Page 52 of The Rules

She watched the muscles in his throat move as he swallowed, his lips parting on a greeting that wasn’t materializing. Hers wasn’t coming either, just blinking and an internal repeating of the words:What. The. Fuck.

The brunette who’d come in with him stepped to his side. She wore a thin, paisley maxi dress, and her long hair draped over one shoulder in a loose fishtail braid. It was very hippy-soft. Not Dyan’s type at all.

She aimed a smile at Dylan, waiting to be introduced.

Dylan tugged on the brim of his baseball cap nervously. “Um. Cat, Dani, this is Cassidy.”

Cat was all smiles, and Dani felt a completely ludicrous stab of betrayal. The back of her nose burned and a lump that tasted salty and bitter formed in her throat.What. The. Fuck.

“So nice to meet y’all,” Cassidy said with a thick, Southern Belle accent.

Dani set down her plate, suddenly not hungry in the least. In fact, her stomach rolled and she cursed Josh and his stupid garlic chicken. Why else would she feel so queasy?

She took a deep breath through her nose and held her hand out, heat sweeping her cheeks when Cassidy shook it.

This was ridiculous. She should be used to this. How many times had Dylan shown up with a new woman on his arm?

Not any time recently.He’d been conspicuously alone on the Fourth of July. Again at Minnie’s party. The night she’d run into him when she was out with Nick was the last time she’d seen him with another woman. The thought pricked something in her brain but she shoved it away. He’d been in a slump, that was all. Before that, it was a hundred times. This was no big deal. This washim.This was why she’d picked him. Everything wasfine.

Dylan asked Cassidy what she wanted to drink then disappeared—escaped, really—while Cassidy took the seat beside Dani. The one she’d been stupidly saving for Dylan.

“How do you and Dylan know each other?” Dani asked, forcing her face to smile through her queasiness.

“We work together.” Cassidy smiled back and the sunlight from the windows sparkled on her perfectly-highlighted face. She had good cheekbones—Dani would give her that.

“Cass is the interior designer on that new medical office building we’re doing,” Josh supplied, his eyes on the television.

Which would explain why Dylan didn’t have to introduce her to Josh. She wondered if Cat had heard ofCassbefore now.

But Cat didn’t seem affected in any way, ignoring everyone to steal chips off of Josh’s plate.

“That’s great.” Dani turned her eyes back to the TV to give her fake smile muscles a rest.

Dylan came back in and perched himself on the arm of the couch beside Cass, handing her a bottle and taking a long sip from his. He kept his eyes on the television, but the muscles in his neck flexed like his teeth were scraping back and forth, grinding like he sometimes did.

Josh and Shawn both yelled at something that happened on the TV, and Cass clapped her hands daintily like she was at the ballet.For God’s sake.

“Are you a fan too, Cassidy?” Dani asked, gesturing to Shawn and Josh’s orange-wear.

Cassidy gave a pretty, feminine laugh. “Oh. No. I just like good sportsing.” It was self-deprecating adorableness and Shawn belly-laughed.Jerk.

“Ha,” Dani said dryly, forcing her eyes not to roll. Christ. She was annoying herself with how snarky her voice sounded. Cat raised a suspicious eyebrow over the burger she was biting into. Even Josh had an amusedWTFlook on his face.

Dylan’s jaw continued to twitch.

“I’m going to grab a beer.” Dani turned to Cat to ask if she wanted one, then remembered the other secret elephant in the room. That bitterness in her throat was back with a vengeance. She needed to get out of that space. She pushed off the couch and walked to the kitchen, but when she turned the corner, a hand wrapped around her wrist.

Twenty

Dylan pulled Dani into thebathroom, closing the door with a tiny click, then pushed the lever on the faucet to full-force. “You said you weren’t coming,” he hissed.

She tilted her chin at him, her badass face. He wasn’t falling for it this time.

“My plans changed,” she said. “And I didn’t realize you were asking because you were bringing a date.”

“I wasn’t when I first asked. But, again, you said you weren’t coming.”

Dani crossed her arms and leaned against the sink. “Whether I’m here or not, we have rules.”

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