There wasn’t really anything she could say to that. But it kind of made her sad for him.
She leaned back against the leather seat and listened to the sound of rain hitting the windshield. He didn’t offer to put on music or push her to talk; apparently, he was also content to be lost in his own thoughts. That relieved her. She’d been afraid that if they did talk, he would want to discuss the other night, and she didn’t want to hear him cheapen something that had probably meant more to her than it did to him.A challenge, his father had called her.
Something to be overcome and then cast aside.
The store clerk in Arboreus sold them the candles without any strange looks, while Nadine huddled beside him, hands in the pocket of her slicker. When she looked around the store, nobody was looking back, staring. That was a refreshing change of pace.
“Where do you want to go for lunch?” Cal asked, dropping the candles in the back.
“Japanese?”
“I’m not sure we have such refinement here in the backwoods,” he said, but he pulled out his phone to check. “Apparently we do. How very metropolitan of us.”
“Don’tyouwork in the city?”
“I used to.” His face became guarded. “Then I started working closer to home.”
She wanted to ask why but the expression on his face made her wary. “Doing pro bono?”
“Only in Argentum, and not so much lately. It feels rather odd to demand payment from people who would swear on a bible that your family drinks blood.”
“I’d charge double,” Nadine muttered.
“Would you?” he shot her an amused glance. “You seem too sweet for that.”
Remembering his words to her the other night, she flushed. “I don’t like bullies.”
“Hm. That didn’t seem to be the case when you were antagonizing Ben the other night, little sparrow. That was very unwise of you.”
“I just wouldn’t be so quick to write off the lives of someone I loved if it were me.”
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple. You don’t know what it’s like here for us. For her.” He parked the car with a jerk, his hands tight around the wheel. “You can’t save everyone.”
Did my sister need to be saved?
“Tell me the truth then. Is your family hiding something about Noelle? Or am I the only one who’s not allowed to lie?”
“Nadine,” he said, stretching out her name so that it was almost a sigh. She looked at him expectantly, as he twisted the keys free. As if he needed something to occupy his hands.
That expression on his face—it looked almost like regret.
“Cal?” she whispered, when he went silent. “What is it?”
He shook his head, and whatever it was she’d glimpsed on his face vanished like ripples obscuring the reflection of a deep and quiet lake as he arranged his features into a careless smile.
“It’s nothing. Let’s go.”
I was so close, she thought, looking at Cal regretfully.He was going to tell me . . . something.She closed the car door and jogged after him, chased by a keen sense of loss.
Shibuya Sushi was not a particularly fancy Japanese restaurant, although the inside had been crammed with so many fake plants that it resembled an artificial greenhouse. The tables were made out of stained wood painted to look more like exotic, expensive varieties of other wood, but were so old and worn that the natural blonde color was beginning to peek through the staining.
The waiter sat them in a booth, and Nadine squeezed in first, feeling a little caged in with a big spider plant on one side and Cal on the other. His thigh was hard and warm against hers, which made her remember how it had felt between her legs.
(Now you belong to me)
She pulled off her slicker and balled it carefully at her feet, and leaned over to examine her menu, causing her necklace to swing forward. When she glanced over, Cal was watching.
“Get whatever you want,” he said, in a tone that was subdued for him. His eyes were on her swinging pendant.
