I slide past Green Street, staring him in the eyes a few inches from mine. “You can leave, too,” I nearly whisper, not bothering to ask. “I’ll see her home.”
He swallows, quiet for the first time tonight.
And that’s when I know that he knows exactly who I am.
Clearing his throat, he says, “I’ll see you later, Quinn.” He looks at me, though. “Gotta run.”
“Bye,” she calls out.
And he leaves, disappearing down the stairs.
I shouldn’t have done that. He’ll tell someone whose attention I don’t want.
But Quinn already told him my name, and now I know… They remember me in Weston. All I can hope is that I’ll be gone before anything goes wrong.
I look around for Lance, spotting him on the treadmill again. He’s keeping his distance because he thinks I’m about to get laid.
I stand next to Quinn’s machine. “I recognized Noah Van der Berg,” I tell her. “Madoc mentioned him. Who was that one who just left?”
Green Street…
“Farrow Kelly,” she replies. “Graduated from Weston a couple of years ago, I think. He’s friendly with Hunter and Dylan.”
Does she know what his tattoo means? I open my mouth to tell her that she should stay away from him. Even if he’s nice and means well, trouble surrounds him. And it will surround everyone he cares about for the rest of his life.
I don’t want to talk about him, though.
At least I’m here to give her a ride tonight.
I take a drink of water and smile down at her. “That croissant this morning was really good.”
Her eyes light up. “What did it taste like?”
“Like…bread?”
She stops just short of rolling her eyes. “What did you think of when you bit into it?”
“Ugh, your questions…” I sigh, but I smile. “Some things don’t change.”
She stands up, grabbing her towel. “Croissants remind me of a sleepy, old attic,” she says in a dreamy voice. “Warm light spilling through the windows, casting an antique glowonto some forgotten, old, dark green chest. They taste like a whole day of rummaging through little treasures. And the flakes and crumbs?” She nearly bounces on her feet. “Sounds like wrapping paper when you sink your teeth into it, right? It’s like biting into a present.”
I stare at her, caught between wanting to cover her in bubble wrap so she’s protected forever and ever and ever and never changes, and wanting to know if she’s still only playful like this with me. Like she used to be.
With everyone else, she was the quiet one. The quiet Caruthers. The quiet sibling. The quiet daughter.
Instead, I just chuckle and squeeze my black bottle, squirting water into her face.
She jerks. “Hey.” But she laughs as she wipes it off.
I push her toward the cage. “Go stretch.”
We’re done working out. I need to be up early for a call, and I’m not leaving her here alone.
She takes one side of the cage, I take the other, and we hang on to the bars, stretching our arms and legs. She hooks her foot on a bar behind her, working the front of her thigh, and for a moment, I can’t take my eyes off the toned legs, bare in her short black shorts.
Her long-sleeved black and gray camo Under Armour shirt covers her stomach and goes up to her neck, but it’s tight, every curve accentuated. I hugged her last night, but I only held her loosely, around her shoulders. How would it feel to wrap my arms around her waist?
I blink long and hard.Jesus…
