“You okay?” I asked as we crossed the parking lot.
He nodded. “I should come more often.”
“It seems like you guys have a lot to say to each other.”
One side of his mouth turned up into a lopsided smile. “That’s a funny thing to say after listening to me and White trying to make conversation for an hour.”
“That’s why it seems like you guys have a lot to say to each other, a lot you haven’t said yet.”
“You’re too sharp for your own good, little bird.”
He opened my car door.
I climbed in then turned to take his face in my hands. “Thanks for bringing me.”
“Thanks for wanting to come.” He kissed me. “Want to grab some lunch on the way home?”
I nodded. “Sounds good. Where do you want to go?”
“Are you up for a little drive?” he asked.
“I’m all yours for the day.”
He grinned. “Blackwell Hollow it is.”
48
MAEVE
Blackwell Hollow wasa small town nestled in the valley. The Blackwell Mountains — including the Blackwell Preserve — surrounded it like a silent guardian, making the town feel like a hidden jewel.
I kind of forgot it was there most of the time, although that might have been thanks to the fact that before June’s murder I was just a kid trying to figure out what to do with my life, and after June’s murder I’d been obsessed with Ethan Todd.
All of it seemed very far away as Poe pointed the Hummer down Hollow Road, the equivalent of our Main Street except it was only about half a mile long, and from the looks of it, there was no Southside equivalent. In fact, the whole town looked like an ad for one of those small town Christmas movies that came out in droves starting in November, minus the Christmas lights since it was February.
“I actually don’t think I’ve ever been here before,” I said as we passed a series of quaint shops with green awnings: a used bookstore, a plant shop, a salon. There was a coffee shop that stood right next to a tea shop and a bakery that made me think of the cookies Bram had brought to our picnic at this thinking spot.
“No?” Poe turned to look at me and I was struck all over again by his fierce beauty. Now that I’d met Whit, I saw how his features ran in the family, but there was something different in Poe’s dark blue eyes, something that told me I was safe.
And let’s be honest, his body was nothing to sneeze at either. He was gorgeous even in jeans and a black T-shirt, his legs spread just enough that I had to force myself not to stare at the bulge between his thighs. Just the sight of his big hands casually holding the wheel of the Hummer set my body humming. I knew what those hands could do to me, knew the pleasure he could stoke in my cunt with his long fingers.
I shook my head, trying to clear it of the sudden onslaught of lust. “Or maybe my mom brought June and I here for tea when we were little? I can’t remember.”
“I avoid the place to be honest.”
“Why?”
“It’s fucking creepy,” he said.
I laughed and looked out the windshield as he pulled into one of the parking spots painted in diagonal lines along Hollow Road. “You’re crazy! It’s so cute, like a storybook town.”
“Exactly. It’s too perfect, which means it’s probably hiding something.”
I laughed. “Then why did you bring me here for lunch?”
He leaned in to give me a quick kiss. “Because if anyone deserves a storybook life, it’s you.”
I smiled. For the last year and a half my life had felt like a horror movie. A storybook sounded like a nice change of pace.
