Page 22 of Broken

Dirty looked at him and didn’t know if he believedhim or not.

There was no point in trying to pry, becausewithin seconds, Petal brought him some food, and he was too distracted inwatching her to care about it.

Chapter Five

Two Weeks Later

Petal laughed as she walked up the garden path,heading toward her home with Myth not too far behind. In the past few weeks,she’d spent a lot of good times with him. She laughed at another of his jokingobservations. They’d gone to see a movie, and then had some drive-thru takeout,which they sat in his car eating. The food had been awful, but the service evenworse, as the woman or teenager who served them was more interested inscrolling through her cell phone than serving them. Of course, Myth being Myth,he had to tease her and make her work for it. She probably shouldn’t laugh, butshe couldn’t help it. It had been so funny to watch.

“Do you want some coffee?” Petal asked, slidingher key into the lock.

“Uh, you know what, yeah, and I think you and Ishould talk,” Myth said.

This made her frown, but she nodded. Entering herhome, she waited for him to follow before closing the door and sliding thelocks into place.

After everything that happened, personal safetywas not something to be scoffed at. She turned on a couple of lights, and thenmade her way into the kitchen, aware of Myth following her.

She had no idea what he wanted to talk to herabout. Grabbing the kettle, she opened it and checked the water level, seeingit was at the max. She turned toward the stove and lit the gas underneath,waiting. Glancing over at Myth, she saw that he’d taken a seat, so she wenttoward the cupboard and grabbed mugs, tea, and coffee.

“Tea or coffee?” she asked.

“Coffee.”

She put the tea back and made their cups each witha few spoons of coffee.

“Milk, cream, and sugar?”

“Two sugars and cream.”

She nodded. She preferred her coffee with milk.

The kettle was taking a long time to boil, andwith the cups ready and prepared, she didn’t see a reason to not confront theissue.

She spun around to look at him, and kind of heldher breath as she waited. The last couple of weeks had been fun. Rosalie wasnow busy and she totally understood as her best friend was pregnant andspending a lot more time with Colt. They had canceled more time together, andthat was more than fine with Petal. She missed her best friend, but spendingtime with Myth had been fun. She felt safe around him. He made her laugh, andfor the most part, when she was in his company, she was able to forget abouteverything else.

“I guess you better tell me what you wanted totalk about,” she said.

Myth nodded and rubbed his hands together. Helooked nervous, and she frowned as she watched him. He was the one who wantedto talk, and yet he was nervous. What did he have to say to her?

“I, uh, I like you, Petal, but I wanted to beclear about something … that this, you and me, is not going anywhere. If youthink you’re dating me or we’re going to be a couple, that’s not the case.”

Considering everything he could have said to her,this had to be the last thing she even thought about.

At first, she didn’t know what to think and for asecond, she looked at him, a little taken aback. She wasn’t quite sure what tomake of it. Then, she smiled and couldn’t help but laugh. The very idea of thetwo of them together sounded so ludicrous and outrageous, it wasn’t even worth thinkingabout. She did not see Myth in a romantic way. Sure, he was an attractive guy,but she wasn’t attracted to him. The truth was, sadly, she was still gettingover Dirty—her mystery man that she’d not even told her best friend about. Itwas hard to even think of anyone else. Myth was a friend. Plain and simple.

Covering her mouth with her hand, she burst outlaughing and tried to contain herself.

“I don’t see what is funny,” Myth said, looking alittle troubled. The furrow between his brow was so cute, and he looked scaredto death.

She reached over and placed a hand on top of his.“Please don’t worry.”

Myth’s frown deepened.

Petal laughed and before she got a chance to sayanything more, the kettle boiled. Picking it up, she moved toward the cups andpoured each mug out, before adding cream and sugar to Myth’s. For hers, shemerely added a splash of milk. She gave the mug a stir, and then moved backtoward him. Handing him his mug of coffee, she blew over the surface of her ownand took a tentative sip.

“Come on, let’s go and get a comfortable seat.”Without waiting for him to respond, she made her way through to the main livingroom and took a seat. Myth lowered next to her, and Petal smiled. She felt …comfortable.

“So, you don’t want us to be like boyfriend andgirlfriend?” Petal asked, somewhat teasing.

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