Page 49 of Clean Out of Luck

WADE

I’m picking you up. I’ll be in front of The Serendipity in less than a minute.

I finish putting on my shoes before I text him back.

SCARLETT

I already left. You might as well go home.

I set my phone on the counter.

WADE

I’m pretty sure you’re lying.

I grab my purse and my helmet off the rack by the front door. I take the side exit out of my apartment, up into the little park. My bike is leaning against the wall. Sometimes I lock it in the basement storage area if it’s going to rain. That way I don’t have to climb on a wet bike first thing.

It’s supposed to lightly mist tonight, so I brought the bike inside while I got ready. And how fortuitous, because now, if Wade happens to be waiting in front of the building he won’t see me leave.

So I unlock the door, swing it open?—

And step outside into a chest.

I gasp as I look up and stare into the disapproving face of Wade Hendrix.

Chapter Fifteen

Wade

It wasone-hundred-percent worth sneaking around back here to see the surprised look on Scarlett’s face. She thought she was being so sneaky using this exit, which is why I told her I’d be waiting at the front of The Serendipity. If I’d told her I would be waiting here, she would’ve gone out the front door.

“Going somewhere?” I ask with a smile.

Her eyes are still wide with surprise. But she recovers quickly.

She jabs me in the chest. “You can’t just scare me like that!”

“Well, you’re trying to scare me by not telling me who you’re going out with. Seems about fair.”

“I thought we decided you were not going to be my brother.”

“Trust me, I’m not trying to be your brother, but I am going to be someone who looks out for you. Because let me tell you something—being your brother is the last thing I want to be.” I might be saying too much, but this feeling burning inside of me is getting harder to contain.

“Now, that’s just hurtful. I thought you at least liked me.”

I grab her shoulders and squeeze gently. “Scarlett, please just let me do this. I don’t know why, but I just want to know that you’re okay. I can’t explain it. I’ve got that feeling again.”

She bites her bottom lip and seems to debate her answer. But my gut feelings are notorious and often talked about in the Fernsby household. Phoenix has turned it into a thing of legend, which works in my favor tonight because she finally says, “Okay, but you’re not going to ruin my goodnight kiss this time, you got it?”

Even though my chest is burning and telling me I should argue with her on the whole goodnight kiss thing, I just nod. “I promise you will get your goodnight kiss tonight.”

“Good, because I haven’t been kissed in over a year.”

And then she walks past me up the stairs.

She’s going to kill me. With her obliviousness to the way I feel about her. It’s going to crush my soul—her talking about kissing someone else…talking about dating someone else.She hasn’t kissed anyone in a year. How is that possible?

I’m pretty sure I’m in purgatory right now. And not even a high level of it—more like teetering on the edge of hell.

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