Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71044 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71044 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“Can we stop by Vann’s on the way home?” I ask Adrian after we get into his car. “I still have some art stuff he let me borrow that I need to return. I brought them in my backpack.”
He nods. “Of course, sure.” Then he takes my hand—his favorite, adorably possessive thing he likes to do—and holds it the entire time he drives.
A moment later, we stop in front of Vann’s. “I’ll just be a minute,” I tell Adrian as I hop out of the car with my bag. He turns on the radio and kicks back, letting the tunes fill his ears as I hurry up to the front door.
It isn’t Vann who answers the door, but Kelsey in an oversized Nirvana t-shirt that hides whether she’s got short shorts or nothing at all on. “Hey there, old roommate,” she teases me. “You and Adrian get in a fight? Need a spot on Toby’s couch again?”
I smile. “Sadly, we’re still miserably happy together. Is Vann home? I just wanted to return some supplies he let me borrow,” I tell her, lifting a plastic bag full of the items in question. “Charcoal pencils and stuff.”
She takes the bag. “I’ll make sure he gets it.”
“Oh. Thanks. Is he not—?”
“He and Toby are at the arcade, I think. Toby had some score to settle with a chick who took his top spot on one of the pinball machines. That guy is obsessive with his games. Really, he needs to be diagnosed.” She leans against the doorframe. “How’s Adrian? Are you guys married yet?”
I snort at that. “Yeah, not sure about that, but we’re doing alright. I’d say I’m getting settled into his place, but I sorta already was. So it feels like I already live here.”
“Wish I could say the same. I’m going back home to Spruce soon enough.” She sighs. “Not that I don’t like my dads, but they … get kind of clingy when I’m home.”
“Parents can never go wrong by loving us too much.”
“Vann’s so fucking happy you’re here in Dreamwood Isle now,” she tells me suddenly. “He won’t admit this out loud, but he’s been starved for more artist friends his age. You’re pretty much a god-send. I, on the other hand, am a thorn in these lovebirds’ asses, but … not for long.” She frowns. “Sorry if I was a handful when you first showed up. I’m trying to get better about meeting new people and not going into instant kill mode.”
“It’s okay. I was invading everyone’s space.”
“It’s Vann’s fault for forgetting I was still here,” she reminds me. “But again, I’m trying to get better with meeting new faces and sucking less with my people skills. That’s my story, I guess. That’s my big character arc this summer.” She shrugs. “Suck less with people.”
“I think you’re doing just fine.” I nod toward the couch, which I can see from the front door. “But maybe that cat can use some work.”
She chuckles.
It might be the first time I ever heard her chuckle.
“Tell Vann and Toby I said hi,” I tell her, “and I’ll be seeing more of them around town. Better get back home. Adrian said he has something planned for us for tonight.”
“Sounds like fun. Probably the kind of fun I don’t want to hear anything about. Stay sexy,” she says before heading inside and closing the door with a smirk.
But whatever Adrian has planned, he keeps it strangely to himself as we hang out at his place, enjoying this calm Monday off of school I’ve been blessed with.
“My birthday was last May,” I say as we sit out on his balcony. There are two chairs, but we’re both in the same one, as I lay across his lap, my legs dangling over one of the arms. “So whatever fun thing you’re planning tonight isn’t about my birthday …”
Adrian looks at me. “You’re still fixated on that?”
“And maybe you might be wanting to celebrate my moving in here, but then why now? Why not back when it happened? So it isn’t that either.”
“Quiiin,” he groans.
“Can’t be celebrating me getting through the summer program, because it doesn’t actually end for a couple more weeks, and—”
“It’s just a nice dinner at Thalassa, alone, alright?” he blurts out. Then his sensitive eyes find mine. “I just wanted to pamper you. Take you out. Make you feel like a prince. Can’t a boyfriend do that for the man he loves?”
I gaze into his eyes. “Really?”
“Yeah, really. Now you can quit twisting your mind around it like a snake and choking all the fun out of it.” He reconsiders, then eyes me again. “But it is kinda fun, to watch you squirm with anticipation, wondering what I’ve got up my sleeve.”
“So you do have something up your sleeve?”
He rolls his eyes. “I just can’t win with you, huh?” He pokes a finger at me. “You’re just determined to drive me crazy, huh?”