Page 73 of Zero Chance

I scoffed.“You don’t say.”

When he cast me a dry glance, I cleared my throat and more calmly answered, “Yeah.I’ve noticed a certain restless…energy about you.”

Some people might call him hyper or excitable.He could never seem to sit still.He always had to move, always had to talk, always had to dosomething.He was the very antithesis of calm.

Pointing at me, his eyes lit with excitement.“Exactly.Restless energy.That’s the perfect description.Except that energy gets so wound up sometimes it turns into this big, burning ball in my chest that starts to feel as if it’s going to explode if I don’t—well, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with it.”His hand went to his heart.“But it’s always demanding more and growing bigger and needing attention.And sometimes it gets a little out of control until everything starts to feel dizzy and disorienting, so I have to go to one of my anchors to ground me back down again.Just something or someone who’s steady and constant.And unchanging.”His gaze flittered to my hair as if it had betrayed him.“And I can always rely on you to be here, in those clothes, scowling and bitching about something I’ve done to annoy you.”Shoulders slouching, he glanced out into the rest of the quiet lobby where absolutely no one had moved or changed.“I kind of count on it.”

Heart thudding by the end of his explanation, I swallowed thickly and tried to mentally stuff the organ back into my chest because I could feel my emotions spilling out everywhere.

But dammit.This open, honest, beautiful soul in front of me was the very boy I’d fallen in love with.I could wade past everything else about him just to get a peek of this guy right here.

And he’d made me one of his anchors.

The honor honestly overwhelmed me.

Blinking repeatedly so I didn’t start sobbing all over him, I cleared my throat discreetly, but my voice still sounded too hoarse for my own liking when I rasped, “It’ll grow back out again.”

When I self-consciously lifted my fingers to my bangs, Keene glanced over, looking at me.My chest ached as his solemn attention settled.I felt full of all these feelings.And he made them explode inside me when he shook his head briefly and murmured, “Don’t let it.It looks good like that.”

And yep, I was done.

My life ended at that moment because there was no way anything could ever get better than this.I’d peaked at twenty, reaching the pinnacle of my existence.It was all going to be downhill from here.

Because, oh my goodness, for that brief moment when Keene called me pretty—or at least something adjacent to that—my life was complete.And suddenly, I could see why people liked living so much.

I honestly have no idea how long we stayed there, looking at each other—him peering around my face as if he’d never seen it before, as if helikedwhat he saw, and me just riding the high—but it was cut abruptly short when I saw movement from the corner of my eye as a patron approached.

Tearing my lovestruck gaze from Keene, I focused on the newcomer, only to scowl when I realized it wasn’t a patron at all.

Keene twisted to see what had captured my attention just as a bored-looking Gates reached my station and flopped his hands petulantly onto the counter.

“Can I have some money for the vending machine?”he asked, looking at me as if I were some kind of ATM.

“No,” I told him.“I don’t have any cash and the card reader on that machine is broken.”

Gates groaned out his dejection and plopped his face onto the counter.“But I’mstarving.Waverly…”

“Eww.”I shoved at his shoulder.“Get your grease-stained face off my counter.”When he stood up and straightened his face to scowl at me, I grabbed a container of disinfectant wipes from the shelves underneath and pulled a sheet free so I could make a big production of wiping off the wet ring he’d left on the Formica.All the while, I groused, “Now who’s being dramatic?Didn’t I tell you to pack a bag with some snacks before we left the house?”

“Oh yeah.”Gates lifted a lazy shoulder.“I forgot.”

“Of course, you did.”I rolled my eyes.“Well, you’re just going to have to wait until my shift is over and we get home, then.”

“Ugh!”He started to slump forward again, only to pause when he saw the warning in my eyes and the disinfectant wipe still in my hand.“When is that?”

With a prolonged sigh, I tossed the used wipe and put the container back away under the counter.“Three.”

“Three?”

“Trust me.”I turned my gaze back to him with the stern, librarian stare.“You won’t starve to death in the next half an hour.”

“But—”

“It’s way more likely I’ll strangle you by then.”

“I’ve got cash,” a voice spoke up from my right, making both my brother and me jump in surprise.

Together, we whirled to find Keene still sitting on the counter witnessing our sibling spat.

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