Page 54

“I’m, like, almost completely positive.”

“So that’s a no.” I squint. “How awkward is it going to be when he comes up and we’re just sitting here?”

“A bridge we will cross when the time comes.”

“How did you even convince Riley to let you do this?” I sniff, the autumn morning air colder than I thought it would be.

“Um.” Felicity fidgets with the zipper on her jacket, and it gets caught at her waist as she keeps twisting it. “I didn’t exactly…”

“She doesn’t know?”

“It didn’t come up naturally.”

“Well, I imagine it wouldn’t.” I reach over and help zip up her jacket for her, my fingers brushing the inside of the material, her thin shirt soft as I work the knot out for her and zip it up all the way. Her breath comes out in a heavy whoosh, a puff of fog in the warm light of the fire tower above us.

“Thank you,” she whispers up at me, lips full and the tip of her nose pink—so pretty.

“Mmm,” I grunt, since words seem like a distant concept and not something I can actually pull off right now.

“We should probably…” Her voice is still a low whisper between us and I nod.

“Right.”

I pull away and look up at the four flights of stairs we have to go up in order to get to a high enough view where this guy wouldn’t see us.

“My thighs hurt just looking at this,” I complain.

“I thought you did leg workouts as you work on the ranch.”

“Not really.” I hardly ever go to a gym, but there’s enough heavy lifting around the property that I’ve gotten used to lifting heavy things over time. I don’t have huge muscles like Walker or some of the other workers, but my grip strength is way better than theirs. My legs, though…

“Should we stretch?” I ask, imagining the walk on the way back down. I’m willing to bet at least twenty dollars that I’ll end up carrying her on my back.

“With your legs, you’ll be fine.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing, let’s go.”

It’s still dark enough that the view is hardly anything beyond some distant lights and stars—too early for anyone to be out driving. Dew slicks the metal under my hands as I hold on to the questionable railing, a sharp bite through my fingertips like the metal’s reminding me we shouldn’t be here.

“What time do you think he’ll be here?” I ask once we’re up one flight. “The sun comes up in thirty minutes or so.”

“Ada didn’t give details, except she did suspiciously send me a picture of his license plate for some reason.”

“You have a picture of his license plate?”

“Yeah, it’s kind of dirty. Which means he must not wash his car very much, which means maybe he’s a…traveling salesman? He works on the road and gave up on love because he couldn’t give up the dream of winning the top sales on…toasters or something.”

“There’s a thought.” I pat at my leg. “I was going to say if you have a picture of his license, we could have avoided this whole thing and just looked him up.”

“Oh yeah, detective. How could we do that?”

“Miller knows a guy. We didn’t even have to come out here.”

“Why do you sound like that’s my fault?” she hisses, and we’re still climbing for some reason.

“Well, had I known…”