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Christ "Fine" He gestured back to his truck "Let’s go"

"Wait--What?" Her eyes got huge, and she scrambled back a few feet "You can’t arrestarrest worthy?" he asked

"No"

"Then you’re not getting arrested I’ you into town To your friends" And then he planned to call his friend Sheriff Sawyer Thompson to run her ID to see if she was a person of interest or reported as

She looked away "I don’t need a ride"

"You’re not sleeping out here tonight Get in the truck"

She threw her backpack into the truck bed with enough attitude to give hier seat and slammed the door

Matt drew a deep breath and walked around to the driver’s side He drove her attitude-ridden ass into toondering what it ith him and stubborn females this week

In the heavy silence of the truck cab, Riley’s sto her face firmly turned toward theBut by the ti of Lucky Harbor, her sto his way

"Where to?" he asked

"Here’s fine"

Here was the corner where the pier met the beach "Your friends live on the pier?" he asked dryly

"I’ll walk to their place" Her stohed and pulled into the pier parking lot

Riley iripped the back of her sweatshirt "Not so fast"

She stiffened "I’ that involveshard "I’ you off on the da you into the diner to feed you"

She stared at hiry And no," he said before she could speak again "I don’t expect a thank-you for that either"

Like a cornered, injured, starving animal, she didn’t so much as blink, and he felt the punch of her ht uppercut this

"I don’t have anyto need any"

This produced another long, unblinking stare

In the silence, his own belly gruo"

Her eyes swiveled to the diner on the pier’s corner "What kind of place is called Eat Me?" she asked, unwittingly ce

If she hadn’t known the name of the only diner in Lucky Harbor, she hadn’t co here any ed out on the mountain And he knehat that likely o Ho phenomenon that no one had yet come up with a solution for She was either a runaway, abandoned, or a juvenile delinquent dodging the authorities "The food’s good," he said "And I’irl seeh for a fancy place like that"

Eat Me was just about the furthest thing froave her a cursory once-over "You look fine"

"But--"

"Now, Riley"

She slaht to herself

Matt alht back to all the ti and kept his mouth shut He refused to turn into his father Not that there was anything wrong with his dad’s parenting skills, but it was unnerving to hear hiuy

As he opened the diner’s door for her, he said, "The waitress is a friend of ed her to a booth, not happy that under the harsh fluorescent lighting, he could see a fist-sized bruise on her jaw

Ae tray and clearly babying her wrapped wrist She earing a black sundress with her kick-ass boots, topped off by the ever-present pink Eat Me apron Just looking at her short-circuited his brain

She turned her head and ood But two minutes later, she came by their booth with two sodas, and Matt saze dropped to his ainst her door

Worked for hi but

Riley picked up the tension between them, Matt’s smile and Aht you said she was your girlfriend," she said to Matt "She doesn’t appear to like youlook

Matt didn’t bother to sigh "Thanks," he said to Riley "Thanks a lot"

The girl flashed her first real smile

Not Amy Her eyes narrowed in on Riley like a hawk "Hey, you’re the one atching h the bushes on the ood

Aer as still wearing the blue sweatshirt Her face was dirtier than it’d been the other day, and her eyes were bright with false bravado and pride Behind that lurked fear, plain and simple There was a bruise on her jaw, too Sout squeezed

"Aaze "Riley’s hungry, and I’"