restraint technique?”
“I’m worried the cuffs will heat up in the sun.”
The words landed softer than I wanted them to.
I looked away toward the gate before his careful hands could matter too much. Crystal needed me suspicious, not grateful.
“You’re very considerate for a man about to ruin my life,” I said.
“If bringing you in ruins your life, you should’ve shown up for court.”
“I didn’t do what they said.”
Dex moved to the sedan’s hood and pressed two fingers against the edge to check the heat before leaning there. “Then you tell your attorney that.”
“Brilliant. No woman in trouble has ever thought of hiring an attorney. You should put that on a mug.”
His mouth tightened, and for the first time, something like irritation cut through the calm. “You had a court date.”
“I had bigger problems.”
“Everybody who runs says that.”
The words hit a nerve that had already been scraped raw.
I stepped closer despite the cuffs. “And everybody who gets paid to drag them back says that like it proves something.”
“It proves I’ve heard it before.”
“You haven’t heard me.”
“No,” he said, and his voice stayed level. “I haven’t. You’ve mostly made jokes and tried to take my knee out.”
“Your knee was never in danger.”
“My thigh disagrees.”
“You’ll survive.”
“I’m comfortable with risk,” he said, throwing my own tone back at me.
Damn him.
A laugh tried to break loose. I killed it because laughing with him felt like the first inch of a trap.
