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‘I don’t understand.’ Ellie threw her hands up in bafflement. ‘I remember being absolutely thrilled about my first date. Granted, Braden and Adam ruined it and I came home crying, but surely your first date went better than mine.’
I was too busy smirking at Ellie and wondering what the hell Braden and Adam had done to ruin her first date to notice that Ha
‘Ellie, can you just drop it?’ Her plaintive tone brought my head around and I frowned at her morose expression.
Oh, God. Had something happened? Had he … ‘I don’t know about you, Els, but I’m begi
Hearing the seriousness of my tone, Ellie stiffened, her wide blue gaze flying back to Ha
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake.’ Jo crossed her arms over her chest and gave Ha
‘Jo.’ Ha
Jo looked at Ellie, seemingly ready to ignore Ha
Ellie crossed her arms over her chest, frowning. ‘What’s Jo talking about?’
We waited patiently – or at least Jo and I did – for Ha
‘Why not? Are you doing something illegal?’ Ellie huffed. ‘I’m starting to get really concerned.’
I knew Ha
‘Fine, I won’t tell Mum. Now spill.’
Exhaling heavily, Ha
‘What happened?’ Ellie reached out to take her hand.
Ha
Ellie sighed, a deep-seated understanding in her expression, and from everything Ellie had told me about her past with Adam, she really understood. ‘So you finally decided to move on and accepted a date. This is like déjà vu,’ she muttered, squeezing her little sister’s hand.
‘Scott’ – Ha
‘What happened?’
‘Wait for it,’ Jo murmured, her mouth twisted in a
‘Marco moved here from Chicago. He’s living with his aunt and uncle. They own D’Alessandro’s.’
‘Oh, my God, I love that place.’
‘Liv –’ Ellie bugged her eyes out at me. ‘Stick to the program.’
‘Oh. Sorry.’ I winced. ‘Continue.’
‘Marco works for his uncle at the restaurant, something he never actually told me.’ She seemed perplexed by this. ‘He goes to Telford College. He’s studying to become a carpenter. I didn’t know he was working too.’
She was silent a moment as she got lost in her own thoughts.
‘Ha
‘Scott took me to D’Alessandro’s.’
We all sucked in a breath, suddenly realizing where this was going.
‘Marco was bussing tables. He saw us together and he looked …’ She shrugged, seeming lost. ‘He looked furious. When Scott went to the toilet, I tried to talk to him, but he just … he barely looked at me and then stormed off. Disappeared.’
We were all silent for a moment and then I offered unhelpfully, ‘Sounds complicated.’
‘Sounds epic.’ Ellie smiled at her little sister.
‘This is why I didn’t say anything.’ Ha
‘Hey,’ Ellie snapped, not something she did a lot, considering she was a pretty su
Her sister eyed her carefully. ‘That is true.’
‘I say let him hang.’ Ellie shrugged. ‘When I shut Adam out, that pushed him to make his move.’
‘Wasn’t that your tumor?’
Els glared at her. ‘The tumor was a catalyst, but believe me I was wearing him down with my absence before all that.’
Ha
‘Forgiven.’ Ellie blew air out between her lips. ‘So? What are we going to do? About Marco, that is?’
For a little while we sat around debating the best move, all of us considering it seriously, since it was plain as day that this was no ordinary crush for Ha
Ha
‘And isn’t that just depressing,’ I muttered, as I walked downstairs.
‘What’s depressing?’
I turned at the sight of Cole coming out of the toilet, his eyebrows raised in question.
‘Tortoises,’ I answered immediately, lying because the truth was just embarrassing and way too complicated to explain to a fifteen-year-old boy. ‘They’re so grumpy-looking.’
Cole eyed me like I was nuts, which I might just be. ‘You’re a little weird, Liv. You know that, right?’
I nodded in resignation and started walking toward the dining room.
‘But you’re wrong about tortoises.’
Affection rushed through me, and I turned to him with a questioning smile. ‘I am?’
‘They’re not grumpy. They’re just contemplating things. That’s why they take their time getting places. They’re constantly thinking things through.’
My grin widened and he smiled back at me. ‘It’s official. You are just as big a geek as I am, Cole Walker.’
He grunted at me. ‘Aye, if cooler than ice is now being mistaken for geek.’
Laughing, I followed him in to di
‘I don’t suppose you’re reshelving history books, are you?’
The familiar smooth voice surprised the heck out of me, and as I jerked my head back to stare up at Benjamin I felt my tongue immediately twist itself into a knot.
It was Monday afternoon and I’d taken a moment away from the quiet help desk in the reserve section to reshelve returned books. Benjamin had crept up on me as I sat on my haunches, putting a few books back on the bottom shelf of the last book stack in the room.