Page 34 of Some Like It Hot
“Do you think he could be headed to Alicia’s place?”
His jaw tightened. “I don’t know. How dangerous is this guy?”
She shook her head, shrugged.
Riley blew out a breath, nodded. “Okay, then.”
There it was again, the whoosh of relief that he sat beside her in the truck. Sheesh. She’d spent years taking care of herself, and Riley showed up and suddenly she couldn’t function without him?
A smart woman would remember that Riley wasn’t exactly sticking around.
At best, he was another battlefield romance.Well done, Larke, well done.
Maybe that was the only way she could let a man in…when she was in over her head. Afraid.
She shook her head.
The movement made him glance at her. “What?”
“I was just…” She gave him a look. “I think we need to be real here. I like you, Riley, but you’re leaving as soon as this fire is out, and we both know it. And clearly I’m not the one-night stand girl I thought I could be, so…”
He frowned.
“I guess I should probably come clean. I’ve never…never been the girl who takes a guy home. I don’t know what I was thinking…”
He was shaking his head. “I told you—I don’t have to be the guy you thought you wanted. I—”
“Can be more. I know what you said, but…it won’t work.”
His mouth tightened. “It’s Freeman, isn’t it? His death wasn’t your fault, Larke.”
“It’s not Freeman. I hear you—and I could probably agree, but… I guess I just don’t—”
“Need another guy in your life who could get killed?”
“No. It’s not that… It’s me.” She glanced at him. “I’m broken too, and you know that.”
He gave her a small smile. “Maybe I like that about you.”
Aw shoot, those eyes. “You’re a problem, Riley McCord.”
He winked at her.
She turned off the highway onto the bumpy, narrow road that led to Alicia’s A-frame. Slowed almost to a stop as a branch hung low and scraped over the truck. A couple more branches were broken, evidence of a recent vehicle passing through. Maybe Darryl had made it back.
Or maybe he’d hijacked a car…
“The problem is, I don’t know how to put myself back together. I don’t even know what that looks like. And until I do, I don’t think I can figure out how to put you back together, either.”
He looked at her. “I don’twantto be put back together. I’m just…this way. There’s no fixing me.”
She went over a pothole and the car jerked. “Sorry.”
“Listen, Larke. My mom used to take me to church, back in the days when she was desperate to put a little self-control in me. I usually just got into trouble, but in between that time, some of it stuck. Like the story of David, the kid who God chose to be king. He wasn’t the best or the strongest. He stood up to a giant with nothing but his bare hands, a slingshot and a couple rocks. I think that’s me. A scrapper. I know I’m not a hero, but I can show up—with my bare hands, if that’s what it takes.”
“‘Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.’”
He looked at her. “What?”