Page 36 of Knox

“We should pay and get out of here,” he said, his voice slightly rougher than usual. “We’re burning daylight.”

The only bad thing about autumn, I thought. The days are getting shorter by the minute.

The teenager working the register looked from Knox to me with barely concealed curiosity.

“Y’all are cute,” the girl said as she rang up the water and snacks. “I saw that whole thing with the other guy.” She glanced toward the exit where Tyler had stormed away. “You traded up,” she told me. Then, she gave Knox a lingering once-over. “Way up.”

An unexpected laugh broke from my lips.

Knox pulled me closer. I felt his lips brush the crown of my head, soft, warm, and deliberate, while the cashier bagged our items. My eyes fluttered closed.

For the cashier, I told myself. For the act.

But my racing pulse suggested otherwise.

Outside, we climbed into the Jeep in silence. Knox started the engine but didn’t put it in gear. “You sure you’re okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. Why?”

“That was...” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Intense. Your ex was so far out of line I can’t believe that interaction was real.”

“Welcome to my world.” Or just girlhood in general, I thought.

I took a breath. “Was it too much? What I asked you to do?”

Knox’s eyes found mine. “No. Was it too much for you? Me touching you like that?”

My heart hammered. “No.”

His expression shifted, softening. “All right.”

I twisted the cap off one of the water bottles as we got back on the highway, and I took a long drink, trying to cool down from more than just the heat.

“That was good,” I said finally. “What you did in there. Very convincing. With the little kiss and everything.”

Knox glanced at me. “Yeah?”

I thought about the weight of his arm around my waist, the possessive way he’d pulled me against him, the fierce protectiveness in his voice when he’d defended me to Tyler. And how unequivocally safe I’d felt, how right.

“Yeah,” I said softly. “You did exactly what my idea of a perfect boyfriend would do.”

“I’m glad. Because I meant what I said. I’m not going to let him harass you.”

“I know.”

We drove in silence for a few minutes, the tension between us thick and complicated. Finally, Knox spoke again.

“We can’t change our minds about this now,” he said quietly.

My heart jumped. “What do you mean?”

“That was the first time we went public with the relationship story and acted like a couple in front of someone who knows you.” Knox stole a glance in my direction, before fixing his attention back on the road. “By tomorrow, everyone on this island will know that Sloane Mercer is dating Knox Hawthorne.”

The weight of it settled over me. We’d just made a big commitment, and we were now bound to maintain the story. We couldn’t fake breaking up and still explain Knox’s constant presence. The line between performance and reality felt suddenly very thin.

“Then I guess we better make it believable,” I said.

I reached across the console and took his hand, threading our fingers together the way a real girlfriend would.