“Are you out here?”
My voice echoes back to me, frayed at the edges. I squint down rows and rows of vehicles as I walk, one after the other, silently cursing my shitty eyesight. The lot is empty, with nothing but a few straggly trees in the distance watching me.
With a sigh, I turn back.
“Hi.”
Biting her lip, Shelley leans against the brick wall of the studio a few feet away. Must’ve been so focused on looking between the cars that I walked right past her.
“Shelley.” Relief makes my shoulders drop, even as my heart punches harder against my ribs. “There you are.”
The make up girl smiles wanly up at me, and there’s none of the usual ease between us. No teasing sparkle in her eye. My ridiculous talk ofvicestruly has dimmed Shelley’s shine, and now she watches me like a wary bird watching a cat.
My gut sinks.
Hell.The last thing I’d ever want to do is make this woman—any woman—feel unsafe. Shame clogs my throat at the thought, thick and choking.
“About earlier,” I force out, grimacing when Shelley presses her lips together. “About—what I said. I came out here to apologize. That was very unprofessional of me, talking about personal things like that.”
Shelley laughs weakly and shrugs. “Don’t feel bad. Lots of folks confess things to me in my chair. You should hear some of the things the anchors have told me.” She whistles, gaze drifting over my shoulder. Like she can’t bear to look at me too long. “Now that is some juicy celebrity gossip.”
And yet she doesn’t seem scared of any ofthem.
But then, none of the news anchors are head over heels for Shelley, thinking long and hard about her every night before drifting to sleep. So far as I know, anyway. And if they are… guess they’re smarter than to confess that at work.
“I’m sorry,” I rasp. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
Shelley nods, but her smile is unhappy. A few escaped strands of her red hair have caught on the brick wall, and all I want to do, more than anything in the world, is step close and brush those hairs back into place. To crowd her against the wall and kiss her,feelher, press her body close to mine. To nibble on her jaw and down the soft, creamy line of her neck, until the troubled sadness leaves her eyes.
But it’s thoughts like that which got me in trouble in the first place. So I stay back, keeping a careful distance between us.
“Anyway,” I say. “I didn’t mean to corner you out here.” There’s no need for her to look like a startled woodland creature. “I just came to apologize and to assure that it won’t happen again.”
I’ll go to my grave without ever bothering this woman again, I swear it. I’ll keep a professional distance for the rest of my life, if only Shelley stops looking so guarded.
Overhead, the storm clouds swirl and darken. Thunder rumbles, strong enough to vibrate the concrete beneath our feet.
Beneath my shirt, the hairs on my arms stiffen.It’s coming.Looks like this storm is about to break—and hey, I’ll be the first to report it to the city.
Shelley blinks up at me, doe-eyed and baffled. Guess I don’t know what to make of this whole mess either, so I nod one final time.
“See you in there, Shelley. Don’t stay out too long—it’s about to rain.”
I turn to leave, but a soft voice halts me.
“Wait.”
When I glance back, Shelley’s tongue darts out to wet her lips. She watches me closely, twisting one of the ties of her black apron in her hands.
“She’s lucky,” Shelley blurts, a blush spreading over her cheeks. “Whoever it is that you want when you shouldn’t… whoever you’ve been pining after… she’s lucky, Dallas Adams.”
I swallow hard.
Doesn’t she know? Wasn’t I clear enough?
Christ, I’m not good at this. Squaring my shoulders one last time, I step forward and cup Shelley’s jaw with both hands.
“Oh,” she saws, her chest rising and falling rapidly beneath her tight black t-shirt.
