I’m not happy you’re not worrying yourself to death for once, but what changed?”
I looked down at Gretchen, stroking her fur, as I considered. What had changed?
“Maybe it was you,” I said, thinking out loud.
“Me?”
“You.” Warmth welled in my chest. “Seeing you stand up to Dad—”
“You were the one who stood up to him.”
“I was just doing what I should have done years ago. But you were the one who was brave enough to do what I never could. And if my baby sister can decide not to let other people control her life anymore, I think maybe I can learn from her example.”
“What are you talking about?” Katie shoved her laptop aside, causing Roxie to stir in her sleep, a string of drool jiggling as she shifted her head on the comforter. “Are you going to—I mean, what are you planning on doing?”
“I’m not sure, exactly. I just know that I’m done putting other people’s prejudices above my own needs.”
Katie bit her lip. “You know I’d go with you, right? If you wanted to leave Summersea?”
“What? No, that’s—that’s not what I’m talking about. You’re still in school. I wouldn’t make you move right before your senior year.”
“You wouldn’t be making me, that’s what I’m saying. If you decided you didn’t want to go back to Adair Elementary—I mean, you’re a great teacher, I bet you could get a job anywhere. Savannah. Charleston.” Her eyes danced. “Tennessee.”
“How many times do I have to tell you there’s nothing happening between me and Connor?”
“More than you have, apparently, since I still don’t believe you.”
I knew she was just trying to be supportive, but it was a little painful, being reminded of just how much nothing was happening between me and Connor. He’d made his decision, and I respected that. And I was definitely not going to follow him to Tennessee after he’d made it clear things were over.
Even if we were friends.
Besides, I wasn’t going to uproot Katie, so the whole discussion was pointless. If I lost my job, if I had to find some other way to make ends meet for the next twelve months—well, I’d figure it out. Somehow.
The thought of Connor leaving did put a bit of a damper on my newly energized outlook. But no, I wasn’t going to dwell on that now. Whatever decisions I made about work, about my life in Adair, had to be ones I made for myself.
“Julian? Katie? Are you guys—oh thank God you’re here.”
I whirled around to see Connor striding down the hall. Dressed head to toe in black, he looked distinctly more like a cat burglar than he had when he’d dropped Roxie off. Not that it made him any less gorgeous. Just, like, dangerously gorgeous.
Which, given the way things stood between us, was what he was to me anyway.
“Of course we’re here,” I said, stepping out of Katie’s room to meet him. “But why are you? You’re supposed to be back at the Wisteria.”
Gretchen wriggled out of my grasp and jumped to the floor, running down the hall to curl around Connor’s ankles. Why did his eyes look so wild?
“Did something happen? Did Scott see you, or—”
Connor reached into the front pocket of his jeans—skin-tight, in case you were wondering, and if you thought Connor was too much of a lumberjack to pull off skin-tight black jeans, let me kindly inform you of how very wrong you are—and pulled out a USB key. He held it out to me.
“Wait, you got it?”
Connor nodded.
“That’s amazing.” But my smile melted off my face when I realized he still looked like he was about to inform me someone had died. “Isn’t it? What’s wrong?”
“Have you heard from Eleanor?”
Not words I ever expected to hear coming from his mouth. Not in a tone that sounded genuinely worried.
“No.” I paused. “Should I have? Did something happen?”
“I don’t know.”
If I hadn’t known better, I’d have said he sounded anguished. Actually, no—I did know better, but I was still saying it. Anguish wasn’t an emotion I was used to hearing in Connor’s voice, and certainly not about Eleanor.
He ran a hand through his hair, only making it messier. “Everything was going fine, but then I found this email account Scott had, with a bunch of shit that was seriously incriminating, but someone started to come into the office when I was downloading it—”
“Oh, God.”
“—And then Eleanor screamed.” Connor’s eyebrows drew down. “And I don’t know if it was real or not. I keep telling myself she’s fine,