Cade shook his head. “No, you need each other. Don’t give up again. You should know better by now, right?”

“You’re right. I guess.” This conversation had taken me back to the first day I saw her again when Liam had said similar things. I nodded decisively at Cade. “You’re absolutely right. I won’t give up. Never again.”

“That’s more like it.”

We ate our burgers and talked about innocuous things until his phone pinged with a text from Lily. “Showtime,” he said with a grin. “Go get your girl.”

8

Lily

“Thanks for helping me clean up, Lily.”

I placed the broom back into Violet’s utility closet with a humph. Who knew a bunch of book-clubbing people could be so sloppy? My idea of a classy, intellectual group of readers gathering to discuss literature was forever tainted by Violet’s book club. Sure, they’d discussed books for about half of the meeting, and that was somewhat enriching, but the rest of the time was spent on gossiping and arguing. I loved it, and I was never going to miss a meeting.

“No problem, Vi.”

Violet’s phone pinged with a text message. She looked up at me, then back at her phone. “I’m need you to lock up. Finn needs me. Cade is picking you up, right? Just set the alarm when you leave, okay? Thanks, Lily, you’re a doll.” She tossed me the keys and rushed out the back.

What the heck? “Uh, bye,” I said to the empty store. I took out my phone, sent Cade a text, then I sat at a table by the window to wait. As I stared out at the darkness, a shudder ran through my body. Looking out a window into the dark night was a bad idea. I was not afraid of the dark. I was afraid I would see someone peeking back at me. Which was why when I saw someone walk to the door out of the corner of my eye, I jumped out of my chair and knocked it over as I stood up. I choked back a scream when I saw the knob turn.

Get a grip. It’s just Cade.

I shook it off and quickly unlocked the door and opened it. It was Luke. Fear of a different kind crawled over me. The determined look on his face told me that we were about to get serious. He smiled at me and stepped past me to enter the shop. I guess we weren’t leaving. “Hey, Luke.”

“I saw Cade at Holloway’s. He asked me to pick you up, so he could go home and crash. He has to work early.”