Page 9 of The Woman in the Hollow
“Whoa, you’re okay,” I said, stepping in front of her.
“There’s… there’s a body…”
“If it helps, his name is Cody, and he’s in school to become a vet tech,” I explained, watching the confusion chase the fear off her face.
“Oh,” she said, offering me an embarrassed smile. Her hand lifted to run through her hair. It didn’t escape me that it was shaking. “Yeah. I, uh, forgot for a minute that it wasn’t real.”
“That’s a good fight-or-flight instinct you have,” Dante said, shrugging it off. “Come on. Let’s get you some hot chocolate to calm you down.”
Right.
Of course, he would be into the blonde woman.
And that should have had absolutely no impact on me. What did I care who he found attractive? Or how the woman, once she realized she had his attention, lavished her attention on him, throwing her head back to laugh, touching his arm, moving too close?
Even if I wanted Dante Grassi, he was my boss. That meant off-limits. Because I needed this job more than I needed to get laid.
Well, that was debatable.
But sex was low on the priority list when you’d been busy completely uprooting your life and starting over in an unfamiliar place.
You also had to factor in that my last partner was also the catalyst for moving all the way from Florida to New Jersey.
Who wouldn’t want to burn their whole life down when they found out that the man they’d been in a relationship with—who they were envisioning rings, a dress, a white picket fence, and three kids with—had been cheating through an online dating profile that he’d set up the month after you two became official?
That sure felt like a sign from the universe that it was time to shake things up a bit.
Since I’d been dreaming of a trip to the upper East Coast already, the decision had been an easy one. New Jersey was a logical choice. It was a solid eighteen-hour drive home, which felt doable but did give me an excuse not to go back for any little family event. It gave me proximity to a beach, which felt important since I’d grown up near one. And it was also close toboth New York City and Philly, while still feeling removed from the craziness of a big city.
So far, I was tentatively happy about the decision. Though I’d only been in town for about two months, so final decisions likely wouldn’t come until I’d spent one calendar year in the area.
A key part of getting to a year was keeping a steady job. One with potential for upward mobility.
So, yeah, no having the hots for the boss. No matter how hot he was.
Still, that didn’t stop the weird churning in my stomach when I saw him lead the woman to her car.
Hunger forgotten, I tossed my plate and decided to take a walk through the woods instead.
Only to happen upon a couple who’d ventured off the path and seemed to be turned on by fear because they were trying to get busy up against a tree.
Normally, I would really just mind my own business. But there were children around. So I had to embarrass all of us by interrupting and telling them to get back on the path.
“What was that?” Domenico asked when he saw me following the horny couple back to the rest of the crowd.
I waited until the group of guests had moved around the next bend and turned to Domenico. “They were trying to get it on off the path.”
“No shit,” he said, letting out a little chuckle, his smile unexpectedly brilliant.
“I feel like such a wet blanket,” I admitted. “But there are kids. Older kids, but still.”
“Freaky people will find a way,” Domenico said, shrugging.
“Maybe we should add another rope to the path so it’s harder to get off. I mean, it’s not just sex we have to worry about. Anytime you get a bunch of teens together, someone is going to bring beer or weed and sneak off to drink or smoke it.”
“Fair,” he agreed. “Did you sneak off to drink and smoke?”
“I cut school with friends in my sophomore year of high school, drank heavily enough to black out and not know how I got home. I didn’t touch anything again until I was of age.”
