Page 64 of The Player Next Door

“Since right now. Because I’m your boyfriend.”

Clare stared him down and then sighed in defeat. “I feel like you’re all ganging up on me,” she whined.

“Because we are, babe,” Annie replied.

“Oh no, please don’t make this a thing.”

“Too late, it’s already a thing,” Toni said cheerfully. “Babe.”

Clare laid her head down on the wooden table with a theatrical groan. Logan scratched his fingers through her hair sympathetically, a smile permanently etched on his face.

They were halfway through the table’s plate of nachos when the discussion turned to Clare’s work. “Any news on the story launch, babe?” Toni asked around a mouthful of chips.

Clare rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “We’re still working on things, trying to get it all in order before the big battle royale.”

“And how’s what’s-his-face, your creepy boss?” Annie asked.

“Craig isn’t creepy,” Clare bristled.

“I don’t know, I would be wary of a guy like that,” Devi said carefully. “Cults of personality are usually a bad sign.”

“It’s not a cult of personality, he’s just very engaging,” Clare said. “Everyone wants to work on our team.”

Annie made a face. “I just think he crosses a line sometimes. What about the time he wanted you to, what was it, go whitewater rafting?”

“It was just kayaking down Minnehaha Creek, don’t exaggerate.”

“Okay, but like, he had some dumb theory about it, like you couldn’t assign the right point value to rowing unless you’d physically done it. And then you went and did it, and you hated it.”

“It wasn’t about if I’d like it or not, it was about experience,” Clare said stiffly. “And he was right. It helped to have a feel for how hard it was.”

Devi intervened. “I don’t really think it was necessary,” she said. “It felt—well, you shouldn’t have to do stuff like that outside of work, just to be able to assign a point value to something. You’ve never killed a dragonspawn either, but you can write that just fine.”

“But I did need to take that archery lesson,” Clare argued. “He was right about that.”

Logan watched the conversation closely, noting the tension in Clare’s shoulders. It felt out of proportion for the conversation, which itself felt far too tense considering the easy, joking atmosphere of just a few minutes ago.

“A lesson that you paid for,” Annie pushed. “I just—back me up here, guys, Craig can be . . . too involved. He keeps telling you to do shit that has nothing to do with your job, or only vaguely related to it, and then you have to pay for it, or deal with the anxiety about kayaking because, don’t lie, you were terrified of that, and—”

“Whatever, it’s my job and my life, okay?”

Annie clicked her tongue and let it slide, and after another beat of awkward silence, Devi took charge and asked Toni about the new place she was boarding her horses. The conversation moved on, but the lingering tightness in Clare’s posture didn’t.

It was still there when they walked to Logan’s car after dinner. The rest of the night had recovered easily enough, but he was too attuned to her now to ignore the way her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes when Devi shared a story involving undergrad library workers, a frat party, and a TikTok stunt gone wrong.

“Everything okay?” he asked, pressing the ignition button. “That conversation about your boss got kinda . . . tense.”

If possible, her shoulders climbed higher around her ears. “It’s nothing. Craig’s—I mean, yeah, he’s probably too involved, but he means well, you know? Plus, I owe him. I didn’t have the right resumé for that job, but he hired me anyway.”

“What do you mean, not the right resumé?”

“Just something he let slip after I was hired. I wasn’t supposed to know, but he saved me from being tossed aside before interviews even started. He said he could see the potential in my writing sample and wanted to give me a chance.”

“And now he makes you do a lot of extra stuff?”

“Not extra,” she said vehemently. “Just stuff that would make me a better writer.”

Logan decided it wasn’t worth pushing. He was no stranger to doing weird things to impress a boss, after all. He decided to drop it, but reached over and took her hand for a gentle squeeze before he pulled out of the parking lot.