Chapter Five
Ollie sankinto the vintage leather chair. The smell of books and parchment seeped into his soul, and for the first time in days, he felt grounded. The fear that his perspective would take a running jump out the back of the bus faded, and if he’d been alone, he might’ve laid his head on the table and slept.
But there was no time for a snatched nap. Tingling on the nape of his neck told him Shay was approaching, and for the next few hours, Ollie owed him his undivided attention.
Not that focusing on Shay was particularly hard. When Ollie hadn’t been losing his mind on the road, Shay had occupied his every thought, and their library meeting had weighed heavily on his mind. At first, Shay hadn’t seemed overly interested in the research Ollie was bringing to the table, but that changed when he learned Ollie had clues to his heritage he’d never allowed himself to wonder about before. They’d hardly spoken since the night of the Galway gig, but in the fleeting moments Ollie managed to gaze at him freely, Shay was clearly preoccupied.
He could be worrying about his girlfriend for all you know.
True, but from what Ollie had heard—and hunched over his laptop in the office, he’d heard alot—Shay Maloney was single… lonely, even, and that was something Ollie understood all too well.
“You’re such a thinker.” Shay slid sinuously into the chair opposite Ollie. “Didn’t your ma ever tell you if the wind changes, your face will stay like that?”
“What’s wrong with my face?”
A beat of silence; then Shay averted his gaze, his fine features settling into an expression that was almost shy. “Nothing. Um… what are we doing here, then? Don’t tell me I’m a Nordie. My nan wouldn’t have liked that.”
“If by nordie you mean Northern Irish, then no, I’m not about to tell you that. In fact, as far as I can tell you have no Irish blood in you at all.”
Shay nodded slowly. “That shouldn’t surprise me because if I didn’t know it before, that name you gave me the other day definitely wasn’t fucking Irish, but I almost feel like I’ve lost something.”
“You didn’t google your name?”
“Fuck no, I want to hear it from you.”
He seemed to speak to himself as much as to Ollie, but the sentiment hung heavy in the air. Ollie took a deep breath and pointed at the camera he’d set up in the corner of the room. “Whenever you’re ready, I’ll turn the camera on, and we can start going through what I’ve set out to show you today, but there’s still time to change your mind about learning everything on screen. We can run through it first… just you and me.”
“You and me?” Shay’s tongue darted out to lick his pillowy bottom lip. “You mean—”
“I mean off camera,” Ollie cut in before his imagination started a goddamn rave.
“Off camera. Right.” Shay sucked in a deep breath of his own. “I knew that.”
It was on the tip of Ollie’s tongue to ask what else he could’ve possibly meant, but Shay’s obvious nerves kept him quiet.
He got up and checked the camera angle and fiddled with settings that were already perfect while Shay checked his blood sugar levels. “There’s water on the table in the corner, and I’ve got snacks if you need them.”
“Thought you weren’t allowed to eat in libraries?”
“I won’t tell if you don’t.”
Shay smirked and sat back in his seat. He kicked his boots off and tucked his long legs beneath him. “I should be fine, but I didn’t get much sleep last night, so you might have to kick me a couple of times.”
“Was it a late one, then? I thought Corina banished you all to bed at ten o’clock.”
“She did, but she forgot to hand out the Valium, so I was counting sheep till dawn.”
A shiver ran through Ollie. He’d been up most of the night too, torn between obsessing over today and fixating on the only part of Shay he’d been able to see—his twitching right foot. If he’d known he’d been awake too….
What? You’d have got up and gone over there? Crept into a space that’s basically his bedroom like a fucking weirdo?
Jesus. Ollie shivered again. Shay Maloney was bad for his brain.
And he was staring at him, which was probably a sign Ollie needed to pull himself together. “Are you ready?”
Shay shrugged. “I guess so.”
Ollie turned the camera on and slipped silently back to his seat. “I’ll get up in a little while and do some panning shots while you look over what I’ve told you, but the first bit will be us talking.”
