Page 31 of Known By You
A knot formed in my throat. “Thanks. You, too.”
His bright blue eyes held mine and then he nodded, moving to the aisles of the store. I followed him, noting the two women in the corner whose gazes had already caught onto Jack’s identity based on the way they were whispering with flushed cheeks.
A few minutes later, Jack had purchased a candy bar like a regular mortal, and Liz had escorted Evie back to the car. We each took turns in the restroom for ourselves, Liz first, then me. When I got back to the car, Liz was leaning against the passenger side, her black slacks, blazer, and white button-down completely out of place at this worn-down gas station.
“Hey,” I said, a flip of nerves twisting in my belly after laying myself bare. I wasn’t all that scared of certain kinds of vulnerability, but that story—that she’d seen my family in the flesh, even—left me feeling truly naked.
She just stared, then slid her sunglasses up to reveal her dark, mesmerizing eyes.
“I need to say something.”
I halted a foot from her, completely at her mercy, heart rate climbing the longer she held my gaze. “Please do.”
She took a beat, her eyes almost steely as she practically glared at me. Her jaw flexed and I was shocked to register she was angry. Then she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me, squeezing with a mounting pressure that made moisture spring to my eyes.
This show of tenderness made my eyes mist, and I cleared my throat in an attempt to stave off full-on tears as she abruptly released me and stepped back.
“Sorry, I needed that first. Forgive me.” She shifted on her feet, probably the first time I’d ever seen her less than a thousand percent sure andsteady.
My heart clutched at the gesture—at the idea she’d needed to hug me, for meandfor her.There it is again—she’s a helper.
“I need you to know even though I don’t know you all that well, I know you’re better than most people. You’re a good friend, a good employee, and a good human being. If your ex and your brother and—” she scoffed “—your whole family don’t see that, it’s their failing. Not yours.”
The swirling mess of feelings dug up by seeing them, by their words, and how they still wanted me to own up to something I couldn’t figure out, stilled. Liz’s chest rose and fell under her blazer and button-down, her expression so intense that if I hadn’t heard the words she’d just said, I would’ve thought she was angry with me.
But no. She was angryforme.
It felt wonderful to have her want to defend me—to need to comfort me and reassure me. In most senses, I didn’t need that anymore. I’d done therapy, I had friends who offered me the stalwart faithfulness and love I’d always longed for from my family, but Liz…
Maybe it made me a fool yet again, but Liz’s angerforme made me fall just a little bit in love with her right then.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Elizabeth
We pulled into Silverton a little past five and arrived at Jack’s gorgeous home in the swankiest Silver Ridge neighborhood ten minutes later. Each house we’d passed once we’d entered the gated community, complete with guard station security seemed larger than the next. Surprisingly, Jack’s wasn’t the biggest, though it had a down-to-earth quality, likely more aesthetic than it was actually homey.
I focused on these details and not on the still-simmering rage I felt in the wake of Kenny’s story.
This sweet man had been so mistreated, and it made me want to?—
Honestly, it made me want to burn something down. Or get violent. And I didn’t tend to be a physically reactive person.
On the whole, I was even-keeled. I handled stress welland compartmentalized like a pro, because I was one. I’d been doing it since I was a teen, and I’d perfected it once I joined the agency after graduating from Georgetown.
But something about Kenny Carmichael being so completely betrayed by everyone in his family, save his little nephew, incensed me. I hadn’t felt so viscerally angry in a long, long time.
I’d hugged him because I’d been compelled to. And I wasn’t a hugger. I just… I’d needed to press him close and reassure myself he was all in one piece, even though he’d said as much. When he’d talked about what happened, he hadn’t seemed destroyed. It was that hollow expression, the way his energy and light seemed to dry up in the minute and a half we stood near his family. It gutted me.
I pushed away the memory of his empty eyes in that moment and focused on unloading the bags.
“This house is smaller than the one in LA,” Evie said conversationally to Jack.
“Right? It’s so modest.”
The humor in Jack’s voice was evident even though I couldn’t see his face. Evie’s response came fast.
“I’m just glad I’m not on staff here.”
