[Southern Arcana 2.0] Crossroads Read Free

sprouting wings and flying home tonight, she thought dispiritedly as she checked the liquor supply behind the polished bar. In the weeks since Alec had told her Derek liked her, she’d tried to strike up a few conversations with him. He’d answered politely, but treated her almost with annoyance, as if she’d done something to irritate him.
    Or maybe I just piss him off in general. He wanted her; there was no mistaking his physical reaction whenever he came near her. And yet…
    “Derek Gabriel hates me,” she told Mackenzie suddenly. “Alec is full of shit, and Derek hates me.” Mackenzie froze, one hand holding open the ice cooler behind the bar and the other clutching a bottle of beer, and blinked at her. “He—what?”
    Nick blew her bangs out of her face and started filling the pretzel bowls. “Alec told me that Derek hasn’t acted on any of the eight hundred flirtatious hints I’ve thrown his way because he likes me too much, and he needed to get all his new shapeshifter crap under control before he could start anything. But our friend is full of it because, lately, whenever Derek lays eyes on me, he looks like he wants to punch a hole in the wall.”
    Mackenzie’s confused expression melted into one of guilt. “Shit, Nick. Maybe it’s not you. I mean, not just you. We did get his cousin mixed up in some crazy shit, and none of us bothered to warn him.
    Someone broke into Kat’s apartment, and if it was Charles Talbot, or someone like him…”
    “Maybe.” She exhaled and shrugged one shoulder, unable to dismiss the feeling that it didn’t have anything to do with Kat at all. “I wouldn’t blame him. Jackson told me she was terrified.” Nick hoped being able to unwind with twenty of her closest friends would raise Kat’s spirits.
    10
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    Crossroads
    “Poor kid.” Mackenzie resumed stocking the fridge. “Which one does she have the crush on? Derek’s partner?”
    “Andrew,” Nick confirmed. “The tall blond guy. They have this…thing. It’s epic.” She checked her watch and sucked in a breath. “People should be arriving soon. Dinner’s been set up, right?”
    “Yep. It’s all ready.” Mackenzie shoved the last two beers in the cooler and picked up the case. “I could stay back there and keep an eye on it, though.”
    “Surely you’re not scared of Jackson’s mother.” He was due back from the airport with her any minute. “Seriously. She’s great.”
    “So I’ve heard. What about you? If you’re giving up on Derek, what else have you got going on?”
    “Not a damn thing,” Nick muttered darkly. “My love life is officially a barren wasteland, where sexual satisfaction is entirely reliant on a fresh supply of C-cell batteries.” To say nothing of the loneliness that had plagued her for months.
    “You could stop throwing out flirtatious hints and ask him out,” Mackenzie pointed out. “I mean, before you resign yourself to dating electronics.”
    Nick had been set to do just that on returning from Boston. Then Derek had started gritting his teeth whenever she got within ten feet of him, and it stopped seeming like such a good idea. “Maybe.” She waved both hands in the air and made a disgusted noise. “I don’t want to talk about my pathetic love life anymore. Let’s talk about you and Jackson.”
    “What’s to talk about?”
    “Moving in with him?” Nick snatched up a towel and started giving the bar one final polish. “That’s a big step.”
    Mackenzie laughed. “C’mon, Nick. After the year I had? Not all that big a deal.”
    “You make an excellent point. But I’m proud of you for getting past it and moving on with things.
    Like the dance studio.”
    Her friend’s eyes lit up. “Have you seen it lately? The contractors Derek found for me, God, they’ve worked magic.” She hesitated. “You don’t think he found me contractors who actually work magic, do you? I still can’t tell.”
    Nick tried not to laugh. “As far