Circle of Animals by Sadie Hoagland

Author:Sadie Hoagland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781636281599
Publisher: Red Hen Press
Published: 2024-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Not much more than an hour later, it was only 7:00 a.m. and Sky had just gotten out of the shower when the buzzer rang. Ryan was at her door with two gas station coffees in hand. For once he wasn’t wearing a blazer. Just the black T-shirt and gray denim pants. Sky poked her head out the door, the rest of her covered only in a towel.

“Sorry,” was the first thing he said. “You didn’t answer last night, and I was worried you were going to head down to Carmel before I had a chance to warn you. Coffee?”

Sky frowned a little. “Umm . . . yeah, can you—?” She bit her lip. “Maybe just wait in the hall a sec until I get into my room to dress and then come in, I’ll leave the door cracked.”

“Yeah, okay. Sorry, again. I really should have called . . .”

Sky walked into her room and listened from her bedroom as he closed the door to her apartment, listened as he cleared his throat. She could almost feel how awkward he looked standing in her kitchen. She wondered if he’d even allowed himself to put the coffees down on her breakfast table. She tried to hurry as she glanced out the window and saw the sun peeking out through the morning fog. She pulled on jeans and a T-shirt. Shook her wet waves over the T-shirt and took a quick glance in the mirror. An old part of herself wanted to pinch her cheeks, but she reached for some lip gloss on her dresser instead, applying the sticky apricot hue lightly to top lip, then bottom lip. Finally, she put on a cream-colored lightweight sweater. Carmel, on the coast, would probably be cool, but the valley and hills to the east of it would be plenty warm already in early spring. Besides, the sweater was cuter than a T-shirt and if he was here at 7:00 a.m. with coffees, Liz was probably right. He probably did have an interest in her. And Sky didn’t entirely mind. That would explain a lot, actually.

She walked out of her room, toweling off her hair. Ryan looked up and smiled a close-lipped smile.

“Morning,” he said and held out a coffee to her. “It’s just black, I wasn’t sure what you’d like in it . . .”

“That’s great, thank you, I’ll be ready to go in about ten—you are coming, right, that’s why you’re here?” She put the coffee down and went to the kitchen table to check her purse for her wallet and her keys. She should fill a water bottle.

“We need to talk first, Sky. I found out some things. Jake Bridger is no flowers in his hair peacenik; he’s a serious criminal. I think we need to rethink our approach . . . can we sit down for a minute?”

“Yeah, okay,” Sky sighed. She really wanted to go, to move, to feel like she was running against the machine that was her life right now.

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