Page 51 of Wild Card

“I’m sorry, especially for your great-grandmother. But what a family heirloom to have. That has to be interesting.”

“I haven’t had time to go through it yet. That’s the only problem. Kind of chaos in here. Nothing really stored properly. I come in when I have time to decompress but otherwise, I keep it locked up.”

“Yeah, it’s impressive you’ve kept all this safe when you have the parties you have.”

“No one’s allowed in here. Well except Xander, Colt, and Ben. People I trust.”

“So I’m part of the inner circle now then?” She grins at me, and I can’t help but return it.

“I guess you are now.”

“Well, if you want to deputize me, I can go through some of the stuff. Organize it. If you give me a small budget, I can order some archival boxes and things. It’d give me something to do during the day while I’m here… Rather than just getting paid to read and clean.” She looks up at me bright-eyed.

Like I could say no if I wanted to.

“Yeah. Honestly, I think I need to start getting out of my room anyway. So maybe we can work on it together.”

Her grin returns.

“As long as you keep your leg elevated and everything.” She glances at me standing on my crutches.

“I will. There’s plenty of places to sit and put my leg up. I have to start doing something though, or I’m going to go stir crazy.”

“All right. Well, it sounds like it could be a good deal. I’m allowed to explore in your sacred library and in return I’ll get things organized for you.” She holds out her hand for me.

“Deal.” I shake her hand, and she beams at me like I’ve just given her the keys to a castle.

TWENTY-EIGHT

Tobias

I’m sittingin the library watching her climb the ladder again. It’s the best part of the fucking day when she does it, especially when she’s forgotten I’m in the room. She climbs the steps, and I get to watch every single movement and sway of her body, the long line of her legs, and if I’m lucky, she bends over to reach for something, and I get to see the tops of her thigh highs while she does.

I watch her as she leans over to reach for something when she squeals and bounces on the ladder—add that to the list of fucking things I need to see her do again.

“What?”

She holds the side of the ladder and swings around, one foot off as she stares at me with her jaw dropping. “You have an early edition Austen? How did you not tell me this.”

“Oh. Yeah… That’s not mine. It’s my sister’s. I just keep it for her because she’s been traveling a lot and doesn’t like to keep stuff at my parents’.”

“How did she get one?”

“Our parents bought it for her for her birthday, I think. She was obsessed in her teens. The books. The movies. The fashion. It’s all she fucking talked about. I think she even went to a cosplay event one time.”

“I think I’d like your sister.”

I tilt my head. “It’s possible. She’s a lot like Joss. Chaos incarnate most of the time. She might be too much for you.”

“I love Joss. And I love chaos. I just also need a nap sometimes after hanging out with her.” Scarlett smiles.

“Fair enough.”

I watch her as she stares at the book.

“You can take it down if you want and look at it. She won’t mind. She just put it up there because she was worried that someone would damage it.”

“No. I don’t want to move it unnecessarily. It could be fragile. But I got this close to one. That goes on the life achievements checklist.” She laughs and whirls back onto the ladder in the proper direction, sliding her heel onto the rung.