Watch Your Step by Jessica L. Jackson

Author:Jessica L. Jackson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ellora's Cave Publishing Inc.
Published: 2014-03-27T00:00:00+00:00

Beckley raised his eyebrow and considered her carefully while watching her lips repeatedly purse and relax as she worked on this weighty idea. He wanted to kiss those lips but the island was too large for him to lean over and he didn’t want to crowd her.

“Do you mean read more than surface thoughts?”

“Yeees,” she said slowly, extending the word as if it were warm taffy being pulled and stretched. Her green-eyed gaze was sharp and assessing. “Think of something nasty about me—something you’d try to hide deep in your mind so that even you wouldn’t want to hear it.”

“No,” Beckley said, drawing back. His heart started racing. “I don’t want to think anything nasty about you. Besides, I can’t think of anything.”

Vie put her hands on her hips. “Come on,” she encouraged. “You don’t have to actually feel it or believe it. Just make up something.”

“I don’t have that good of an imagination,” he argued. “Why can’t I just think of a number between one and ten?”

“Because it wouldn’t work. Five. You were thinking of five. See? You have to think of something you’d bury deep inside. Something you wouldn’t want me to know.”

Beckley paced back and forth a few times, glancing at her and then away again. Finally he turned and challenged her. “Like what?”

“Uh, like I’ve got knobby knees.”

“But you have nice knees.” He watched her roll her eyes. “You do,” he insisted.

“Thank you but you’re missing my point. Think about my feet. How about that?”

“What about your feet? You’ve got lovely feet.”

Vie ogled him.

“What?”

She came around the island, toed off her sneakers and stripped off her socks. Then she stood there and waved at her feet. Beckley looked down. First he scrutinized the left foot and then he stared at the right.

“I’m not seeing what you see, I guess,” he said at last. “What’s wrong with them?”

Vie heaved a sigh and spoke in the tone of voice of someone admitting a great misfortune. “My baby toes stick out from the rest of my toes at an odd angle—they have since birth. Don’t you see it? Everyone else notices.”

Beckley hunkered down and examined the really rather minute splaying of her baby toes. He shook his head. “You’re right. They’re hideous. How could I not have noticed before? They’re so repulsive.” He looked up at her to be certain she’d understood the mocking sarcasm in his voice. She looked murderous. Staring her in the eyes, he said, “If I’d noticed last night I would have kissed them better. Violet. They’re adorable.”

Vie growled at him. She hopped about on one foot and then the other as she put her socks back on. “Everyone in The Family thinks I’m a freak.”

“Well, I don’t.”

“Okay. Okay.” She huffed while leaning against the island and slipping on her shoes. “How about you think something mean about my behavior. That shouldn’t be too hard. Lots of people think I’m too insensitive or too arrogant or too bossy.”

Beckley felt so uncomfortable he thought he might lose his breakfast.

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