Page 56 of Sing For Me

“Well you’re out of luck because I’m not a nerd.”

“So you have no problem with me…” he edges back to the book shelf, fingers trailing over a stack of leather bound albums there. “…looking at this photo album?” he asks innocently. Shit. I grab for it but he’s too fast, and way too tall, because he holds it up over his head while I jump to grab it.

“Give it!”

He’s chuckling now. “You realize your reaction makes me even more determined to look, right?”

I sigh. “You know what, fine. I’m not ashamed. Go ahead and look at my photos.”

He grins. “Oh, I plan on it.” Then he takes the photo album back to our picnic spot and sits down with it in his lap. “First of all, who the hell prints out photos anymore?”

“I like keeping physical photos around,” I tell him grudgingly, sitting across from him again. “My mom always did, and that’s been so nice for me and Katherine since she’s been gone, having those to look at.”

He cocks an eyebrow. “Do you think talking about your mom is going to make me feel sorry for you so I don’t look at these?”

I snort. “Is it working?”

He smirks. “Not in the slightest.” Then he opens the album and starts flipping through the pages. “Oh, Eva,” he murmurs, voice shaking with amusement. “This is worse than I thought. Cosplay?”

“Cosplay isfun.”

He snorts. “Oh my God, tell me this isn’t you guys playing Dungeons and Dragons.”

“Dungeons and Dragons is fun.”

“Uh huh. Sure.” He flips through a few more pages, the grin on his face so gorgeous I’m almost able to forget that he’s teasing me. Then he looks up and his face is much softer than I would have expected. “You look happy in these.”

I shrug, feeling even more self-conscious than when he was teasing. “What can I say, I’m a nerd who looks happy when doing nerdy things.”

He shakes his head, watching me. “No. It’s the same thing I noticed before, when you were telling me about them.”

I have no idea what he’s talking about and he must read it on my face because he smiles. “You light up,” he murmurs. “When you talk about them. Your whole face changes.”

I shrug, feeling exposed. “They’re my family.”

Will’s phone vibrates for about the tenth time since we sat down and his smile tightens. “Speaking of family.”

“You can check it,” I tell him. “I don’t mind.”

“It will probably be a whole bunch of bullshit,” he grumbles. “They’ve been texting non-stop since I left the house. That’s why I turned off the ringer.”

“Why have they been texting so much?”

He rolls his eyes. “They’re very interested in this date.”

“Really? Is it that unusual for you to go out with a woman?” I can’t imagine that it is. Women must hang all over him, with his body and the tattoos and that face.

“I never date,” he says shortly, his tone clipped enough that I snap my mouth shut.

He’s got that working against him, I suppose. The way he seems to shut down sometimes. The coldness that takes over his features when he’s annoyed or upset. But maybe for some women that’s part of the charm—the broody bad boy.

His phone vibrates again. “Seriously, Will. I don’t mind.”

He pulls it out, expression still tight, but everything softens again when he looks at the screen. “Idiots,” he mumbles, lips twitching up. Then he holds the phone out so I can see the photo—a half dozen girls with blue face masks on and, in the middle, a blond guy I’m pretty sure is River.

“He was supposed to go out,” Will says, clearly amused. “But I guess the lure of facials and chick flicks was too strong for him.”

“Come here,” I say, gesturing him to slide next to me. He raises his eyebrows but complies and when he’s close to me, I tilt my head onto his shoulder, handing him the phone. “Your arms are longer.”