“It’s in the past now. But I wanted you to know, I’m not a cheater. I wasn’t with her when we hooked up in Atlanta.”
She smiles softly. “That’s good to know.”
“Tell me about your family,” I say, changing the subject, trying to sound cheery. “Now that you know everything about me. Fair is fair. Spill all the gory details.”
“Well I’m sorry to disappoint you but I’m very boring.”
I laugh loudly enough for it to echo through the small space. “After meeting you in the way that I did, I am one-hundred percent sure that is not true.”
“No, really,” she insists. “Youngest of four siblings. They’re all married with kids and all so disgustingly successful. Something that my mother manages to remind me of on a nearly weekly basis.”
I tighten my fingers around her waist. “You’re the anchor of television news and your family doesn’t think you’re successful?”
Sadie snorts. “I come from a family of doctors. Not just doctors. Of surgeons. My parents, though they loved us, definitely fostered sibling rivalry in a way to make us compete and be better. Going into journalism was…I don’t know, my way of rebelling.”
“But you like it?” I ask.
“Yeah, I really do. But even this job, which I thought would be a dream, isn’t what I thought it was going to be. WNSV is really good at investigative journalism, even for their anchors, which is rare. But the producers won’t give me a fucking story. Everything goes to Bill. So far I’m just a pretty face.” She frames her hands around her face and smiles up at me, batting her lashes.
“They offered you my interview.”
She downs the rest of her wine and rolls her eyes. “Only because you insisted. Alan was over the moon when I told him that I’d talked you into doing it with Jerry.”
I frown. “That makes me wish that I hadn’t agreed.”
“I just need one good story. Some kind of story that will make them sit up and pay attention and know that I’m more useful as a reporter than a face on a billboard, someone that just reads headlines. An exposé or something totally groundbreaking. Something big to make them take notice.” She shakes her head. “I just haven’t been in Nashville long enough to know whether there’s someone here worth taking down.”
“Jack Singleton.” The name is out of my mouth before I can stop it. Like a reflex. And I instantly regret it. Jack isn’t someone I should be sending people after. He’s too dangerous.
But of course, Sadie’s eyes light up with interest. “Who’s that?”
“No one. I was just joking. Don’t listen to me.”
“Come on. You can tell me.”
“Sadie.” I pull her away from me so that I can look her in the eyes. “Leave it alone. I never should have said his name in front of you. He’s a dangerous man with dangerous connections. We can find you someone else—something else—that will make your boss pay attention. Just not him.”
“We?”
I manage to smile. “I’ll help you find something. Those assholes don’t know what they’re missing, giving everything to Bill. I’ve watched the news, and you are far, far more watchable than that expensive haircut in a suit.”
“You’re just saying that because you want to get in my pants.”
“If you remember,” I say softly. “I already got in your panties tonight. I’m completely and wholly telling the truth.”
“Sure.”
“It’s true.” Slowly, I pull her in for a kiss, because I can’t resist her and I want more of her. She tastes sweet, like wine. “Promise me, Sadie. That you won’t look into him. That you’ll forget I even said his name.”
She smiles softly, but she looks genuine. “Okay.”
“Thank you.”
Leaning away from me, she grabs the small bag that she brought with her and looks through it for a moment before giving me a mischievous look. “You may not have come prepared,” she says, “but I did.”
“What do you mean?”
She holds up a small foil packet. “I wasn’t sure what would happen, and I didn’t want to stop before, but now, let’s do this properly.”
I’ve never cleaned up food so fast in my life, and she laughs. The sun is truly setting now, golden light catching in the glass in the pavilion and lighting her up. This is perfect, and when I pull her to me, there’s still desperate urgency, but we also want to take our time.
But the thought of her looking into Jack Singleton still shakes me to the core. I don’t like the thought of her in danger. I especially don’t like that I’m the one who put that little seed in her head. So if I hold her a little bit too tight, and kiss her a little bit too long, hopefully she won’t think too much of it.
Because I can’t imagine letting Sadie Crawford get hurt, and life has taught me that the harder you hold onto something, the faster it slips away.