Whisper (Novella) Read Free

Maybe it was even hard to get and unseduce-able.
    And maybe my smile got a fire going in his belly, maybe it didn’t. I couldn’t tell from the cool way he kept leaning against the wall while Diana burbled on about where he worked (at Deacon and Darwin’s repair shop) and how he liked Aidan Falls so far (just fine).
    Then Diana got really ballsy.
    She took my phone out of her pocket and swiped her thumb over the screen, and I knew she was fishing to see if he would say anything about TellTale since the images of its confessions were right there in front of him.
    Very slick, that move.
    I looked at him to see if he had a reaction, and he did—a sexy side smile that captured those lips. He took another drink of beer as he glanced at me, raising an eyebrow.
    Was he trying to tell me something? Or was I reading too much into it? He was either playing this seduction game with real expertise or—
dah-dah-dum
—he wasn’t my secret admirer at all.
    He drained the rest of his beer, lifted his cup to us, and stood away from the wall. “Either of you need more brew?”
    I shook my head along with Diana, then he grinned at us and left.
    â€œClearly,” I said, “he was totally into me.”
    â€œI told you, that’s how he operates. Secret admirers like him love the game. Of course he wasn’t going to end it so soon.”
    I took Micah’s place against the wall, expecting to feel his heat seeping into me. Instead, it felt like he’d only left a cool patch behind, and my heart sank.
    Something wasn’t jiving, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Sure Micah Wyatt was hotter than hell. Sure I was willing to be secretly—and not so secretly—admired. So why did I feel more isolated than ever as I watched everyone around me laughing and drinking?
    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement on the other side of the room. The guy I’d almost run into earlier when Diana had been yanking me along.
    Then again, I wasn’t one-hundred-percent certain it was the same person, because all I saw was dark hair flopping over his eyes before he faded into the crowd.

2
    Will she ever really see me?
    Another TellTale message came through the next morning, the words pasted over the same picture of the shadowed face as before.
    My secret admirer again, be still my beating heart.
    I didn’t know if I wanted to tell Diana about this one because she might take me to a steel cage fighting match or a lion pit if she thought Micah would be there, and neither one was really my scene. As it was, the party last night had been a spectacular bust, with Micah leaving early and Diana getting bored and pulling me out to go to the movies. Still, it was completely obvious that she hadn’t given up on the SA hunt when my phone rang and her name flashed across my screen.
    I’d just finished drying my hair, and I pushed it away from my face as I answered. “Hello?”
    â€œLook out your window!”
    I was in my lacy bra and panties, so I grabbed a towel to wrap around myself and wandered over. When I saw someone waving madly from the other side of the wall that separated my stepdad’s oversized brick ultra-house from Diana’s, I opened the window.
    The outside had that after-rain smell that freshened the March air, and the sun was peeking down. Diana’s voice cut right through it all as she looked up at me and modeled a funky sundress accessorized by chunky jewelry and light blue cowboy boots.
    â€œSmokin’, right?” she said into her phone, twirling around. “I got this yesterday for my date tonight.”
    She’d met some guy on Instagram and was going on a blindy—as blind as those kind of dates were, at least. “You look very Echo Park.”
    â€œWhat does that mean?”
    â€œIt’s an LA thing.” Hipster, trendy. I meant it as a compliment. Basically. “You look really nice.”
    â€œThanks. So hey, when