Page 22 of With Stars in Her Eyes
With an enigmatic smile, Courtney lowered herself into the makeshift sleeping area, careful to keep Baxter safe against her.
“You’re so good with animals. Do you have pets?”
She stroked the pig’s ears and tucked him into the blankets. “I’m on the road too much. Someday.”
“That’s right. Denise—my boss, Denise—she said you were in and out of town a lot.”
An odd look darkened Courtney’s features, but it might have just been the angle of the emergency lantern. “Oh… yes. I am.”
“I told her I met you when I got back after the whole bearded dragon incident,” I said in a hurried effort to explain why she had been the subject of conversation. “She said you work here when you aren’t touring as a musician. How… how long will you be around here this time?” The question didn’t sound as casual as I wished it had.
“I think I’m turning over a new chapter actually.” Courtney kissed Baxter’s nose once. “It might be time to retire from all that.” Her tone was impossible to read. “Christ…”Courtney leaned her head back to stare at the ceiling.
“What?”
“It’s just… I haven’t actually said that aloud to anyone yet. Not even Sam. Not even Ms. Jeannie.”
“Oh, that’s my fault. Sorry about that.”
“Your… fault?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “Specifically, my face’s fault.”
“Yourface?” Courtney’s eyebrows knitted together.
“People just tell me things. It’s been a problem since I was a kid.”
Courtney held up a hand in front of my face, blocking me from her view. “So I should do this or wear a blindfold to make sure I don’t spill any more of my secrets?”
“Maybe just move the lantern light for now.” The wind outside howled louder. “Ms. Jeannie’s a spitfire, isn’t she?”
“Sure is. She’s a good egg though. I’ve known her a long time. I spent the holidays here with Sam when we were college roommates.”
“It’s good to have people like that.”
It was cold but not unbearable beneath the blankets. Courtney had turned on all the battery twinkle lights that draped the shelves. The ceiling itself was covered in glow-in-the-dark stars in a surprisingly accurate representation of the night sky. Someone had spent some time on that. “Kid me would have been over the moon about getting to have a sleepover in a bookstore.” I risked a glance toward Courtney. “Baxter’s still shaking? How were you calming him down before Ms. Jeannie got here?”
“It’sembarrassing.”
“Do I need to use this face again?” I pointed to my face like it was a weapon, softening my features into the kind of lethal earnestness I usually reserved for getting myself out of speeding tickets.
“Crap. No…” Courtney unzipped her coat a little bit more, allowing the pig to look around. “Fine. I was reading to him. He was getting a little jumpy and panicked, and then he was shaking when the wind was gusting, but then…” A slight wince.
“Then your migraine got worse.”
“I took my meds, but I’m still waiting for them to fully kick in. Speech can get hard for me, so I don’t like talking much when a migraine first starts. I get these auras.” She wiggled her fingers. “And focusing on the page in the dim light was making it worse too.”
“What were you reading to him?”
“I was consideringCharlotte’s Web, but I decided that might give him existential dread. Then I was going to read him a romance, but he’s only ababypig, so that didn’t seem quite right either.”
“You put a remarkable amount of thought into your reading-aloud choice for a creature who doesn’t understand speech.”
“Zip it, smart-ass.”
I zipped it as commanded, getting a little thrill with each emerging glimmer of Courtney’s snarky personality beneath the shyness. From everything I gathered from the other workers at Squid, Courtney rarely spoke to anyone except Samantha. No one knew much about her. Most people didn’t seem to understand how Samantha and Courtney could have been best friends for so long given how different they were. Samantha was known for being gregarious and charismatic.
This more open version of Courtney made sense of the long friendship. This version of Courtney was funny and sweet and a little bit salty. This version of Courtney made it harder for me to ignore I was dangerously attracted to her.
