Page 25 of The Taste of Deceit

“That’s such an old man answer.”

“I’m thirty, not eighty.”

“Same thing.”

He laughs quietly and shakes his head.

For a few minutes we sit in comfortable silence. The night is cool, and somewhere in the distance I hear a horse move around in one of the pastures. Randy flicks ash into the dirt.

“Got a girlfriend?” I ask.

He glances over at me.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugs again. “Never found the right woman, I guess.”

I make a face.

“That’s depressing.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be.”

“It was.”

He laughs.

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“You got some little high school boyfriend?”

I snort.

“No.”

“No?”

I shake my head.

“I don’t date high school boys.”

His eyebrows lift.

“Oh?”

“Nope. I’m waiting until college.”

He looks amused.

“That’s a strategy?”

“Absolutely.”

I cross my arms.