Page 31

Lifting my hand, I ran my thumb over my tattoo through the cloth of my sleeve and tried to boost my bravery enough to just yank the material away already and tell Keene the truth.

My heart started to pound, my vision went fuzzy, and I feared I might actually pass out from the fear.

But he needed to know. His friendship counted on it.

I opened my mouth, but it was suddenly so dry that at first nothing came out. I wet my lips and took a deep breath.

Only for Keene to say, “You know, he didn’t even fucking apologize for what he did to Younger.”

I pressed my lips together, realizing their argument went way beyond me. Exhaling slowly, I waited a moment before asking, “Did he have to?”

Keene swerved a dismayed glance my way. “He fucked Alec’s sister behind Alec’s back. What do you think?”

“I think Alec doesn’t seem as mad about it as you do,” I answered honestly.

Mouth falling open, Keene sputtered, “As if that excuses anything. I don’t care if she was dying and begged him for it, he did it behind a friend’s back. And if he can be that cavalier about betraying one of us, how the hell can I ever trust him again?”

“I mean…” I shrugged innocently before cringing and admitting, “I would think a decade’s worth of the friendship you two shared before that should be proof all on its own.”

“Hey,” he muttered, scowling at me for pointing out a truth he obviously didn’t want to hear. “Whose side are you on, anyway?”

When I clamped my mouth shut and went mute, he narrowed his eyes.

“Wait. Whose side are you on?”

Yours. Always.

But I shook my head, refusing to admit that. “I’m not on anyone’s side,” I mumbled. “I just—never mind. Be mad at him if that’s what makes you happy. I don’t care.”

Keene kept watching me, squinting curiously before he pointed. “You have his number.”

I blinked, utterly bewildered. “What?”

“Parker. He said, ‘Call me,’ as if you already had his phone number. And he said Waverly when he came in. Not Library Girl. Holy shit.” His eyes flared. “You two know each other.”

I opened my mouth, but no words came.

Keene suddenly looked deceived. “How the hell do you know Ohrley that well?” he demanded. “Do you guys have, like…history together?”

I scoffed. “Not the kind you’re implying.”

But that answer only seemed to make him even more suspicious. “Then what kind do you have? Just how well do you guys know each other?”

“He…” My mind scrambled for some truth I could say that wouldn’t actually tell Keene anything. But I had nothing, so I just shrugged offhandedly and mumbled, “He helped me out of a scrape once.”

Or Twice.

At least three times now.

Fine. Parker Ohrley was basically my guardian angel.

I shook my head, though, trying to blow it off as unimportant. But when Keene set his attention on something that interested him it was nearly impossible to distract him from it.

“A scrape,” he repeated, frowning over the word. “What kind of scrape?”

Once again, I wasn’t sure how to answer; I sighed and glanced around at the exposed shelves on this side of the counter that were keeping us cozily tucked into our own little world back here.

Suddenly remembering last night in the gazebo, where it had also felt as if we’d been removed from the rest of humanity and no one else existed but the two of us, I shivered.

A stir rose from the pit of my stomach that sent inappropriate heat to a couple of unmentionable parts, and I wanted to reach out and just rest my palm against his cheek.

Instead, I blurted, “Have you ever played that guess-the-image game where they show you a magnified shot of something?”

Keene frowned in bewilderment. “Huh?”

My face flooded with embarrassment, and I told myself to shut up and just tell him never mind , but he was watching me with a slight tilt of his head as if he honestly wanted to know where I was going with this, so I kept bumbling along, hoping I didn’t sound as stupid as I felt.

“Yeah,” I said. “So it always looks as if it’s going to be some strange, disgusting picture, like the inside of a sick person’s nostril or something. But then they zoom out, and it ends up being the prettiest flower you’ve ever seen.”

The way Keene was watching me talk made it incredibly hard to breathe. He was captivatingly beautiful, and he was actually listening to what I was saying.

I got a little fixated on the sweep of his eyelashes as he blinked, and I couldn’t help but remember how his hands had felt on me in the dark as he whispered his sweet, sinful desires.

God. And he still smelled the same too. Like sandalwood and cedar.

My head went a little woozy, and my fingers tingled with the need to reach out.

But I drew in a deep breath through my nose and somehow managed to keep talking.

“The best piece of advice I’ve ever gotten—but the hardest for me to follow—is that when I get too close to something, and it starts to overwhelm me with negativity, I should take a deep breath, move a step or two—or three—backward, and look at the situation again from a new perspective.

Take in the whole picture this time, not just the one, small magnified part of it that’s bothering me.

That one spot never looks as ugly or important from a distance.

It’s just an insignificant little blip.”

His lips parted as he realized I was trying to give him advice. And as his gaze shifted around my face thoughtfully, I grew spellbound.

For having eyes that were such a muddy, ugly green-brown color, they were honestly the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.

