Page 81 of Shaped to Be Yours

“I just really hope Del isn’t away from Elder Ridge for too long,” Kai said, still staring at the library doors.

Wait. “Del?” I questioned.

“Whitmore’s given name is Delroy.”

“Delroy!” Jason said way too loudly, causing a few annoyed hushes to come our way. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “You cannot date a Delroy.”

“That is why he goes by Del,” Kai defended. “He doesn’t like his name either. He said he would have been more offended if you’d called him Delroy instead of Agent Asshole. Oh!” Kai seemed to recognize that maybe he shouldn’t have told Jason that.

“Oho!” Jason grinned. “I don’t even care how he knew I called him that. I am so calling him Delroy from now on.”

“No, please. He’ll know I told you.”

“No promises.”

Kai pouted. “We are not dating yet anyway. We have barely spoken. But I think… maybe someday…” He trailed off dreamily.

“Urg, I give up,” Jason said. “It’s bad enough I have to see my dad macking on my mom every time I turn a corner.”

“Aw, come on.” I elbowed him again. “You love it.”

“Idid. Less so once I started finding hickeys on Mom’s neck every morning.”

I was sorely tempted to pull down my collar and say, “You mean like these?”

Like father, like son.

“Beastly Brewhouse for lunch?” Kai asked.

Another member of the library staff had come over and shooed us toward the door. Apparently, we were still being too loud, and she was fine with letting Kai go a few minutes early.

“I was thinking It’s Alive,” Jason said.

“Isn’t that a bar?” Kai asked.

“They serve food. And you only have to be over twenty-one to go in if it’s after nine at night. I’m feeling like greasy bar food.”

It was all so normal after everything we’d been through. After how much the town had been on the brink of something it maybe couldn’t have come back from if someone actually died. One thing about this being a small town was that neighbors couldn’t avoid each other, so people who’d been on either side of the chaos had to face each other every day and choose to move forward.

The other thing about being in a small town was that a walk down main street made it pretty likely you’d run into someone you knew.

First was Bina, who acknowledged us with a nod. That was pretty good actually, considering we were with herlamebrother, something I knew intimately from my own sisters. She definitely whispered something to her friends as they passed us, because they all giggled. Jason had lauded Bina as the real hero in the article about the incident in the woods, and she’d been eating up every bit of the attention.

“Hey, Kai, can I ask you something weird about—”

I elbowed Jason for the third time that day. I’d told him under no circumstances was he to ask Kai or Bina about skin licking to get high. Or Zinnia and Beck! It wasn’t true anyway.

I didn’t think.

“Yes?”

“Uh… just… about your upcoming move!” Jason recovered. “You must be excited to finally be getting a real house.”

Then, before Kai could answer, the next person we saw—crossing the street a block ahead of us, and when he saw Kai, he waved—was Colt Jensen.

“You’re not datinghim, are you?” Jason asked.

“No! I am not interested in him like that anymore, but did you know he apologized for his dad forcing him to catfish me? I know it doesn’t excuse it, but because he has been cooperating, the charges fell mostly on his father. He didn’t touch me when the others were hitting me, so he’s only looking at community service. I figured it was better to accept his apology and make friends instead of keeping an enemy. Don’t you agree?”

---