Page 37 of My Heart to Find

“Curious to make up a date that Cara’s apparently going on?” Anastacia raises her eyebrows. “Cara—who doesn’t date?”

Who doesn’t date?

I stare at her. “I do date.”

She laughs. “Hard to do that when you rarely leave the house.”

“I was at your birthday celebrations.”

She snorts. “And that just proves that you rarely get out. No one says ‘birthday celebrations’ now. So, what’s going on?” Her eyes cross to Damien. “And who is this guy? You got nits?”

Damien realizes he’s holding the headlice comb and drops it on the floor. “No,” he says as he picks it up quickly, then puts it back on the shelf. I cringe, imagining the poor person who buys it next, who’ll run it through their hair not knowing that it’s touched the dirty floor in the shop.

“We just wanted a lead,” I mumble. “We thought we could help find Marnie.”

I can’t tell what Anastacia’s thinking as she stares at me, her face expressionless. “Well, good luck finding her.”

“Aren’t you worried?” Damien asks her. “You’re friends with her?”

Anastacia shrugs. “I’d be worried if I thought something had happened. But it hasn’t.”

“Trevor thinks it has.”

She rolls her eyes. “Of course he does. He doesn’t want to accept that his perfect sister is messed-up.”

“Messed up?” Damien asks.

“She’s in that wild phase,” Anastacia says. “But she’ll be back soon. Once she’s calmed down. Now, if you’re not going to buy anything else, please leave.”

*

“WELL, THAT WENT WELL,” I mutter once we’re outside the shop.

“Yeah, you’re a natural.” Damien gives me an amused look, then winks.

I laugh and smile, and so does he.

“Well, we got some info,” he says. “Marnie’s into women. Hmm. Most crimes of passion are committed by men, but still, any lover can do it.”

He steps closer to me, and my alarm bells go off again. I find myself stepping away quickly.

Damien notices. The tips of his ears redden.

“So, are we going to Trevor’s now?” I ask.

He nods. “Yes. It’s that way.”

Damien always was amazing at memorizing maps and routes—that’s something I remember strongly about the retreat. For one of the challenges, we were dropped off on the mountainside above Deià, and we had to navigate to the meeting point. We were in groups of four—it was me and Damien and Jana and Ray—and we won, all thanks to Damien. He’s like a human compass.

My heart pounds as we walk.

“I’ve got a date with Jana on Monday,” Damien tells me after we’ve crossed the road.

“I know,” I say. “She told me.” Even if I’d been trying to pretend that it wouldn’t actually happen.

His eyes are wide. “You...you’re okay with it?”

Me? He’s worried about me not being okay with it?Of courseI’m not. I want to scream and tell himIwant to be with him.

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