Page 40 of Wild Card

She set the framed photo down and followed me out.

Chapter Sixteen

“Where are we headed?”Mallory asked from the passenger seat.

She smelled like almonds and cherries. It made me remember her smell from that night, and her taste…she had tasted just as good as she smelled.

Clearing my throat, I pulled away from the curb. “Pinehurst.”

I saw her head turned in my peripheral vision. I imagined how gorgeous those red strands of her hair looked glowing in the sunlight pouring through the windshield.

“Your mom lives in Pinehurst?”

I glanced over, one hand on the wheel while I maneuvered us out of the complex.

“Yeah, my little brother lives there with her.”

“That’s like a three-hour drive or something, right?”

Had I forgotten to mention that it would be three hours there and three back? I had said it was a ways out of town, right? What did it mean that I didn’t feel the slightest bit bad about having her to myself for a six-hour period today?

“Yeah…” I cleared my throat, my hand hovering the blinker signal. “You probably don’t want to spend the entire day doing this.”

My hand pushed down, signaling that I needed to turn just as her soft voice piped up.

“No…it’s okay, actually. I don’t have anything planned today, just some homework and catching up with my friends, but that all can wait. I really need to get started on this piece, so I’ll go.”

I slowly let the air out of my chest as some kind of weird sensation filled its place.

Guilt.

Hope.

“Cool.” Like hell I’d tell her I was glad for the company, or that she was wasting her time with me. Once she hit submit on that article, it would be flagged, and the team’s lawyers would get involved.

“Okay, well I can ask these while we drive then work on my laptop while you help her out, I guess.” She sounded contemplative, like she was trying to figure out where she fit into this plan and why I had asked her along.

Of course, I didn’t actually know the answer to that. I shouldn’t have asked her, but for some reason I wanted to see her, and if this was the only way…well, then this was it.

“So tell me about the involvement of the other players. Walk me through when and how you knew about the card game based on your own experience on the team.”

I smiled, turning toward her, then focused on the road. I liked her journalist face, how her dark brows dipped toward the center of her forehead and her eyes narrowed, the side of her lip hitched. It made me want to ask her questions or draw my answers out just so I could keep that expression on her face.

“You know how most fraternities have rush week, where they let new pledges see behind the curtain a bit, then there’s the pledging?”

“Yeah.” She wrote down a few things in her notebook.

“Well, we basically throw a huge party, a massive rager, but the only people invited are the ones who are current team members, or previously graduated team members. No one from the outside. This is absolute law.” I looked over again, finding her furiously writing. “Do you want to record what I’m saying or anything?”

She let out a small laugh and dug for her phone. “I have no idea why I am so off when I’m around you. That was a rookie move.” She shook her head while sliding her thumb across the screen of her phone.

“Off? You mean how you ditched me the other night out of nowhere?” I made sure my tone was teasing, but in all honesty, I wanted to know why she’d left. I hated how it’d felt, especially after it seemed so cool between us before that.

“It worked out for you, didn’t it? I saw Taylor take my spot as soon as I left. Besides, you got all weird when she called us out for fighting over the chips. I obviously made you uncomfortable.”

I laughed.This fucking chick.

“Uncomfortable? No…far from it, I was actually about to…” Shit, it wasn’t like I could tell her I had been about to put Taylor in her place or trash her for not loving the best kind of tortilla chip ever invented.

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