We grab our things and head out together, the cold air a sharp contrast to the warm cafe as we head for the parking lot. I tug my coat tighter, still half-laughing about Hannah’s towel theatrics, when she goes quiet beside me.
“Oh—hey,” she says casually, like it just occurred to her. “Has your ex’s mom bothered you again?”
The question flips my good mood off like a light switch in my chest.
The laughter drains out of me as we start down the sidewalk toward the parking lot.
“No.” I exhale slowly. “Brady had Elizabeth draft a letter. Basically, told her if she accosts me again, I’ll file for a restraining order.”
Hannah winces. “Good. That was… a lot.”
“Yeah.” I shove my hands into my pockets. “I hate that it even got to that point. I know she’s hurting, too, but I can’t help her.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” she says firmly. “That’s smart, though.Gets it on the record that she is harassing you.”
I nod, even though the knot in my stomach hasn’t fully loosened. It’s an unwelcome reminder that the secrets in my life can yank me back at any time. And I’ve just added a new one.
We reach the row where our cars are parked, and Hannah bumps my shoulder lightly. “All jokes aside. If you are feeling it with him, go for it,” she says with a grin. “You never know how long a good thing’s going to last.”
14
LIEV
I’m early.
Because I miss her.
The thought irritates me the second it surfaces. I barely know her. A handful of conversations, and a kiss that replays too vividly in my mind for comfort. I’d hoped that somehow the time we spent apart this week and weekend would lessen the pull I feel. I don’t like it. This obsessive compulsion to see her, touch her, make sure she’s okay.
But it didn’t lessen. If anything, the less I saw of her, the more obsessive of a freak I became. The only things that kept me from pulling one of Alex’s stalkerish moves this weekend was helping my mother and pretending to give a shit at my father’s funeral.
Every glimpse of Sera across the room, her dark brows knit in concentration as she watched Elite’s training videos—which I have to admit weren’t as asinine as I expected them to be—had me itching to go to her.
Brady is already here, pacing the room and checking his watch. I can’t tell if it shows his lack of faith in his sister and me to do the job, or if he doesn’t like how close he knows we will be.
I smirk. He’d be a lot more pissed if he knew the things I’d imagined doing to his sister.
“You’re early,” he says flatly.
“So are you.”
He grunts, unimpressed
Brady checks his watch again. “She’s late.”
“She’s not,” I say calmly.
His head whips toward me, but the buzzing door interrupts him, and Sera enters.
Something inside me eases at the sight of her.
Her mouth lifts but when she gets closer, Brady opens his mouth ruining her happy expression.
“You’re late,” he says.
She stops dead in front of him. “Chill out. I’m exactly on time.”
Vincent chooses that moment to arrive, cutting off whatever Brady was about to say. Sera turns away from her brother and steps closer to me instead, lowering her voice.
