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I believed in doing what was right and standing up for the people I loved.
So I went to community college, worked at a library, and lived from paycheck to paycheck.
What happened made my life harder, but it also made me stronger.
“So…”
The new voice finally pulled my attention from Reed. I was glad because I could see the way my story had affected him. It probably gave him a lot more understanding of who I was and why I made the choices I made on the day we met. That, or he was wondering what the fuck he got himself into by inviting me to live in his house.
I swallowed the hard lump that had formed in my throat and finally took in the incredibly handsome guy standing to my left. He smirked, this unexpected boyish energy in his eyes making me smile. “What’d I miss?”
When Reed didn’t answer, I laughed. “You’re gonna need to grab a drink. This might take a while.”
Chapter Nine
REED
“A librarian?” Bronson questioned, his eyes narrowed on an amused Valen.
“Yes, a librarian,” she insisted for what felt like the tenth time in the past five minutes.
I chuckled, and Bronson snapped his head toward me. “You’re fucking with me.” His eyes moved suspiciously between Valen and me as he twirled the axe in his hand. “Right?”
Valen threw her hands in the air but couldn’t stop smiling. “What is so shocking about me being a librarian? I don’t look like I could be intelligent enough?”
He lifted the axe, pointing it directly at her like he was eyeing her up. “Don’t try to entrap me with your word witchery.”
Valen threw her head back and laughed loudly before turning to me. “Reed. Come on.”
“She works at Boston U,” I told him, a fact I only knew because I’d had to fill in her forms at the hospital for her when her hands were a little shakey from her concussion. “It’s not like you would know what a fucking librarian looked like anyway. Have you even been in a library in the past ten years?”
“This is true. If our librarians looked like you, I would have spent a lot more fucking time studying when I was in college.” He turned back toward the target, barely pausing before launching the sharp weapon straight at it, hitting the center with little to no effort. “Maybe I should get a library card. Do they still have those?”
“Yes. We have library cards,” Valen explained extremely slowly with a smile as if she were a kindergarten teacher talking to a class of children.
Bronson directed his middle finger at her but thankfully refrained from poking his tongue out.
Valen threw back the last of her drink—the water she’d been drinking since that first margarita almost put her straight on her ass. “I’m going to the ladies’ room,” she announced, spinning on her heel and strutting across the bar.
I watched her the entire way until she disappeared behind two double doors that led to the bathrooms. When I finally turned my attention back to Bronson, he was staring at me, smirking. “Don’t fucking say it,” I ordered, getting to my feet and going around the tall table to the rack of axes.
“What shouldn’t I say?” he taunted, leaning back into the bar stool and folding his arms across his chest. “I shouldn’t say… this girl is hot, she’s smart, she’s bold.”
“She’s just walked out of a long-term relationship,” I added, grabbing an axe and swinging it in my arm to get a feel for the weight.
“And?” Bronson challenged.
“She’s just lost a best friend and a fiancé, who were fucking around behind her back.”
“And?”
I glared back at my friend.
Bronson and I had known each other for a long time.
We went to college together.
We’d done business together.
