Page 20 of Wild Devotion
My stomach turned. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”
“I wish I could. He’s been at it all night. Hell, he’s doing it right now.”
Shit, that was just what I needed. A supervisor with a crush on me and zero ability to read a room. He’d asked me out twice already in three weeks, and both times I’d shut him down. But Jeremy had the kind of ego that heard no and translated it to try harder.
“Maybe he’s looking at you.” At least, I could hope.
“Get real. He couldn’t handle me.” Larissa’s eyes widened suddenly. “Incoming.”
Of course he was. We’d basically summoned him by talking about him.
“What are we discussing over here?” Jeremy appeared between us, his arm finding its way across my shoulders like it belonged there.
“Zadie’s not feeling great,” Larissa volunteered. Because apparently, our friendship wasn’t strong enough for loyalty yet.
“Yeah? You need to sit down?” His hand squeezed my shoulder, and I had to stop myself from shrugging it off.
I still had to work with the guy, and burning bridges with a shift manager in my first month wasn’t part of my fresh-start plan. “I’m fine. Really.”
“You.” He pointed at Larissa. “Cover her tables. You.” He squeezed my shoulder again. “Come take a break.”
“Jeremy, I don’t need?—”
“Don’t be so stubborn.” He steered me toward the back room with the confidence of a man who thought he was charming.
The break room also served as the supply closet. Based on the questionable stains on the couch, it was a place where staff had done things I didn’t want to know about. But my legs were screaming and my stomach was doing backflips, and even a disgusting couch sounded better than another hour on my feet.
I sank into its lumpy depths and tried not to think about what I was sitting on.
Jeremy sat down beside me. Right beside me.
“So.” He stretched an arm along the back of the couch behind my head. “Heard I missed a hell of a party at Zane’s a few weeks back.”
“Did you?”
“Everyone’s been talking about it. I heard you were there…with a guy. It was his birthday or something?” He was fishing. And it was ridiculous. “Larissa mentioned you two looked cozy.”
Larissa was moving higher and higher up my shit list.
“We talked. That’s it.”
“Talked.” His eyebrow lifted. “That’s not what I heard.”
My jaw tightened. “Regardless of what you heard, why would it be any of your business, Jeremy?”
“Hey, relax.” He held up his hands in mock surrender. “It’s a small town. People talk. I’m just making conversation.”
Small town. People talk. I’d heard some version of that practically every day since I’d moved here. Copper Ridge was beautiful, quiet, and completely incapable of minding its own business.
“Well, there’s nothing to talk about. He’s Zane’s cousin. We hung out at a party. End of story.”
“Zane’s cousin.” He nodded and backed away a little, the family connection making him squirm. “The young one, right?”
The young one. The words hit a nerve I wished they hadn’t. Because yes, he was young. Too young, probably. Definitely too young for the things I’d been dreaming about.
“I guess…I don’t really know him that well.” The lie tasted bitter.
I knew the sound of his laugh. The feel of his mouth on mine. That he understood the weight of other people’s pity. And the way he’d looked at me like I was the most important person in the room.
