Dangerous Lies: Sawyer and Amethyst (An Emerald Falls Romance, Book Two)

by Christine Kersey

  He smiled, like he knew what she was doing. “The lasagna.”

  “Oh, a tomato man.”

  He laughed. “Is that what you call it?”

  “There’s so much tomato sauce and tomato pieces in lasagna, you must love tomatoes.”

  Justin sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Am I that easy to read?”

  Amethyst smiled. She liked the idea of being able to read him. Too many of the men in her past had tried to hide things from her, which had always killed any affection she’d developed for them. “That’s not a bad thing,” she said in reply.

  He leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table. “Oh, yeah? Why’s that?”

  Not ready to get into the poor choices in men that she’d made in the past, she just smiled. Then their server appeared next to their table and took their order, ending that line of discussion.

  She just hoped Justin wouldn’t disappoint her like so many others had.

  Chapter 10

  Sawyer handed their menus to their server, and after she walked away, he turned his attention back to Amethyst.

  “Your name,” he said. “It’s unusual. Why did your parents name you that?”

  Smiling wistfully, she said, “Purple was my mom’s favorite color and she loved amethyst stones.”

  Sawyer didn’t miss the fact that she’d used the past tense in reference to her mother. He didn’t want to bring up anything hurtful, but he wanted to know more about the intriguing woman sitting across from him. “Did your mother…pass away?”

  Amethyst nodded. “Two years ago. From cancer.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She still missed her fiercely, but the pain had lessened. “Thank you.”

  Justin smiled. “By the way, I think your name fits you perfectly.”

  She smiled at his words. “I think so too.”

  “Especially with what you do for a living.” He chuckled. “Maybe I should call you Turquoise.”

  “Hmm. It doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.”

  Shaking his head, he said, “No. I like Amethyst best.” He paused a beat. “Is amethyst your favorite stone?”

  She thought about it for a minute. “I do love amethysts, no question. But I think my favorite gem is the emerald.”

  “Ah. Because it matches your eyes.”

  She hadn’t thought about that before, but she realized it was true. “Yes, I suppose that is why.” “What about you? Why did your parents name you Justin?”

  Sawyer’s face reddened. He hated lying to her, but he couldn’t risk the truth. “Uh, just a name they picked out of a book, I guess.” Which was true, but for his real name. Justin was the name of a friend he had in high school. “Nothing as cool as the way your name came about.”

  She smiled. “We can’t all have interesting name stories.”

  “No.”

  A few moments later their server set their food in front of them.

  “This smells delicious,” Amethyst said before taking a bite. “Yep. It is.”

  Glad she liked the food at this restaurant—a place he’d chosen at random—Sawyer began eating his lasagna.

  “I’m glad you asked me out,” she said after a while.

  “Oh yeah? Why’s that?”

  Amethyst wasn’t one to shy away from her feelings, but as she was about to speak, she realized she wasn’t ready to be quite so bold. “Because I find you interesting.” And extremely attractive. She pointed her eyes toward her plate, fork in hand, as she waited to hear his reply.

  “Is that so?”

  Her lips turned up in a smile as she met his gaze. “Yes.”

  “That’s quite a coincidence.”

  Tilting her head in question, she rested her wrist on the table. “Coincidence?”

  A smile curved his mouth. “Yes. Because I find you very interesting.”

  Flattered, Amethyst’s smile grew. “What’s so interesting about a small-town girl who works from home?”

  “You’d be surprised.”

  Sawyer had met plenty of women in Los Angeles—a big city if there ever was one—and none of them had intrigued him the way Amethyst did. He wasn’t sure what it was, but the more time he spent with her, the more attracted to her he became.

  “Huh,” she said before compressing her lips in a smile of disbelief. “If you say so.”

  “Oh, I do.” He liked this little flirtation they had going on, and he hoped it would lead to more.

  But more what? More questions about who he really was? Where he was from? What he was really doing in Emerald Falls?

  Forcing down all the doubts that pounded into his head, he focused on Amethyst and her emerald-green eyes.

  “Justin,” she said. “I want to hear more about you.”

  He needed to turn the conversation back in her direction. That was his best play.

  “Believe me,” he said with a forced chuckle. “I’m not that interesting.”

  “Oh, I doubt that’s true.” She rested her chin on her closed fist and set her elbow on the table. “Tell me about your family. Do you have any brothers or sisters?” She sat up straight as she waited for him to answer.

  What would it hurt to tell her the truth about that? The fewer lies he told, the easier it would be to keep track of what he’d said.

  “I have a younger brother.”

  “So it’s just the two of you?”

  He nodded. “Yes. What about you?”

  She smiled. “I have a younger brother too. He recently graduated with a degree in software engineering.”

  The pride she felt in her brother was obvious, and it made him like her all the more. “That’s great.”

  “He was always the smart one in the family.”

  “Are you saying you’re not? Because from where I sit, you seem quite intelligent.”

  A sense of satisfaction swept over Amethyst at his statement. If he was trying to win points, he was doing a great job.

