Page 90 of Trip Me Up

I gulped. Jackson didn’t give a shit about my NDA.

“That’s cool.” Noah’s eyes shone with admiration. He picked up a copy of each book on Niall’s side of the table and stepped in front of him. “Would you sign these for me, please?”

“Of course. It’s Noah, right? I saw your drawing, the one your—Jackson showed Sam. Your art skills are impressive.”

“I like art.” He shrugged. “But I like programming better. I think that’s what I want to do when I grow up. Like Alicia and Jay. Like Sam.”

“Sam’s a good writer, too.” He bent over the page to inscribe it.

“Yeah, but I didn’t know until—” Noah looked up at Jackson. “Until I overheard some stuff.”

Jackson scratched his beard and wouldn’t meet my gaze.

“You liked her book?” Niall blew on the ink the way he always did. It made me shiver, thinking of the way he sometimes blew across my skin. He took the second volume from Noah.

“Yeah, it was kinda weird, but I liked The Magician.”

“Then we’ll have to work together to convince her to write another.” Niall nodded at my nephew.

Noah cocked his head. They weren’t related by blood, but both he and Jackson turned identical, suspicious glares on me.

Shit.

“Thanks for coming by, guys. Love you. See you this weekend. What should I bring you, Noah? Something sour? Or gummy?”

“Both.” If his hands hadn’t been full of books, he’d have crossed his arms. His expression and posture, even holding the books, called mebullshitter.

“You got it.” There was a candy shop not far from the bookshop, next to the bus stop. I’d buy his silence. I wished it worked on my brother, too.

“Nice meeting you, Noah. Jackson, it was…” Niall wiped his hands on the sides of his jeans.

“A truly terrifying experience?” Jackson leaned in and spoke lower than the buzz of bookstore patrons, but I heard him. “I hope you were a perfect gentleman around my sister. Shame if something were to happen to those hands of yours.” He nodded at Niall’s ink-stained fingers.

“Jackson? Fuck off,” I whispered.

My brother cracked his knuckles. “We’ll wait for you, Sam. Give you a ride home.” He put a hand on Noah’s shoulder and steered him away with his book bounty.

I glanced up at the next person in line.Almost done. Fifteen more minutes.

When the last reader walked away, Niall stood and stretched. “How about—”

Jackson, lurking in the magazine section nearby, caught my gaze.Ten minutes,I mouthed at him.

But Niall had seen. “You’re going home with your brother?”

“Yeah, I think it’s for the best.” I lined up the Sharpies on the table.

“You didn’t tell him about your book. You didn’t tell your nephew you were a writer. Yet you’re leaving with them and not me. I’ve seen every part of you, Sam, and—”

A couple people glanced up from the Relationships section. I stood and grabbed his arm. “Come on.” I scanned the store for a private corner. Seeing none, I beelined to the closet where we’d stowed our luggage. When he was fully inside, I closed the door and leaned on it.

“Shit, it’s dark.” A thin strip of light from under the door lit up his lace-up oxfords and the soles of my boots. I felt on the wall for a switch.

A click, and we blinked at each other in the dim light of a bare bulb. The string hung down between us, still swinging from Niall’s pull on it.

“What the hell, Sam?”

I focused on the plaid pattern on his shirt. It was one of my favorites, gray with black stripes and narrower red stripes that matched his hair. Who was I kidding? They were all my favorites. I’d paper the walls of my under-the-mountain hideaway with the half-dozen plaid patterns of the book tour.

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