ELI:What are you all doing at the bookstore? I want to come.
My head falls back against my seat as I watch Tally disappear inside. Everyone else leaves the window except Penny, who stands to watch me for another moment. Then she shakes her head and turns the shop door sign toCLOSEDbefore disappearing as well.
I drum my fingers against the steering wheel for one, two, three—ah, dammit. I stuff my phone in my pocket and turn off the engine. Then somehow I find myself getting out of my truck and walking toward the door.
Just in case Eli really does show up.
CHAPTER 21
Tally
Frazzled from my interaction with Walker, I enter the bookstore in a daze. For once, I wish he was justrealwith me.
Because the way he looked at me when I came down the stairs tonight, like his heart was pounding just as wildly as my own, like he saw me and wanted me for more than just this physical attraction, had a fissure of hope slicing through my chest. But it only lasted the briefest of moments before he shut down and shut me out. Again.
I don’t blame him, really. Why would Walker be interested in anything with me? I’m a child compared to him. And I’ve acted like nothing but a child—screwing up repeatedly, acting out when I didn’t get my way, taunting him, teasing him. God, it’s like I’ve lost my damn mind since I came back to this town.
I keep saying I’m going to change, that I’m going to do better, and then I go and do something stupid like try to touch the man.
I sigh as my eyes trail to the table where the Liberty Ladies are all grabbing snacks. It seems that everyone brought something for this little shindig; platters of cheese and fancy meats, sweet treats and desserts. A punch bowl is filled with a suspicious blue liquid. I’m just about to find out precisely what it is when Babs slams down an oversized blue rubber dildo with three heads beside the punch bowl with a loudthwack.
“What the hell?” Penny hisses.
Babs grins. “I told you I had one, just like in the book.”
“Please tell me that’s brand new,” Rayna says, covering her mouth.
“Can I touch it?” Mindy asks.
Ruby licks her lips. “Where do I get one of those?”
“Amazon,” Babs says proudly. “You can get anything on there.”
“This is book club?” I whisper to my sister, my eyes unable to look away from the dildo still shaking wildly. “And does that have a suction cup on the bottom of it?”
“Yes, so you can use it in the shower,” Babs explains loudly.
My mind goes to Walker again. Great, I’d made it a whole two minutes without thinking about him. Shaking my head, I nod toward the punch. “Is that safe to drink? Or is it somehow related to that other thing?”
Babs’s face scrunches. “If you’re making a joke about alien cum, that’s disgusting.”
My mother—who rode over here early with Penny—covers her mouth in a bid to hide her laughter. The rest of the women look at me and shake their heads like I’m the inappropriate one. “No, I wasn’t even thinking that. Though now I am.”
Rayna tsks. “This is very inappropriate talk, Tally. You’re in the presence of the Ladies of Liberty, remember.”
Penny snorts beside me as I start to apologize. I steer clear of the blue drink, though, because I can’t get the thought of alien cum out of my head. Every time someone gets near the table to fill their plate with food, the suctioned dildo heads dance and one bobs so low it touches the drink.
The blue liquid drips onto the table cloth. “I’m going to be sick,” I mutter to Penny.
She shakes her head. “I’ll grab us wine.”
I’m not sure that will help, but when she returns from behind the checkout counter with two mugs and a bottle of red wine, I take the one she offers and wait for her to fill it to the brim.
“Oh, Penny, did you hear Stew’s getting a divorce?” Rayna says.
“I thought his wife died,” Babs interjects.
“Who’s Stew again?” I ask.
