Page 44 of This is Why We Lied

Will didn’t answer, but he rolled off his socks. Then started to unbutton his pants.

“Whoa,” she said. “A little more slowly, please.”

Will made a show of pushing down his pants. Then he moved his hips as he unbuttoned his shirt. Sara gave out a whoop of encouragement. The water didn’t seem so chilly anymore. She adored his body. His muscles looked like they had been carved from a slab of marble. He had the sexiest legs that any man had a right to. Before she could really drink him in, Will did the same thing she had, walking straight into the water. Sara could tell by his clenched teeth that the temperature had surprised him. She would have to work to warm him up. She pulled him close, resting her hands on his strong shoulders.

He said, “Hey.”

“Hey.” Sara smoothed back his hair. “Have you ever been in a lake before?”

“Not by choice. Are you sure the water’s safe?”

“Copperheads are usually more active at dusk.” She could see his eyes widen in alarm. He’d grown up in Atlanta, where most of the snakes were under the capitol dome. “We’re probably too far north for cottonmouths.”

He glanced around nervously, as if he’d be able to see a cottonmouth before it was too late.

“I have a confession,” Sara said. “I told Mercy we lied to her.”

“I figured. Is she gonna be okay?”

“Probably.” Sara was still worried Mercy’s thumb would get infected, but there was nothing she could do about that. “Jon seems like a good kid. It’s hard being a teenager.”

“There’s something to be said for growing up in an orphanage.”

She pressed her finger to his lips, then tried to distract him. “Look up.”

Will looked up. Sara looked at Will. The muscles on his neck stood out. She saw his suprasternal notch. Which brought her back to dinner. Which unfortunately brought her back to Mercy.

She said, “Places like this, you scratch a little bit under the surface and all sorts of bad things come out.”

Will gave her a careful look.

“I know what you’re going to say: this is why we lied.”

Will raised an eyebrow, but he spared her the I-told-you-so.

“Hey,” she said, because they had spent enough of their night talking about the McAlpines. “I have another confession.”

He started smiling again. “What’s your confession?”

“I can’t get enough of you.” Sara licked her tongue into the notch on his neck, then kissed her way up. She let her teeth graze his skin. The water temperature became a non-issue. Will reached between her legs. The feel of his touch made her moan. She reached down to return the favor.

Then a blood-curdling scream echoed across the water.

“Will?” Sara clutched him by instinct. “What was that?”

He took her hand, scanning the area as they waded back to shore.

Neither of them spoke. Will passed Sara her dress. She turned it around, looking for the end. She was still hearing the scream echo in her head, trying to figure out where it had come from. Mercy seemed like the most likely source, but she hadn’t been the only person upset tonight.

Sara went through the others, starting with the caterers. “The fighting couple at dinner. The dentist was wasted. The IT guy was—”

“What about the single guy?” Will pulled on his pants. “The one who kept needling Mercy?”

“Chuck.” Sara had watched the creepy man staring at Mercy over dinner. He seemed to revel in her discomfort. “The lawyer was obnoxious. How did he get on the Wi-Fi?”

“His horse-obsessed wife annoyed everybody.” Will shoved his feet into his boots. “The lying app guys are up to something.”

Sara had told him about the weird Landry/Paul name change. “What about the Jackal?”