Page 37 of Wren's Winter

“Oh, now you want information,” Penny said with a raised brow. “Last night, you didn’t need to know a thing, but tonight, you’re a detective.”

Tam ignored Penny with a well-meaning frown. “Adrian got caught by a former student. He’ll be right back.”

I glanced over at the bar, expecting to see Adrian talking with a young man, and sharply inhaled. This girl was gorgeous. Long white blonde hair, perfectly straight and down to her elbows, one of those small cupid bow mouths. And even from across the bar, I could see how light-blue her eyes were. Those light-blue eyes sparkled as she leaned into Adrian, laughing at something he said. Her hand rested on his forearm and wasn’t budging.

“A student?” I asked, trying and failing to keep my tone balanced. A clammy tingle started at my fingertips watching Adrian and this young lady.

I told myself that he was charming, a flirt, and that didn’t translate to infidelity. But seeing Adrian, the way this woman leaned into him, the light touches on his forearm. It was all too much. My breaths came out shallow and shaky. I had no claim on Adrian. Why should I care so much about this barely legal girl trying to pick him up?

Adrian’s jaw was tense as he glanced away from the woman. As his eyes caught on me, something dark flashed in his eyes. Guilt? Why should he feel guilty?

I shouldn’t be watching him, assigning every gaze and the tilt of his body a meaning.

Adrian gave the woman a small smile and stepped away. The woman’s eyes watched him as he walked toward me, her gaze moving from his back to me sitting in the corner.

He set my beer down before me as he slid in beside me. “Sorry about that. I got caught up.”

My hand was shaky as I picked up the beer and took a long sip. I wasn’t going to be jealous. I had no claim. I wasn’t…

“Hey, you okay.”

Swallowing the beer, I set it carefully on the peeling cardboard coaster. My eyes stayed on the foam ring around the lip of the glass. Little white bubbles pop, pop, popping as the beer settles.

“Yeah, totally.” I gave him what I hoped was a casual smile. Inside, my ribs felt too tight for my lungs.

They began talking, but from the corner of my eye, I could sense the girl watching us, waiting for her chance with Adrian. When he placed a hand on my knee, my stomach rolled with the implication. He flirts with another girl in front of me and comes back here and places and touches me so intimately? I went through years and years of this. While I wasn’t going to pretend that Adrian and I had a future, at the very least, I could have some dignity tonight.

“I need some air.” The chair made a screeching noise as I scooted back. I stalked past the growing throngs of people filling the bar. Once outside, the crisp air stung my heated face as I leaned against the side of the building.

One deep exhale, two. My finger on my scar, I rubbed the little spot, soothing myself until my breathing steadied. Who was I kidding? I had no idea how to do a casual fling. I spent thirty hours with this man, and I was already getting upset about some twenty-two-year-old making eyes at him? This wasn’t me. It couldn’t be.

Closing my eyes, I leaned my head back against the bricks. From where I stood in the alley, the sound of the bar was filtering through the occasional opening of the door.

“Wren?” Adrian’s voice broke the dull roar in my head.

Startled, I jumped away from the wall, my hand on my chest. “Hey. I’m here.”

He rounded the corner, his eyes narrowed as he took me in. “What are you doing out here?”

“I needed fresh air.”

“Is that all?”

I feigned nonchalance. “Yeah. Do you need me to call a cab or something to take me back?”

Furrowed brow, he leaned back from me. “A cab? Why would you need a cab?”

I could be cool. I had no claim on this man, and if he wanted to go home with that gorgeous girl with her long blonde hair and small ankles and non-scarred ears, then he had every right.

I motioned to the bar. “If you want to spend more time with your”—I waved my hand in the air, failing for words—“friend.”

Adrian snorted. “Layla? She’s a kid. I was her teacher.”

“She doesn’t look like a kid to me.”

“Well, she is to me.”

“She doesn’t seem much younger than me.”

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