Page 128 of Sawyer

My turn to squeeze her hand. “That’s kind of my job as your boyfriend.”

“That makes me your girlfriend, huh?”

“I ain’t sharing if that’s what you’re asking.”

Her eyes get this bright, sated look in them. “I don’t wanna share you either, honey.”

“What do you think was the most upsetting part of your conversation with Dan?”

She thinks on this for a minute, her shoulders rising on a deep inhale. “My biggest beef with Dan when we were married was the fact that he didn’t seem to care very much about, well, anything except himself. He didn’t care about who I really was or what I really wanted. He just wanted me to be his perfect little wife who took care of him and made his life easy.”

I drape my free hand over the steering wheel, the deep rumble of the engine filling the quiet between us. “It’s really hard when you feel like you’re the only one who cares. Who tries hard.”

“Hell, who tries at all.”

“I get that too.”

“Dan didn’t care for years. And now all of a sudden, he wants to go through my phone to read the texts you sent me.”

“Bizarre.”

“The guy has balls of steel, I’ll give him that,” she replies with a mirthless laugh. “Anyway, just his insinuation that I’d ever put Junie in danger—that I’d just bring around random guys while she was with me—it was insulting more than anything, and it pissed me off. But when I get really mad, I cry, so …” She motions to her face. “I cried a lot today.”

“How did June react?”

“Luckily she was too preoccupied with her Kindle to really pay any attention.”

I curl my fingers around the wheel. “I don’t want to hate your ex?—”

“I don’t want that either. Dan’s not usually like this, I swear. But … yeah, there’smanyreasons we’re not married anymore.”

“He’s coming back to bring Junie home tomorrow, right?”

Ava nods. “You wanna meet him?”

“I do.”

“Leave the gun at home.”

“Ava, I’m not gonna shoot the guy,” I say with a chuckle. “I may give him a black eye?—”

“Don’t.”

“Kidding. I’m not one to start a fight.”

“Nah.” Her eyes flash. “You’re better at starting fires.”

My dick leaps. “You wanna get out of here?”

“I mean, I wanna do that.” She glances down at my lap. “But I don’t know. I decided a long time ago that Dan wasn’t going to ruin anything for me anymore. Why let him ruin tonight? Let’s go dancing.”

We exchange another long look. I don’t ask her if she’s sure.

I don’t ask her if I can go down on her real quick before we head back inside. We start that, we ain’t gonna finish anytime soon.

I just kiss her mouth and kill the ignition.

I jump out of the truck and open her door.

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