Page 19 of Love Songs

“Blade,” he said as he stopped in front of me, that one word as smooth as honey.

I couldn’t tell if he was still angry with me, but he was here, so I’d take that as a win.

“Lieutenant,” I greeted, shoving my hands into my pockets as a bout of nerves took hold.

Bidding on him had seemed like a good idea at the time. Now? Not so much. If we were going to do this date thing, I figured I should get the elephant out of the room first.

“I’m really sorry about the fire,” I began, watching him watch me with a piercing stare I swear reached right into my soul. “We didn’t think plugging my cell phone in there would be an issue.”

“Why did you set it up in the first place?” His voice held no accusation or disapproval, only curiosity. “Half the crowd had their cell phones out recording. You could have had someone from your crew out there instead.”

“Someone I couldn’t refuse asked me to record the show,” I said, leaving it at that.

He grunted but didn’t prod for more information.

“Well,” he said, and tipped his head toward the parking lot. “We should get going.”

An awkward, giddy feeling bubbled in my belly as we walked toward a big, maroon-colored Chevy with an extended cab and tinted windows, neither of us speaking. I hopped in and buckled up.

“So,” I said when he pressed the engine start button. “We’re going to a maple syrup farm?”

Holliston winced. “I apologize in advance.”

That caught me off guard. Was there something wrong with the farm, orwashe mad I was the one he was taking there?

“It can’t be that bad, can it?” I hedged.

“Oh, no.” He held up a hand and chuckled under his breath. “It’s just that one of my best friends’ family owns it. Him and mytwo other best friends, troublemakers all of them—” he said with affection “—will probably be there to spy on us.”

“As long as they won’t be taking photos to sell to the tabloids,” I said lightly, but I wasn’t exactly joking.

“No, no. Nothing like that,” he assured me quickly, his eyebrows lifting as he shifted the truck into gear. “We just like to give each other a hard time. And call me Conor. I’m only Lieutenant at work.”

“Will do. Conor.”

I liked how his name sounded on my tongue.

He gave me a funny look with those piercing eyes of his that I couldn’t decipher, then checked both directions before pulling out onto a tree-lined country road.

“I’m curious,” Conor said after a few minutes with only the steady hum of the truck’s tires on pavement and the whoosh of the wind through my open window filling the cab. “Who couldn’t you refuse?”

I turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

“You said you were recording at the request of someone you couldn’t refuse.”

Oh.Right.

Not wanting to disrupt Jaylin’s life any more than it had been after losing her mom and finding out I was her dad by bringing the invasions of privacy that celebrity garnered, I’d tried to keep our relationship contained to my inner circle. But when your newly discovered daughter boasts to all her friends at school that her dad istheDallas Blade, the tabloids eventually pick up on it. I still didn’t tell many people outside my close circle unless I needed to, but I figured Conor already knew, anyway. Half the world did.

“Because my daughter asked me to,” I finally said.

Conor whipped his head around to me. His eyebrows rose and his jaw dropped.

“You have a daughter?” I couldn’t deny the genuine ring of shock in his voice. “And you’re bidding on strange men at auctions?”

I laughed. How did he not know?

“Firsly,” I said, holding up a finger to count off. “You’re not strange.”

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