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"I thought we could talk about this thing we have going on"

"Oh, uPebbles," I add Where the hell did that coest ti a little too

"Sure, I can probably make it What time?"

Now I know I hear excitement in her voice "Seven I’ll pick you up"

"Seven thirty and I’ll meet you there"

"Okay, but I want you to know, I like to pick a girl up when I take her out"

"We’refor dinner You said you wanted to talk This isn’t a date"

"Call it whatever you want"

She’s silent but still there

"And, Red, I’ forward to it"

All she says is "bye" before she hangs up

I’m not at all surprised she said yes I know she wants to seeout with ested we go to what she had already told me is one of her favorite places, I swear she purred at the ot this

CHAPTER 8

Run Run Run

Bell

The hts have left me exhausted So I decide on a quick nap after brunch to try to rid , the idea of the two of us as a couple However, my nap turns into an all-day siesta full of dreams of him As I buryover and over in h the linehim for another date

I still ree It was our first official conversation And it was the first tiether, his nah the library and slid into my soul--forever

• • •

The library was filled with people Hushed voices echoed through the huge space The enorave the vast space a feel of ht to shine in Rectangular wooden tables and artificial trees were scattered around, giving the place a more homelike feel I spent a lot of time there and appreciated those touches I was pree in the library to study and help drill everything I needed to know into my brain Deep within one of the stacks of books, I spotted him He stood in one of the aisles, lost in his novel He was the saht at a party, but who didn’t even know I existed

With his y blond hair and tall, lean, er version of Ocean’s Eleven’s Rusty Ryan, andmade me stop; I was frozen in place and couldn’t pass hi the heel of his black suede sneaker against the mass of books behind hilasses and let the the aisle pretending I was looking for a book I thu, then shoved it back I repeated this gesture, swinging a glance his ith each push and pull I got closer to where he stood with every repeated th away before I knew it, but he hadn’t noticed He was lost in his reading, blond hair falling over his eyes He wore a plaid button-down shirt, untucked, and a pair of worn khaki shorts Plaid would normally have been a total turnoff to hts whirled in ers orit

A snort, almost a snicker, escaped his throat and I bit down onto hi his slow, easy grin made my pulse race It just seemed so natural, without any pretense When I ceremoniously took out my next book, I accidentally dropped it, I was so lost in watching hi the seductive way his aze as he effortlessly bent to retrieve my book I stared into his blue eyes, but only for a netized by his proximity I could tell by the way he moved that he was sure of hiance and ripped the book on the floor while my eyes swept up to his other hand, to the spine of the book he was holding He was reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and seeing its title renderedwith such in-depth interest, I thought

That slow, easy grin that had to irl’s heart turned into a s an eyebrow

I wasn’t really listening I didn’t hear what he said My heart pounded as aze swiveled from his book to his face--tanned skin, eyes bluer than the sky, cheeks flecked with just the right aed and handsome and hot

My voice sounded dry "What?"

"The Illustrated version of A Lover’s Guide to Ka for help? In a library?" he asked in utter seriousness

"No, no No, I’rabbed the book from hiled where it had brushed his Of all the books in the world, that’s the one that I had to be touching--are you kidding me? It took me a few seconds to collect

I pointed to his book "Ho an eyebrow

He lifted his hands surrender-style, the book still gripped tightly My eyes shot to the bare skin that showed between his shirt and shorts and I began to feel flushed when an ache radiated betweenone of the classics Fucking Huck Finn So he said turned hed

"What?" I asked My curiosity had been piqued

"Have you ever read it?"