Page 45 of The Other Side of Green

“Wanna get out of here?” He tilted into my space, rocking on his toes.

“What?”

“You shouldn’t be a bird kept in a cage.”

Our gazes met. “You’ve said that before.”

“And I’ll always say it.”

“Jack…”

He pressed a gentle finger against my lips. “As a friend it’s my duty.”

“Friends?” I asked, quirking my eyebrow.

“Sure.”

Brother my subconscious whispered, but I locked it down. Friends wasn’t wrong was it? I didn’t have to be ashamed of ‘friends’.

I ignored the answer.

“Window or front door?”

“Well,” his smile spread with infectious speed, blurring the bruises of his return home. “For old times.” He gestured for the window and an irrepressible giggle bubbled in my chest, warring with the grief and heartbreak.

“Let me grab my purse.”

Chapter Eleven

Jack

Walking and talking. Walking and talking. With every step the previous four years unwound. “I was thinking I never told you much about what happened once I left here.”

Lyra quirked an eyebrow and glanced over me, nearly walking into a streetlamp.

“Watch where you’re going.” I shot my hand out, automatically keeping her upright and without a bruise on her forehead. I officially had enough bruises for the both of us. She shook her head at the streetlamp.

“You told me you headed for Boston and that was it.”

A highly abridged version of events, even I could admit that.

“The Collins family somehow managed to get you involved in all sorts of things, and you ended up working for Greene, and owning a bar.” She scrunched her face.

“The two don’t really go together, do they?” I nudged her arm, my stomach sinking as she shifted further away from me.

“Well, no.”

“So, do you want to know?”

She shot me a killer glare. “So now you want to talk?”

We were heading into the tourist part of the city, the sidewalks becoming busier. Ignoring the space she tried to carve between us, I held her elbow in my grasp. “Yes.”

“I thought secrets were your thing.”

Grinning, I leaned in closer to her ear. “Maybe they should be a thing of my past.”

“Jack—” here it came, the push back. I wouldn’t let her.