Chapter 18

Iwas lying on my bed when I heard the front door close, but I didn't bother to get up from where I was. I was too annoyed.

I was trying my hardest to have compassion for where he was coming from; I'd known for weeks that he was hiding something about his past that obviously caused him a substantial amount of pain, and that was just my assessment of him in the first few days I'd known him. I'd also been able to tell that whatever it was had to do with the fact that he'd left the force—that had been as clear as day from the beginning, since he'd had trouble discussing everything about his past as a detective every time I asked him about it.

I also was having trouble believing he'd just stumbled upon my ID in my room. I had a weird feeling he'd come looking for information about me while I'd been in the shower, which was a riddle in and of itself.

Had he done it because he'd found himself trusting me or because he'd been tempted to? I couldn't make sense of it. And moreover, I couldn't make sense of what it meant to continue living with someone who expected consistent honesty from me and yet refused to offer me the same thing.

As dangerous as I knew it was out there, with Alex in town knowing where to find me, I needed to make him see that I wasn't willing to put up with him and his bullshit anymore.

I woke up to the sound of Dillon's truck pulling back in, and I pulled aside my curtains to look out at him climbing out. He went to the back seat and started pulling out bags, and as much as I wanted to be bitter and stay inside, I knew it wouldn't suit me in the long run.

I threw open the door and walked out onto the porch, leaning against one of the pillars as I waited for him to look up and notice me. His eyes flicked up to me, and amazingly, he did smile nervously.

"Do you need help?" I asked.

"That would be great."

I walked over to the truck and started pulling out the bags, which were full to bursting with fresh produce and other groceries. My eyes popped, and I looked back at him in surprise.

"You do know that vegetables go bad pretty fast, right? This means that you're going to have to go back down to town in less than a month to get more groceries."

"I know," he said, not looking at me as he came out for more bags. "I shopped a little differently this time, since for one, I have someone else here to eat the veggies before they go bad. For another thing, this person I've got here is from LA. Aren't vegetables your thing out there in California?"

I chuckled, rolling my eyes. "Yeah. Up there with some of the biggest drug capitals in the world."

He laughed too. "Fair enough," he said.

We each went out to the truck to grab one last round of bags and settled into putting the stuff into the fridge and elsewhere throughout the kitchen. There was definitely tension there, but we managed to work through it. I wasn't about to back down so easily.

"Listen," he said, and I looked back at him, raising my eyebrows, "when I was at the store, I saw that someone had put up a flyer with your face on it."

I froze, and my hand seemed to spasm as I thought about who would've put up those signs.

"It's okay," he said, coming to stand next to me. "The signs were for Macy Keene, so Alex wouldn't have been the one to put them up. He would've put them up with your real name."

"But now he'll have someone to call and get information from about me."

"What new information would he be able to get about you that he doesn't already have, though?" he asked softly. "So he'll know that you're going by a fake name, which he would've been able to guess when nobody in town could tell him where to find a Macy Wallace. And when he calls the number on the flyer, someone might be able to tell him that you work at a supermarket and about what neighborhood you live in, which he already knows."

I huffed a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob. "That's true. He already trashed my apartment after all."

He spread his fingers out so that his pinky reached toward mine, and I curled my fingers ever so slightly so that his came toward mine. "I promise you that you're okay—I have your back, and you're safe here."

"Did you give anyone an update about me?"

"No, I didn't. I couldn't guarantee that none of them were talking to Alex. Also, selfishly, I didn't want anyone to think that the hermit had kidnapped you."

"Why? Because it's true?"

He stared hard at me before backing me up to the ledge of the counter, coming close enough to touch me, but refusing to.

"If you want me to, I'll drive you anywhere you need me to. All you have to do is ask."

We took a second standing there, just breathing in each other's air, and I felt desperate to touch him again… but Alex. Emergencies. Life.

There was also the inescapable fact that I was pissed at him because he still hadn't managed to tell me a single personal fact about himself without me digging for it.

I edged out from between him and the counter, laying my hand softly on his chest as I did it. He needed to know I was still annoyed with him, but I was willing to forgive.

Eventually. And I couldn't trust myself to maintain control when he was so close to me, with me breathing in his seductive, powerful smell.

"I'd really like to call my mom," I said, looking at him straight on. "I honestly don't think that that's too much to ask, since it's been a while since I've spoken to her."

He bit his lip, and I knew he was nervous, but I gave him just enough rope to hang himself if he chose to.

"Okay," he said. "Yeah—I don't want your mom to think I've kidnapped you either."

I snorted.

"Just try to keep it short, okay? There really is a chance that someone has a tap on her phone as a favor to him."

"I will, I promise," I said, feeling my stomach swoop as he led me over to the desk. He pulled out a sleek black smartphone and turned around to hand it to me.

"This phone stays off most of the time, unfortunately, otherwise I'd just give it to you to use."

"Thank you," I said, hardly able to believe he'd capitulated so quickly. Unable to help myself, I leaned up to kiss him on the cheek, lingering there for just a second before heading down the hall to my room and dialing her number as I went.

"Macy? Is that you?"

"It is. Hi, Mama," I said, sitting on my bed and crossing my legs.

"It's so good to hear your voice. How are you?"

"I'm good! I don't have long—Dillon gave me his cell phone to make this call, so we have to make sure that it's not too suspicious."

"Ah," she said. I could practically hear her mom curiosity speaking through that single syllable. "And how has Dillon been keeping?"

I chuckled at my mom's nosiness. "He's fine. He's working right now."

At that moment, Bucky nosed my door open and jumped onto my bed, settling his head onto my leg.

"Hang on, Dillon's dog just barged into my room and has now decided to fall asleep in my bed."

"Ah. So he's taking after his dad, then?"

"Mom!" I couldn't help laughing.

"Macy, you can't tell me that there's nothing going on between you and this man."

"That's for me to know."

"So when can I find out?"

"Ummm, I don't know. Somewhere between now and… never?"

"What about before the wedding? Will you at least promise me that?"

"Oh God. So immediately after I break off my last toxic engagement, you're already talking about the next wedding I start planning?"

"Just promise me that you won't elope without introducing me to the person first."

I sighed. "Fine, Mom. I promise that I'll introduce you to whoever I elope with before I elope with them."

"Thank you," she sighed.

"God, you're weird."

"You had to get it from somewhere."

"This is true."

We both laughed at that and relaxed into a second of silence together.

"I have to go, Mom. This call is getting a little long, and Dillon is probably starting to chew on the furniture."

"Wait, wait. Just promise me he's taking care of you."

My heart swelled at the sound of her question and the worry in her voice, and I knew the least I could do was allay her fears a little bit.

"He is, Mom. He's even cooking for me."

"He sounds like a catch, sweetie," she said, and I could hear the smirk in her voice.

"Alright, Mom. I love you," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Love you more," she said and hung up the phone. I walked out to the living room to return the phone to Dillon.

He looked up at me, the corners of his eyes creasing in a slight smile. "How is she?"

"She seems good. She didn't tell me a thing about herself, which is starting to get mighty familiar and annoying."

He snorted a little.

"Look, I know that I'm pretty closed off. It's just been my way for so many years that I don't think about it anymore." He huffed out a strong breath of frustration. "But for what it's worth, you make me want to… not be."

The words were stilted and awkward but said so genuinely that I felt them in my gut when he said them.

I don't know how long I stood there for, with us simply taking each other in, but when the other shoe didn't drop, I turned around and walked down the hallway.

"By the way," he asked as he turned back to his work, "who's eloping?"

I spun around to see the little grin quirking up on his face and barely escaped from the room without rushing back to kiss the smile off his face.