Starfire(9)

“Right.” Adrian turned and gave me a funny look.

Golden noticed him making extended eye contact with me and shot me a hurt look.

“Your change is in the drawer,” I said, backing away toward the door. My armpits began to sweat as memories of the previous night came back unwanted. Me, kissing Adrian. Adrian, kissing me back, but then leaving me. All those moments back in high school, when I would have just melted if he’d given me the slightest interest. And now… seeing him invading my bookstore, the place that used to be my domain.

As I stared at Adrian’s lips, pink and surrounded by blond facial hair stubble that glinted like raw, brown sugar, I felt a powerful desire to kiss him again. I’d been drunk enough the night before that I couldn’t remember exactly how he kissed, but I did recall how it made me feel.

I shuffled closer to the door, wanting to leave, but also wanting to stay in his company. Why was Golden looking at me with so much suspicion? Could she read my mind? Did she know I was thinking about Adrian’s hot mouth around my nipple? My face flushed.

Peaches, don’t think about anyone licking your sweater puppies. Don’t think about them cupping your flesh and hungrily dragging their tongue across your flesh, your nipple hardening and straining toward their hot, open mouth.

The door behind me jingled merrily with a customer walking into the bookstore, and I jumped.

“Not so fast,” Adrian said, pointing an accusatory finger at me.

I caught the open door and backed away, toward the sunny sidewalk. “Dude, today’s my day off. You’re working, not me.”

“Staff meeting,” he said.

“News flash: we don’t do staff meetings.”

Adrian crossed his arms, his sinewy forearms drawing my eye. The guy really had filled out since high school, when he was so skinny and tall, like a string bean. I’d crushed on him pretty hard back then, and now that he’d filled out, he was even hotter—not just because muscles are hot, but because he looked strong enough to handle a curvy woman.

Adrian shrugged and rolled his shoulders back, his round bicep muscles straining against his black Led Zeppelin T-shirt, which was from his high school wardrobe and on the small side.

Oh, yes. Adrian had the strength to handle some dangerous curves. He could probably pick me up and hold my back to the wall, as I wrapped my legs around his waist, and…

“Seven o’clock,” he said. “I’ll just swing home and grab my mom’s car, then I’ll come pick you up at your house.”

“For a staff meeting?”

He glanced over at Golden, who was now pretending to peruse the magazines with Shayla. “Yeah. For bookstore business. I have some ideas.”

“Is Gordon Junior coming?” (Gordon is the reluctant owner of Peachtree Books. He inherited the business with the building, and he spends most of his time next door with his true love, the wine store.)

Adrian smirked and said sarcastically, “Of course Gordie’s coming. He’s very concerned about all the details.” He smirked some more. “I have some information about Black Sheep Books.”

“Those sheep-fuckers?” I quickly covered my mouth in embarrassment, since there were customers all around. My filters weren’t working well, due to the hangover.*

*Sure, we’ll blame the hangover.

“Seven,” he said with authority, then he dashed off to help a vertically-challenged customer pull down a book from the top shelf. With his height, he could actually reach everything in the store without needing a stepladder. He was really good at the job, and he seemed so comfortable and friendly with the customers, too. And now he wanted to call a staff meeting? Was he trying to take over my job as manager?

I didn’t like any of these new developments, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t excited about seven o’clock.





CHAPTER 4


We left the bookstore and walked Golden over to her car, still parked at Cougar Town from the night before. She didn’t seem to want to say goodbye to us, so we let her drive us back to the house.

At the house, she seemed like she wanted to talk to me some more about Adrian. Naturally, I bolted from the vehicle like it was on fire, without looking back.

Back at home, I started looking through my closet for something perfect to wear to my first-ever staff meeting.

A few times, I did get the tugging sense I was forgetting something important. I’d forgotten all about the Dalton stuff on the internet, and whatever Shayla had uncovered.

By the time I remembered to ask Shayla for my laptop battery back, she’d already left for her shift at the restaurant, and I didn’t dare search her room for it. The last thing I wanted was to reach under her mattress or open a drawer and come face to face with her vibrator, currently named The Assassin.*