Page 22 of Forever Dark
She held his gaze.
“And,” she added, “I want to do it here.”
His expression said he was considering it, though still not on her wavelength.
Selena opened her mouth to push the point again, but movement from the far side of the yard cut through the moment.One of the kids had broken from the pack and was running backward, laughing, water gun in hand.Another child chased him with a bucket, both of them too occupied with war to watch where they were going.
Connor saw it one second too late.
A wall of water hit him across the side and chest.
It slapped loud against his shirt and soaked him from shoulder to thigh.For a beat he simply stood there, dripping, face blank with disbelief.
The children froze.
Then one yelled, “Run!”
They scattered at once, shoes hammering over the grass, shrieking with laughter as they fled around the far side of the church.
Connor turned slowly to watch them go.
For a single dangerous moment, he looked genuinely furious.
Selena tried to hold it in.She really did.
The sight of him standing there in wet jeans and a clinging white shirt, hair dripping at the temple, expression hovering between outrage and humiliation, finished her.Laughter burst out of her before she could stop it.
Connor looked at her, his face red.
That only made it worse.
Selena bent forward, one hand braced on her knee, laughing hard enough she could barely breathe.“Oh my God.”
“It’s not funny.”
“It’s a little funny.”
“I just got ambushed by a couple of reprobates.”
“You used to be one of them, remember?”
“Yeah,”he said, wringing his sleeve.“I still am.Where is the sheriff when you need him?”
Another helpless laugh escaped her.Connor kept trying to look mad, but the edges were going.He glanced down at himself, water still dripping from his fingertips, then back toward the corner where the children had disappeared.
“You hate cops,” Selena said.
“Doesn’t mean they aren’t useful for locking up kids… I know those little monsters,” he muttered.“I’m pretty sure one of them is Webb Haskins’s boy.”
Selena wiped at her eyes.“You should’ve seen your face.”
“You’re enjoying this too much.”
“Maybe.”
A grin finally broke through his irritation, reluctant and crooked.“You’re lucky I love you.”
“You keep saying that like it’s bad news.”
