Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 80643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“What the fuck?” I whisper. “This is the best place I’ve ever been.”
I beeline for the reference books section, checking out any book they have about Latin.
Torin looks around and I browse for five minutes, then ten, then easily burn half an hour just tucking into every corner of the store. It’s simple, yet it’s perfect. I end up getting so many heavy books that I leave them on hold at the register so that I can come back with a car later to pick them up.
“You like?” Torin asks as we step outside.
“I’m surrounded by books all the time, but I still can’t get enough of them. That was… the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”
Torin’s bright smile spreads over his face. “I can’t believe the same person who used to only have fun with a bottle of Jack is also the person who absolutely cheeses over finding a new bookstore.”
“That’s just who I am.”
“Now imagine that place, but with a banger of a coffee shop attached to it. Noah, I know it could be successful. Who gives a fuck if your siblings would judge you?”
I lean up against the stone wall outside, shaking my head.
“I don’t even think I was ever worried about their judgment. Not really. I just don’t know how to trust myself. I think my ideas are stupid, or something.”
“They’re really not stupid,” he tells me. “And you should fucking go after them.”
I exhale, turning away from him. “Shit, Torin.”
“What?”
I shake my head, looking up at the sky. “You’re being too nice to me. It’s weird. Like snow in the middle of summer, or something.”
“Oh, fuck off. I’m nice. When I want to be.”
“Yeah, but you never usually want to be. Not to me,” I tell him. “I can’t deal with it.”
I feel his arm slide around my waist, pulling me closer to him. “Yes you fucking can.”
His lips land on my cheekbone and I feel like my defenses are getting weaker and weaker, like I’m not going to be able to stop myself from wanting him.
“You don’t have to do this shit for me. The bookstore stuff, and all of it.”
“I know I don’t have to.”
I’m relieved when he kisses me again, because otherwise he’d have to see the look on my face.
I don’t think I could hide it anymore if I tried.
He pushes his legs against mine and kisses me up against the wall, and for the first time ever, I have a picture of the future.
A future.
I can open a store.
It’s an idea, a possibility, and a path I want to go down.
After a lifetime of self-doubt and numbing my senses, it feels like the first time I’m sure of something, even if there are no guarantees.
I’m going to try.
And it’s entirely because there was someone who believed I could. Someone I used to think would rather blow the whole world up than ever see me succeed.
“Thank you,” I murmur against his lips before he kisses lower, onto my neck.
He hums against me, and I start to feel vibrations from his front pocket, pressed up against me.
“Mmm. Either you have a very fun toy in your pocket or your phone is going off.”
“Don’t care,” he says.
“It’s buzzed, like, three times. You sure it’s not something important?”
He sighs against my skin, then leans back.
When he pulls out his phone, I glimpse the screen.
And instantly something feels off again, just like it did this morning.
Roman has called him.
Multiple times.
“Um,” I say as Torin turns the phone away. “Is everything okay?”
“Just a second.”
I frown, watching as Torin looks around, now, scanning the intersection rapidly.
Like he’s looking for something.
Checking for threats.
He moves, and I get a look at a few of the messages on his screen.
Roman: Where are you?
Bookstore, off campus.
Leave NOW.
“Torin,” I tell him, my tone low now. “Can you tell me why you really brought me out of the house today?”
The phone starts buzzing again.
“Fuck,” Torin whispers under his breath.
“Torin—”
“Because I didn’t think it was safe to be at Onyx House,” he finally tells me, reaching out to take my hand again. “And now I’m not sure if it’s safe to be here. I’m going to take this call.”
I swallow past a tightening throat. “Shit.”
“Roman?” Torin answers the phone.
I can hear Roman shouting through the phone.
Torin grips my hand and tugs me down the street, just as I see movement out of the corner of my eye.
It’s an SUV.
Right there, coming down the quiet street, straight toward us.
My senses flood with dread, a cold spike hitting my heart.
“Get in front of me,” Torin says to me, and adrenaline shoots through me as we break into a run.
Torin guides me down the street and my heart is pounding even before the SUV gets close to us.
He leads me down the sidewalk for a few moments before rapidly cutting across a side lawn, running into the narrow alleyway behind the storefronts.