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“Don’t you? I’m gonna assume you spoke to your friend.”
I suck in a sharp breath. “Whatever you do outside of here isn’t my business.”
“Isn’t it?”
That expression in his gaze morphs into something larger, deeper, and I look away. “You know it isn’t. This is a bookstore. You’re not staying.”
“This isn’t about the store, or the job.”
“Look…that was yesterday, okay? A moment out of time. We…we fed a need in each other. It happens all the time.”
Magnus laughs and squeezes my hand a moment. “Zoey, of all the things you can say, you choose something so not you?”
“But you don’t know me.” I frown at him.
He raises a brow. “I work with you—”
“For what? Two weeks?”
“And I’ve watched you. I’ve an interest.”
“A passing one. I’m here.” I snatch my hand away and step back, and he doesn’t follow. No one is here in the store. It’s close to closing and Mondays are always slow. And I’m more than aware I’m feeding into my own defense mechanisms, but what else can I do? Let someone who’s transient in my life in beyond the physical? It’s already gone further with him than it should.
People think I’m soft, and I am. But that doesn’t mean I can’t comprehend what’s good for me and what isn’t. And letting him touch me, getting to know me, getting to know him, that’s…that’s all good in its place. It’s good as long as I don’t attach meaning to it.
“And,” I continue before he can speak, “you can do whatever you like.”
He nods and a hardness comes to his gaze, almost like he’s angry. “So your friend tells you, what? She saw me out last night? I’m assuming that’s what happened because she’s that type. Loyal.”
“It’s not my business.”
“I didn’t sleep with Michaela. Whom I met last night.”
“We aren’t dating.”
Magnus frowns. “We had sex.”
“So?”
He just stares at me, like he’s going to say something, but instead he steps back, shaking his head and he pushes his hand through his hair. This time, when he looks at me, it’s the placid, nice Magnus.
“I guess nothing. Maybe I read more into it than I thought. But I never said anything because…” He blows out a breath and leans against the counter, folding his arms. “Because I thought you’d ask. I’ve known her for a while. But every time I tried to think of how to bring it up, it just sounded like an excuse since your friend saw us…and now I’m making a mess of things.”
The soft smile melts me a little.
“Magnus—”
The bell rings above the door and it opens. An old lady with a walker comes in and her eyes light up, even as she’s short of breath. She has pin curls and gray-white hair, and she looks from Magnus to me.
“Gran. What are you doing?”
My heart lurches sideways. Magnus rushes to her side, but she swats him away with ineffectual moves and I’m turning into goo at the caring and fussing he shows. Call me a sucker, but there’s something wonderful about a man who cares for his old grandmother. And it drives home what he’s done for her, because I suspect the things he’s told me have been so downplayed.
He might not be good at this job, but I’m betting he was fantastic at his chosen career, and…I’m letting my heart really get in the way.
“Stop your fussing, Magnus. I went out for a walk. I needed some air. And I thought…why not come see who the girl is you’ve been talking to me about? I’m Amanda, Magnus’s gran. Do you want to come over for dinner?”
There was no way I could say no.
