Page 40 of Leashed

Chapter Sixteen

Sage tiptoed to her closet, easing a sweater off of its hanger slowly to avoid waking Bo. He’d passed out almost immediately after his incoherent rant about Hercules, his long arms draped over his knees and head dropped back against the sofa. After a long internal debate about the propriety of the situation and whether she was indeed a moron for not being more concerned about the drunk guy passed out on her floor, she slipped into her bedroom and locked the door.

But even with the barrier of a lock, she slept fitfully all night. The presence of a man who wasn’t her boyfriend sleeping in her apartment was supposed to be unnerving. And the fact that it wasn’t unnerved her more than anything.

Even if it was just Bo, she didn’t know the protocol, wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. Pass him one of her pillows? Hunt down a blanket?

So she settled for setting her alarm for an hour early in the hopes she could beat him out of her home and get to the library before he woke.

Lifting her purse from her desk, she paused and looked back at him, studying him closer than she ever had.

He couldn’t be more than twenty-four. His face looked so much younger when he wasn’t constantly scanning his surroundings with irritated skepticism, his jaw set and his nose twitching. Even his size was less intimidating on her floor, the predatory gait and innate lethalness gone as he sprawled out, one arm tossed over his eyes and the other angled awkwardly up onto the sofa.

Unhooking her robe from the back of her door, she laid it over him to cover what she could, picked up the discarded novel that had fallen from his pocket when he stumbled in from the patio, and escaped to the solitude of her car.

The engine turned over with a loud protest, a high-pitched whining coming from under the hood while she sat back and read over Nixon’s text that had come in an hour earlier.

Made it to NYC. Phone died on me on flight. Call me when you get up.

Phone too dead to text, fine to take and post videos of his evening.

She stared at his message while her car struggled to heat up.

This wasn’t a relationship. It was an obligation.

Taking a deep breath, she tapped his number.

“Hey, beautiful,” he answered, the clinking of glasses and silverware in the background. “Just get up?”

Cringing at his hello, she put him on speaker and pulled onto the road. “A while ago. On my way to the library to get some studying done before my shift.”

“I was just bragging about you,” he replied. His voice turned muffled for a moment as he spoke to someone he was with. Then his attention returned to Sage. “Telling everyone how my girl’s acing all her little art courses, and she’s going to rule the art world.”

Turning down the library’s block, she glared at her phone. “Oh. Well, thanks?” She pursed her lips and adjusted her grip on the steering wheel. “So one week there, right?”

“Two,” he corrected. “I’ll be home right before Christmas. I booked us a hotel room and made dinner reservations. We’re booked for a New Year’s Eve party too. Add it to your calendar so we don’t have another miscommunication.”

She parked tight to the curb and took Nixon off speaker, catching sight of Bo’s friend standing on the sidewalk across the street. “I thought we’d agreed to fly out and see my mom.”

“We didn’t agree. You suggested.”

C stared her down for a moment before giving her head a quick shake. “I don’t want to argue about this now.”

The din in the background lessened. “There’s nothing to argue about. Plans have been made, and you can call me when you’re ready to be reasonable.”

He hung up, leaving her sitting there alone, mouth agape.

Reasonable.

Balancing the books as she slammed her door closed, she turned, bumping hard into C. “Oh my god,” she gasped when the petite blonde didn’t budge. “I’m so sorry.”

“You did not hold on to him last night.”

Blinking, Sage adjusted her grip. “Who? Bo? He’s fine. He’s sleeping off a whole lot of booze back at my place, but he’s okay.”

C reached over, invading her space much as she had the night before. “He is where he should be. You are where you should be. But together, you are not.”

The woman’s proximity was uncomfortable. Her small hands on Sage’s cheeks was unnerving, but something inside her kept her from flinching away from the intrusion. “Look, I know you’re probably worried about Bo, but he and I are just friends.”

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