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Lori gave me another incredulous look-over and laughed. "You're pulling my leg, aren't you?" She tutted like I had nothing better to do than make up stories about my love life. "You just made that shit up because you don't want me to set you up with someone!"
Settle into it,I told myself.Better than her knowing the truth.
"Yeah," I replied in a defeated tone. "You got me."
"Junie," she said like a mother trying to reason with her stubborn toddler, "you know I'm only trying to help you!"
Sure.
"Look!" She suddenly gestured at some of the new incumbents. "That guy is so cute!"
I turned my eyes in the direction of her pointed finger, hoping against hope that her obvious lack of subtlety wouldn't send a randy boy my way.
I didn't fancy spending the rest of the night trying to fight him off as he tried multiple ways to take me to the nearest motel or my place because of course, he still lived with his parents.
What I didn't expect was to come within earshot of that fucking face once again. Why did I keep running into him?
I knew that was an unreasonable thought. Obviously. I couldn't keep avoiding him forever when we were in the same town.
All I knew was that I needed to get out of there, and I couldn't do it alone or with Lori sniffing like a bloodhound around me. Hell, no.
Hunter wasn't looking in my direction, but he was too near the exit.
If I tried to make a move, he'd see me and mess everything up. I didn't know how, but he'd find a way to ruin all that was going for me right now.
That was what he did.
My hands trembling, I picked up my phone and dialed a number.
25
Reed
Iwas standing outside Leia's door, wondering if I could say anything that would make her like me or see me as a human being, when I got Juniper's call.
"Hey, can you come get me?" she asked, with her voice unusually on edge.
"Of course. Are you okay?" Something about the way she spoke hit me immediately. She sounded like she was in danger.
And I'd recognize the scent of that from a million miles away.
"I'm fine. I'm at this bar, and I just don't feel too great."
"Okay," I replied, walking to the next room to see if Asher or Miguel were at home. They'd been hiding out in the backyard the whole morning.
At one point, I could have sworn something fishy was up because Miguel did this wild, flailing thing like he was a seagull trying to snatch a piece of bread from Asher's hand, and Asher tried to choke him to death.
I didn't interfere because I knew they'd sort it out before either one of them actually died. This was how the two of them worked.
They were always at each others' throats, but if shit went down, I knew they'd rather see hell than not face it together.
I did knock on the window from where I looked at them, though. They turned to me immediately, almost as if we were back on an op. I felt something nostalgic hit the back of my mind, but I brushed it aside.
"Easy there," I mouthed. "Don't be too loud. You can beat each other up, just do it without alarming my kid or the neighbors."
They nodded furtively, almost as if I was about to catch them hiding something from me.
"Listen, I gotta go check on Juniper. You guys okay to watch over Leia until I come back?"
