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You know what? “Yeah, sure.”

The retrograde just ended, but what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.

“I’ll have a turkey sandwich too,” I say, turning my attention back to my purse. But my wallet—and my cards and money and everything else—is nowhere to be found. “Please.”

Might be eating air for lunch. Serves me right.

The bell above the door sounds, but it’s not until I hear the familiar, deep voice that I turn to see who it is.

“Did you forget something?” Sterling asks, all smiles and dimples.

As if everything is normal. Because it is.

“No,” I squeak, holding my head higher. “I’m getting lunch. Are you stalking me?”

He rolls his eyes and holds up my wallet. “I hope you didn’t drive here without your license.”

“I walked,” I snap, grabbing the wallet from him.

He shakes his head. “You’re welcome.”

Farrah looks between the two of us, the suspicion in her expression growing. “I guess you’ll be getting lunch too?”

“Mhm,” Sterling says. “My usual.”

Well, if I was going to talk to Farrah before, I definitely can’t now.

With a huff, I pay, grab my things, and return to work.

In a town like Starbrook, there’s no escaping Sterling.

Chapter 24

Sterling

Aurora was only supposed to be mine for the night. That’s all I can give her, the only kind of relationship I can have without putting her in danger, and I should be able to get over it, but I can’t. Her scent is stuck in my nose, the feeling of her soft skin living permanently under my fingertips.

After work, I don’t want to go back to my cabin. I’m no stranger to ghosts, but she’s haunting me in an entirely new way. For so long, I was okay with being alone. I shouldn’t want her to haunt me. I shouldn’t want her at all.

But I do.

When I spot her at the tavern, all the way on the other side of the bar, her presence doesn’t feel like an unwelcome invasion. She doesn’t even look at me, and I struggle to keep my eyes to myself as I order a stout.

Of course, Aurora is with someone else, just like when she moved here. She’s giggling at his jokes. Touching his arm. Luckily, with the din of the tavern—laughter, music, glasses clinking—I can’t hear what they’re saying. I don’t want to know.

I was a jealous asshole back when I first saw her talking to Val, and I still am now. Tenfold. I want to be the one making her that happy, the one keeping her close. I want her eyes to crinkle for me.

More than anything, what I want is to be more than friends. But how can I want that and, at the same time, know she would be safer with someone else? Her lifeline is still strong. I want to keep it that way.

I want to keep her alive.

My glasses slip down my nose, and I take them off, holding them so tight they might break.

“Tough night?” Laurel asks, sliding up to me.

Laurel is more than the bartender—she’s the seer of our coven. I hate when she looks at me like she’s trying to figure me out, her blue eyes piercing through.

I rub a hand down my face, as if I can scrub away whatever expression I’m wearing. “Nope. That’s just how my face looks.”