I wouldn’t let her, though. I cupped her cheek with my palm. “I’ll just say this…not a chance in hell.”
She laughed, but I didn’t do as much as crack a smile.
“I’m not joking.”
“Okay,” she murmured. “I didn’t mean to make you mad.”
“I have a proposition for you.”
“Okay,” she repeated.
“Let’s go into town now, pick up some groceries, and come back here.”
“I’m
with you so far.”
“Tomorrow we’ll visit the cemetery.”
“What about Adler?”
I hadn’t quite figured that out yet, but a plan was beginning to formulate.
13
Mila
I shook my hands in an attempt to get them to stop trembling. Why was I so nervous? It was like I was a child about to get in trouble for skipping out of school and I knew that, at any moment, my mother was going to catch me. It was ridiculous. There was no way Adler could get to Bluebell Creek in the time it had taken us to go to the grocery store. Besides, I’d told him not to come, and I’d also told him to leave. Why should I feel guilty over not arranging for a place for us to meet?
Sitting in the coffee shop next door to the market, I waited for Decker, who said he wanted to make a couple of phone calls before we returned to the cabin.
I was flooded with relief when I saw him walk in. The feeling quickly went away when I saw the look on his face.
“Is everything okay?” I asked when he sat across from me in the booth.
“Everything is fine.” He looked over his shoulder and motioned to the waitress.
“You must not play very much poker.”
His eyes met mine.
“You have a terrible poker face, Decker.”
“Problems at the ranch. Nothing that concerns you,” he said, but before he spoke, he looked away from me.
“What can I get you, darlin’?” asked the waitress, looking straight at Decker.
“Did you order anything?” he asked me.
“Not yet.” I didn’t bother telling him that until he walked in, the waitress hadn’t acknowledged my presence. I couldn’t really blame the woman; Decker was one of the hottest men I’d ever seen too, even if I was pissed at him at the moment for just dismissing me.
“I was thinking a piece of pie. Does that sound good?” he asked.
“We’ve got blueberry, apple, and there may be one slice of strawberry left. I’ll have to check.”
Decker looked up at the waitress until she finally got a clue that was what he wanted her to do.
“Any of those sound good?”