Page 63 of Dev Girl

He was so sweet. Night and day compared to Don.

“I’ll be fine. You can’t camp out in my store front forever. Besides, I’ll remind him there are cameras everywhere. He’s never liked negative attention. And if he pushes things, I’ll scream so loud he’ll regret ever returning to town.” Aubrey was my hero.

I was still worried though. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.” Aubrey pushed us toward the door. Go. Have fun. Forget about Don the Douche.” She pulled me into a hug, and whispered, “focus on the much better guy next to you.” Her voice was so soft I barely heard it.

My face went hot.

I had the best friends ever.

Aubrey nudged us out the door, and Maddox and I were on our way.

I swore he glanced at me as much as he did the road as we drove to Ravyn’s.

I couldn’t lose him.

The thought came out of nowhere and gripped me so hard it hurt.

Onyx was leaving, I couldn’t lose Maddox too. Seeing Don again drove home how much it hurt to be betrayed by a friend. Not that Maddox was anything like him. Neither was Onyx.

And that’s why no matter how much Onyx’s reasons for going made sense, I ached at the thought of him not being here. At the idea that the same might happen with Maddox—he’d find something better, and walk away.

When did I start feeling more for them than friendship?

And what if Don was right? What if I wasn’t good enough to be anything to anyone?

18

Maddox

When Ravyn showed us the rough-out of our cliff, on the barn doors, I was blown away. The basic outline was there, along with some painted in bits to show colors. The finer details were missing, but Ravyn had assured us those were still coming.

“I love it.” I let my enthusiasm shine through. “It’s going to be perfect.”

“Agreed.” Though Alys was still quiet, it was clear she liked what we were looking at.

I just wished I could pull her away from her thoughts of that asshole, Don.

I’d seen pictures of him here and there, because the guy was the kind of real estate developer who liked his photo plastered everywhere. So when someone said Don Spader it was easy to look up who they meant.

After spending five minutes talking to him today, I wanted to bathe in bleach. I saw exactly why no one liked him. Aside from the whole deal of he fucked Alys and Evie at the same time and lied to both of them about it.

And I’d love to distract Alys from those thoughts this afternoon.

As we finished making arrangements with Ravyn, my gaze drifted around her barn. Partly to see if I wanted to photograph Alys in here, and partly because there were so many glimpses of neat things.

“Is that a Frank Frazetta style Bowie?” I asked when the conversation lulled, and I wandered toward the hint of painting that had caught my eye.

“What? Where?” That had Alys’s attention.

Ravyn ducked her head, but didn’t hide her smile. “It’s just a thing I was working on.” She followed me, and pulled out a four foot by four foot canvas. It wasn’t just Bowie—it was Bowie fighting Ozzie in front of a decimated stone castle.

Onyx would love this. Every bit of it was a flowing, stylized homage to all the artists involved.

“Ozzie would never fight Bowie,” Alys said.

There was that.

---