Page 53 of Call My Bluff
“Too bad, since that’s such a lucrative field and all,” she teased. She put her thermos down and glanced at him again. “But seriously, why?”
“So I can make grown men cry.”
“That’s not a reason!”
“It is, too!” he insisted. “We’re not all out to save the world, you know.”
She smiled and shook her head. Then she looked over as he set the book on the floor behind her seat. “Well, if you’re not doing that, do you want to play a game?”
“Like what?”
She slowed and made a left turn at a flashing yellow light. “In high school, we used to play ‘Liar, Liar’ on long trips. Do you know that one?”
Noah shook his head, forgetting she couldn’t hear the gesture. “No, but it sounds self-explanatory,” he answered.
“Pretty much. You tell me something, and I have to decideif I think you’re telling the truth or not. If I guess right, I get a point, but if you fool me, you get the point.”
“Gotcha,” he said with a nod. “Your game, so you go first.”
Olivia chewed on her lower lip as she followed the highway to the right and made her way around the county courthouse. “Alright, I’ve got one,” she said. “Believe it or not, I took ballet as a kid.”
She glanced his way, and Noah narrowed his eyes as he tried to picture a younger Olivia in a tutu and tights. Try as he might, he just couldn’t do it. “False,” he said firmly, and Olivia grinned.
“True!” she shouted. “But I only lasted four weeks.”
“What, did you flunk out?”
“Nope. I was asked to leave.”
“You were asked to leave akid’s ballet class?”
“Yep,” she said, the word popping from her mouth. “Apparently I kept putting the other girls in headlocks.”
Noah felt his face light up in delight. Nowthatwas an image he could understand.
Olivia saw his expression and shrugged in a self-deprecating sort of way. “I don’t fight without a reason, so they probably deserved it.”
“Aww, my little psycho!” Noah teased, and she reached over to smack his chest with the back of her hand.
For whatever reason, he didn’t mind.
“Your turn,” she reminded him.
He sighed; at least with this kind of game he got to choose what information he gave away. After a few moments, he shifted in his seat. “I once sold sunscreen to a naked man,” he offered.
Olivia whipped her head in his direction before quickly turning back to the road. “Youwhat?!” she exclaimed. “Okay, youdefinitely made that up. Unless you were at a roadside stand or something, but even then.”
“A roadside stand that sells sunscreen?”
“You know what I mean! Something other than a regular store.”
“Nope, right there at Watson’s Grocery, lane two,” Noah confirmed, and he watched her eyes grow even wider. “He showed up in his birthday suit, and one of the managers—I’ll let you guess which one—told him he could come in if he covered himself. So, the guy finds an old sweatshirt from someplace, ties it backwards around his waist ’90s-style, and waltzes right in.”
“No! But that wouldn’t even—”
“Cover everything? Yeah, I’m aware.”
She gaped in disbelief, and Noah felt a surge of satisfaction at having provided a tidbit she found so entertaining. Of course, everyone found that story entertaining; how could you not?
