Page 61 of RomeAntically Challenged
She gave him a small smile. “Then we have a deal.” She stuck out her hand, and the minute it slipped between his, something heated sparked between them. Rules or not, they were going to end up in bed.
True story.
She took a sip of beer, then passed him the mug. “Can I ask you something? Not because I’m snooping, but because now that I’m your roommate, if anything happens, I should know.” This time she reached out, running a gentle finger from his temple to his eyebrow. “How bad is your head injury?”
Not what he was expecting. And not something he wanted to talk about in a noisy bar, if ever. So he leaned back until she was forced to drop her hand. “I’ll tell you. Just not right now, okay?”
“Okay, but you’re going to have to come clean soon. Your file is being sent from China, and I want to know what it says. But I’d rather hear it from you.”
He didn’t respond to her statement, only flagged down Levi to get a glass of water. But when Levi came over, he had his cell in hand.
“Where’s Paisley?” Levi asked as if Emmitt had gotten her an after-school job at a strip club.
“She’s at her friend’s house working on some project.”
“What project and what friend?” This was from Gray, who was on speaker phone. “Because Owen stopped by to work on their chemistry project. He said he swung by your place but you weren’t there, so when she didn’t answer his text, he came here. This is the second time Owen’s come looking for her when she was supposed to be with him.”
“I’m not sure what project,” he said, feeling a little like a kid being called into the principal’s office. “And she’s at Sammy’s.”
“Sammy?” Levi sputtered. “You let her go home with Sammy?”
Gray said something similar except his question was much more colorful that Levi’s. “Yeah, she seemed like a nice girl.” From across the gym anyway.
Levi ran a hand down his face. “Sammy is Samuel Allen. The biggest player at the high school. Or as the teens would say, the biggest fuck boy in RHS history.”
The same knot that had twisted around his chest when she’d told him he was ruining her life tightened two times harder. He told himself to breathe in and breathe out. “Fuck boy or not, Paisley wouldn’t do anything.”
“You mean like sneak a mini skirt and thigh-high boots to school in her backpack, sneak out, steal my beer?” Gray yelled. “Wake up and smell the estrogen.”
“Dude,” Levi said. “Sammy is you fifteen years ago. Just better looking.”
“Shit.” Emmitt stood and started searching his pockets for his keys, coming up empty. He looked at Levi. “I Ubered here.”
“Of course you did. I’ll get her,” Gray said.
“No,” Emmitt ground out. “I’m on duty tonight. I screwed up. I’ll get her.”
“You sure?” Gray sounded less than convinced, and Emmitt wanted to pull him through the phone. “You can’t let this shit slide.”
“I know how to parent.”
“Says the guy who Ubered to a bar on his night,” Gray spat out.
Emmitt was about to say something he couldn’t take back when he felt a warm hand slide around his arm. And then there was Annie, with that big heart of hers right there in her eyes. “Actually, I’m headed home. We can pick up Paisley on the way.”
Chapter 16
“Ican’t believe she lied to me!”
It was the first thing Emmitt said after folding himself into Annie’s car. She’d barely had time to say goodbye to her friends before he started ushering her out the door. Beckett gave her theGo for itthumbs-up while Lynn was mouthing “Zac Efron tattoo.”
At least she’d make one of them proud.
“In my experience, teen girls lie when they don’t feel as if they have options,” Annie said.
“That girl has more options than a drive-thru menu,” he said. “I don’t know about Curly or Moe back there, but I’ve made it clear she can come to me about anything.”
She cut Emmitt a glance. “Even if it’s about a cute boy?”
