Free THE BIG MOVE (Miami Hearts Book 2) by Lexie Ray Page B

our date. Come on. Finish up your lunch so we can go. No eating in the car, I imagine.”
                  “I was always okay with it,” he said, taking a glum chomp out of his hot dog. “She wasn’t.”
                  I gulped. I didn’t want to end this. There were probably too many reasons why I didn’t want to, but the foremost in my mind was the idea that I would lose out on money that would go toward Antonio’s ransom. But more and more of me actually wanted to make Xander happy. It felt stupid to admit it, but there it was. I wanted to make this virtual stranger happy almost as much as I wanted to make money off of him.
                  “What’s the first rule of our date today?” I asked, standing up abruptly.
                  “To have fun.” He said it so sadly it was almost pathetic, and I took instant pity on him.
                  “Would you have fun breaking all the old rules, the ones from your past?” I asked. “You can take your hot dog to go. In the convertible. With the top down.”
                  It only took Xander a half second to grasp what I was saying, and the corners of his mouth quirked upward instantly. He was so handsome when he smiled, but he was equally as good looking when he was scowling. How did that work?
                  “I think that would be fun,” he said. “I have lots of old rules I’d like to break.”
                  “Then get us another hot dog to share,” I said, polishing off mine. “Let’s go.”
                  Driving that car around the city was sheer joy. I took every long way I knew, did pointless spins around the block, slowed down at yellow lights just to extend my drive time.
                  “I would be perfectly happy being your driver, you know,” I shouted over the whoosh of the wind — and around the bite of hot dog he’d just fed me. “Are you hiring?”
                  “Believe me,” he laughed, dabbing at my cheek with a napkin, “I am nowhere near important enough to employ a chauffeur.”
                  “What is it that you do?” I asked, pulling into the parking lot for yet another park. This was a place Antonio and I had discovered together, and I hadn’t visited it in so long. I remembered the day we’d had here, splurging on ice cream cones and, for the first time, feeling at home together in Miami. This was a special place for me, and if I was in charge of orchestrating a fun day for someone, this was as good a place as any.
                  I glanced over at Xander, wondering if he’d answered me and I hadn’t heard it, lost in memories of Antonio still at my side. Instead, Xander was pensive, brooding, silent in the seat beside me.
                  “Did you hear me?” I asked playfully, trying to boot him from memories that were probably painful for him, too. “You know what I do for a living. I’m asking you what you do.”
                  “Better if I didn’t say,” he said, not looking at me. “Better for both of us if you don’t know.”
                  The day was warm, but I shuddered as if a chilly breeze had invaded the convertible.
                  “Is it something dangerous?” I asked softly, pulling into a parking spot. Just whom had I taken up with? Parker’s radar hadn’t binged at seeing Xander in the club, and she was generally an excellent judge of character. I’d felt just fine with Xander up until now. Had I overlooked something about him that should’ve clued me in to this?
                  “It can be,” he said lightly. “But don’t you worry about it. It has nothing to do with you, or us, or this.”
                  I had to puzzle over this. Us? This? What could he be talking about? My immediate thoughts turned to Honduras. Anytime anyone was hiding