Page 80 of Playing With Love

“I’m good.”

She wasn’t.

“Liza—”

“Fine. I’m not good. But I’m no longer hurt. I’m angry and that’s better than hurt. That’s not going to change in the next five minutes or five hours so there’s no need to pull over. It’s also the best I’ve got right now so I’m going to suck it up and be good.”

“What can I do to help you?”

“The only way to help is to leave it alone.”

My chest was tight and I was fighting the urge to call Dylan and set him on Liza’s father, yet I cracked a smile when she leaned over the center console, deep into my space, and continued her commentary. “Never seen that before, a Family Dollar and Dollar General side by side. They even share a parking lot. And there’s the coffee shop Allyson told us about.”

I glanced at the coffee shop up ahead. Then I made a decision.

I grabbed my phone, pulled up Allyson’s name, and hit send.

Two rings later, Allyson picked up just in time.

“Hello.”

“Swing into the coffee shop.”

“Oh. Okay.”

I saw Allyson’s brake lights, then her blinker, and followed suit.

“Park and wait for us.”

As soon as I disconnected, Liza asked, “What are you doing?”

I was buying us more time. I didn’t tell Liza that.

“Getting a lay of the land. Getting Allyson comfortable.”

“A trial run,” Liza muttered.

That would indeed be a happy byproduct. When we’d left the hotel in Knoxville Allyson had been on edge. She’d had an hour drive to tie herself in knots and worry.

“We need her relaxed.”

I felt Liza’s eyes on me as I swung into the parking spot next to Allyson.

“You mean me,” she whispered.

“Actually I mean all of us,” I corrected. “Before we hit the compound, we need to see where Allyson’s at. I need another few minutes to talk myself out of asking Dylan to get me your parents’ address so I can take a detour after this is over and knock some sense into him. And you need some caffeine in you, and if they’ve got something edible in a pastry case, you need something sugary. The blueberry muffin you had at the hotel has worn off.”

“It’s annoying how well you know me.”

That almost made me smile.

“I bet it is. But just to point out, you know me just as well, it’s just that you’re still firm in your denial so you’re watching what you say because you don’t want me to point it out.”

“That’s annoying, too,” she groused.

That meant when I shut down and got out of the CR-V that Greg had delivered to the hotel last night, I was smiling.

I met Liza around the back of the car, tagged her around the waist, and tugged her to my side. She didn’t stiffen, but neither did she seem comfortable with the PDA—something she was going to have to get comfortable with and quick. Not because we were a couple who had been married for ten years after dating for three, and according to my wife’s social media profile, she was madly in love with her husband. And not because we were standing in a public parking lot ten minutes away from the compound we’re going to infiltrate, which meant our cover had officially begun. And not because I was into PDA and wanted to force that on her.