Nightstruck - Jenna Black Page 0,91

was his business, not mine. But there’s a difference between knowing the right thing to do and actually doing it.

“I won’t say a word,” I promised.

“Pinkie swear, cross your heart, hope to die, all that stuff?”

I laughed at her earnestness. “Absolutely.”

She leaned forward conspiratorially and lowered her voice as if she thought someone might be listening in. “Luke always really liked Piper, and they had fun together and all, but she was never really the one he wanted.”

“Huh?”

“He’s had a crush on you for, like, forever.”

“What?” I squeaked, sure I must have heard her wrong.

“I kept telling him he should ask you out if he liked you so much, but he was convinced you weren’t interested. He said you would barely give him the time of day and that you avoided him whenever you could. I always suspected that didn’t mean what he thought it meant, but he thought it would be too awkward if he asked you out and you said no, what with you living so close and seeing so much of each other.”

I hate to think what color my face had turned by now. My mom had always warned me that some people who don’t know better confuse shyness for aloofness or unfriendliness. But somehow it had never occurred to me that Luke might have interpreted my shyness around him as meaning I wasn’t interested.

“No way,” I said, fighting against the warmth of hope that tried to kindle in my belly. “You’re just making this up. Trying to play matchmaker or something.” Or maybe distract me from the misery of my first Thanksgiving without my dad.

Marlene snorted. “If I didn’t already know he was interested, there wouldn’t be much point in playing matchmaker. It’s not like he’s going to go out with someone just because I told him to. We’re close, but we’re not that close.”

I shook my head in helpless denial.

“Piper made it easy for him,” Marlene continued. “She gave him plenty of evidence she was interested, so asking her out was zero risk. He’s a really good guy, but like most guys his ego can be surprisingly fragile sometimes.”

I swallowed hard, remembering how he had kissed me, how natural and right it had felt. I’d been telling myself it was an act of pity, a heat-of-the-moment impulse he surely regretted, but maybe it wasn’t his fragile ego that was at issue here.

“I’m sorry if telling you all that makes things more complicated for you,” Marlene said, a furrow of concern between her brows. “Maybe I should have kept my big mouth shut. But as you may have noticed, keeping my mouth shut isn’t one of my strong suits.”

I laughed weakly. “Don’t apologize. I’m glad you told me. I just … need some time to rethink everything. I always thought he wasn’t interested in me. But even if we’re both interested, it’s still complicated.”

“Because of Piper.”

“Yeah.”

We both fell silent.

The condo was on the twentieth floor of an impressively tall building, and the study had a nice view of the Delaware, with no other tall buildings in sight, so neither Marlene nor I had thought to close the blinds. There was a sudden loud tapping sound on the window that made both of us jump and gasp.

Bob catapulted out of his den beneath the desk, snarling and jumping at the window. It was too dark out to see much of anything, but there was a flurry of tapping sounds, and a shadow crossed the window, skittering downward. The tapping sound continued, fading away as the whatever-it-was made its way down the building, presumably heading for the sidewalk.

It was always possible it had been just some random night construct having fun with the people in the building, tapping at windows and generally terrorizing them. It might have had nothing to do with me at all.

But I couldn’t help the creeping suspicion that something had been sent there for me. That it had been watching me. Spying on me. And the thought that it might have overheard that particular conversation and might report it back to Piper or Aleric wasn’t comfortable at all.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Marlene was fast asleep and Bob was snoring so loudly I was surprised he hadn’t awakened the whole household. It was after two in the morning, and I had yet to come close to finding peace and falling asleep. My eyes were gritty and my whole body felt about fifty percent heavier than usual, but my mind didn’t care how tired my body was.

Marlene had been