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If what he’d just told me had been a story in a book, it would’ve been the part where everything seemed to play out a little too perfectly. “So Marco, Sophia, and Stephan just, what? Showed up and saved the day?”
“Yeah, basically. ” He picked up a loaf of bread from off of a shelf. “Stephan’s very good at the whole rescue thing. He has a gift for it. ”
I chose to ignore that comment. “So why didn’t Stephan ever call you?”
He reached for a box of cereal, then pulled back, glancing over his shoulder at me. “What do you mean?”
“When they were making the, like, eight hour drive to Vegas. Seems like plenty of time to call and give a heads up that they were on their way, if you ask me. ”
“I don’t know…maybe because they were in a hurry. ” He started to push the cart again, but quickly slammed on the brakes and spun around. “Gemma, what exactly is it you’re getting at?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know…I was just trying to point out the obvious, I guess. I mean, don’t you think it’s just a little bit strange that they didn’t call right when they’d figure out what was going on?”
He scowled at me. “What did Laylen tell you?”
“I already told you, nothing. ”
“Then what the hell’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing’s wrong with me. What the hell’s wrong with you?”
My plan was going so well…. Not.
“Just so you know,” he growled, “most of Laylen’s bitterness towards my father comes from fact that he made Laylen give up his position as a Keeper after he was turned into a vampire. ”
“Stephan forced him to leave?” I asked, astounded.
“Well, we really couldn’t let him stay a Keeper when Keepers are the ones who are supposed to be protecting people from vampires. ” He turned around and started pushing the cart down the aisle again.
It sounded completely cruel and heartless, if you asked me. How could they kick him out just because he was a vampire, especially when he wasn’t evil? “That sounds really harsh. ”
“Yeah, it is,” he said in a flat tone. “But that’s the way things have to be in order to do what’s right. ”
“Do you really believe that?” I asked. “Or are you just repeating someone else’s words. ” Like say, hmm…your fathers.
He whirled around again, his eyes burning with fury. “Isn’t that what you’re doing right now—repeating Laylen’s words. ”
“Well, Laylen’s words are the only truthful ones I’ve heard in the last fourteen years,” I snapped wildly with anger. So much for keeping calm.
“And how do you know that for sure. ” He glared. “You’ve only known him for, like, a day. ”
“What’s knowing someone for a certain amount of time got to do with whether or not they tell the truth? I’ve known you for, like, a month, and Marco and Sophia for, like, seventeen years. ” I held up my hands in front of me, my voice dripping with bitterness. “Oh no, wait, I mean fourteen years. ”
We were standing so close to each other now that I could feel the warmth of his breath against my cheeks. Electricity was rushing passionately through my veins. Alex opened his mouth, about to snap something back at me, but clamped it back shut as his gaze wandered over my shoulder.
I turned around and then cringed. I wasn’t sure how loud we’d been arguing, but apparently pretty loud because we’d drawn in an audience. At the end of the aisle, watching us with wide eyes and a curious expression was a teenage boy wearing a yellow Edmunds Grocery’s apron. The middle-aged woman that had passed by us earlier also stood there, staring at us, along with a younger girl that had fiery red hair.
“Whoops,” I muttered, turning back to Alex.
He gave me a yeah-no-kidding look, took me by the arm, and guided me down the aisle in the opposite direction as our little audience, pushing the cart along with us.
And that was about the end of our little conversation, as well as our grocery shopping expedition. Alex grabbed a few more things then headed to the checkout stand. Neither one of us said anything. I could tell he was still mad, but so was I. I was bummed out too, because I hadn’t gotten a single useful thing out of him. In fact, I think I ended up even more confused than I already had been before I’d started my questioning. It’s a good thing I wasn’t planning on going into a career as a detective, because I really sucked at the interrogation thing.
At the checkout stand, I helped Alex empty out the cart onto the conveyer belt. Then we waited as the cashier—a perky blonde girl wearing too much makeup—scanned each item. She kept batting her eyelashes at Alex, then started babbling to him about her job being a total drag, all while throwing in the occasional giggle and hair flip.
She was totally flirting with him.
It sucked.
As much as I hated to admit it, I was jealous of her flawless flirting ability that I so did not possess. The last and final straw was when Alex flashed an award winning smile at her, leaned over the counter, and started flirting back. I almost lost it. Yeah, I know, I had no claim over him, and I was supposed to be mad. And I was. But when you feel some unexplained, intense, electricity thingy every time you’re around a guy, being territorial is kind of a given.
To avoid watching the painful scene—and also to avoid doing something really, really stupid—I wandered over to a nearby magazine stand and distracted myself by reading through the headlines. I hated this. I wished my life was normal. Why couldn’t my life be normal? Oh yeah, because I wasn’t.
