Page 91 of What Started In Deception

She rolled her eyes. “Right.” She wiggled her leg that Everly was still holding on to. “Ev, can you say hi to my friend, Ty?”

Everly shook her head. “No.”

Ty shrugged again. “I guess not on everyone.”

Lydia laughed. “Ev, Ty likes music just like you. He likes to have dance parties.”

Everly peeked up at him.

Ty winked at her.

She buried her face again.

Ty chuckled. “She’ll warm up eventually.”

“It doesn’t usually take her long to come out of her shell.”

Ty shrugged. “When she’s ready, we’ll say hi. Zoey was a shy kid, too. She used to hate it when my parents would force her to interact.”

Definitely extra adorable. She held his gaze. “Thanks for understanding.”

He shrugged again. “Of course.”

She adjusted Maverick in her arms. “I didn’t hear you leave this morning.”

He nodded. “You were out cold.”

“I guess yesterday tired me out.” She snagged her lip with her teeth again, desperately wanting to know how things were going now that the investigation had officially started. “You and Will worked out?”

He nodded. “You just missed him. He left about five minutes ago.”

“Things went well?”

“Yeah, it was good.”

“Yeah?”

He nodded again. “We talked about his bench press technique and cheeseburgers.”

“Oh,” she said as she frowned, still holding his gaze, waiting for him to tell her the rest. Because surely there was more if he’d considered his conversation with Will to be ‘good.’

He sighed. “You can’t look at me like that, Lyd.”

She frowned again. “How am I looking at you?”

“Like you want me to say something. Like you have expectations for how this is supposed to go. You need to relax and let me do my thing.”

She felt her spine snap straight. “That’s a big ask.”

He nodded. “I imagine it is, but I need you to do it anyway.” He stroked his fingers down her arm. “Enjoy your summer with your family. Have fun with me. I promise I’ll let you know if there’s anything worth knowing. But this.” He gestured between the two of them and their current conversation. “This is going to drive us both crazy.”

She looked down at the floor. “I’ve done something like this exactly zero times.”

He sighed again. “I know, and I’m sorry.”

She shrugged.

“Hey,” he said gently as he lifted her chin until she looked at him. “Trust me to take care of what I need to take care of while we enjoy our time here.”