“The building’s fine.” Marcus looked at her. “One of my guys stayed late to get ready for the brick removal. He thought he was helping.”
He paused so long she began to consider shrieking loud enough to frighten him, but told herself shrill didn’t look good on anyone. “And?”
“He scrubbed the wall.”
Jax waited for the rest of the sentence, but Marcus had stopped talking. Then his words sank in.
“He scrubbed the wall as in...” Her breath caught. “No. Just no.” She pushed past him and ran through the store, then came to a halt in front of the tall wall of bricks. Sparkling clean bricks devoid of any markings at all.
“Oh, God,” she breathed trying to take it all in. The markings that showed whose diary was where had been erased. There were only clean bricks and nothing else.
“I’m sorry,” Marcus repeated, coming up and standing next to her. “He didn’t mean to create a problem.”
Jax felt her heart pounding in her chest and she was having a little trouble catching her breath. “People trusted us with their secrets. They’re going to show up expecting to claim their diaries and we won’t know where they are.” She pulled her phone from her back pocket and quickly texted Cheryl.
When she was finished she said, “We need a plan and my mind is blank.”
“I’m sorry,” he repeated for the third time.
She waved away his words. “It was an accident.” A really big one that had created what felt like large-scale disaster.
“If I can help,” he began.
“I haven’t got a clue how,” she admitted. “I can’t grasp the problem, let alone come up with a solution.” She shook herhead. “But we’ll figure it out. We always do.” She was trying for cheerful with her tone but had a bad feeling she only sounded five seconds from hysterical.
Marcus stepped in front of her and met her gaze. “This is on me. I want to make this up to you. How can I do that?”
His look was intense and he was standing really close. For a second she got caught up in the fact that Marcus was quite the looker and being this close to him made her feel... something. Not a bad something—on the contrary she kind of liked the faint quiver of being unsettled because of a man. It had been years and years since she’d felt anything like that and the sensation was nice. No, better than nice. It made her think about what it would be like to be kissed by him and—
Stop, she told herself. No attraction to Marcus. She had other plans for him, and speaking of them...
“Go out with my sister.”
His expression of concern changed to one of confusion. “What did you say?”
“You can make it up to me by going out with my sister.”
“Not gonna happen.”
“But the wall.”
“Still a no.”
She sighed. “You’re making a mistake. Ryleigh’s great. Have you seen her? She’s pretty and funny and smart.” She thought about mentioning that she was good in bed but held back. While that was probably true, it was something she and her sister had never discussed. Besides it felt weird to say that about a family member. Not to mention she didn’t like thinking about Marcus and her sister together in any way. She wanted him for herself, only she couldn’t because, well...
“I’m losing my mind,” she murmured. “One day it will just be gone.” She looked at her watch. “I have to take care of Ramon, then get to work.” Her phone chimed. She looked at her screen. “Cheryl can’t be here until one, which gives me timeto think about what I want to do. Maybe I’ll text Ryleigh and ask her to stop by after school.”
“I could—” Marcus began.
She stopped him with a shake of her head. “It’s okay. We’ll deal. And hey, in a few years, this will just be a funny story.”
She headed upstairs and went into Ramon’s room. He was sitting on his perch by the window. When he saw her, he quickly turned his back on her. She walked up to him and lightly stroked his tail feathers.
“I have a crisis I have to deal with, which doesn’t take away what happened with Lucy. I was wrong to get you a cat when you said you didn’t want one. I was wrong not to listen. You’re my guy and I love you. I made a mistake. I thought I was helping.”
Unexpected tears filled her eyes. “I can’t take you being mad at me,” she whispered. “It hurts my heart.”
He fluttered his feathers before turning to face her. She felt a tear slip down her cheek. Ramon flapped his wings again, indicating she should put out her hand. She did and was gratified when he hopped onto her fingers, then waddled up her arm to press his beak to her cheek.
