“I’ll get us some coffee and I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll come with you,” he says, even though his eyes flick back to the shelves.
“You stay. I’ll just be a minute.”
I walk backward a few steps, loving the way his gaze rakes over me before I turn and head for the coffee bar nestled on the other side of the store.
We’d spent a lazy morning in bed, one of the last before I have to throw myself into hours of training.
I’d vowed not to think about it, wishing to enjoy our time together instead.
Stepping up to the counter, I order our drinks and then move off to the side as I take the store in. I haven’t been here much since being in Nashville.
The quiet atmosphere is nice, but I can only be here so long. I’m not one of the readers that needs to hold a book for the experience. My e-reader works just fine.
But Royce had been excited this morning to bring me here. The odds of me being mobbed by the public were small, so I agreed to this impromptu date.
The barista calls my name and I collect our drinks, before following my path back through the store.
In an unsurprising turn of events, I can’t find Roy. All the rows of books look the same, and even though I was confident I could navigate the aisles, it looks like I’m in need of a smoke signal or something.
I’m just about to set the coffees down and grab my phone when I hear a giggle from the next row over.
I freeze.
And listen.
She’s talking a mile a minute about something I don’t understand, my eyelids fluttering
shut when I hear Royce answer her. His voice is animated, and I silently peer around the corner to see him looking down at the book in his hands as she says something else. He’s nodding, and it feels like my heart is being ripped from my chest.
She’s exactly his type.
Pretty and interested in the same fantasy books that are guaranteed to put me to sleep within the first thirty seconds of opening them.
You’ll find a girl that isn’t as flashy as me and all will be right in your world.
Taking one step back and then another, I dump both coffees in the garbage and do my best not to sprint out of the store as I pull my phone from my pocket. With shaking hands, I type out the text I need to send, the one that I can barely see through the tears streaming down my face.
I can do this.
I can let him go.
KINSLEY: You should ask her out! She’s pretty and TOTALLY interested!
KINSLEY: This is what we’ve been working for. Ask her to dinner—that little Italian place a couple blocks from here would be perfect!
KINSLEY: Better yet buy her a book!
Stabbingthe power button on my phone, I drop it into my bag and hail a taxi to take me home.
Alone.
21
ROYCE
The minutes tick by as I desperately wait for Kinsley to come back and rescue me. Before I met Kins, the woman in front of me would have been a dream, but all I can think about right now is the athletic beauty whose eyes glaze over when I talk to her about dragons and made-up worlds.
