Page 63 of The Escape Plan

And I’m not exactly sure what to do with that information.

Nori grins at me knowingly before tugging Becks by the elbow to meet Hayden and Jasper.

I watch Hayden’s eyes move over him appreciatively, which I can totally understand. Becks looks even more gorgeous than usual this evening in a soft blue denim button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to expose his muscular, tanned forearms. After she’s done checking him out, she turns to give me a subtle (not) double thumbs-up.

In response, I roll my eyes at her, and she grins before going back to setting up chairs.

Becks moves on to chat with Cash and Ezra, earning a warm bro-shake thingy from my brother and a huge backslap from Cash. To absolutely no one’s surprise, he’s already charmed by Becks, too.

Funny how Beckett’s been in this town all of five minutes, and he’s already drawn so many people into his orbit.

Nori helps Hayden and Jasper with the chairs, and I’m tasked with lighting a bunch of tealights and placing them strategically on tables. But first, I duck behind the coffee bar and unpack the contents of my tote into one of the fridges.

I’m armed with tealights and approaching one of the back tables when Hayden sidles up behind me.

“He’shot,” she says in a teasing, singsong voice as she eyes the stage area, where the boys are working on rigging up sound equipment.

“Mm,” I say, noncommittally.

“Are you guys, like, a thing?”

“Just friends,” I reply primly.

“Really?” She smirks. “Because I heard through the grapevine that you guys have been spending alotof time together.”

“Bahaha,” I spit out, but my laugh sounds forced, even to my ears. “That’s just gossipy Roberta from the first floor stirring the pot.”

What I don’t say is that over the past week, there have been multiple days when I’ve found myself walking towards Blue Notes after a morning at the library to pay Becks a visit between his lessons, and every night I’ve climbed out onto the fire escape, hoping for another “Insomniacs Anonymous” gathering for two.

And every night, my hopes have come to fruition. Some nights we’ve stayed out there for hours, talking about anything and everything under the darkness of the sky.

Despite what I just said, wehavebeen spending a lot of time together.

Of our own volition, mind you, and not because we were somehow locked somewhere together.

“I don’t know, Keels.” Nori is suddenly at our side. “He keeps looking at you.”

“He does?” I blurt as my gaze flies across the room.

Beckett is, indeed, looking at me. Those hazel-green eyes of his crinkle at the corners as he smiles.

Hayden’s cackle is borderline evil. “Just friends, huh?”

I duck my head and shake it with a laugh.

“I… kinda like him, okay?” I admit under my breath, chipping a little piece of candle wax off the edge of a holder. Make that like hima lot.So much for my thinking I could avoid the smug pretty boy I met in the elevator a few weeks ago.

“I knew it!” Hayden pumps a fist, while Nori lets out a whoop, which she quickly disguises as a weird cough-splutter.

“Y’all are subtle as bricks,” I drawl in a Sissy-esque accent. “And it doesn’t mean anything. He’s nice and funny and good-looking, but he’s also here temporarily. And I might be moving to Boston soon, too.”

Nori’s mouth falls open. “Really?”

“Really.” I fill the girls in on the job opportunity at Evoke, and how excited I would be to get it.

For some reason, I leave out the article topic I’m working on in order to actuallygetthe job, as well as the fact that Becks and I discovered that we’re connected. Have a shared history we could never have expected.

And the fact that, right now, it seems like it’s a whole lot more than just the historical thread drawing us together.

---