getting around.” He hesitated before speaking again. “And his crush on you.”
I opened my mouth to reply but froze. Everything inside me stilled and the sound in the room muffled until the insistent ticking of the clock in the corridor found its way into my head. Saint was watching me, although I couldn’t make out his expression in the gloom. As much as I preferred dark anonymity for myself, I needed to see his thoughts so I leaned over and switched on the five-dollar lamp on the corner table.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I sounded harder than I meant to. “I think you need to explain.” And I’d suddenly put Saint in the witness box. And why the hell did he think he could just move my intern. We didn’t make unilateral decisions.
His mouth twitched, and an amused smile replaced his earlier frustration. “I’m pretty sure you were Jamie’s first ever crush—although I should have remembered that before now. Especially as I went and paired you together.”
“That was based on specialty, right?” I probed. I didn’t want Saint walking back his decision if I could help it. And I was managing the Jamie situation. It wasn’t like I needed to see Jamie, or smell his cologne after he’d left the room, or study his ass when he bent to look at the legal texts on my bookcase.
“Yeah, but maybe interns don’t need to be so specialty rooted right away. I don’t know.” He thrust his hand through his hair, leaving it all stuck up and spikey. “I should have considered your reputation and Jamie’s feelings a bit more.” He sighed. “But I would have expected it to be gone by now. I mean, first crushes expire…eventually.”
“First crush? Are you really sure?”
He’d already said those words, but I hadn’t really heard them. I still almost couldn’t believe what I was hearing. A roil of nausea twisted my gut even as excitement flared through the rest of me.
He shrugged. “Pretty sure. Don’t tell me you didn’t notice the way he used to moon after you when you came to hang out at the house, or the way he avoided his own friends to try to hang out with us. And how did you miss all the staring and pathetic forlorn sighs? And he was always sneaking glimpses through partly open doors. Drove me crazy.”
“I had no idea.” Saint’s words jumbled my thoughts. I thought Jamie liked me now, but maybe I’d just been picking up on an echo of a memory.
“I just thought the crush had died when you stopped coming by the house…” Saint stopped talking and stared at me then laughed. “What? You look like someone who just got told he can help himself to anything he wants in the mall.”
“I’m… I’m just surprised. This—” I pointed to my head. “—is my surprised face.” I tried to widen my eyes and gape a little.
Saint nodded. “Mmhmm.” But he didn’t sound convinced. “Bo-ner…” he half-sang. “But I’m serious. I think Jamie might still have a bit of a crush on you… Maybe even a slight case of hero worship, and putting him in such a tight working relationship with you might not have been the best thing for either of you.” He stopped and looked down at his hands then let out a heavy sigh.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just worry I’ve let my brother down or that my decision might hurt him in some way.”
“I thought I told you not to worry?” My small smile spread to a grin as I waited for Saint to look at me. “Bo-ner!” I murmured, copying his use of the old trick we used to play on each other in high school to get each other to laugh inappropriately in class, and his eyes widened.
He chuckled in surprise. “Hey, now. There are still rules,” he protested as his smile disappeared. “And especially for you. You’re predictable, if nothing else, Nico. One night, and you’re done. Stop grinning like someone just told you the door to the candy store is unlocked and you have all-you-can-eat access. It really isn’t, and you really don’t. Jamie isn’t your guy, and he’s especially not a one-night guy.” He folded his arms and scowled.
I scoffed. “Can you actually hear yourself? You remember how old Jamie is, right? How old’s your youngest brother these days?”
“What? Adrian?” He tilted his head as if I’d just lost my damned mind since Adrian didn’t have anything to do with this, but he did.