I picked up a magazine and flipped to the page with an article titled “The Top 10 Greatest Hits of All Time. ” Most of the songs were totally old school, but I appreciated the distraction.
“Interesting read?” A stranger’s voice, soft and melodious like velvet, floated over my shoulder.
I instantly put my guard up as I slowly turned around. Standing a little too close for comfort was a guy probably a few years older than me with sandy blonde hair and eyes as gold as the desert sand. Immediately, I sensed something was off about him but couldn’t place exactly what.
He smiled, flashing a set of perfectly straight, white teeth. “Hi. I didn’t mean to scare you or anything. I just haven’t seen you around here before. Are you new here?”
“Umm…yeah. ” I said guardedly. It was so bizarre. People hardly ever approached me like this. In fact, no one ever approached me.
Unsure of what to do, and figuring Alex would freak if he saw me talking to someone, I set the magazine down on the rack and started to walk away.
“So are you just visiting someone then?” he asked, halting my getaway.
How should I answer his question? “Yeah…I’m just visiting. ”
He paused, seeming like he was choosing his next words carefully. “My name is Nicholas. And you are?”
“Gemma,” I replied automatically, and then realized I probably shouldn’t have told a complete stranger my real name. I mean, who knew who this guy really was? Yeah, he could be just some guy from Mountain View, Colorado. But he could be something else.
“Gemma. That’s a pretty name. ” He brushed a strand of his sandy blonde hair out of his eyes, and the sleeve of his navy blue shirt slipped up just enough for me to catch a glimpse of a tattoo on his wrist; a black S wrapped by a small circle.
Just a tattoo?
I wasn’t sure.
My instincts told me to get away from him, so I forced a smile and started to walk away again. “I gotta go. ”
He stepped in front of me and nodded in the direction of where Alex stood, still chatting it up with Check Out Girl. “Is that your boyfriend over there?”
My pulse sped up. I was starting to get nervous. “No. ”
His mouth curled into a smile that sent a shiver down my spine. And not the good kind of shiver either. “Well, if that’s not your boyfriend then maybe you and I could go out sometime. ”
Yeah, like he really wanted to g
o out with me. I’d have laughed if I hadn’t been so freaking terrified. Something wasn’t right here. The guy was showing way too much interest in me. And that questionable tattoo on his wrist…. I needed to go. Now.
I moved to go around him. “Look, I really have to—”
Alex suddenly appeared by my side, and I felt a rush of relief sweep across my rattled nerves. “Ready to go. ”
“Yes,” I said, wanting to get the heck out of here and away from this guy. “Let’s go. ”
As Alex pulled me toward the exit doors, I thought I heard Nicholas muttered, “Not your boyfriend, huh?”
For most of the drive back to the cabin, Alex and I stayed quiet. I was beginning to think this was how things would always be between us. Either we were biting each other’s heads off, or ignoring one another. I wasn’t sure which one I preferred. Neither really. I wished things could just be normal.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, Alex spoke.
“Can you please explain to me why you thought it was okay to talk to a complete stranger like that?” he asked, his voice sharp with anger.
“Excuse me,” I said incredulously. “It wasn’t my fault. I was just standing there, minding my own business, when he came up and started talking to me. ”
“It was your fault. ” He paused as he turned the Jeep around a sharp, slippery corner. “You should have just walked away. ”
I forced my anger down the best I could. “I tried to leave, but he wouldn’t stop talking. ”
“I don’t care if he wouldn’t stop talking. You should have walked off. Do you not understand how dangerous that could’ve ended up being if that guy wasn’t just some guy? ”
“Yeah, I understand that,” I grinded through my teeth. “But like I said, I tried to walk off, but he—”
He cut me off. “There are no buts. You should have left. ”
He was being so irrational and difficult that, I swear, I could have slapped him. I clenched my hands into fist, telling myself to stay calm.
“And I thought I told you to put on some sunglasses. ” He was practically yelling at me now.
“What the heck is your problem?” I snapped angrily.
“What the heck is your problem?” He bit back.
I glared at him. It was one thing for him to lecture me over something that was my fault. It was another thing for him to sit here and chew me out over a situation I’d had no control over. “Well, if you wouldn’t have been so busy flirting it up with that stupid cashier girl, then maybe you would have notice a little bit earlier what was going on. ” Yeah, I regretted that one right after I said it. I sounded like a jealous girlfriend. But there was nothing I could do about it now, was there?
He gave me a funny look. “I wasn’t flirting with her. I was being polite. When a person talks to you, it’s rude not to talk back. ”
“Whatever. It doesn’t matter to me whether you were flirting with her or not. ” I folded my arms and turned my head toward the window. “I was just pointing out that if you’d been paying more attention, then you would have noticed a lot sooner that the guy had cornered me. ”