He left, again.
It shouldn’t have hurt, but it did. Terribly, tears welled in her eyes, and she hastily blinked them away.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she scolded herself. “Fuck’s sake.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, but as she did, his face flashed in her mind. She didn’t understand why he looked so anguished when he looked at her.Shewas the injured party, here. Wasn’t she?
It was all too complicated—all too much.
And she needed tofocus. It was week four of six, and while she’d made good progress with her proposal, there was still a long way to go to make her presentation perfect.
She straightened her back, turning her attention to her work.
Three evenings later, Emmeline and Luke still hadn’t exchanged a single word since their disagreement.
He hadn’t tried to explain why he had reacted the way hehad. It was stupid of her, but she wanted to know what had made him to behave in such a manner. The curiosity was eating at her. A silly part of her believed that maybe he had good cause—but then why wouldn’t he tell her if so?
He seemed adamant on avoiding her entirely, completely freezing her out. In the almost four weeks they’d been working together, she’d never seen him so focused, and often, he only stayed at the bookshop for an hour before heading out, rather than staying for the entire evening the way he used to.
She was still angry with him, but such behavior made her feel... abandoned, which was ridiculous, she knew. They weren’t friends. They most certainly weren’t anythingmore. Him avoiding her shouldn’t have bothered her.
But it did. And that only made her feel worse.
She wanted to understand.
Which was why, after another silent evening, Emmeline mounted Torch and headed for Bayview. Maybe she could find Flint and ask him. It would obviously be only one side of the story, but it would give her a better idea of why Luke was behaving the way he was with her.
The weather was bitingly cold tonight, frigid and unrelenting. She buried her nose in her neck scarf, trying to look through the icy wind at the lake to search for Flint.
Torch landed by the hot chocolate stand, and Emmeline dismounted. Motu flew out of Torch’s paw to join her, staying by her side as she looked around. The baby dragon struggled to fly in the wind, and even Emmeline braced against the cold. She stopped walking, looking around, and Motu settled by her feet, his scaled body warming her leg.
Searching, Emmeline spotted a low glow of fire far awayon the lake. It looked to be a bonfire, a group of adults surrounding it. Maybe she could ask somebody there if they knew where she could find Flint.
Emmeline started in that direction, walking along the frozen lake. The wind was worse on the open lake, tiny shards of ice cutting against her eyes. She made it about halfway when she heard someone coming after her.
“Emmeline!” Luke called over the wind. Her heartbeat quickened, and she slowed, but didn’t turn.
“What!” she cried back. Where had he even come from? Irritation flashed through her, though a part of her crackled with anticipation as she heard him jogging to catch up with her.
“Where are you going?” he asked, jogging to cut in front of her path. She was forced to stop, and she crossed her arms over her chest. Motu looked between both of them, his little face worried.
“What does it matter?” she asked.
Luke clenched his jaw. “You’re impossible,” he groaned. Despite her coat, a chill ran down her spine.
“Then why don’t you go back to ignoring me!” She had to shout over the wind, which seemed to be intensifying now that she had stopped walking. It pushed against her, propelling her in Luke’s direction, but she dug her feet in.
“Come on,” he said, reaching for her arm.
“No,” she said, throwing him away from her. “I’m going to find yourfriend.”
His face blazed, and for a moment, she almost shrunk back, his expression was so fierce. But she didn’t. Instead, she lifted her chin and met his burning eyes with her own. He muttered a curse under his breath.
“I told you to stay away from him,” he told her.
She wanted to throttle him. “Since when do you get to order me around?” she replied, livid. “I’ll do whatever I want.”
His hands clenched into fists at his sides. They were both breathing hard, dark eyes clashing. It was the most words they’d spoken to one another in days, but it wasn’t nearly enough. She wanted to yell at him, for him to yell at her, for them both totalk. The silence had been eating at her.
