Shadowlands (Shadowlands 1)

“You work there?” I asked.

“Yep,” she said, rolling her eyes again. “Mom insisted I get a job. Gotta keep up ap—”

Tristan tossed a towel at her face, where it clung to her hair and covered everything down to her mouth. She pulled it off slowly, turning bright red.

“Thanks a lot, bro,” she said sarcastically, whipping it back at him. He snatched it out of the air and gave her a warning look. “He thinks family matters should stay in the family,” she explained.

I glanced over at Tristan, whose face looked a bit pink, too.

“What’s up, guys?”

Olive slid onto the stool next to mine, filling the void between me and Darcy. “Can you believe this place?” Olive asked, smirking as a guy at the other end of the bar did a spit-take with his drink and everyone laughed. “It’s like spring break on steroids.”

As if on cue, a group of girls near the windows let out a resounding “Wooo-wooo!”

Olive and I locked eyes and cracked up.

“Hey, Olive.”

My heart warmed at the sound of Tristan’s voice.

“Hey, T,” she replied in a familiar way, adjusting the sleeve of her flowy black top.

“Hello,” I said pointedly, trying to highlight the fact that he hadn’t greeted me or Darcy yet.

He turned to gaze at me but said nothing. The blue of his eyes was a deep, almost Caribbean Ocean color, solid and flat, unmarked by variation or flecks. He wore a light blue Thirsty Swan T-shirt that showed off his chest muscles and brought out his dark tan.

“Can I get you anything, Olive?” he asked, still looking at me.

“You know me, T,” she replied, fiddling with a cocktail napkin. “Diet Coke, straight up.”

He gave her a small smile, the first I’d seen on him, and it changed his face completely. If possible, it made him even handsomer.

“On it.”

He turned away and grabbed a clean glass.

Olive nudged me. “So I’ve been thinking about this whole running thing, and I’ve decided to give it a try,” she said, standing up on the rung of her stool and reaching over the bar for a swizzle stick. She placed it between her lips and chewed on the end. “You wanna go with me tomorrow?”

“I’d love to go for a run!” Krista enthused.

“You don’t run,” Tristan said, placing Olive’s Diet Coke in front of her.

“But I—”

“Aren’t you working tomorrow anyway?” he asked.

Krista’s face fell, and she pouted again. “Fine,” she said through her teeth as Tristan moved away to fill a glass for another customer.

I gnawed at my bottom lip, considering. I hadn’t been out for a run since we’d gotten here, and I knew I’d never go by myself, not with the specter of Steven Nell hovering over me.

Still, beneath my stool, my feet bounced crazily, itching at the idea of a good workout. “Why not?” I said finally. “There’s safety in numbers, right?”

“Safety?” Joaquin asked, rejoining us. “What’re you worried about?”

My face flushed. Dammit. Why had I said that out loud? I shot Darcy a save me glance, but she was frozen, her lips on the rim of her glass. Tristan came over and slapped Joaquin on the back, but he paused when he noticed the tableau of me and Darcy in suspended oops mode and Olive, Krista, and Joaquin waiting for my response.

“Okay. What did I just walk in on?” Tristan asked.