“Uh, no. That’s one of the things I actually saw. How much I let life interfere with important things like friendships or just plain courtesy.”
“I guess I know what you mean. I should call my brother. I don’t see him much anymore. If something happened to him, I wouldn’t know about it.”
“But I thought you two were roommates and on the same schedule.”
“He’s spending a lot of time at Mallory’s house. He’s even thinking of moving in with her.”
“Oh! That’s…nice?”
Noah chuckled. “Yeah. That was my initial reaction. It’s fast, but they seem to be crazy about each other, so I guess it’s a good thing.”
After a brief hesitation, Kizzy asked, “Where are you?”
“At home. Why?”
“Are you busy?”
“Nah. I’m just puttering around the lab.”
“The lab?”
“Yeah. I’m building a chem lab in our spare bedroom. I know, I know. That makes me sound like a total geek.”
“No, it sounds interesting.Reallyinteresting!” After a brief hesitation, she said, “I’m going stir-crazy. I wish I could come over.”
“You can. Of course. I’ll come and get you. Dante has the car, but I can call an Uber and be there in half an hour or so.”
“No, I can do the same thing. I just need your address and directions.”
“But you’re blind! It’s no problem, honest. I can come and get you. Or visit there. We can play it by ear. Maybe you just need a distraction.”
“Okay.”
He was a good friend and would probably understand if she said she wasn’t really blind but had to come up with an excuse to suddenly stay at home. But how would she explainwhyshe needed to stay at home. She couldn’t very well say, “Well, we have this book to protect, and I needed an immediate leave of absence without being able to say when I would be back—so I spelled myself.”
She was sick of the whole thing. The book was fine. It was behind so many reinforced wards, nobody outside her family would be able to take it. Even Mr. Wolfensen—who would be back any minute—couldn’t touch it unless a family member handed it to him. She wished he didn’t have to hang around while she visited with Noah. He hadn’t asked about her love life at all, but the guy was working for her father, not her. And her father didn’t approve.
Maybe she could send him on an errand. She wanted to be alone with the handsome firefighter. The admission surprised her. There was probably something wrong with this plan, but she had nothing else. She said goodbye to Noah, relieved that their friendship had survived.
* * *
Strolling hand in hand through the South End, Mallory listened as Dante tried again to talk her into calling her parents.
“I can’t. Seriously. They’re on a construction site.”
“Don’t they have cell phones?”
“Yeah, but they don’t work well in the middle of the Amazon rain forest.”
Dante shook his head. “Don’t you miss them? I mean, I’d miss my parents if I hadn’t seen or heard from them for a couple of months.”
“It’s okay. I knew it would be like this before they left. I had to assure them about a billion times that I would be perfectly all right. Even if I did find a way to get in contact, my mother would assume something was wrong, and she’d insist they come home. Then my dad would disown me for jeopardizing his multimillion-dollar deal.”
“He would not.”
“I wouldn’t put it past him. He’s a driven, type A kind of guy. If something gets in his way, he steamrolls right over it.”
“Well, then my parents would just have to adopt you.”