Finally, he sniffed and furrowed his brow. “Dammit, Frankie,” he muttered, following the condemnation with a rueful grin. “Don’t give me good advice like that. You’re not supposed to be logical and level-headed when I’m having an unreasonable, emotional moment.”

I blinked dryly. “Then I might never get to be logical and level-headed again.”

With an amused snort, Keene shifted his arm over and nudged it against mine as if we were sharing some kind of inside joke together.

“Shut up,” he charged with a rueful grin.

“Smart-ass.” Then he pointed. “And I know you totally just diverted the topic away from yourself, but I’m going to let it go this time. ”

“Thank you,” I said.

But I couldn’t return his smile. Sometimes just looking at him took me to places that drowned out everything else and left me floating like I was on some chemical high or hormonal overdose.

My psychologist called it a glimmer—these little things that elevated our mood instantly, no matter how bad of a day we might be having.

They swamped our brains with joy, peace, and gratitude.

And I was supposed to train my brain to come up with one glimmer every morning so more would appear within the day to help beat back dark whispers from the pit.

Which was why Keene was the first thing I thought of when I woke, without fail.

Seeming to sense that things had gone deep between us, his smile settled into an expression of sober appreciation. “Anyway,” he added, his swamp-colored eyes swirling with pensive wonder. “Thank you. Even if I didn’t want to, I needed to hear that.”

I had no idea how to reply. The only words tumbling around in my head were, God, I love you, and there was no way I was going to spill that mortifying confession. I knew I should say some expected platitude, like, You’re welcome or no problem . But I couldn’t even get that to come.

I’m pretty sure this was the best moment of my entire life. Words would only ruin it. So I nodded mutely.

As if realizing I was having a moment of epic proportions, Keene tipped his face and studied my features with a little more intensity.

My lips parted because I needed oxygen, and his gaze dropped to my mouth.

When his eyelids went heavy with languid desire, I felt it in my freaking nipples.

Tingling and hardening, they caused my entire chest to heave until I felt it between my legs too.

A weighted gnawing dragged on my entire body. I went hot and achy almost immediately.

So when he hesitantly lifted his hand to my face, I drew in a stuttered breath and grew dizzy from the intensity of it. I forgot to breathe as two fingers gently captured a lock of my new bangs between his thumb and index finger.

Slowly, with intoxicating tenderness, he ran his fingers along the tresses, testing their silkiness.

“Yeah, I like the new hair,” he grated out.

When his gaze lifted to mine, we shared a stare hot enough to burn down the entire library around us.

His nostrils flared with awareness. My panties grew damp.

Exhaling from parted lips, he started to lean toward me as if he were going to kiss me. I went absolutely still, too afraid I would startle him away if I moved.

But before he could even shift into the zone that said he was definitely coming in for a kiss, my brother’s voice called from the other side of the counter.

“Waverly? Hey, where’d you go?”

I gasped in surprise, completely having forgotten I was at work and taking care of my brother and that the rest of the world did indeed still exist.

In front of me, Keene lurched back, immediately dropping my hair and looking startled as if he had no idea what had just happened.

Feeling the need to flee, I popped to my feet to find Gates standing there, his arms loaded with snacks.

Shaking his head at me strangely, he said, “What in the world were you doing down…?”

But his question trailed off as Keene stood up next to me, slower to come around.

Mouth dropping open, Gates transferred his gaze between the two of us before yelping, “Holy shit. Were you two making out?”

“Oh my God, really ?” I groaned as I shook my head sadly at my hopeless brother, even as I swallowed a nervous and guilty bubble that was threatening to rise up my throat and choke me.

“What?” he said.

“Yeah, that’s hilarious, Butt Nugget,” Keene added as he vaulted nimbly over the counter to land next to my brother to flick him in the ear. “Now where’s my snacks?”

Gates hissed from the pain and shifted his ear away, but seemed otherwise unaffected as the two of them took the next few seconds for Gates to pile Keene’s chips, candy bar, and soda into his arms, all the while asking, “Seriously. Are you two girlfriend-and-boyfriend or what?”

Keene only snickered. “None of your business,” he taunted, clutching his snacks to his chest and sending me an impersonal head bob, not at all appearing as if we’d just shared a flaming-hot moment together.

“Later, Waves,” he told me before turning back to Gates.

“And hey, stop spilling embarrassing secrets about your sister to complete strangers, will you, kid?” He winced. “That’s just in poor taste.”

Shaking his head as if disappointed in my brother, he strolled off, leaving a sputtering, red-faced Gates gaping after him.

Another glimmer rose inside me as I watched him stride off. Because he just looked that good walking away.

“So is he your boyfriend or not?” Gates demanded, whirling back to me.

I scoffed.

Focusing on my brother, I answered, “Not even.”

No girl would ever be Keene Dugger’s girlfriend, least of all me. He liked playing the field way too much for that.

I knew I should’ve been happy that I’d at least gotten one night with him, but honestly…

I wanted more.

And it sucked knowing I’d never get it.