Page 31 of Trip Me Up
“I met one of your fans.” I extended a hand toward the kid.
He squatted to get closer to the kid’s height. “Hey. What’s your name?”
“Hero.”
“Ah, your parents must be fans of Shakespeare.Much Ado About Nothing,right?”
The kid nodded.
“‘If it proves so, then loving goes by haps: Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.’” Niall’s green-eyed gaze landed on me and then flitted away so fast I wasn’t sure he’d done it on purpose. Shakespeare sounded knee-quiveringly resonant in Niall’s deep voice, nothing like when my English teacher read it.
“I likeSecrets of the Wood Elvesbetter than Shakespeare. They talk like regular people.”
Niall beamed at the kid. “And who’s your favorite character?”
“Greva. She always rides up just in time to save Nieven.”
“I like that about her, too. It was nice meeting you, Hero. I’ll see you again when I sign your book, okay?”
“Okay.” Hero’s adoring gaze shone up at Niall.
I adored him a little, too, for his serious talk with that little kid. And the Shakespeare. And the way he’d fought off the store manager and his phone like a knight of old.
“Showtime.” Niall held my gaze. “You ready?”
I shuddered. Once upon a time, before I’d made that awful mistake with Stephen, I’d hoped kids would look up to me. I’d wanted to be a programmer and entrepreneur like Jackson. I hadn’t wanted the notoriety he’d created as a defense mechanism, but I’d wanted little girls to see what I’d done and think,I could do that, too.
But all that was in the past. Fame wasn’t for me. After I did this tour and the truth was revealed, Dr. Martell and the university could take credit for CASE and leave me out of it. I never wanted to have to stand up in front of an auditorium full of scholars and explain what I’d done.
And that brought me crashing back to reality. I didn’t want to be at this bookstore, talking about a book I hadn’t written.
“No.” I wasn’t ready. All those people. Their stares. Their chuckles when I stumbled. My feet stuck to the floor.
“When we’re up there, look at me. Listen to me. It’ll be fine. Just like right now. Okay?”
“I don’t know.” I cast a longing look out the front door. Even subzero temperatures and sleet sounded better than having all those eyes and ears on me.
“We’ll do it together. One.” He paused. “Two.” He gazed deep into my eyes. “Three.”
And like they were powered by someone else, my feet started moving toward the platform. Niall’s hand rested on my back, warm, steady, and sure. Maybe I could do this, after all.
