“I’m a huge fan of anything with a high body count and bizarre weapons.” Smith laughed. “Walker’s not usually into it either. Sounds like he and Keira are more the sensitive foreign-film types?” He made a face and Susan echoed it.
“Ew. Subtitles.” She turned to look at Keira and Walker. “So, what are you going to see?”
The answer stuck to Keira’s tongue. “Alien Invaders IV.”
Susan let out a half-giggle, half-squeal. “Really?!”
Smith turned to her. “We should go with them.” He glanced at Walker. “You wouldn’t mind if we tagged along, would you?”
“You know I have a strict rule against going on dates with family,” Walker joked. Except from his tone, it clearly wasn’t a joke.
Keira watched the spark in Susan’s eye fade to a dull, cold cinder. Susan’s fingers curled around the book of music like it might suddenly slip away too. Keira couldn’t stand it.
“Oh, come on. Rules are made to be broken, right?” She turned to look at Walker, hoping Susan and Smith couldn’t see the desperate look she shot him.
Keira never begged, but as long as she was insisting Walker break his rules, she might as well break her own, too.
There was a pause so thick that the moment seemed stuck. Finally, Walker blew out a long breath. “I think the saying you’re looking for is that it’s the exception that proves the rule.” He eyed Smith. “Which as you know is quite true, and I wouldn’t keep Susan from the wonder that is Alien Invaders IV.”
Smith looked stung, but he smiled to cover it. “So, we’ll all meet at the theater?” He glanced over at Susan. “May I take you to the movie?”
Susan bit her lip. “Um. Yes. Please.” She glanced over. “Keira? Are you riding with me or Walker?”
Keira looked back and forth between her glowing best friend and her glowering guy. She wanted to know what was making his eyebrows pinch together like that.
“I’ll go with Walker,” she said.
? ? ?
It was only eight blocks from Take Note to the Cineplex, which didn’t leave Keira much time to be subtle. They hit the first light just as it turned red, so she’d have an extra thirty seconds, at least.
“You seem kind of . . . pissed about this whole group-date thing,” she said. She glanced in the side mirror. Susan’s car was directly behind them and Keira could see her frantically putting on lip gloss.
“I don’t like it when Smith shows up uninvited like this. He thinks it’s a game, but it’s not. Besides, I like it even less when he wedges his way into my life by asking to come along on our date.”
“So you don’t think he’s really interested in seeing Susan?”
Walker rubbed a hand across his face. His usual mask of unflappable wit came away beneath his palm. Worried lines were carved around his mouth, and concern clouded his eyes. “I don’t know for sure, but I have a guess. She’s . . . she’s not like the girls he usually dates.”
“What sort of girls does he date?” Keira asked, desperate to sketch a mental picture of Smith’s typical girl.
“The kind my aunt approves of. The kind who’ve always lived down the street, who hang out at the library for fun.” Walker grimaced. “The kind who’re so anxious to say yes that they don’t care who’s asking.”
Keira curled her fingers around the armrest. Ew. “Wait—the library? I thought Smith said he was really into machines.”
Walker blinked at her before he burst into laughter. “They have machines in libraries, Keira. He fixes them. Maintains them.”
“Oh. Yeah. Sorry—I’m not much of a library goer, I guess.”
“Me either,” Walker admitted. “But Smith is, like, the vaguely badass deity of information services. Susan’s not the sort of half-wilted girl he normally picks. I wish he’d go back home where he belongs, but no—if I’m seeing a girl from Sherwin, then he’s going to find someone to date here.”
Back home . . . that was weird. Hadn’t he moved from somewhere far away? It occurred to her that she didn’t know where he’d come from, exactly.
“I thought you said your family didn’t live close? Aren’t they still in the town where you grew up?”
“They are. It’s a long way from here, but depending on . . . ” He cleared his throat. “Depending how fast you travel, it’s not that hard to get back and forth.”
“What’s it called?” Keira asked.
“Have you ever heard of Higgstown?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Is it . . . somewhere in Nova Scotia?” she guessed.
Walker bobbed his head from side to side in a maybe gesture. “Sort of close to there.”
He looked utterly worn out.
Keira glanced outside, trying to figure out exactly how many blocks she had left to decide whether she should let Susan go ahead and rebound with Smith or whether she needed to pry her away from him.
When they pulled up to the stop sign at Kendall Road, Walker ran a fingertip down Keira’s temple and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. He took his hand from her face, but the sweet jolt of his touch slid down her neck and twined through her ribs, sending an audible shudder through her breath.