I stood there awkwardly, fiddling with my fingers and chewing on my lip as he joined me.
“I hope I didn’t scare you,” he said with a wink. “I wasn’t driving too fast for you, was I?
“No,” I assured him. “I enjoyed the ride.”A little too much.
“Good,” he said with a flirty grin. “I really liked having your arms wrapped around me like that. Almost made me want to skip the next part of our date entirely and just keep going.”
I gulped at the heat in his eyes as he looked at me.Does he mean…thatwith me? Surely, that can’t be what he means. I’m nothing special. Not compared to Briggita or Sunny. He’s probably just messing with me.
“Come on,” he laughed. “It’s just up this way.”
Mates
SHADE
We walked in silence for a few minutes before Caelan finally spoke.
“So, I talked about myself the whole drive up here. Tell me something about you,” he said.
“I don’t think there’s much to tell.” I shrugged. “I’m not very interesting. I don’t have any stories like you do. I train and I protect Sunny. That’s about it.”
I slumped slightly hearing myself say it aloud. My whole life was following Sunny around and putting myself at risk to keep her safe. Other than training and fighting, I didn’t do anything else. I didn’t even know what I enjoyed anymore.
“I don’t think that’s true,” he contested. “I bet you’re a very interesting person. You just haven’t had the luxury of ever getting to think about what you want. How about I ask you some questions, and you can answer them?”
I smiled. It was weird that someone wanted to get to know me. I was so used to no one really caring or even knowing that I existed.
“All right.”
“Okay,” he said eagerly. “We’ll start with something easy. What’s your favorite color?”
I stared down at the trail.What is my favorite color? When was the last time I had thought about that?
“I guess,” I said after a moment. “I’ve always liked purple.”
“Favorite movie?”
“Oh…uh…I don’t have one.” I shrugged. “I don’t get to watch a lot of TV.”
My training master had called entertainment a distraction, and my father had been all too happy to enforce that rule, afraid that I might get dangerous ideas by watching.
The only time I’d ever gotten close to seeing anything was when I accompanied Sunny to the movies with her friends, and even then I had to stand at the back, facing the door in case of an attack.
“Oh, okay. Uh, favorite music? Or a band that you really like?” he asked. I shook my head. “I don’t really have one of those either.”
This can’t be going well. Caelan probably thinks I’m the most boring person he’s ever met. All I’ve contributed to this conversation was my favorite color, and even then, I wasn’t even sure about my answer.
“Come on. Everyone likes music,” he remarked. “You can tell me. I like all kinds of genres.”
“I’m not really allowed to listen to music,” I admitted. “My training master said it was a distraction, and I just never questioned it.”
“You’re not allowed?” he hissed, his body tensing as he clenched his jaw. “Okay, we’re going to have to do something about that.”
We were getting nowhere with these sorts of questions, and I felt guilty for being such a dud. I didn’t want him to be disappointed with our date.
“I hear it sometimes when Sunny plays it in her room or the car,” I offered, trying to give him something to work with. “I don’t know any of the lyrics or the names of the bands she likes, but I’ve heard a little.”
“Well, that’s good. Do you like it?” he tried, doing his best to make a conversation out of nothing.
