Page 89 of Hide and Seek

“No one remembered your birthday?”

I busy myself with rolling up the scroll and putting it back in my puzzle box. “My friends always do, but they’re broke, and I don’t want anything other than a ‘Happy Birthday’ from them. But my family… They’re really busy, and I guess they forgot again this year.”

“That’s not right.”

I shrug and lock the puzzle box. “First world problems.”

“You didn’t go for a run today.”

I freeze, my back still to him. “I wasn’t feeling it today. And I’m not really feeling it right now,” I add, and even I can hear the disappointment in my voice.

I’m such a mess of emotions that I’m liable to burst into tears if we play any of our usual games. Plus, it’s almost ten, and the campus is crawling with students getting ready to seize the day and party and do all the things that normal college students do. Trying to run through the woods right now would just end with me hurting myself and needing to be saved by the guy who’s supposed to be hunting me.

“I didn’t come here for that,” he says, his voice as smooth as silk.

There’s a timbre to it that I’m not used to. The sexy rasp is still there, and so is the deep rumble that always hits me right in the chest, but the edge I’ve gotten used to is gone, and he sounds…kind.

No, not kind. Affectionate.

I shove those thoughts right out of my head and slowly turn around so I’m facing him.

“What did you come here for?” I whisper.

“To give you your gift and to see if you’re okay.”

I smile, or at least I try to. It doesn’t feel like a real smile, but hopefully he’s far enough away he can’t tell and it passes for one. “I’m fine. Birthdays usually aren’t all that great for me. I’ll be fine tomorrow.”

“Really?” There’s a note of skepticism in his voice. “So what you’re feeling has nothing to do with you staring down the business end of an M4 this afternoon?”

It feels like all the air has been sucked out of the room as my brain glitches out and goes completely blank for a few beats.

“You know about that?” I croak.

“Yes.”

I blink a few times as my brain comes back online.

Was he watching when that happened? Or was he there?

“Go ahead,” he encourages. “Ask what you’re thinking.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?” He tilts his head to the side. With his hood still up and his face obscured by shadows, the effect should be scary, or at least eerie, but it looks curious and is somehow endearing.

I bite my lip and shake my head.

“Come on, Myles. Say it.”

“Were you there?” I whisper and brace for him to tell me I’m being stupid and he was just watching from afar.

“Yes.”

I gape at him. No, there’s no way. It’s not possible. Itcan’tbe possible, can it?

“You know who I am,” he tells me in a soft tone I like way too much. “I know you do.”

My breath hitches as he takes a step closer to me.