Eight. Found it. She turned into the aisle—only to halt at the sight of a very broad, very familiar set of shoulders.
Without explanation, Callie whipped Aspen out of the aisle, and tugged her straight into the previous one, ignoring her friend’s yelp.
Aspen’s jaw dropped, an are-you-crazy crease drawing her brows together. And yeah, she probably was.
“What the heck was—”
Callie slammed a hand over her friend’s mouth. “Shh. Not so loud! He’ll hear you.”
If possible, Aspen’s frown deepened. She grabbed Callie’s hand and pulled it off. “Whowill hear me? And if you say myhappy fairies, I’ll have you committed. I made them up. I don’t even know what a happy fairy is.”
“Lock.”
“Lock is a happy fairy?”
Callie rolled her eyes. “He’s in aisle eight.”
Aspen’s mouth dropped open. “Lock Walker? He’s here?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my gosh. Wait…is this the first time you’ve seen him since he got home?”
“No, he came into my studio last week.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
Callie shoved her hand back over Aspen’s mouth. “Shh!”
Her friend rolled her eyes and tugged the hand away a second time. “Okay, we’ll come back to the omittance of key information later. What happened when you saw him?”
“Nothing. He just came in, said he wanted to talk, and I said no.”
Kind of…
Aspen scoffed. “I might believe that if he wasn’t Lock and you weren’t Callie and two years ago, you hadn’t been ready to buy a house together.”
“It’s true. He wanted to talk but I didn’t. I’m not ready to talk to him. God, I can barelylookat him, let alone talk to him without remembering what happened.”
Aspen’s features softened. “Oh, Cal. I’m sorry.”
She swallowed, emotion welling in her throat. It was exactly why she hadn’t told her best friend about Lock coming to her studio. She’d have cried, and she didn’t want to do that. “We have to get out of here without him seeing me.”
“What about the screwdriver?”
“I’ll get it later.”
She turned to walkoutof the aisle just as a large figure walkedintothe aisle.
She shrieked and stumbled back, tripping over her friend’s foot.
Long, strong fingers moved at lightning speed to wrap around her upper arm and keep her upright. And just like the last time he’d touched her, awareness spiraled from her arm through her entire body.
She pulled her arm back and swallowed, shoving her emotions down.
Stay unaffected, Callie.
“Callie.” Lock’s deep voice weaved inside her.
