Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
“Is this where all the cool kids hang out to smoke?” he asked the other soul breathing in the shadows.
Malachi pressed the power button on the side of the cell he’d been toying with only seconds before Delaney pushed open the exit door. The glow of the screen accompanied his words, so she could plainly make out she wasn’t alone.
She couldn’t swallow the yelp of shock, and her hand pressed over her racing heart. Now that Delaney could see his hidden spot beyond what the one light over the dumpsters offered, she openly glared, as half-hearted as it was, at his waving figure on the tailgate.
“Make some damn noise or something,” she snapped at first.
Almost instantaneously, it was like Delaney realized the item between her fingers and that the cigarette was also visible to Malachi. Her familiar hug of the cigarette with two fingers turned into an awkward reach away from her body. Maybe the way someone who had never smoked a cigarette in their life would do when handed one without warning.
“I, uh ...”
She couldn’t come up with a quick lie.
It was sad, really.
Malachi gave her an out, saying, “Hey, could I bum an extra?”
Delaney went back to holding the cigarette the way she had before, and even took a drag while eyeing him sideways. Clearly, seriously considering his request. Not. “You say nothing to no one that you saw me, and I’ll think about it.”
Malachi cocked a brow. “At all?”
“What?”
His laugh cracked through the quiet night. “I shouldn’t tell anyone at all that I saw you—that’s it?”
“Oh, smoking,” she clarified. “I don’t smoke. That’s a lie. Or that’s what I will boldfaced tell anyone who asks me different. Got it?”
Seemed simple enough.
And an okay trade.
Malachi was more than aware how it worked only to Delaney’s favor in the grander scheme of things as she pulled what appeared to be a brand-new pack of cigarettes out of her purse, and walked one across the way to him. Once he had the smoke between his lips, he produced his own zippo to light the cigarette, Delaney retook her spot against the wall.
“And anyone—really?” Malachi questioned.
Delaney wasn’t ready for the question if the quick snap upward of her chin was any indication, but he gave her credit where it was due when she came up with a snappy response all the same. “You already agreed to the deal—smoke it.”
Malachi rocked with a chuckle on the tailgate, thinking damn. Maybe he understood why Gracen and Delaney complimented one another as friends. Visibly, the two were like ying and yang. Except there was a certain confidence and self-assuredness that radiated from both women, who frankly, were barely into their adult life. It was obvious at first glance, though, that their responsibility and life load was huge.
No wonder they showed up and got shit done.
Where was their choice?
Life kept trotting on.
Quietly, and without prompting again from Malachi, Delaney said, “And if you meant anyone ... like say Gracen, she knows I smoke.”
Actually, that had been what Malachi meant. The fact Delaney caught on to it and felt like she should go back to the topic to clarify even if it was none of his business, told him that she knew of his recent activities with her roommate and friend. She expected him to see her friend again and should the topic of her smoking come up—well, she already made herself clear.
Delaney pointed a finger his way. “And she’ll tell you and anybody else who asks the same thing. I don’t smoke.”
“None of my bu—”
“No, but I don’t care to talk about why I do it. What are you doing back here, anyway?” Delaney asked, redirecting the conversation all at once with no warning.
“Uh—”
“Listen, you can choose not to call me on lies for the sake of politeness, but I stopped doing that with people I like a long time ago,” Delaney interjected before he could even think up a reasonable half-truth.
“Who said you could like me?” he joked.
It softened the remaining tenson.
Delaney even smirked. “Who said I did?”
“You also never said you didn’t.”
She gave up the pretense. “Well, if Gracen does, you know ...”
The sentence was fine to trail off.
He wasn’t sure what he was doing with Gracen Briggs when he’d barely dealt with being back in his own personal hell. Things that didn’t need his attention because it wasn’t causing him some sort of distress got left alone by his mental or physical meddling.
“We’re just ...”
Delaney’s eyebrows, as dark as her hair framing alabaster skin, lifted high as she waited for him to come up with something to finish his statement.
Nothing did.
“I don’t really care what you’re doing with Gracen as long it’s not done in my bed,” Delaney eventually muttered around a drag on her cigarette.
Malachi cleared his throat with an awkward chuckle at that. “Fair enough, yeah?”