AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t hand me that line,” he said. “Your father is loaded.”
“Maybe now, but not always.”
Cate gasped silently when a definite animal-like rustling materialized close by. “Don’t move,” she hissed. “Don’t make a sound.”
She heard Harry groan softly. “I feel like I’m being punked.”
“That will be the least of your worries if a skunk sprays us,” she muttered.
They sat in silence for five minutes. Then ten.Somethingwas wandering around outside.
“How do we know when it’s safe to go?” Harry whispered.
“I don’t hear anything now. I could open the door really slowly.”
“Be my guest.”
Harry was occupying most of the space between Cate and freedom. He was a big man. She was forced to climb over him.
At the last second, she chickened out. “Let’s give it another five minutes,” she said, the words barely audible.
“Fine by me.” He shifted his body as if his spot was uncomfortable. “My life was never a soap opera until I started hanging out with you.”
“Nobody said you had to rescue me at the wedding.”
“Are you implying you had a better plan?”
“You know I didn’t,” she said, feeling sulky.
“I’m only giving you a hard time, Catie-girl. For a workaholic like me, you’re aninterestingdeviation.”
“That sounds remarkably insulting.”
“It was meant as a compliment.”
“Maybe you should look up that word.” When Harry laughed out loud, she shushed him. “We’re still being quiet,” she said.
“Oh, right.”
Was it the dark that had relaxed the tension between them? Or had she totally imagined the awkwardness in the kitchen earlier? Maybe Harry had been telling the truth. Maybe the old crush was exactly what he described. Ancient news.
“We have to get out of here,” she said. “I’m opening the door.”
On her knees, she turned the knob and pushed. The moonlight lit up the backyard. Nothing seemed out of place. She scooted through the narrow entrance and stood.
Harry was close behind her. He stretched his arms toward the sky and unkinked his back. “Thank God. I thought we were going to cook in there.”
“It wasn’t that hot.”
He touched her damp cheek and scooped up a trickle of sweat. “Hot enough.”
Damn it. She couldn’t read the man. One minute he was teasing her, and the next he touched her with a casual intimacy that made it hard to breathe.
If they went inside the house, it would be too late to talk to him. They would both go their separate ways. She sucked in a sharp breath. “You were right about me being excited earlier. Honestly, I could really use your help tomorrow. Do you have a couple of hours in the morning?”
If there had been no moon, she would have missed his flinch. His subtle body language was unmistakably negative. “Sorry,” he said. “I have to go back to Atlanta. I was going to tell you at dinner, but we were talking about other things.”
“For how long?” she asked. Why did she have the distinct feeling Harry had invented this trip on the fly?