  “That’s nice of you to say,” she said, “but he’s really smart. Like, genius-level smart.”

  “I prefer a more well-rounded individual.” His gaze met hers straight-on. “Like you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean? Well-rounded?”

  “I just mean, book smart is great and everything, but I like a person I can connect with on multiple levels.”

  Her lips compressed into a wry smile. “Are you saying we…” She swung her finger back and forth between them. “…are connecting? On multiple levels?”

  “I’d like to think so.”

  So would she. “Hmm.” She smiled as she turned her attention back to her meal.

  “Do you disagree?” Justin asked.

  Amethyst didn’t want to make it too easy for him. “I haven’t decided yet.”

  “All right. That’s fair.”

  “You’d better eat your lasagna, Justin, before it gets cold.”

  Every time she called him by his alias, reminding him of the lies he’d told her, guilt washed over him in great waves of bitterness. Yet he couldn’t risk telling her the truth. Not when he didn’t know her very well.

  “I’d better get busy then,” he said. “Besides, we don’t want to miss the beginning of our movie.”

  Chapter 11

  “That was a fun movie,” Amethyst said as they walked out of the theater. And going with him made it so much better.

  “So you really do like action flicks?”

  She laughed. “I told you I did. Didn’t you believe me?”

  “I admit I wasn’t completely sure. But I believe you now.”

  She became mock-serious. “I wouldn’t lie about something like that.”

  “That’s good. Because I wouldn’t want to take you to a movie that you hated.”

  She laughed. “Oh, I’d let you know if I hated it, and I’d probably walk out if it was that awful.”

  Sawyer was a little surprised at her statement. Would she really walk out of a movie she hated? Because if she was willing to do
that, there was a better than average chance that she would be willing to cut him out of her life if she found out the truth—that he was in hiding from dangerous criminals.

  All the more reason to keep that information to himself.

  Feeling like a terrible person for perpetuating the myth that he was just a normal, average guy, Sawyer became even more determined to fix his Tyler problem.

  Amethyst noticed that Justin had become rather quiet. Curious what was on his mind, she didn’t know him nearly well enough to ask. So instead, as they drove back to their neighborhood, she said, “Do you want to come over for dessert?”

  He chuckled. “More coffee cake?”

  “Actually, I made some chocolate mint brownies.”

  “Then, yeah. I’d love to come over.”

  “I guess what they say is right.”

  “What’s that?”

  She grinned. “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

  He glanced at her before focusing back on the road. “Are you saying you’re after my heart?”

  “No,” she quickly said. Then she felt bad for saying it so fast. “It’s just a saying.”

  He laughed. “I know. I’m just kidding.”

  But deep inside she was becoming more and more attracted to her next-door neighbor.

  When they reached her house he parked in his driveway, then walked her to her front door. She unlocked it and let them in, then invited him into her kitchen.

  He glanced around. “I really like your house. It’s so…I don’t know. Welcoming and cozy.”

  Flattered that he felt that way in her home, Amethyst smiled as she took two plates out of her cupboard. “Thanks.”

  Sawyer held back a frown.

  Especially compared to what passed as his home just then. He would rather spend time at Amethyst’s any day of the week—as long as she was home too.

  His thoughts paused for a moment as a realization hit him.

  It was Amethyst’s presence that made her house feel like a home.

  Using a spatula, Amethyst scooped brownies onto two plates, then set them on the small table tucked into the corner of the room.

  “Would you like something to drink with those?” she asked. “Milk, maybe?”

  He smiled. “As long as you don’t mind me dunking my brownie in the milk.”

  She laughed. “Of course not. I do the same thing.” She poured two glasses of milk and set them on the table, then slid into the seat across from him. She watched Justin fork off a bite of brownie, dip it in his glass of milk, then place it in his mouth.

  “Aren’t you going to have some?” he asked after he’d swallowed his bite.

  Holding back a laugh, she said, “I wanted to see if you were actually going to dunk your brownie.”

  “Why? So you could do it without feeling self-conscious?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact.” Then she dunked her brownie in her milk before eating a bite. “Mmm.”

  “What is it you enjoy about cooking?” he asked after they’d eaten most of their brownies.

  “I guess I just like to make things with my hands.”

  “Which goes perfectly with your job.”

  She smiled. “Yes.”

  “I, for one, am glad you love to bake.”

  She laughed. “You’re just saying that because you’ve gotten to eat several of my dishes.”

  One of his eyebrows rose. “Are you saying that’s a bad thing?”

  “Only if you don’t like my cooking.”

  “Oh, I definitely like your cooking.”

  Amethyst enjoyed their playful banter—more than she had with any other man in quite a while. “That’s good. But what about you? Do you know how to cook?”

  Sawyer pictured his kitchen in LA and forced away a frown. It wasn’t super fancy, but it had everything he needed for cooking. “Yes, I know how.” He didn’t want to elaborate, and he didn’t want to be put into a position where he felt the need to offer to cook for Amethyst. Using a kitchen filled with someone else’s cooking implements just didn’t feel right, not when he had his own place.

