Page 94 of Meet Me In The Dark

It’s been bothering me all day, just out of reach, refusing to be ignored.

So now I have plenty of ideason how she’s going to pay for it.

Music plays from inside as I stop at her door. I slam my fist down three times.

A carefree laugh drifts out before it opens. She stands there with her hair loose over her shoulders and an easy expression on her face that I’ve never seen before.

“Julian,” she says, stumbling over my name.

A little boy hangs off her leg, laughing like he’s drunk on sugar.

Well, this little shit just derailed my evening. And I can’t even be mad, because I just heard her laugh like that for the first time. Which pisses me off, because I want to be the reason she does it again.

“Do you have a family I don’t know about?”

She shifts the boy to her hip. “This is Levi. I’m babysitting for a friend.”

He peers at me shyly with big, dark eyes before he buries his face in her shoulder.

“Hello, Levi,” I say, but he doesn’t respond. “Shy kid.”

“Only with scary-looking men who knock like they’re trying to break down the door,” she says.

“Scary-looking, huh?”

“Levi thinks so.”

“And you?” I murmur, hearing the hitch in her breath as she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear.

She shifts Levi higher on her hip. “Do you… want to come in?”

That look in her eyes says she knows it’s a bad idea, which only makes me more inclined to say yes.

I step inside.

Her eyes widen for a fraction of a second before she shuts the door, lowers the music, and the apartmentsettles into a softer hum as she leads me toward the kitchen.

A girl, maybe ten or eleven, is perched at the counter with headphones on and her nose buried in a tablet.

“Sasha, we have company,” Celeste calls.

The girl glances at me for half a second, then returns to whatever has her focus.

Celeste rolls her eyes and pokes her in the ribs. “Be nice.”

Sasha lets out an exaggerated huff but still doesn’t look up.

“She’s a little heartsick,” Celeste tells me, leaning in.

I arch a brow. “Heartsick? How old is she?”

“Ten.”

“Jesus.”

She shrugs. “Apparently, love knows no age.”

I look at Sasha, who’s now muttering under her breath. “That bad?”