Brad was waiting outside the library when we got there, his eyes wide when we approached.
“Theo,” he said, “what are you doing here?”
He didn’t sound overly happy to see his friend. Odd.
“I stumbled into Daphne in town, nearly knocked her over coming out of the tattoo place, so I bought her a cup of coffee to make it up to her.”
Brad eyed Theo, squinting. “What the hell did you do to your eyes?”
Theo laughed. “Oh, I almost forgot. Colored contacts. They’re not available to the public yet, but I got my hands on a pair. I’m trying them out to see if I can use them for Halloween.”
So they weren’t his real eyes. No wonder they’d looked so unreal.
“Halloween’s over a month away,” Brad said dryly.
“Never too early to start planning,” Theo said. “That’s my motto. For everything.”
Brad took my hand. “Let’s go, Daphne.”
“Okay. Thanks for the coffee,” I said to Theo.
“Any time. Any friend of Brad’s is a friend of mine. Especially a sister of Larry’s.” He winked, turned, and headed in the other direction.
Brad turned to me, his eyes intense. “How much time did you spend with him?”
“About a half hour. Why?”
“What did he tell you?”
I cocked my head. “Are you angry?”
“No. Just concerned.”
“Why? He said you were friends.”
“We are. Sort of.”
“So it’s just business, then?”
“He told you about that?”
“Well…yeah. He said you all met in high school and started some club, and my brother was in it. How well do you know my brother, Brad?”
He didn’t answer.
“I’m interested. I hardly know him at all. Maybe I can get to know him better through you.”
He turned to me and gripped my shoulders. “Daphne, I didn’t know you were Larry’s sister when I took an interest in you.”
“I…know that.”
“Good. You and I have nothing to do with Larry. Or Theo. Or my stupid high school club.”
A sliver of fear edged into me. “O…kay.”
He loosened his grip. “I’m sorry. It’s just… High school was a long time ago for me. I made some decisions that I regret.”
“Brad, no one’s going to judge you for what you did in high school.”
I believed those words. I had to. I didn’t want to be judged for my high school years, a year of which I’d spent hospitalized.
“I hope not,” he said.
“Did you do something…bad?”
“No, baby. I didn’t.”
He looked past me, toward the Rocky Mountains. Was he lying? Brad usually looked me in the eye. If anything, I was the one who had a problem making eye contact. I was a little bit shy by nature, and everything that had happened since I got to college was so very new to me.
Finally, I broke the silence. “What were you doing today?”
“Just business, baby. That’s all.” Again, he looked past me.
I felt in the marrow of my bones that meeting Brad had been fate, that he was my destiny. I still felt that way, standing here with him refusing to meet my gaze.
I’d had enough of people refusing to meet my gaze last year, when I returned to high school after my year-long hiatus.
I wasn’t going to take it from my boyfriend.
“Look at me, Brad. Look me in the eye.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Brad
I hated talking to Daphne about this. She was innocent. A gorgeous flower swaying in the wind. I didn’t want to be the tornado that uprooted her.
I should take her back to school and end whatever this was between us. Bringing her innocence into my world could lead to disaster, and that was the last thing I wanted.
But as I dropped my gaze back to her big brown eyes, I knew I couldn’t give her up. She was it for me—the woman I’d bring home to Steel Acres, the woman I’d devote my life to, the woman who would bear my children.
Fuck! I hadn’t even known her a week.
I knew next to nothing about her. She was so young, too. Only four years separated us, but at our age, that might as well be a lifetime, especially after the life I’d led so far.
I did as she asked. I looked her in the eye. Right in her gorgeous and warm brown eyes. “Let’s go back to the coffee shop.”
“I don’t want any more coffee.”
“Tea? Water? I just want to sit with you and talk.”
“Water. Or a Coke maybe.”
I took her hand, and we walked the block back to the coffee shop. We grabbed a table in back, and I got our drinks quickly and sat down next to her.
“I don’t know much about you,” I said, “except that you love animals and want to eat ethically sourced meat.”
“I don’t know much more about you,” she said.
“Not true. You’ve seen my home, met my father. Met Theo. I haven’t met any of your friends.”
“You’ve met Patty and Ennis.”
“You just met them yourself, baby. Tell me about your friends at home.”