Golden Trail (The 'Burg #3)(37)

He felt his brows shoot up. “Come again?”

“I’m not taking his money.”

“Rocky –”

She shook her head. “No, no way.”

“Roc –”

She leaned in abruptly, her expression turning sharp. “Fuck that.”

He caught her hand and held it firm before shaking it. “Baby, are you insane?”

“No,” she snapped, tugging her hand in his but he held on tighter.

“Sweetcheeks, a guy like that does what he did to a woman like you, I’m not a member of the club but I’m pretty sure it’s a chick requirement to take him to the cleaners.”

“Layne –”

“You don’t do it, other chicks might vote to throw you out of the club.”

Her face cracked and she smiled, her dimple coming out and, seeing it, Layne wished he’d kept his mouth shut at the same time he felt like he’d scored a touchdown to win the game in the last seconds of the Super Bowl.

“Well, I wouldn’t want to get thrown out of the…” she lifted the only hand she had available to her and made air quotation marks, “chick club.”

“Atta girl,” he whispered as he smiled but her face got serious again and her hand dropped.

“I see what you’re saying, Layne but, seriously, you don’t know… it hasn’t been…” She looked over his shoulder then back at him. “I don’t want anything from him.”

He did not like what her words said, he did not like how they made him feel but he liked it even less that she had reason to same them.

He ignored this, decided on a different strategy and advised, “Rocky, you greased some palms to get moved up the waiting list for this place, you shouldn’t waste that investment.”

Her hand clenched his spasmodically and her eyes narrowed in confusion.

“I didn’t grease any palms to get moved up.”

He stared at her then told her, “Not sure that’s against the law, sweetcheeks, but even if it was, I wouldn’t turn you in.”

“I guess it isn’t but I still didn’t do it.”

“Roc, when I was lookin’ into this place, the waiting list was minimum seven months.”

She nodded. “It still is. I’ve been on it for nine.”

He let her hand go and stood, watching her head tilt back to look up at him as he went.

Then he asked, “What?”

She stood too, bringing her body close in front of his. “I’ve been on the waiting list for nine months.”

That meant she’d been intending to leave her husband for nine months.

“You knew he was f**king around on you?” Layne asked.

She shook her head.

“But you been plannin’ on leavin’ him for awhile.”

She nodded her head.

“Why?” he asked.

“Why?” she repeated.

“Yes. Why?”

“Layne, I’m not sure we should –”

“Why?”

“I really don’t want to talk about –”

“Why?”

“Layne!”

He leaned in to get his face close to hers. “Why?” he repeated.

“Why do you want to know?” she shot back, amused Rocky gone, annoyed Rocky in her place.

“Because I do,” he answered.

“Well it really isn’t any of your business.”

“Sorry, sweetcheeks, but we got a long road ahead of us. I’m not gonna stumble onto enough evidence to take Rutledge and whoever is pullin’ his strings down all bound up and wrapped in shiny paper sitting on my island when I walk downstairs to make coffee tomorrow. This means sharing time, sharing space and sharing our lives and it means doin’ it for awhile. While we do it, we actually have to live those lives and your life comes with me pretending to be your man while you’re divorcing another one. He made you a chump, don’t make me one even if what we got is sham.”

Her head jerked back and she took a step up the stairs.

Then she said softly, “I’m not making you a chump.”

“You don’t share, you are. I haven’t been in on your life for awhile, Roc, but you’ve lived in this ‘burg a long time and people know shit. Case in point, my guess would be half the town who are of drinking age know your car was in my drive all night and I can guarantee, due to Tripp thinkin’ you’re one step down from a rock star, that every single kid in your school knows there’s times when he can call you Rocky. But for the last year, I wasn’t a prime recipient for gossip about Raquel Astley so you’re gonna have to fill me in.”

He noticed she’d started to get pissed while he spoke and when he was done, she didn’t hesitate to explain why.

“You know what sucks?” she snapped.

“I know a lotta things that suck,” he returned.

“Well, what sucks the most right now for me is when you make sense. That sucks.”

He couldn’t stop himself, she was so f**king hilarious, he threw his head back and laughed.

What he did stop himself from doing was yanking her in his arms and laughing in her neck.

When he quit laughing, he focused on her to see she was still glaring.