Anyone But Rich (Anyone But..., #1)(59)

Rich had a way of making what I would’ve called dress clothes look casual. He wore the white button-down shirt, dark-blue pants, and dress shoes like it was the most natural thing in the world. I was wearing a simple summer dress that I’d snagged secondhand.

Even though he’d just been joking with me, I thought I saw something dark in his eyes as we walked through the outer edges of the fair.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Yeah. It’s fine.”

“Hey,” I said, taking his wrist and making him turn to face me. I lowered my voice, even though I probably didn’t need to with all the music and commotion of the crowds. “I don’t know if what happened last night was just par for the course to you, but it was a big deal to me. So you’d better spill those beans you’re holding, or I’m going to get offended really quickly.”

He chuckled. “Of course, even your threats are adorable. You know, most women would threaten that they were going to get pissed. Your threat is that you’re going to get offended?”

“Well, yes. I will if you keep things from me.”

He bent down and kissed me. It was between a peck and the kind of kiss you savor. It left me leaning up and forward as he pulled away, hungry for more but also knowing we were playing a dangerous game kissing like that out in the open. I put my finger to my lip and smiled. “That’s your strategy? Just kiss me to shut me up?”

“No. I kissed you because it’s hard not to. And apparently the whole town already knows about us, so there’s no point in being sneaky.”

“What? Did somebody say something to you?”

“Your dad, actually.”

“Wait, what? My dad?” I hadn’t expected that. Aside from the awkward conversation in my condo, my dad hadn’t shown much interest in what I’d been doing for years now. If I wasn’t needed for a public appearance before an election, I wasn’t on his radar. It could’ve come from my mom, but I doubted that too. She and I had never been close, even though we got along well enough on holidays. My parents honestly felt more like friends that I’d grown apart from than family. My mom had been mostly detached for as long as I could remember, and my dad had been using me to advance his career since I was born.

Rich shrugged. “He kind of went evil supervillain on my brothers and me. I’m fairly sure my parents put him up to it. Probably padded his pockets with cash. I wanted you to hear it from me, but I was hoping to wait until tonight to tell you. This all looked fun, and I wanted one more night with you before we had to have all this looming over both our heads.”

“Wait, all what? And what do you mean evil supervillain?”

Rich told me an abbreviated version of the conversation he’d had with my dad. A minute later, I was wondering if everything he told me would ever fully sink in.

“I wish I could say I didn’t believe you,” I said.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sure my parents offered him a ridiculous amount of money. Nothing is worth more than their reputation.”

I closed my eyes. I tried to imagine what my mom would say if she knew. The part that made me feel sick to my stomach was that she probably wouldn’t actually care.

Deep inside, something shifted, and I knew the strained, imperfect relationship I had with my parents was never going to be the same again.

“Why don’t we just enjoy the fair for now,” I said. “From the sounds of it, the best way to give my parents and yours the metaphorical middle finger would be to have fun together, right?”

“Yeah,” he said, “although I have to admit it has been a confusing road to this moment. But right now, I couldn’t care less about any of them. Your father is going to do what he can to sabotage our company. My parents will probably try something else if they think we’re not planning on stopping. But I don’t really care. They can only take things away from me. Stuff. Money. Nothing they do could take you away.”

“Well,” I said. “I hear hit men aren’t that expensive. Technically, if they were really determined—”

Rich let his smile spread in that slow way of his. Most things he did were slow, but not in a lazy, frustrating kind of way. He moved to a pace that was a step behind the normal, like he lived his life to a different, more mellow beat than the rest of us. With him, something as simple as reaching to scratch his forehead could be captivating. “My parents are crazy but not hit man crazy.”

“Silver linings,” I said. “But what about poison?”

“Hmm. It’s possible. I guess I’ll just have to stay at your side from now on. You’ll need to let me taste everything you eat, just to be sure.”

The tone in his voice brought me straight back to last night when he was playing doctor. My mind flashed with vivid images of his hands tight against my skin, of my body wrapped around him as I gasped into his bare shoulder. Or had I bit his shoulder? I honestly couldn’t even say for sure.

“That sounds totally reasonable,” I said. “We’d better go start enjoying ourselves. I know Iris and Miranda are here somewhere. If they spot us, I’m pretty sure they’ll do their best to put a stop to our fun.”

Rich took my hand and led me down the gently sloping main street toward the more congested area of the fair. People were dancing to live music, but more of them were sitting wherever they could fit, with paper containers full of greasy fried foods or desserts.