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His eyes strayed to the building behind me.
“You nervous?” I asked.
He shrugged.
“It’ll be fast. It’s not like we know anything anyway.”
He nodded.
Hitching my chin toward the interior of the car, I asked, “You gonna bring your coffee?”
“You mean my cup of whipped cream?” He smarted off.
I smiled, and he rolled his eyes but leaned in to grab the paper cup from the center. We made it to the fender of the Mercedes when Matthew’s feet stuttered.
I glanced around, but he was staring ahead. “Why does he look like that?”
He meant Niles who was standing on the sidewalk like he had a major case of hemorrhoids and constipation.
What a tool.
I grunted. “That’s just his face. Unfortunate, isn’t it?”
The side of his mouth curved up, but the half-smile didn’t last. Usually, other people’s irritation didn’t bother me. I was good at being unbothered because, frankly, whatever crawled up someone else’s ass wasn’t my problem.
Until Matthew.
Until it became painfully obvious the way other people reacted and the energy they put out in the room affected him profoundly.
“Hey,” I said, nimble fingers unclasping the bracelet he seemed to favor. “How about you hold on to this for me?” Moving so I was in front of him and blocking the view of Niles, I fastened the leather strap around his wrist.
He glanced down. “You’re giving me your bracelet?”
“If you get nervous in there, you can fidget with it.”
Saying nothing, he just stared.
Clearing my throat, I adjusted the sleeve of the hoodie so the leather strap could touch his skin. “That feel okay?”
He nodded, eyes straying to my wrist. “But now you have an uneven amount.”
“I do?”
“Mm, there were twelve. Now you have eleven.”
Ah yes, the sets of three.
I unfastened another one, this one braided, and added it to his wrist. Holding up my hand, I offered, “Pick another one.”
His fingers went right to one with black beads, and I slid it from my wrist to his. “Now you have three and I have nine.”
His eyes lifted from the accessories to meet mine. “Thank you.”
The urge to kiss him was so strong I didn’t even think twice. Leaning in, I brushed his lips with mine and then dropped another on the tip of his nose.
Niles glared the entire time we walked across the lot, and I made sure to angle myself slightly in front of Matthew. The second we stepped onto the sidewalk, I turned, ushering Matthew ahead of us through the door.
He went on in, and I stopped abruptly, Niles cursing under his breath as we nearly collided.
