Page 23 of Bookworm

Ugh.

"You're going the wrong direction by the way."

Double ugh.

Skidding to a stop, I turned to face him. "What?"

"The list," he repeated, giving me his trademark frown and crossing his arms. "I saw my name on there. I want to know what it is."

I shrugged. "Well, what do you think it is?"

"There was no title, so it could be anything."

I tried to mirror his passive expression.

"I saw all guy names, a few of them crossed out," Bo said.

I lifted a brow. "Maybe you're the one training to be a detective."

"Bodyguard actually," he said.

I smiled. "I could definitely see that."

"Was it a hit list?"

I choked on my tongue.

"I know girls sometimes do weird things," Bo said with a grimace. "Make voodoo dolls they stick with pins, crazy stuff."

"It was just a list of names," I said, "and this was your first thought?"

He shrugged. "Second. My first was actually much more grim."

Shaking my head with a laugh, I said, "It's a suitor list, Bo."

"A what?"

"A list I made of possible guys I might like to get to know better." Seeing his look of surprise, I added, "Not that I put your name on there. That was my sister."

Bo's jaw twitched. "The handwriting looked the same to me."

"Well, it wasn't," I said.

"Sure you're not in on that bet?" he asked.

"Absolutely not!"

"It looked like your handwriting."

"The ink isn't even the same color," I said, pulling out the list just to show him. "See?"

Bo squinted at the paper. "Maybe you switched pens."

"You wish," I said, belatedly realizing that he was teasing me. It was hard to tell with Bo. The frown masked a lot of his emotions. "Again, you're on therethanks to my sister, Scarlett. Not for any other reason."

"I see." His eyes lifted to meet mine, and he said, "You took my advice about the romance thing. Good for you."

"I'm trying," I said with a self-deprecating smile.

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