Page 20 of Follows with Intent

So, Nico understood—or thought he understood—why Jadon’s face had been the color of chalk, and why he’d been breathing those awful, ragged breaths like he wanted to throw up. He even understood, with a kind of compassion he hadn’t expected, why Jadon had left so abruptly, without explaining anything. But all of that only took up part of his attention. Because he couldn’t stop thinking about Jadon waiting in the cold for a chance to talk to him. And Jadon making that stupid joke about a place that didn’t ID. And the way Jadon had waited while Nico read each star on the Walk of Fame. And then Jadon had ruined it all. And Nico couldn’t stop being angry with Jadon, and he couldn’t stop being angry with himself, and he couldn’t stop being angry because he felt guilty.

Finally, he ended up in a navy quarter-zip, gave up on his hair, and rushed out the door. He was, without a doubt, going to be late.

For the second time in two days, he almost crashed into Jadon. And, for the second time, coffee was involved. The detective was leaning against the wall opposite Nico’s door, and he looked—well, not quite as great as the day before. His eyes were shadowed, his hair lank, and he was wearing the Chouteau College sweats again. In one hand, he held a cup of coffee; a second waited at his feet. He was scrolling on his phone when Nico almost ran into him, and he used the hand with the phone to steady Nico as Nico hit the brakes.

“Easy there,” he murmured.

“Jadon.”

Those darkly sandy eyebrows went up.

“This is my dorm,” Nico said.

“I told you I’m a detective. See how good I’m doing?”

“What are you doing here? The doors are supposed to be locked, and it’s—oh God, I am going to be so late.” Nico scooted around Jadon and headed for the stairs. “Do you realize how weird this is?”

“In my defense, I brought you coffee. And I’m not wearing it this time, so I think that shows both thoughtfulness and an ability to learn from my mistakes.” Jadon caught up with him and held out the second cup. As they took the stairs—Nico bounding two at a time and annoyed that Jadon kept up so easily—Jadon continued, “Also, I want to reiterate that I’m not a stalker, although I can see how this might appear to undermine my case.”

Nico shouldered open the door at the bottom of the stairs, took the coffee, and was surprised by a blast of kid-temp pumpkin latte. He forgot what he’d been about to say.

“I know it’s weird showing up here like this,” Jadon said, and he lowered his voice as a pair of men emerged from a door down the hall. “But I need to talk to you.”

“Look, I appreciate, uh, whatever this is, but we don’t have to have a talk. Nothing happened. Thank you for dinner. You seem sweet, but I’m not at a place in my life—”

“Oh my God, Nico.”

Nico stopped talking.

A radiator pinged. Jadon rubbed under his eyes. He didn’t look tired; he looked like he’d been dragged behind a car and then forced to do calisthenics in vintage college gear.

Finally, Nico shifted his bag and said in the most controlled voice he could manage, “I’m late.”

“We can talk as we walk.”

That didn’t seem to be a question, so Nico pushed out into the hard slap of the autumn morning, Jadon glued to his side.

For the first few steps, the only sound was a warbling birdsong, and a little brown-and-yellow bird flitted from bare branch to bare branch ahead of them. Nico glanced over. Then he said, “Did you sleep last night?”

“I caught a few hours in my car.”

“Outside my dorm.”

Jadon’s droll little smile was another surprise. “Yes, Nico. I hear it. I understand the pattern.” The smile faded, though, and again, Jadon seemed to disappear inside his thoughts.

“Okay,” Nico said. As usual, he was going to have to be the communicator in the—well, relationship didn’t seem like the right word. Stalker-stalkee thing they had going? That was closer. “Why didn’t you get any sleep last night?” In a rush, he added, “And I’m sorry if I upset you—”

Jadon actually groaned at that. “I didn’t sleep because I spent two hours fighting with the ancient security system this campus has, trying to get a decent shot of the suspect from last night.”

“What suspect? What happened? Did someone get hurt?”

“The guy? Last night?” Jadon waited, but when Nico didn’t say anything, he added, “The one who was following you?”

“Huh?” Then memory clicked. “Jadon, he wasn’t following me. I didn’t even know he was there until you started shouting.”

“That’s not exactly a point in your favor.”

“He was some guy walking across campus.”

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