Page 37 of The Gift
“Uh huh. And you?” He turned to Ash. “Day-old pastries, still warm from theoven?”
Ash winced. “Hopefully they won’tnotice.”
“They’ll probably eat them too fast to notice,” Calagreed.
“They lookedhungry.”
“Teenagers always look hungry, Ash. Look at Rae,” Cal said. To me, he explained, “Ash’s sibling is a caloric black hole. Food goes in, but they never gain anounce.”
“Wait,” I said, turning to Julian. “Did Theo say he’d see me onThanksgiving?”
“Oh. Right.” Julian gave me an anemic little smile. “Aboutthat.”
“Julian.”
“Why don’t you walk me home, boyfriend,” he said. “We can eat apastry.”
He grabbed his coat from the back of his chair and swung it on. A shiny paperback flew out of the pocket and slid across thefloor.
“New read?” I said, bending down to retrieve it. “Because if you expect me to go to Thanksgiving, I’m going to require a new book as…” I stopped and looked down at the cover. “Julian. What isthis?”
Julian snatched it away from me and jammed it back in his large coat pocket. “It’s a book.Obviously.”
“It’s calledLaird’s…”
“I know what it’s called,” he said loudly, glancing at Cal and Ash who were watching us with unconcealed amusement. “Um, thanks for the pastries, guys. Great to seeyou.”
“Same,” Ash said. “Don’t be a stranger. Maybe we could all go out sometime. A doubledate.”
“Oh. Yeah. Maybe,” Julian echoed. He grabbed his coffee and strode out of the bakery. I took the box of pastries andfollowed.
We walked—more of a walk-jog, really—down the street silently for half a minute before Julian turned to me. “Okay, fine, sayit.”
“Say what?” Honestly, I’d been pondering which topic to broach first, the novel or Thanksgiving. I still hadn’tdecided.
He sighed. “The book is something I got roped into reading as part of a bookclub.”
“A book club.” He’d never mentioned a book club to mebefore.
“Yes. It’snew.”
“Right. And your book club is reading…” I pulled the book from his pocket before he could stop me. “Laird’sConquest.”
“Yes.” He tried to take it back, but I held it out of hisgrasp.
“Handsome Maverick Buchanan has taken her father’s keep and his title. But can Lady Madelynne MacBryde steal the cold barbarian’s heart?”I glanced at Julian. His face was flaming red and he looked like he wanted to melt into the sidewalk. “Well, canshe?”
Julian’s nostrils flared as he glared at me. “I don’t know, do I? I haven’t read ityet.”
I considered the book again. To be fair, at least the reader knew exactly what they were getting. And the girl on the cover had significant…attributes.
“Okay. I’ll read it when you’re done.” I handed him thebook.
“Oh, fuck off.” He stuffed the book back in his pocket and walkedon.
“No, I’m serious! I will. Julian!” I grabbed his arm and spun him around. “I should know better than to make fun of anyone for what they love to read. There’s a reason there are a billion books in theworld.”
He ran his tongue over his teeth, like he was trying to gauge if I was serious. Finally, he sighed. “It wasn’t my first choice, either. I got…conscripted.”
