Page 45 of Slash & Burn

“I’ll see you next week,” he said, just before I closed my door.

I nodded, giving him a quick wave as I pulled through his parents’ circular driveway. He watched me go, his tortured expression barely visible in the dimming dusk light.

When I got to my desk that Monday there was a manilla folder sitting on top of my calendar with a pink sticky note attached to the front. It read, ‘This is exactly what we need!’ I recognized the handwriting as my boss’s. Cleo wasn’t that much older than me, but she had handwriting like an old lady, nearly perfect penmanship.

Flipping open the folder I saw a print out of a Portland Herald article, the Sea Dog’s outfield screen lit up with Grady and I and the library’s information splashed across the bottom. The article wasn’t about us exclusively. It covered a variety of community efforts the Sea Dogs were involved in, but the mention of our reading program was only three paragraphs down. Only Grady’s name was mentioned, which made me laugh. I was his ‘library partner.’ Not quite a caped crusader, but I’d take it. The anonymity suited me just fine.

“There you are!” Lis called, sliding into the chair by my desk like you’d slide into homebase.

Oh my god, I was making sports references in my head now? It wasn’t a hockey reference, but it was close enough. What was happening to me?

“I was here last week,” I said, laughing at her dramatic delivery. “Did you need something?”

“I need the details,” she hissed, leaning even closer. “You were holding his hand.”

My eyes whipped up. I grabbed the article from the folder again and scrutinized it. There was no way you could see Grady holding my hand in that picture.

“You’re seeing things, Lis. Look.” I tossed the article in her direction, the paper floating in front of her, but she wasn’t looking. “Nothing.”

“I saw footage on the news. And either he was holding your hand or he wasgivingyou a hand,” she winked, her smirk a mile wide.

Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t have kept the red from my cheeks. She didn’t even have to be right, my body was going to betray me no matter what. That Ididactually know what it felt like for Grady to make me come with his fingers alone, was just making this worse.

“You’re really taking this fairy tale idea of yours too far,” I said, turning my red-cheeked face away from her to toss the folder in my drawer.

“Deny it all you want, my friend. But I can tell something is going on there. Hell, the very fact he got you to volunteer for a photo-op that was most definitelynoton the program list, is all the evidence I need to prove you two are closer than you’re letting on.”

The annoyance I felt at Lis for poking her nose into my business was nothing compared to the embarrassment of seeing how clear her logic was. Iwasacting differently because of Grady. If anyone else had suggested that baseball game, I’d have laughed, and then run in the other direction.

There’d been good cause for the shock on Adam’s face when he’d seen us up on screen. Even though it hurt to see him again, some tiny part of me liked that he’d been there to see me, doing something I’d never have done before. And that he had nothing to do with.

“I think you need to download the apps again, you’re projecting your incessant need for romance onto me. And you’re only going to be disappointed.”

Regardless of how right she might be that something had happened with Grady, nothing else was going to, so we were both going to be disappointed.

Lis sniffed, sitting back in the chair and crossing her arms in front of her. “I still don’t buy it. But I’ll let you keep your secret relationship to yourself.” She leaned in again, her eyes narrow but her smile beaming. “For now.”

“Ahem.”

Lis and I both swiveled toward the door and my cheeks heated to inferno level all over again.

“Hello, Sheriff,” Lis said, swallowing thickly as she looked between us. She saw the same thing I did written all over my brother’s face; he’d been listening.

Joey’s humorless gaze was on me as he did his best to be intimidating. “Can I speak to you outside?” he asked, his words barely getting out through some sort of gritted-teeth smile. It looked painful, and I sighed, anticipating exactly what kind of stern warnings and reprimands I was about to get.

“What brings you to the library, Bro?” I asked, as we rounded the corner of the brick wall and took a seat on the hood of Joey’s cruiser. He hated when I did that, and his scowl got even darker when I didn’t get off.

“What’s going on with Grady?”

I rolled my eyes, his sheriff bark might work on strangers, but I’d seen him in his footed onesies and dinosaur underwear. It made me laugh more than anything else. “Since you were eavesdropping, do you really need me to repeat myself?”

“I know you and I know him. He’s avoiding my calls and you can’t look me in the eye.”

Realizing I hadn’t yet looked straight at him, I sat up and glared. “Better? Nothing is happening.”

He rocked his lower jaw back and forth, a little move he’d picked up from watching too many Matthew McConaughey movies. “I saw the news footage, too, Jill. The way he looked at you.” His chest puffed up as he shook his head. “I don’t like it. He better not tou?—”

“Stop,” I said, cutting him off. “You’re making an ass of yourself. First, nothing is happening. And second, even if it was, you don’t get a say here, Joey. I’m not a kid. Grady isn’t some asshole. Be better than this.” I blew out a breath and shoved off his car. His voice stopped me before I’d rounded the corner.

---