  “Do you enjoy cooking?” she asked.

  “Not particularly.” A lie. “I prefer to grab something while I’m out. Keeps life simple.”

  “That makes sense. Especially with all the traveling you do for your job.”

  “Right.” Another lie.

  They finished their brownies and Sawyer tried to focus on how much he liked Amethyst rather than how much he was deceiving her. He couldn’t keep it up. He needed to leave. He stood abruptly. “Thank you for dessert, Amethyst, but I’d better get going.”

  “Oh. Okay.” She stood as well. “Thank you for taking me to dinner and to the movie. I had a lot of fun.”

  Suddenly he wanted nothing more than to kiss her, but he held back. It wasn’t right to drag her into his life. Not right now. “I had fun too.”

  Hoping he would suggest a second date, Amethyst didn’t say anything for a moment, but when it seemed obvious that he wasn’t going to, she smiled to hide her disappointment. “Do you want to take some brownies home with you?”

  “Uh, yeah. Sure.”

  Turning her back on him, she placed several brownies on a plate, then carefully wrapped it before facing him. “Here you go.” She held out the plate.

  He smiled. “I think you’re one of the best neighbors I’ve had.”

  “Why? Because I keep feeding you?” She’d meant it as a joke, but it had come out sounding slightly annoyed, so she quickly added, “Which I don’t mind.”

  He laughed. “That’s one reason.”

  Tilting her head, she asked, “And the other?”

  He smiled a slow smile. Was he going to kiss her? She would really like it if he kissed her.

  “The other,” he began, “is because you’re so easy on the eyes.” His voice had softened at that, and Amethyst became more certain he would kiss her.

  “You’re not too hard on the eyes yourself.” She surprised herself by saying that out loud. It was true though, so why not admit it?

  He laughed quietly. “Is that so?”

  “Yes.” He stood less than a foot away, and when the scent of his cologne drifted toward her, Amethyst found herself nearly swaying toward him, but she kept herself under control, not ready to make the first move.

  “I guess that’s something else we have in common,” Sawyer said, then immediately scolded himself. What was he doing? He needed to leave. Now.

  But he didn’t want to leave. He wanted to draw Amethyst into his arms and kiss her until she melted against him. But he’d already put her into danger by taking her out. Why complicate things further by kissing her?

  Reluctantly, he took a step back. “I’d really better get going. I, uh, I need to do some work.”

  “Okay.”

  “Thank you for spending the evening with me.” He held up the plate. “And for the brownies.”

  She smiled, but it seemed forced. “Anytime.”

  Rather than waiting for her to walk him to the door, he turned and walked there on his own, although he could hear her footsteps approaching behind him. When he reached the door, he opened it and took a step onto the porch. The sun had set a while before and the only light came from the street lamps that stood every fifty feet. Sawyer paused and turned to face Amethyst. “Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  He knew it was a bad idea, but he couldn’t help himself. He wanted—no, needed—to see her again.

  She smiled, and when she did, her face lit up in a way that made Sawyer glad he’d said it.

  “Okay. Good night.”

  He nodded. “Good night.”

  Then he began the short walk to his house, on the alert for anyone who could be lurking outside, waiting for him.

  Chapter 12

  With the phone pressed against his ear, Sawyer felt like he was finally doing something, anything, to get out of his untenable situation.

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Pa
ul asked on the other end.

  The moment Sawyer had come home from Amethyst’s house, he’d called his friend to run his idea past him.

  “I can’t live my life like this,” he said. “Constantly on the look-out for Tyler and his goons, always fearful that someone will see me. And come on, Paul, do you really want me to live in this house indefinitely?”

  “I don’t care about that, dude. Really. I hardly ever go up there.” He laughed. “It’s kind of nice knowing it’s being taken care of, to tell you the truth.”

  As much as Sawyer appreciated all Paul was doing for him, he couldn’t rely on him forever. “Still, I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna talk to the FBI or the DEA or someone and see what they can do to help me.”

  A loud sigh came across the line. “Look, I’ll support whatever you decide to do, but, man…” Silence for a brief moment. “I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes right now.”

  Sawyer barked a laugh. “Thanks.”

  “I’m not trying to be a jerk.”

  “I know. And I don’t blame you. I don’t want to be in my shoes right now. But I am. And I’ve got to deal with it.”

  “Yeah. Well, let me know if there’s anything…scratch that. It’s probably better if I’m not involved.”

  “Agreed.” Sawyer paused. “Tyler hasn’t talked to you again, has he?”

  “No. If he does, I’ll tell you.”

  “Okay.”

  “Take care, bro.”

  “You too.”

  Sawyer disconnected the call and tossed the phone onto the couch cushion beside him, then leaned back and closed his eyes. First thing Monday he would call the DEA.

  Amethyst picked up a book to read, but found her thoughts going to Justin, so she set the book aside and called Chloe instead.

  “How was the date?” Chloe asked.

  Amethyst told her all about it.

  “So no kiss, huh?”

  Shaking her head, Amethyst said, “Nope.”