Foolproof Love(17)

 

But he wasn’t any other man, and he had no intention of leaving her alone.

 

He held the door open for Jules and followed her out into the night. Just get her home without mauling her again and then you can figure out what your next step is. He couldn’t call the whole thing off. Now that half the town had either seen them at dinner or likely heard about it, them “breaking up” would only add a heap of humiliation on Jules’s already teetering pile, and Adam refused to contribute. She’d asked him for a favor, and it wasn’t her fault that his control was slipping by the second.

 

She climbed into his truck, seeming preoccupied with something. That was fine. If they managed to keep silent for the whole five-minute drive, it would be all good.

 

But then she went and shot that plan all to hell. “I think tonight went okay.”

 

“Yep.”

 

“I mean, Grant wasn’t there, but from the stares we got, he’ll be hearing about our being seen together before too long. Everyone will be hearing about it.” She sounded pleased, which was good. So why did it grate against him as badly now as it had back in the truck? She continued, oblivious to his inner aggravation. “What’s next?”

 

Did she think he kept a copy of Idiot’s Guide to Being a Small-Town Scandal stuffed in his dresser drawer? Apparently so, because she was looking at him expectantly. He turned out on Main Street. “Sugar, we already made spectacles of ourselves nearly getting busy in my truck with Sheriff Taylor half a block away, then proceeded to shock the locals just by eating dinner. Why don’t we take it easy for the rest of the night?”

 

“I don’t know.” She frowned. “Shouldn’t we be taking it to the next level? We don’t know for sure the sheriff saw anything.”

 

Frankly, he doubted the old man had seen anything. Adam knew for a fact Sheriff Taylor liked to nap on that very side street around that time of night, and so he wouldn’t have had his glasses on. But he sure as fuck wasn’t going to tell Jules that. “Are you asking me or telling me?”

 

She laughed. “Sorry. I haven’t spent much time thinking about indulging in gossip-starting acts. The craziest I get these days is video games. I’m a halfway decent sniper.”

 

The woman just kept surprising him. “I never would have pegged you for a first-person shooter.”

 

“Oh, not by my own doing.” She grinned. “But they’re Aubry’s poison of choice, so I get dragged along when she starts annihilating noobs.”

 

Now, the redhead he could picture camped out in a dark room with a microphone on her head and a controller in her hands. She was as intense as Jules was sunny. In fact, despite being around them a grand total of an hour, he couldn’t really wrap his mind around how they were friends. “How did you and Aubry meet?”

 

“It’s a silly story.”

 

“Humor me.”

 

“If you insist.” She turned, fully engaged. Jules seemed to spend her entire life fully engaged. “So my grandmother passed when I was a junior in college. I already knew what I wanted to do for a career—start a coffee shop with a unique draw—and she left me enough money to get off the ground, plus her blessing along with it.” She smiled, her eyes going soft. “Gran was one of the few people in town—my family included—who didn’t think I’d end up a lonely spinster after Grant dumped me.”

 

Before he could comment that he thought it highly unlikely Jules would hit thirty and still be single, let alone a spinster, she continued on, “So I’d just bought and renovated the shop, and I was down at the Humane Society picking the cats that would live there. Aubry was carting her massive laptop home from the library and saw me loading what she termed ‘a cat lady’s starter kit’ into my truck. She made some comment about cats eating you after you die, and of course I couldn’t let that stand. We ended up arguing all the way back to my place and while she helped me unload the cats and get them settled. From there it’s more or less history. Aubry has her quirks, same as me, and she doesn’t expect me to be something I’m not.”

 

Friends like that were worth their weight in gold. He’d had three, now two, and he’d barely seen them over the last twelve years. I’m a leaver, just like my mama always said. Once upon a time, those words had been a promise—Devil’s Falls and its whispers and judgment wouldn’t hold him back forever—but now they felt more like a curse.

 

He turned into the alley leading to the little carport behind Jules’s shop. “And what’s she think about this plan you’ve concocted?”