Bye, Mr. Ex! novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Photograph

I climbed off Jonas's lap and out of the truck before I could think about it.

The night air hit my hot face.

"Whitney," I said.

"Sadie."

She lowered the phone just enough to look at me over the top of it.

"I wasn't even going to follow you. Colby has a tracker on your car."

"He says it's for your safety."

"You drove to Spring Lake to take pictures of me."

"Of the captain. You're just in the frame."

The driver's door opened and Jonas got out, buttoning his collar with steady hands.

He did not look like a man who had just been caught.

He looked like an officer reading a roster.

"Ms. Ruddock," he said. "You're on a street with a curfew for loud noise. May I suggest you lower the phone."

"May I suggest you lower your standards, Captain?"

She smiled.

"My father will have these at six a.m. He'll be so interested in how an officer and his subordinate spend their evenings."

Porch lights were coming on down the block.

A man in boxers stood on his lawn with a garden hose he wasn't using.

"Send them," Jonas said.

Whitney's smile slipped a quarter inch.

"Sorry?"

"Send your father every frame," Jonas said. "I'll be at his door before he opens them."

For a second she looked at him.

Then she turned on her heel and walked to a white convertible parked under a streetlamp.

I heard her heels click all the way across the asphalt.

When she was gone, I leaned against the truck and shook.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I put you in a mess."

"You put me in nothing. I walked into it." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I'll be at the battalion commander's door at oh-six-thirty."

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