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His house had been, of course, fantastic. Not fancy. But a quintessential DC row house, spacious and well-appointed with lots of natural light in a quiet neighborhood up Wisconsin Avenue. The room that would be hers was bigger than some of the apartments she’d seen, and the basement had a roughly finished bathroom that would make a perfect darkroom.
No moldy showers, ghosts, or clowns in sight.
She found Billy’s party at the back of the
restaurant. They all had drinks but still had menus, so she wasn’t too late. “Hey, everyone.”
Mo, Noah, and Tara got up to say hello to her, and being embraced by all of them like they were old friends was really freaking nice. Just like she’d done with her parents, Shayna had isolated herself a lot these past two years.
At first, it’d been because she was hurting and, with both a broken arm and ankle, it’d been difficult getting around. And then it’d been because, if her own family and closest friend blamed her for Dylan’s death, what would mere acquaintances who knew about the accident think of Shayna?
So once she was able, she threw herself into work with a frenzy, which was what led her to realizing that the museum wasn’t where she wanted to be. Once she got the newspaper internship, she’d had to take on a second job that actually paid, and that’d left her even less time for other people.
So having friends again…well, it’d been a long time for her. And it felt damn good.
Billy was standing at his seat when she finally went to sit down next to him, and he pulled the chair out for her and gave her a smile, sending her heart into a tumble and rushing heat over her body. From the way she wanted him. Lusted after him. Loved him.
Because she did. Finally knowing that she had somewhere else to go had meant coming to terms with leaving Billy’s—and leaving Billy himself—and that was the very moment her heart had made it clear just how hard she’d fallen.
The sadness she’d been feeling the last few days hadn’t just been about the stress of the search or missing Reuben and Ziggy. It had been about missing Billy.
It’d always been about Billy. For her.
He leaned in close. “I need to talk to you after dinner. Would that be okay?”
“Uh, sure. Of course. Is everything all right?”
An array of expressions crossed his face before he finally settled on a little frown and gave a shrug. “Yeah. I mean…” He shook his head. “Yeah, everything’s fine.”
Prickles skittered across her scalp. “How are you surviving all the surveillance work?” she asked him, wondering if that was what accounted for how run down he seemed in just a few days’ time.
“It’s fine,” he said. “I’m going to be able to wrap one of the cases up pretty quickly, so that’ll help.”
“Oh, good.”
The waitress appeared and asked them if they were ready to order.
Everyone turned to her. “Go ahead,” Shayna said, flipping open her menu. “Just do me last.” Her belly was a bundle of nerves, so she struggled to figure out what she could put into it. She finally decided on the barbecued chicken and baked potato. When the waitress departed again, she asked, “Where are Dani and Sean tonight?”
“Working,” they almost all said in unison, which resulted in a round of laughter.
“They’re both kinda workaholics,” Tara said. “But I guess that comes with those particular professional territories.” She sipped at her soda. “Oh, hey. I’ve been meaning to say congratulations to you. I saw your name on a photo credit in the paper.”
Shayna smiled. “Why, thank you. That was pretty cool, wasn’t it?”
“Is that right?” Mo said, grinning at her. “I want to see it.”
“I might be able to find it online,” Shayna said, fishing her phone out of her purse.
“I got it,” Billy said. His web browser was open to the page.
Shayna did a double take. Her gaze lifted from his phone, which he passed around the table, to him. “You have my picture on your phone?”
Was she imagining the pink in his cheeks or was that just color casting off the stained-glass light fixtures? “I set a Google alert for your name so it would catch your credit lines and I wouldn’t miss any of your photos.”
Her jaw was on the floor. She knew it was. But she couldn’t pick it up.
He didn’t want to miss any of her pictures? That reached into her chest and squeezed something awful. Because it was so bittersweet. An amazingly thoughtful gesture from a man she wanted but couldn’t have.
