AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bria stared at them both, her heart pounding in her throat. “Of what?”
“Of him not giving you the chance to live this new you?” Zeta asked. “The new you he’s helped you find?”
Heart thumping faster, Bria moved her stare to the ceiling. “You know, for a zookeeper and a graphic artist, you’re both very clever and savvy. Did both of you go to psychology classes without telling me?”
Zeta snorted. “Everything I know about people, I’ve learned through working with animals.”
“And did you ever see the psychologist I went to for my anxiety back in high school?” Elisa asked with a wide smile. “He was so gorgeous, I practically hung on every word he uttered. He was like an addictive visual textbook.”
Bria laughed. Zeta wacked her in the face with the pillow—softly—and then pushed her off the bed with her feet. “Go find the Australian, Bri,” she instructed as Bria stood. “Tell him you’re not letting him be scared alone. Tell him how you feel. Without any filters or hesitation.”
“If nothing else,” Elisa said, a mischievous light glinting in her eye, “it’ll give us something to talk about the next time I have a panic attack in public. Hey, remember when Bri finally realized she actually liked nice guys with brains, and the nice guy with brains she really liked tried to run away from her?”
Bria rolled her eyes. “Ha ha.”
Elisa grinned. “You love me.”
“I do.” Bria let out a wobbly breath, chest tight. “Both of you. More than you will ever know.”
“Okay, now you’re getting mushy.” Zeta waved a hand in the direction of the bedroom door. “Go find Owen.”
Elisa started to climb from the bed. “We’ll come help you search, if you want? We can tell him to wake up to himself if he won’t listen to reason.”
Bria shook her head with a chuckle. “No. I’ve got this. I’ll find him and make him see reason. He might be scared, and we might not have that long together, but if that’s the case, every minute will be worth a life—”
Someone knocked on their apartment door.
Two soft, almost tentative knocks, but knocks all the same.
Zeta and Elisa both snapped their stares to Bria, identical excited expressions on their faces.
“It’s him,” Zeta whispered.
Bria’s heart returned to her throat with a vengeance, something very close to fear slicing through her. What if it wasn’t Owen? What if she got her hopes up, and it was someone else?
Who else would it be?
She swallowed, turning back her sisters. “Might be for one of you? Didn’t either of you meet anyone at the party?”
Zeta snorted. “No. As if.”
Elisa rolled her eyes. “Oh, for God’s sake, Bri,” she whispered, hurrying over to where she stood and giving her back a good shove. “Go answer the freaking door.”
“Okay, okay,” Bria whispered back, rolling her shoulders and tossing her hair over her shoulders. “I can do this.”
“You jump out of planes for a living,” Zeta muttered. “Of course you can do it.”
With a quick scowl at her, and a quicker smile at Elisa, Bria hurried from Zeta’s bedroom. “Jumping out of planes is easier,” she tossed over her shoulder on way out.
Whoever was on the other side of the apartment door knocked again, softer this time.
She lengthened her strides, reached the door and stopped. Pulling a deep breath, she closed her eyes, counted backwards from ten in Italian, and then opened her eyes.
“You can do this, Bria,” she murmured and opened the door.
Owen stood on the other side of the threshold. His gaze locked on hers instantly. “G’day,” he said, his voice cracking halfway through the greeting. He winced, cleared his throat, and let out a ragged breath, his smile almost shy. “G’day. Hi. Hello.”
She regarded him, not saying a word.
