"I'm glad you're here." he said.
Funny, he didn't sound glad. And he didn't look glad either.
"Is something wrong?" I said.
He stood and brushed Chucky's crumbs off his jeans. "Nope."
I waited for him to elaborate. He didn't.
I glanced back toward the street. "Still up for a walk?" I looked around. "Or maybe you wanna do it another day?" I tried to sound like this was no big deal, even though the thought of trudging away alone was almost more than I could bear. "I mean, if this is a bad time for you—"
"It's not. Wanna come in?"
In spite of his words, the tension was radiating off him in waves. As for me, I'd been tense long before I'd even touched that doorbell. I looked down and spotted Chucky quivering with excitement. The way it looked, we all had some energy to work off.
"I'd like to come in," I said. "But do you care if we walk first?"
"Nope." Lawton held out his hand, palm up.
I looked down. My eyebrows furrowed.
Lawton broke the silence. "Leash?" His mouth tightened. "Unless you want to take him."
"Oh," I stammered. "Sorry." I placed the leash in his open palm. Our fingers touched. His hand was warm and solid, but oddly unresponsive.
It was a brisk fall day with leaves skittering around our feet. By unspoken agreement, we headed out on the usual route.
"So," he said, "you got your call last night, huh?"
"What call?"
"Never mind," he said. "Forget it."
"Oh," I said as realization dawned. "You mean that business call?"
"Yeah," he said in a cold, flat voice. "The business call."
I glanced at his profile. There it was again, that studiously neutral expression.
"You don't believe me?" I said.
"I never said that."
"But you're not saying you do, either."
He shrugged. "What do you want me to say?"
I wassonot in the mood for this. "I don't want you to say anything," I said. "Not if you're gonna be like that."
"Alright. If that's what you want." And then, true to his word, he didn't say a single word for the next two blocks.
I gave him a sideways glance. This wassonot how I imagined today going. Between the visit from that property manager and Lawton's odd demeanor, this whole day was feeling like a bad dream.
Maybe itwasa bad dream. If I was lucky, I was still in bed. Maybe I'd wake up to find money from the Parkers and Lawton back to his normal self.
Then again, Lawton was anything but normal no matter what kind of mood he was in. And it wasn't just his amazing body or movie-star face. It was that lethal dose of unbridled energy and raw power. It should've made me run. Not to him. From him.
Today, that energy felt nearly explosive, like too much heat was confined in too little space. I'd seen him fight. I'd slept with him, loved him, laughed with him, and yeah, more than once, cried over him.
