Page 61 of Jingle Belle's Biker

“Not my fu—not my cat.” He saunters up, tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, and smiles down. “We were riding by, figured you might want a lift home.”

Nomad’s running in a circle as paint and children go everywhere. One boy totters over from his spin as he tries to catch the cat, and the teachers just watch. One of them’s trying to get everyone to settle, but no one’s paying attention because it seems to be a game of catch the cat.

Every time a child thinks they have Nomad, he veers off and then runs in a counterclockwise circle.

An earsplitting whistle brings everyone to a standstill. “Back to art.” Hannah glares the rambunctious savages down. Only Nomad fails to look sheepish.

Then she comes up and runs a finger down the lapel of Saint’s leather jacket. She looks at me. “Hot.”

I go up in flames.

“You’ve made her blush,” Saint says. “That’s my job.”

“You must be Saint.”

“And you must be the librarian friend.”

“You two,” I snap, “can get a room.”

Hannah laughs and walks off.

I turn, flinging myself into cleaning up some of the paint, and I have to get down on my hands and knees.

My vision blurs because . . . because what was that? I’m not that. Never have been.

The flames lick my skin hotter.

I dunk the rag in the bucket of soapy water we keep for this kind of stuff and start to scrub.

A shadow comes over me, and a large, tattooed hand closes around mine. “Red.”

“Stop.” I don’t look at him. “Let me be humiliated in peace.”

He laughs. “Humiliated? Oh, Belle, you can get jealous any day over me. I liked it.”

“You only want an alibi.”

“I do like collecting them. I think you mean motive.”

“I don’t know what I mean.”

This time, as he eases the rag from me, I risk a look at him.

My heart veers sideways.

Up close, the lines that frame his eyes from laughter and a life call to me, and his hazel eyes hold a spark I swear is mine alone.

“Why are you here?”

“Why do you think, Red?”

“To give me a lift home?”

“And to see you. Hey, what can I say? I like you.”

“I like you.”

We both smile at each other.

---