Dark Hearts (Light in the Dark 3)

I dress for dinner, fuming the whole time.

The room is too quiet.

I fucking hate the silence.

I know I’m going to see Nova at dinner and it’s going to be damn near impossible to keep our friends from figuring out that something has happened between the two of us.

Luckily, I’m a good actor.

I tuck my white button-down shirt into my dress pants and try not to cringe. It’s not that formal wear is anything new to me, it’s just that I fucking hate it. My dad’s a Senator and before that he was Governor, so formal functions were the norm growing up.

I stuff my room key in my wallet, put it in my pocket, and head out.

I meet everyone in the lobby and Nova stands by Rae, away from me.

Before I can go to her, Thea directs us outside to where two taxis wait. One is a car and the other is a minivan.

Nova climbs in behind Rae in the car and Cade joins them in the back, where I know it must be cramped quarters. I grab the front seat. Thea goes with Xander’s family in the minivan.

I have no idea what restaurant we’re meeting Xander at, but Thea must’ve told the driver of our car to follow the minivan because he does so without speaking to either of us.

We finally arrive at a modern looking, white, one-story building. Ocean is spelled out in a dark blue script lit up on the side the building.

I get out and pay the driver.

“Xander’s already inside. He has our table,” Thea tells us, looking at her phone.

The eight of us head into the building and up to the hostess table.

The girl working jumps when she looks up from the menus she’s organizing and notices our large group.

“Oh, hi,” she says, placing her hand over her heart like she’s been startled and it’s racing. “Welcome to Ocean. Party of eight?”

“We already have a table,” Thea speaks up. “Kincaid?”

“Ah, yes. Right this way.”

The girl motions for us to follow. She’s dressed in a deep-blue silky blouse and a tight black pencil skirt. Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t be able to take my eyes off her, but now my eyes keep straying to Nova, trying to catch her eyes, hoping to see if I can gauge what she’s feeling and read her mood.

I have no such luck.

The hostess leads us to a large table out on a deck that overlooks a canal.

Xander sits at the table with another guy that’s tall and beefy enough that he must be another football player. I don’t keep up with sports so I don’t recognize any of the players. The only reason I know what I do about football is because I became friends with Cade and Xander in high school where they both played before we all moved on to the same college and they played again.

“Hey, guys.” Xander stands, slapping hands and hugging as need be. “This is my friend Sullivan. He’s a halfback.”

I have no idea what a halfback is.

Everyone takes their seats, and I purposely am the last one left—and sure enough, they left an empty spot beside Nova for me. I’m not happy at all that she’s also beside Sullivan. After all, what the fuck kind of name is Sullivan? I also don’t appreciate the way he’s looking at her—like she’s gorgeous and interesting and amazing, because she is all those things but I don’t want him noticing them about her. I’d rather he look at the fucking wall … or ocean, because a wall isn’t really applicable at the moment.

Nova slides her chair slightly closer to Sullivan, and I bristle.

I lower my head to her ear—no one will think anything of it, because they’re used to us having our secrets—and whisper, “I don’t bite.”

Her breath catches and dark eyes dart up to mine. I catch the briefest flash of desire before she shudders her eyes and looks at me with disdain instead. But it was there, even for a second, and that’s what matt

ers.