“Doessheknow you’re only friends?” Emery sneers.
Is shejealous?
“Yes. Of course she does.” I hesitate, jaw tight. “She’s like a little sister to me.”
My chest aches when I say it—maybe because the wordsisterstill stings to use.
“Oh, please! Who calls their brotherBig D?” Emery snaps.
I snort, then full-out laugh. “Lucy. She couldn’t say my name when we were kids. I was the biggest kid in our school.” I shrug. “She started calling me that and it stuck. Eddie down at the weed shop calls me that too.”
She frowns and glances in the direction I’m pointing. “Eddie at the weed shop, huh? That’s your alibi?”
“I don’t need an alibi.” Dammit. Should I really be sharing this with Emery? Lucy’s the one who put me in this position in the first place. No, it doesn’t matter, it’s not my secret to share.
Emery’s glare could melt steel. “So why’d she act like a wolverine marking her territory?”
Laughter bursts out of me. “Wolverine, huh?”
She lifts her chin. “Comparing her to a cat seems too cliché.”
Christ, her clever mouth kills me. I grin and hold out my hand. “Will you come back to the shop and let me properly introduce you to myfriendLucy?”
She eyes my hand for a long second, then slips hers into mine. I pull her closer, the tension between us melting away.
Why does she feel so good pressed up against me? Like we were made to fit together. I lean down and kiss the top of her head.
She tips her chin up, staring at me with curious eyes. “Why’d you do that?”
“I missed you,” I admit, voice rough. “Been thinking about you all day. What’ve you been up to?”
Color blooms across her cheeks. “Just…researching the town a little more.”
“Find anything interesting?”
“Maybe.” Her tone’s, teasing, but questions still linger in her eyes. About me? About us? Whatever they are, I hope I’ll have an answer for her when she finally asks.
“Mrs. Applewood told me the missing kid was found,” she adds.
“Mason,” I say. “I heard.”
“Apparently he took a bus to Virginia to meet some girl he met online.”
“That’s what I heard too.” I huff out a breath. “Kids.”
“Lucky,” she says quietly. “That could’ve gone very differently.”
Don’t I know it.
I push through the shop door and hold it open for Emery. Her fingers curl tighter around mine as if she’s nervous. About being introduced to one of my friends or is she still worried there’s more to my relationship with Lucy?
Lucy glances up from behind the counter, a cup of coffee halfway to her mouth. Her lips wobble into a nervous smile and she sets the cup back down with athunk.
“Hi,” Lucy says tentatively. “I take it you’re not here to book some ink?”
“Maybe later,” Emery says, glancing up at me, a shy smile forming on her lips.
A bolt of lust that has nothing to do with the Rider or being marked and everything to do with Emery shoots down my spine.From what I saw she doesn’t have a single tattoo. Would she let me give her the first?
