Page 16 of Follows with Intent

And because he was Jadon, he shook hands and smiled.

“We were going to get a drink,” Clark said. Now Clark was smiling, and it had a strange cast to it that Nico hadn’t seen before. “You’re a friend of Nico’s, right? Why don’t you join us?”

“Uh.” Jadon swung his gaze to Nico. “Well, I was hoping I could talk to you for a minute. If that’s all right.”

“Anywhere around here you recommend?” Clark asked a little too loudly.

Maya shoved Nico, and he stumbled and barely caught himself. With a glare back at his alleged friend, Nico straightened up and managed to say, “Just for a minute.”

“There’s this place called Allure.” Jadon gestured. “Just a few blocks that way.”

Clark stared at him. Then he said, “Nico, don’t take too long. It’s chilly out here.”

Nico moved down the sidewalk. He chafed his arms, wishing he’d brought a heavier sweater and, as an added bonus, mentally cursing Emery for being right. Again. Jadon kept pace with him until they stopped under the next lamppost. The yellow light dusted Jadon’s hair, the bridge of his nose. It glistened on a full lower lip. He smelled a little like a warm male body and a little like new clothes that hadn’t been washed yet.

“If it’s about your clothes, I can Venmo you—”

“Would you like to have dinner?”

“What?”

Jadon’s shoulders relaxed, and his smile stretched wider. “Dinner. It’s this thing where two people eat food together.”

“I already told you, I don’t expect—”

“But I promised, right? I told you next time you came to St. Louis, I’d take you to dinner. And I meant it. And we’re both here, and we both have to eat, and you don’t know St. Louis.” His grin flashed out again. “And I’ve got a car, so we don’t have to stay on campus.”

“You realize that’s basically a pickup line for undergrads.”

Jadon’s grin slanted into a smirk. “Plus I know this great bar where they don’t ID.”

In spite of himself, Nico laughed. Then the cold settled over him again, and he shifted his weight. “I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“Nico,” Clark called. “We’re waiting.”

A furrow creased Jadon’s brow. “Are you—” He stopped. “None of my business.”

“No,” Nico said in answer to the half-asked question. “God, no.”

The smirk slipped across Jadon’s mouth again. “I promise we’ll be fast.”

“He’d love to go,” Maya shouted.

“You don’t even know what he’s asking,” Nico snapped back. “He might be asking if he can harvest my organs.”

“Please,” Maya called. “Get him out of here.”

“It’s my duty as a police officer to help citizens in distress,” Jadon said.

Nico chose to ignore that. He eyed Jadon and said, “Aren’t you cold?”

“A little.” Then, with a quiet laugh, “I’m freezing.”

“How long have you been waiting out here?”

Jadon groaned. “Please don’t make me tell you.”

Nico almost laughed at that; it was a close thing, and he was still fighting to smooth out his mouth when he asked, “How’d you find me?”

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