Page 133 of Burning Daylight

My brows rise. “Sure.”

Frederick gives a sharp nod and leaves.

But I’m left with the ache his words left behind.

Sometimes the only way to protect something as precious as love is to take it far from where anyone can reach it.

33

JULIETTE

“Why is Lance hanging out in the HillPoint?”

Tyler blinks like my question surprises him. He’s sitting across from me at the local theater in the town square, Fortune’s Fool, his feet propped on top of the auditorium seat in front of us.

We’re both here waiting for the acting class Alex teaches to end so we can go out to lunch.

“How do you even know he’s hanging out there?” Tyler replies instead of answering the question.

I shrug. “I know enough.”

“Jules, you have no business going to the HillPoint,” Alex pipes up from behind us, climbing over the seats and plopping into the one on my other side.

I glare at him. “You sound like Paxton.”

Alex flashes a boyish grin. “Is that a compliment?”

“If you like being compared to an uptight asshole, then sure.” I throw up my finger. “Also, I’ll go where I want, thanks. Besides, I went with Felicity, so it’s not like I was by myself.”

Alex straightens from where he was leaning against the wall, his honey green eyes sparking with interest. “Felicity’s back?”

“Yeah,” I reply. “Put your tongue back up into your mouth.”

He lifts a shoulder, pressing a hand over his heart. “She’s the love of my life, not that I’d expect you to understand.”

“Christ, here we go,” Tyler exclaims, rolling his eyes.

My mouth drops open. “You can’t just toss that word around, Alex.”

“I’m not. I’m completely serious.”

“Obsession and love are not the same thing,” Tyler says like he’s chastising a kid. “How many times do I have to tell you that?”

“A great loveisobsession.” He glares at Tyler like he’s offended, but when he glances back at me, a soft smile lights up his face.

“That is an exceptionally creepy thing to say,” I remark.

He gives me a look. “That’s how we get sonnets, poems, tragic plays where people topple empires just to feel their lover’s kiss.Art, you absolute ingrates.”

“So love is art,” Tyler muses, a deadpan look on his face. “Or art is obsession?”

“Art is life dressed up in prettier words,” Alex hits back, stretching out one leg in front of him.

Tyler chuckles. “Someone put that on a shirt.”

I force a smile, but Alex’s words have me free-falling. Because if art is obsession and love is the kind of thing that fuels it…

Maybe that’s why being around Roman is like standing too close to a fire, knowing how badly I could get burned, but reaching for it anyway.