The Better Liar by Tanen Jones

Author:Tanen Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2020-01-13T16:00:00+00:00

34

Mary

Back in my rented coupe, I checked my reflection in the rearview mirror. My eyelids felt puffy and heavy, but I didn’t look any different. I studied my face for a moment, thinking about what Nancy would see in it, and then I got my lipstick out of my bag and applied it carefully. It was too dark a color for daytime, but that was all right. I’d look like I was trying to impress her.

La Cueva was a winding road that peaked right before the valley drop-off into the foot of the mountains. The government had marked a portion of the land just off the road as a picnic site. I pulled into the bare-dirt lot and got out. It was a clear, sunny day, and I could see for miles, until the roofs blurred together into the purple band of the horizon. In the other direction, the mountaintops were still white here and there with snow, although it was nearly gone, drained into the arroyos below.

I leaned against my car for almost ten minutes, sunning myself like a lizard. It was bad for my skin, but I didn’t care. After the close, dark interior of the house on Riviera, I felt like I needed to be covered in sunlight.

The cop car pulled up beside me, crunching pebbles under its tires. A Crown Victoria. I hadn’t seen one of those in years. All the cop cars in Vegas were SUVs or those ugly, round-nosed Camaros. I half expected Nancy to get out looking like Officer Krupke, but her uniform was modern and close-cut, black trousers and black collared shirt with a patch on the sleeve. She looked slim-hipped and serious in it, like those old photographs of young men in khaki. I saw her throat move as she swallowed, and suddenly I couldn’t tell if I was pretending to want her or not.

“Nancy,” I said. In two steps she had crossed the distance between our cars and pushed me up against the coupe, her hands tipping my head back, lips on my neck. I let out an inadvertent breath as she kissed me and slid her hands down my body, pulling my hips toward hers. “Is this okay?” she mumbled, not looking at me.

“Yes—yes,” I breathed, flattered by her impatience.

“We should get in the car,” she said, glancing at the road. I nodded.

The back of the Victoria was easy-scrub leather, scalding after half a day’s trapped sunlight, and I instantly broke into a sweat despite the air-conditioning as Nancy pushed me inside. “You canceled your flight,” she said, biting me on the shoulder hard enough to hurt.

I added a little extra to my gasp, and fumbled for the buttons of her uniform. “Please, Nancy,” I said, and then she was crushing me onto the seat, mouth hot against mine.

“You missed me,” she said, pulling my shirt off.

“Uh-huh.” I glanced up at her. She was wearing a sports bra under her uniform shirt, and I pushed my hands underneath it, groping, until she yanked it over her head.

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