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I nod. “Yeah. Thanks for the tip.”
“Left ya on read, huh?” he says with a slight shake of his head.
“Uh-huh.” I nod.
“Knew it. Lily might be a bit of a flight risk, but she has her heart in the right place. I’m sure she’s just trying to weigh things against her pro-con list,” he offers.
The thought makes me smile. Even as a child, Lily was always the one who needed to find order in chaos. She always wanted proof that life has meaning or that we’re not alone in the universe.
I push off my vehicle and reach my hand out when the store clerk is close enough. “I’m London, by the way.”
“Quinn,” he says, giving it a shake. Then, he takes up the spot beside me and leans his back against my truck. “Still no sign of them, huh?”
“Not yet. But I’m patient,” I offer with a smirk.
“I can see that,” Quinn says. When I turn to look at him, he wiggles his eyebrows.
I narrow my gaze but let that one go. Instead, I take a step back and lean against my door, crossing my feet at the ankles and arms over my torso.
“So, shouldn’t you be in the store? Are you going to get into trouble being out here with me?” I ask. It’s not that I dislike his company, I just don’t want him getting fired over it.
“Store’s empty.” He shrugs. “And since the only way in is through that there door, I’m pretty sure I’ll know when duty calls.”
“Fair enough.” I shift my gaze back to the bookstore and grin.
“What’s your game plan?” Quinn asks after a few minutes of comfortable silence.
I snicker softly and turn to face him. “What do you mean?”
He huffs like I’ve insulted his intelligence. “Imean, when Lily walks out of there, what are you going to do?”
I stare at him for a beat, taking in the seriousness of his light brown eyes. “I mean, I guess I just thought I’d see what she’s doing after. Maybe we would grab a bite to eat. You know?”
His eyebrows rise until they vanish into his curly white hair. “Like adate?”
“No, not like a date. Like two friends grabbing some dinner,” I fire back.
He crosses his arms over his chest and shakes his head. “She’ll freak.”
A sensation not dissimilar to panic claws at my insides. “You think?”
“Hell yeah,” he breathes. “First of all, she’ll feel pressured because you’re calling her out in front of the Dirty B’s and they’re gonna want a show. Vivian alone will make a scene. Second, she won’t want to let you, or anyone else, down so she’s gonna be torn on what to do. Third—”
I hold up a hand. “I get it. She’ll freak. So, what do I do?”
“Before I agree to help, I need to know your motivations. I can’t work my magic if I don’t know what your end goal is.” His lips press tight and he watches me the way my grandma would when she thought I was about to lie.
I sigh, glancing from him, to the door of the bookshop, and back again. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her in so long. I just want to get to know her again, I guess.”
“You know she’s married, right?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“So, this isn’t a sexy Alpha male making a move on her while her husband’s away kind of thing?”
The shit this guy comes out with.
I shake my head, trying not to laugh. “No.”
