Page 35 of Yours, For Good

He raised an eyebrow. "Maybe because there is no larger library than the one in our pockets?"

I gave him a dubious look. "Sure, but there's nothing quite as sweet as having the weight of a paperback to get lost in. One that has that magical smell to it. Old paper, sigh."

"You're not wrong about that." He closed the book in his hands and tapped it against a palm. "I think I'll take this one back home with me. Lizzie wouldn't mind."

Instead of sitting on the armchair across from me, he left the keepsake on a nearby table. With the confidence of someone who felt comfortable in a space, he went straight for a mysterious cabinet by the window. I had tried the door earlier in the week, but it had been locked.

Instead of pulling from the door handles, he reached for the key that locked the paned window behind it. He used that key to open the cabinet, and revealed a few bottles of liquor and crystal glasses.

"The advantages of being an old acquaintance." He gave me a cheeky wink. "Would you like a dram? If you're not too tired for a chat."

"I would love that."

He gave me a glass with a golden liquid. "It's brandy."

"Thanks."

He sat on the armchair across from me as I tasted the liquor. A subtly sweet and fruity zing coated my mouth.

"Mhh. This is good." I studied him as he sipped from his drink, and he watched me right back. Like he was waiting for me to make a move. I started with a simple one. "How did you know there would be liquor there?

"It's been there for generations. If Lizzie didn't get rid of my books, I didn't think she'd change the cabinet contents."

"Have you always called Mrs. Semple by her first name?"

"Yeah. She insisted, back when I was a child. She thought it would make me feel safer with her."

"Was she right?"

"Yes. My family is quite stuffy, if you remember how Julia insists on calling me uncle? To have a grown up let me call her by her name made me feel closer— like there was something special between us."

"It must have been a pretty close relationship, if you gifted her the house and still visit, once in a while."

He leaned back and put one ankle over the other knee. It gave him a relaxed, self-assured look that did things to my lower belly. Maybe it was the remnants of the last time we met. I wouldn't be surprised if my body remembered how good it felt to be close to him.

Good thing my brain knew better than to let that confuse me.

"She was very special to me," he said. "Being so much younger than my siblings, my life growing up was very different from theirs. Even my relationship with my parents and family at large was strange. The only exception was my grandmother, but I didn't get to see her as often as I would have liked. Lizzie was around a lot of the time during the school year when I was a kid, and in and out during my teenage years— at my insistence. Like a mentor. She had the warmth I really needed at the time."

A soft, feathering current rippled up my chest. Javier had been lonely, too. This is why we had been smart to make our times together into a friendship.

I didn't know what it was, but I enjoyed how swiftly we could fall into great conversations. If someone told us we had met in another life, I would have thought long and hard about it. I might have even believed them.

I cocked my head. "We really don't beat around the bush, huh? Look at us. Talking for less than a minute and already going deep."

"And don't you love that?" A hint of passion filled his question. "I do. The deeper the better, in my opinion. It adds to the intimacy feeling, and that's how I like it."

I blinked a couple of times at his expression. A sudden image of Javier going deep intruded in my mind. I bit my lips in the hope it would stop the train of thought.

Quick! Tease him. DIVERT.

"That's… how you like it?" I asked. "You like going deep with all your friends?"

He closed his eyes, pursed his mouth to repress his humor, and shook his head. "You know what I mean."

"I do, but it's more fun this way."

Theoretically, I believed friendship could exist between people of all genders, as long as no one's feelings got confused. I had never been in that situation, but it made sense to me that as soon as one person's heart crossed into the romantic zone, the friendship changed.