I sighed and bent to drop a kiss on her forehead. Easy affection was something I’d only ever been able to share with her. It came back to me the minute I held her in my arms once again. It was like all the time I’d tried to forget her was forgotten. My body and my heart knew where she belonged.
“No. You sound like a concerned friend. Not an obsessed lunatic.” I shifted so I could kiss the tip of her nose, lifting my head when I heard sounds of surprise from a group of girls walking past us. It looked like word that I was seeing someone was bound to make it around campus sooner rather than later. “What are you planning to do?”
“I don’t actually have a plan. But, she always leaves her phone laying around, and it doesn’t have a password or lock screen. I thought about taking a peek at when and where their next date is and show up unexpectedly. Or look for photos of them or details about him so that maybe Vernon could help me dig up more digital details. I have a bad feeling about the relationship, and it only intensifies the longer Mercer is involved with him and the longer she keeps him a secret.”
I grunted in response and grabbed her hand to tug her after me as I headed toward her next class. Ollie was the only girl I’d ever walked to class. “Crashing her date is a bit extreme, but as long as it’s a public place with a lot of people, and you don’t go alone, I think you’d be okay. You have to resign yourself to the fact that Mercer might get very angry with you. You might be risking not only your job, but your friendship, and I know she means a lot to you.”
“I can’t be friends with her if something terrible happens to her. There are a lot of red flags about her behavior lately. I can’t ignore them.”
I squeezed her hand reassuringly. She might reevaluate her concern once she had the whole picture of what happened with my half brother. “Let me know what you need from me or the boys. We’re here for you. No matter what.”
Vernon was right. We had to keep her safe, even from herself. After everything she’d been through, she might be her own worst enemy.
Briefly, I was really jealous of the guy she lured in to test Sawyer. Not only because he’d been her first, but because he was the one who finally made my half brother pay for his actions. In a perfect world, I would be the one who sent Sawyer far, far away from both of us. I should’ve been the one who helped her become unreachable.
But when had my world ever been perfect?
Instead, I’d learned to thrive within imperfection. To embrace it. To adapt to it. And now, as broken and damaged as Ollie was, like our battered, ever-changing relationship, I’d learned to love it. Our imperfection was a perfect fit.
The pursuit of his idea of perfection had driven my brother mad.
Ollie
“You look ridiculous. At least take the sunglasses off. It’s nighttime and we’re inside, for God’s sake.”
I turned my head and made a face at Vernon. Not that he could see it clearly since I had one of Huck’s baseball hats pulled down low on my forehead, and my eyes were covered with dark, mirrored sunglasses. I had on Huck’s leather jacket, which was way too big for me, and all of my curly hair was braided and tucked down the collar. It wasn’t a CIA-level disguise by any means, but it was good enough that when Mercer walked to the table in the dimly lit Italian restaurant where she was supposed to meet her date, she didn’t even spare me a glance.
Vernon still stood out like a sore thumb, but the only way Huck would let me out of the house to follow through on my crazy plan was if I agreed to take him with me. Huck didn’t want me to go at all. He’d been called into work to cover a shift and wanted me to wait until he was free, but I was worried about waiting any longer. Mercer just happened to mention this date in passing while we switched shifts at the shop, so I didn’t even have to invade her privacy and look at her phone to figure out what she was up to. I jumped at the chance to stake out her date and figure out what was going on with her secretive lover, even if I might cross several friendship boundaries.
I took off the sunglasses and wrinkled my nose at the pretty, young boy sitting across the table. He wasn’t thrilled to be here, but he’d come after I begged and Huck threatened. I could tell he was uneasy, but I had a feeling it didn’t have much to do with this crazy scheme of mine.
Vernon sighed, and the front part of his white hair fluttered over his forehead. “I still don’t really understand why you’re so suspicious. So what if she doesn’t want to talk about the guy she’s seeing and doesn’t want to introduce you? Maybe he’s just a private person. Maybe he’s married, and she doesn’t want to tell you. I think you’re jumping to conclusions because of your own history with toxic relationships. Not everyone attracts trouble the way you do.”
He smirked at me as he reached for a breadstick in the middle of the table. The basket was practically overflowing because our waiter took one look at Vernon and fell in love. He was extra attentive, even though Vernon seemed oblivious to his interest.
I tugged the bill of the hat down lower on my face as I watched each and every man who passed by the table with suspicious eyes. So far, Mercer had been at the table alone for several minutes. She kept looking down at her phone, but she didn’t act like waiting for her date was anything new.
“My history with toxic relationships is exactly why I’m worried. What if the guy has ties to Sawyer? It wouldn’t be the first time he manipulated his way into my life through someone I was close to.”
Vernon suddenly hacked and then started to clear his throat like he was choking. Almost immediately, the smitten waiter was tableside handing over a glass of water and asking if everything was okay. Vernon waved him off and gulped the water as I hid behind the menu just in case the commotion drew Mercer’s attention in our direction.
I peeked around the edge of the menu as Vernon hissed, “I can’t believe Huck hasn’t told you everything.”
I blinked in surprise at the irritation in his voice and slowly lowered the menu so I could meet his angry gaze.
“Huck hasn’t told me everything about what?”
Vernon averted his gaze and shook his head slightly. “Never mind. But I seriously doubt this guy is dating your friend because Sawyer ordered it. Whatever Huck is keeping to himself is just because he has your best interest in mind, and he wants you to remain as vigilant as you’ve always been.”
I was under the impression that Huck and I had moved past the point of making decisions for one another. We were supposed to share everything and stay on the same page so we didn’t end up back where we’d been when all we did was misunderstand each other. It was possible to do the wrong thing for the right reasons, which didn’t mean someone wasn’t going to get hurt anyway.
I didn’t need Huck hiding things from me for my own good.
I didn’t have time to delve too deeply into these thoughts, because just as the bouncy waiter stepped to the table, a tall, dark-haired man walked behind him and headed purposely toward Mercer’s table. I instantly recognized him.
I felt my jaw practically unhinge, and my breath froze in my lungs. I blinked a couple times, even rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. If only I’d asked his name, if I pushed Mercer harder for more information, I wouldn’t have been so blindsided right now.