Page 55 of Crazy in Love

“Not if she never finds out,” he countered. “I could always blame the drugs. What’s your excuse?”

“You’re too cute to resist.” She bopped him on the nose.

“Cute?” Was that supposed to be a compliment?

“Sorry. Handsome. Ruggedly so. Very manly and all that.”

He rolled his eyes.

“It stopped raining,” she said, peeking out the window. “I can give you a ride to town if you want.”

“That’s all right.”

“Just so you know, I don’t usually do that.” She inclined her head toward the bedroom. “Especially notbeforea first date.”

“Yeah. Me either.”

Silence settled over them, and he started to question the soundness of his spontaneous decision. Tess had warned him Faith sometimes jumped into things without thinking them through. Was that what this was? And was it contagious?

“Well, I’ve got to get back to work,” Faith said, looking at her watch.

“Okay. We still on for tonight?” Everything was backward. The dateafterthe sex? He wasn’t normally so impulsive. Something about Faith had him losing control, and he needed to regain it.

Her phone vibrated, and she checked the caller ID. “Hold that thought,” she said, holding up a finger. “Hello?”

As she listened, her face fell. “Oh dear. I’ll be right there. Thanks for calling.”

“Hope?” Nick asked, and she nodded. “More vandalism?”

“Shoplifting this time. She’s at the police station in Meredith. I’m going to have to take a rain check on tonight.”

“Do you want me to go with you? We could do a good cop, bad cop thing. See if we can’t scare her straight.”

She huffed out a laugh. “I know she has money. I just gave her two hundred dollars to finish school shopping. Why would she steal something?”

“She’s been hanging out with some loser. Kid named Shane. I’d nip that in the bud first chance. She also might still be acting out.”

“Yeah. I appreciate the offer to come with, but I better handle it.”

He’d become so used to only seeing a smile on her face that it caught him off guard to see her frown. He followed her to the door.

“Call if you need anything.”

Instead of a fun date with Faith, he spent the night worried about her and her sister. He knew he should tell Faith about her real father being a criminal, but adding to her burden right now just seemed cruel.

It was not a conversation he looked forward to, but keeping it from her didn’t seem right either. He’d let all this stuff with Hope settle first and then feel out the situation. If he thought she could take it, he’d tell her next time they were alone.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“So, then I took the jailbird home,” Faith said, finishing the story of what she’d done over the weekend. A twinge of guilt ran through her when she carefully omitted the X-rated Sunday afternoon rendezvous with Nick.

It was Monday morning, and Tess had begged her to come along to the New Hampton hospital. Faith could’ve said she had to work, but she hadn’t seen Tess for two days, and really, the store wouldn’t fall apart if she took a few hours off.

“So, how was your campout?”

“The usual,” Tess said. “Bunch of city bigwigs trying to be tough guys in the mountains.”

“Did any of them cry?”

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