Page 124 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
“Oh man,” Lennox says, lowering the phone. “You like her.”
I shake myself and relax my pose. “I do not. I hardly know her.”
Lennox cocks his head. “You’ve been working with her for what, two weeks now? Three?”
“Almost three. But it’s not the same thing. I’ve only seen her in person once.”
Lennox sets the phone on my desk and slides it toward me. “All I’m saying is I haven’t seenthatexpression on your face in a very long time.”
I look at the picture Lennox just took. My expression is—I don’t know what it is. I’m not quite smiling, but I still look happy. Or content, maybe?
“Post it,” Lennox says. “You look hot. She’ll eat it up.”
“That’s not the point.”
I look at the picture one more time. It isn’t half-bad. Good enough that I probablywillpost it. But not with Lennox watching.
“I didn’t even ask what you were doing here,” I say.
Lennox breathes out a sigh. “Just came to see what you were doing. You want to get food later?”
“You really don’t know how to spend a day off, do you?”
“You’re one to talk. What do you say? Lunch? Dinner? I’ll take anything. I’m booooored, Perry.”
“Fine. Dinner. Now go and let me work.”
It takes five more minutes to boot my brother from the room, which is honestly weird. Lennox has never struggled to entertain himself before, though to be fair, he lived in Charlotte for a long time, a city that has a lot more to do than Silver Creek. If you’re willing to climb the mountain, Hendersonville isn’t that far away, and Asheville is just beyond that, but here in town? There’s only a handful of restaurants, and a pretty much nonexistent social scene. Especially if you’re single.
A particular struggle for Lennox. He’s chronically and intentionally single, but he’s a master at playing the field. When he first moved back, he was always driving up to Asheville, dragging Brody and me—at least until Brody married Kate—along. But he hasn’t done that in weeks. Maybe longer?
I don’t have time to puzzle out what’s going on with my brother. Not right now. But that doesn’t mean I won’t ask him about it later. Especially if Brody comes to dinner too. He’ll have a harder time deflecting questions from both of us.
A notification on my phone alerts me to a new message from Lila, and a wave of anticipation washes over me. Which is stupid. It’s a message from my virtual assistant.Calm down, Perry.
Before I read the message, I take Lennox’s advice and post the new photo to my profile. When I pull up my messages with Lila,the tiny circle next to my messages has already updated with the new picture.
A sense of vulnerability tightens my gut. Lila was probably staring at the chat thread when the photo updated. Should I say something?
I should say something.
But what could I possibly say that wouldn’t look like I want her to notice the picture? Even though I really want her to notice the picture.
Better to say nothing at all. Maybe she won’t notice. Maybe she . . .oh man.
In the seconds I’ve been staring at the screen, completely ignoring her last message because I’ve been obsessing over my stupid profile picture,herprofile picture updated.
To a real picture.
Her hair is down and loose around her shoulders. She’s looking directly at the camera, a knowing smile on her lips, and she is . . . stunning.
My phone chimes with another notification, and a second message pops up under Lila’s first.
Lila:Hey look. We’re real people after all. ;)
I shouldn’t be so excited about her message.
I rub a hand across my face.
