Page 19 of Liar & Champion
I shuddered. “Do you understand what that would look like? Responsible for my mother’s House of Beasts? No. Out of the question. I’m not her.”
“That’s what I said. You’ve met a few of the options so far. Who are you leaning towards?”
“I’ve just talked to Miss Wilson and Miss Smallfield. Out of the two…” If I dated Sunshine for six months, Michael wouldn’t touch her. My mother would definitely see to that. But Kitten was against dating for whatever reason.
“Why doesn’t Sunshine date?”
He shrugged. “She doesn’t share her reasons publicly. You prefer her to Smallfield? She doesn’t seem to be your type.”
“She’s incredible on a board.”
He nodded. “That explains it. She reminds you of the females you work with, the ones who don’t threaten you, and she isn’t interested in dating you, and you don’t want to date. In other words, you need therapy.”
I ran my hand through my hair. “I need some therapy, all right. Punching Dupre until he never thinks about hurting another woman again would count.”
“Back to that?” He carefully dried and put the dishes away where they’d been before like it really was his house.
“I fight. I win. Now I’m playing some dating game? I don’t need therapy, I need reality.”
“You whine more than I remember. You should probably go to class and meet a few more girls. More data points are always useful.”
“Sure, I’ll go do that. You can vacuum the rug.”
“You don’t have a rug,” he said as I slammed out the front door with a frustration as familiar as my name. My last name. I’d changed it legally from Hammer to Death-Hammer, and I’d never been willing to go back, but my mother had shown her hand, and it was the winner.
I had too much to lose these days. When you have nothing, you can spit in the face of oppression and be your own person, but now, having a team to protect, I could play a stupid game for six months and maybe let Dupre walk for a little while.
Daniel was right. I could more than easily play and win whatever competition was placed before me. I wasn’t the champion for nothing. Even Kitten saw that, even if she didn’t want me to be her champion.
Chapter Eight
LIAR
Itook one day off to sleep on my couch and not face reality, but that afternoon, Nix came over, carrying the package with my name on it.
“I hate to disturb you, but you probably want your stuff back.” Would I ever get used to how good he looked, smelled, and the way he smiled with his eyes, even when his mouth was in a straight line? I loved his eyes, warm, friendly, but also the kind of eyes that understood without needing a lot of words.
I looked down at the package, sadly having to focus on that instead of him. I’d gotten the crutches out and could get around almost normally. I healed quickly, which was the only good thing about me. “Thanks. Can you put it on the table for me?” I looked back up at him and had to smile because he was handsome, but also had character, and was so much more pleasant to think about than Michael.
“What are you doing up? Where is your aunt?” he asked, following me into the living room.
“She’s at work. She works a lot. She’s a bit of a workaholic, but it’s good to do what you love, I guess.”
“Do you know what you want to do when you graduate?” he asked, putting the package on the table and straightening up.
Dead wasn’t what I wanted, but no other answer would be realistic. “I want to be a painter. Behold my brilliance.” I gestured grandly at the walls where my florals brightened up the already happy yellow walls.
“Those are yours? I noticed them last time. They’re very well done.”
“Ah, a man of the world as well as a man of the people. Such a man. Have you decided what you want in a woman yet? I came up with a questionnaire this morning while I wasn’t in school. Do you want to sit down and we can go through it?”
He eyed me skeptically. “You should be resting.”
“Sit down so I don’t have to keep standing, and I’ll be resting.”
He sighed and sat down on the couch instead of on a chair on the other side of the table. Oh well. I’d slept on his shoulder all night. No sense pretending I hated being close to him. I really didn’t mind. Somehow I couldn’t think of a single interaction that had caused me pain, even when he picked me up and carried me. It should have been impossible for him to touch me so right, but he did.
I leaned my crutches on the couch arm and sort of fell down next to him, over onto his chest before I straightened up. “Sorry about that. I’m not quite steady yet.”
