Page 40 of Please Open Me
So, while her mind stayed busy tearing her down, I gave her the one thing she never gave herself:
Love.
“Then I’ll carry ya.” I shrugged.
She didn’t weigh a thing, and I carried her around all the time. She liked it. It made her laugh. And I liked taking care of her.
Her head lifted just enough for our eyes to meet.
“You don’t have to,” she whispered.
“I want to.”
Somewhat against her will, I scooped her up and out of the swing. Her body melted into mine, though her shoulders stayed tight, like she didn’t know how to relax.
When it came to Mason, there wasn’t a damn thing I wouldn’t do to see her smile.
And as much as I hated to push her, she wasn’t getting out of taking that test.
Chapter 11
Sebastian
“Dude, I’m serious–we don’t have any more work for you today,” Lucian said, leaning against the glass counter like he hadn’t just ruined my afternoon. “Go home.”
My heart sank. I glanced at the clock.
Four twenty.
I was going to throw up.
“Okay, but we rode together,” I said, gesturing toward the neon green eyesore of a Jeep parked out front. “I’m not walking home. I’ll find something to do.”
I stopped and looked around the shop’s spotless lobby. Everything was done. The case was fully stocked. I’d triple-checked inventory. I’d done two piercings under Austyn’s permanently judgmental gaze. I’d even scrubbed the bathroom floor with a toothbrush.
And I had a Ph.D., for Christ’s sake.
“You can take the Jeep,” Lucian offered. “I’ll get a ride.”
I blinked. “What, so you can spend more time with the shop whore?”
Lucian dropped his head into his hands and groaned.
It had been over a week since Mason came in to get her ears pierced, and I still hadn’t recovered from watching Sera paw at Lucian like he was the last man alive in a zombie apocalypse.
“Dude. This again?”
“He accusing you of cheating again?” Sera called as she appeared from the back like some kind of smug poltergeist.
But instead of floating in with Victorian grace, she was wearing a shredded flannel that looked like it’d come from a discount bin in Hell.
Her voice made my skin itch. That sharp New England twang could cut through steel.
Lucian looked like he was one snide comment away from swan diving off a building.
And honestly? I couldn’t blame him. He had to spend all day with her.
“Yeah,” he mumbled flatly.
