A few hours later, Graham finally drove me back to the library.
I glanced at him before I got out of his car. He looked about as tired as I felt. His hands tightened around the steering wheel. He didn’t look at me; his gaze was fixed, staring out the windshield.
I followed his line of sight, and my stomach twisted sharply.
He was staring at the back porch of the library, the place where I’d been attacked last night.
It looked so normal today. Ordinary. Like nothing had even happened. I looked away.
I was going to bury that memory and move on from it—like I always did. I reached for the door handle. “Thank you, Graham.”
He dragged his eyes toward me. Despite his sad look, a small smile tugged at his mouth.
I frowned, unable to read the look he was giving me. “What?”
“Nothing.” He looked away again, back toward the library. “It’s just…I think that’s the first time you’ve called me by my name.”
My cheeks heated that he’d noticed. “That’s not true,” I lied.
He shook his head, sighing. “Okay…”
I huffed, opening the car door a crack.
“Wait.”
I stilled, glancing at him from over my shoulder.
“I don’t want to ask more of you,” he began cautiously.
My heart started to race as he sighed. “But you need to take care of yourself. At least until we figure out who attacked you.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What would that entail, exactly?”
“Just…watch out for yourself. And don’t—don’t go anywhere alone at night. If you need someone, call me. I’ll be there.”
“I can take care of myself.”
He tilted his head. “Can you?”
A wave of heat washed over me. Embarrassment and anger burned in my chest. I opened my mouth to snap at him, but he held up a hand to stop me.
“I’m not trying to insult you,” he said.
There was a gentleness to his tone that had me pausing.
“I just—I want you to be prepared if this ever happens again.”
“Prepared?” I wasn’t sure anything could prepare me to be ambushed.
“Have you ever taken any self-defense classes?”
I grimaced. There was never much free time in my day. Even when I was younger, I put everything I had into school and getting to where I wanted to go. I had one focus, and it wasn’t on defending myself. If anything, I’d avoided the thought that there was anything to protect myself against in the first place.
“Not really,” I confessed.
“I can teach you.”
“I’m not sure—”
