“Keira, this is my cousin, Smith. Smith, this is Keira.” Walker sounded resigned.
Smith smiled at her. There was something about him that put Keira on edge. “It’s so . . . nice to meet you.” His words crawled across her skin.
“Yeah. You too. I didn’t realize you were in town.”
“Oh, I pop over from time to time.” He laughed, but Keira didn’t get the joke. He turned his gaze to Susan. The minute his eyes traced her dark hair, tiny nose, and pouty lower lip, Smith pulled his shoulders back. When he stood up to his full height, he was almost as tall as Walker. Susan straightened, her cheeks pinking up beneath the attention.
“Who’s this?” Smith asked.
“Smith, Walker, this is my best friend, Susan.”
“Hi.” Susan didn’t even turn her head to acknowledge Walker. Her greeting was solely for Smith.
Keira looked over at Walker. The strange insta-attraction that was happening between Susan and Smith made it seem like she’d known Walker forever. She could read him like a billboard.
Compared to the two in front of her, she and Walker had a history.
Walker caught her eye.
She shot him a What the hell is going on? look.
He shot back a Haven’t you ever seen two people flirting for the first time? eyebrow raise.
She narrowed her eyes. Smart-ass.
Walker laughed. “So. Susan.” Susan and Smith both whipped around to face him. “Keira said you need to find some music?”
“Oh. Yeah. Yeah, I do.”
“You play?” Smith asked.
“Yeah, the flute, but not very well. Are you a musician?” Susan actually batted her eyelashes.
Smith waved his hand dismissively. “Not a musician. I like working on machines. You know—gears and belts and fans and stuff.” He pinned Susan with a look. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to listen. What style of music do you like to play?” He stepped closer to Susan, separating their conversation from Keira and Walker.
Walker grimaced, and Keira cocked her head at him, confused. So they were flirting? So what? If his cousin broke her rebounding friend’s heart, yeah, she was going to make Smith eat that grin, but other than that . . .
Unless that’s what Walker’s making faces about. Is Smith a player or something?
Smith didn’t seem cute enough to collect notches in his belt, but what did Keira know? She stepped close to the counter while Susan and Smith inched toward the bins of music.
“Everything okay?” Keira kept her voice low, leaning her head toward Walker’s.
“Fine. My cousin is—well, I told you my family situation is a little complicated.” He brought his lips so close to her ear that she could feel the heat of his breath against the sensitive hollow beneath her jaw. She spread her palm on the chipped counter, steadying herself.
“Yeah. Obviously, I don’t have any room to judge you on that,” Keira tried to make her voice light, but it came out breathy instead. She pulled away from Walker enough that she could turn to face him. “What’s he doing here, anyway?”
Walker glanced back at Smith and Susan, who were completely engrossed in each other. “Seeing what I’m up to,” he said.
“What? Why?”
“So that he can figure out how he’s going to rebel.” Walker paused. “My aunt is going to be royally pissed if she finds out he was in Sherwin.”
“And you’re not going to tell her?” Keira guessed.
“Something like that. Anyway. I don’t trust tattletales, you know?”
“Totally. He’s not going to hurt Susan, is he?”
Walker stared past her, watching Susan and Smith circle each other. “Depends on why he wants her, I guess.” He sighed. “I’d try to keep him off her, but that would just make him more determined to chase her. I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault,” Keira said, watching them too. Each grin Smith and Susan shared tightened the muscles in her neck a little bit more.
“Hey!” Susan held up a book of simple concertos. “Look what I found! Do you think these will work?”
Keira squinted at the concerto numbers printed beneath the composer’s name.
“That should work.”
“Okay, kids,” Walker smacked the counter, pushing himself toward the register. “I’m supposed to usher Keira out of here in about ten minutes. If you’re buying something, now’s the time.”
Smith perked up. “Where’re you going?”
Walker’s eyebrows drew together. “The movies.”
Keira noticed that he didn’t say which movie.
“Oh.” Smith drew a finger across one of the bins, stirring up dust. “I’ve been wanting to see Alien Invaders IV.” Keira realized—for the first time—that his accent was the same as Walker’s.
“I’m dying to see that,” Susan piped in. She looked up at Smith. “I love those crazy, blow-stuff-up, use-all-the-special-effects-at-once sort of movies. Keira hates them, though.”