“It’s not exactly the same, the back is open and the sleeves are short instead of long.”
He sighed. “You’re an evil woman, Miss Hayes. If it looks like how I’m picturing it and you’d worn that, I think I might have gone on a murder spree to save myself from my shadows’ incessant reports.”
“You’re sure it’s not you subconsciously ordering them around? ’Cause you’re a little obsessed with me, too.”
“Not as obsessed as them.”
“Well, I think I might like them more than you.”
His shadows began to swirl around him while he scowled at them.
“They’re going to be insufferable now.”
I grinned. One of the shadows hovering near his hip inched closer to me. They were still curious, but cautious. Though they were becoming more comfortable around me, none had come close to touching me yet.
I took my right hand off the steering wheel, holding my palm out. The curious shadow paused, thinking, waiting. Then it moved, weaving around my fingers, over my palm and up my arm. It felt warm. Soothing. Safe. Like coming home after a long day and wrapping yourself in a fuzzy blanket.
“That’s enough.” Austin’s soft voice cut through the daze.
I blinked twice as the shadow slid back to him and put my hand back on the wheel.Note to self, don’t do that again while driving. At least the skies were still clear and the road was a straight shot. Still, I should have been more careful, this areawas entirely surrounded by forest. I’d nearly hit a dozen deer here over the years.
“Now they’re going to be extra insufferable.”
I laughed again. “Stop being jealous of your own shadows.”
He scoffed. “No.”
I snorted, readjusting my grip on the steering wheel. We were almost at the cottage now.
“So, I realized something.”
“What’s that?”
“I have no idea how old you are. I thought you were like my age, but if you were a year from gradating post-grad whenthe incidenthappened you would have been twenty-four or twenty-five. That would put you at twenty-nine or thirty. Unless you were one of those geniuses that flew through school.”
“I would have been.” He chuckled. “My school kept trying to put me in those high intensity programs but I was getting straight As without even trying. Why would I want to do more work and rush through school? It’s not like I needed a career, I had more than enough money from my mom. It didn’t make sense to streamline anything. So yes, I’m thirty. I’ll be thirty-one on the sixteenth.”
“Of January?”
He nodded.
“What day is that?” I did some quick mental math. Christmas was this Wednesday, which meant New Year’s was also a Wednesday and the fifteenth always fell in line with the first so sixteenth would be… “A Thursday. Cool. We should do something.”
He looked up from his phone which was pulled up to the calendar app and blinked at me.
“How…the fuck did you know that?”
“I like numbers. And I’m good with dates. So birthday boy, what do you want to do?”
I caught him cocking an eyebrow.
“I don’t know. I never really celebrated. It’s just another day to me.”
I could relate to that one. I hadn’t celebrated my birthday since my parents died. Much to Amber’s dismay.
“I’ll make sure my night is clear. In case you change your mind.”
“What do you usually do for yours?”
