“Okaaaay.” Her pixie cut rumpled and adorable, as always, Sionna tilted her head. “Then tell me how your non-babysitting job—in which you’re paid to accompany a grown man every time he leaves his house in order to ensure he doesn’t get into trouble—is going.”
Okay, it did sound a bit like babysitting, when she put it that way. But—
“I’ve come to the conclusion that Ron overreacted.” Setting her hands on her hips, Lauren turned to face the couch. “If Alex is somehow careening out of control, I haven’t seen any sign of it. And I’ve spent … what? Five weeks with him? I probably would have noticed by now.”
Idly, Sionna hugged a throw pillow to her substantial chest. “He’s not drinking to excess?”
Lauren directed a pointed glance at the wine bottle and glasses her friend had miraculously produced since entering the apartment, even though it wasn’t yet noon.
Sionna only laughed.
Grinning, Lauren dropped down onto the couch too. “Anyway, to answer your question, he hasn’t had a single drink since we met.”
Sionna’s brow pinched. “So what the hell happened in Spain?”
“I have no idea.” She angled herself toward her friend. “But I’d bet my savings account he had good reason to take a swing, and it had nothing to do with alcohol.”
“That … is not what the tabloids reported.” In the sunlight glaring through the windows, the silver strands threading through Sionna’s deep brown hair glinted like tinsel. “But you’re not a betting person, so I believe you.”
No, Lauren wasn’t a gambler. She trusted her own judgment when it came to evaluating the mental state of others, and Alex was many things—many,manythings—but not the spiraling near-addict Ron had described.
As if reading Lauren’s thoughts, Sionna raised a dark brow. “So if he isn’t what Ron and the tabloids told you he was, whatishe?”
“Ummmm …” How to describe him? “He’s a smartass, through and through. He likes to annoy everyone, but also make them laugh. He’s impulsive, quick-witted, and curious. He can be self-absorbed, but he’s a surprisingly good listener when he tries. He’s generous and loyal and never shuts up, as far as I can tell.” Lauren frowned and considered the issue. “Maybe when he’s sleeping? Not that he sleeps much, honestly.”
Sionna’s brow arched higher. “You know this from firsthand experience?”
“Are you saying—” Lauren stared at her bestie, aghast. “Of course I don’t know! We’re not—he’s not—”
She cut herself off, unsure how to finish her own sentence, cheeks suddenly ablaze.
“He’s not your type?” Sionna nodded thoughtfully. “I can see that. Marcus Caster-Rupp—his best friend, right?—is much more handsome.”
Oh, Lauren knew what her BFF was doing, and she wouldn’t fall for that trick, not in a million years. Only—
“Marcus might be more traditionally handsome,” she heard herself declaring fiercely, outrage in every syllable, “but Alex is approximately a million times sexier. Especially with that beard. And those eyes.”
Not to mention thatpurrof his, the one that raised every hair on her body and snatched the breath from her lungs.
At this point, both Sionna’s brows were practically levitating above her head. “So, in your opinion, the man you’ve spent over a month in close quarters with is very sexy. And has eyes. Also a beard.”
Lauren threw a throw pillow at her best friend’s annoying face. “Shut up.”
Catching it nimbly, Sionna grinned at her. “Nice aim. I see you’ve made progress in the Crone Arts while you’ve been gone.”
She would not hide her burning face. Shewould not.
Her best friend’s smirk softened. “I mean it, Ren. You seem …”
Oh, jeez. Lauren waited for Sionna’s verdict, skin prickling with discomfort.
“You seem more comfortable in your own skin,” Sionna finally said. “Less like you’re watching yourself and everyone else from a safe distance. I don’t know whether that’s because you left the hospital or because of your million-times-sexier-than-Marcus-Caster-Rupp charge, but either way, I’m happy to see it, babe. I’ve been worried about you for a long time now.”
As Lauren blinked at her best friend, belated revelation rounded her mouth into a silentoh.
How had she missed it all these years? In retrospect, it was beyond obvious.
Sionna might have created the Harpy Institute for Crone Sciences out of newly widowed grief and rage, but she’d also created it out of concern for Lauren. Because she wanted Lauren to engage with the world again.
