Ryan Hunter

the nice guy, she probably just said that because she knew my dad. Everyone knew Jim Hunter, the vet in this town. No one believed that his son could be any less honorable than him. Lucky me.
    In a conceding gesture, I lifted my hands and told her, “I promise to bring Liza back in one piece…and happy.”
    “I’ll take your word for that, young Hunter.” She pointed a manicured nail in my face. “And she’d better be back in her room before one o’clock.”
    “Absolutely.” What a cool mom. She reminded me a lot of my own, and I could totally picture getting acquainted with her as the mother of my girlfriend. There was just one more thing. “Would you mind if we didn’t tell Liza that you found me in here?” Reading her diary …
    “You still want to kidnap her?”
    “M-hm.” I nodded and grinned. “It would make the night a little more adventurous for her. And help her forget.”
    Liza’s mom heaved a deep sigh. “All right. I won’t tell if you don’t tell.” It was adorable how much flak she was taking just to see her daughter smile again. She walked to the door, but before leaving, she cast me a glance back over her shoulder. “It’s because of a boy, right? I guess it’s about Tony?”
    Pressing my lips together, I gave a helpless shrug.
    “I see. You’re a good friend.” She smiled then closed the door silently behind her.
    I exhaled a deep, relieved breath and dragged my hands down my face. Shit. That was a close call. I had already seen myself being dragged out the front door by my shirt collar.
    Giving up the hope of getting a chance to read more of Liza’s diary, I sat back on her bed and waited the remaining minutes until she came back from her shower, working on my poker face. Unfortunately, I seemed to overdo it.
    Her first expression when she saw me still sitting on her bed was one of total mistrust. “You look too innocent. What have you done?” she growled.
    “Nothing. I was sitting here since you left and bored the hell out of me,” I lied, taking in the low neckline of her purple T-shirt. It stretched nicely over her boobs and flat stomach, ending half an inch above her dark blue jeans. Holy shit, she looked delicious.
    “Why don’t I believe that?”
    Giving an innocent shrug, I rose from the bed and nodded at the open window. “Shall we?”
    “I guess I don’t have a choice, do I?”
    “Nope.” I took her hand and pulled her out of the room over the sill. Holding both her wrists in a tight grip, I lowered her as much as I could without falling headfirst off the roof. There was no chance to put her down on the ground, so when her feet dangled about three feet above the ground, I said, “I’m going to let go now. It’s not a far fall.”
    With her eyes on my face, she nodded, not all too happy about my plan.
    “On three,” I told her. “One, two, three—” I loosened my grip until she slipped away and landed nicely in her garden, bending her knees and touching the ground for balance. When she straightened and looked all right, I swung on a branch on the tree and made my way down there.
    We ducked out of her garden and walked to my car. I wondered if Mrs. Matthews was spying through the window, and it was then that I remembered what Liza had told her dear diary about me. So I didn’t only smell good, I smelled amazing . And my smile turned her gaga. I looked down at her with a jumpy feeling in my chest. All this information made her startlingly vulnerable to me.
    Out on the pavement, Liza sneaked a suspicious side-glance at me. It prompted me to test the theory, so I smirked a little with just one corner of my mouth tilting up and angled my head a little. As if in response, Liza narrowed her eyes at me briefly, but an instant later, her cheeks took on a rosy color, and her lips curved up. She looked away.
    Damn, I’d found her trigger. And it was as simple as a smile. If I’d had any idea, I would have smiled more often at her in the past. But then, with her mind set on Mitchell, she might not even have seen it.
    I led her to my Audi parked at the other side of the street. A stunned expression settled on Liza’s face as she scanned it from heck to front. “Nice car.”
    “Thanks.” The Audi was a babe magnet, so I wasn’t surprised she liked it. “You have your license?”
    Her gaze lifted to me. “Yeah, got it last summer.”
    “Want to try her out?” Since I’d been away for most of the summer, the car was still brand new, and I