Page 45 of Ice Cold, Red Hot
“Lucky I caught you—I forgot to bring a key out,” he said, gesturing to the door in a way that made his veryimpressive biceps pop. He was blonder than Shepherd, a little shorter maybe. But the resemblance was uncanny.
“You live here?” I asked. He seemed harmless enough, if you overlooked the good looks, which probably devastated a few hearts, but I wasn’t in the practice of letting strangers into the building.
“Oh, yeah. No, not really.”
I tilted my head at him.
He chuckled. “Sorry. That sounds questionable, huh? I’m Blake. Shepherd Renshaw’s brother. He lives here and I’m just staying with him for a few days.” He stuck out a hand for me to shake, which I did as my mind spun through information he’d just offered.
“Shepherd,” my mouth said, and I hated that something in me was giddy just for the opportunity to speak his name aloud.
“You know my brother?” Blake asked now, his eyebrows lowering as he looked at me more closely.
“Uh, kind of, yeah.” Blake had not been at the lake this summer, so I’d never seen him before, but the pieces were starting to click into place. This was the older brother, the one Shepherd described as the golden child. NHL player, dad’s favorite. The guy who could do no wrong. I wondered what he was doing here, since Shepherd said they barely spoke.
“Shoulda met him a year ago. He talked more then. Less of a want-to-kill-everyone vibe back then.” He sighed and wiped the back of his neck.
“Here,” I said, stepping back and swiping my card in front of the locked door. I pulled it open for him when it clicked.
“Yeah, thanks. Appreciate it,” he said, catching the door frame with his big hand. “Nice meeting you… “ a question hung in the air.
“Celeste.”
“Nice meeting you, Celeste.”
“You too.”
I turned and headed to campus, but something about the encounter wouldn’t leave my head. Shepherd’s name—even a mention of him—still hit me like a bruise.
When I got to the lab, Ethan wasn’t there, and I breathed a sign of relief. Daria was already in, head down at her terminal, scribbling something into a notebook. She nodded at me as I sat, giving me that smile that always seemed to understand more than I wanted to share.
I set up my work and was about to dive in when Daria rose and moved to lean against the counter at my side, looking down at me.
“You have a second?” she asked.
“Yeah, just getting started.”
She chewed her bottom lip for a second, looking uncertain, but then she started talking. And every word was more interesting than the last.
“Listen,” she said. “I just wanted to say that I see what’s going on. With Ethan. What he’s doing and how uncomfortable it makes you.”
I didn’t deny it, just waited for whatever was going to follow that.
“He did it to me last year,” she went on, sending atrickle of shock through me. Ethan hardly paid any attention to Daria at all. I’d been envious about it since he’d set his focus on me.
“How’d you make it stop?” I asked, hoping there was an easy solution.
“I told him to leave me alone—in no uncertain terms,” she said, crossing her arms as a flash of anger scooted across her pretty face.
“That’s it?”
“No, unfortunately.” She glanced around, as if to see if we were still alone. “He retaliated. Delicate ego and all.”
I was practically holding my breath now. “What did he do?”
“Stripped me off papers, denied credit hours I had earned, messed with my hours in the log.”
I stared at her. That wasn’t just hurt feelings, that was criminal in a graduate program.
