Page 52 of The Art of Ruin

I look up too fast. Adriano stands a few feet away holding a stack of books while Letty sits cross-legged on the floor beside him reading upside down.

“You disappeared.”

The words are casual.

His eyes aren’t.

“Sorry,” I say quickly, locking the phone again. “I was distracted.”

“I noticed.”

Heat crawls up my neck. God, I hate being observed this closely. Before I can think of something else to say, the phone starts ringing again.

Not vibrating.

Ringing.

Loud enough this time that even Letty looks up from her book.

I stare at the screen.

Jasper.

Again.

My thumb hesitates for half a second before I answer, mostly because if I don’t, I know he’ll keep going.

“Excuse me,” I murmur, already stepping away.

I can feel Adriano watching me as I move toward the back corner near the travel section.

“Casey.”

Jasper’s voice slides through the speaker, warm and familiar and instantly unbearable. “What?”

“You finally answered.”

“I’m at a bookstore.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

I close my eyes briefly. “What do you want?”

“To talk to you.”

“We are talking.”

“You know what I mean.”

A couple walks past me, laughing quietly to themselves while I grip the edge of a bookshelf hard enough that my fingers ache.

“You lied to me for months. You have a child you hid from me. We have nothing to talk about.”

“It wasn’t like that.”

I let out a disbelieving laugh under my breath. “You had a child, Jasper. An actual human being.”

Silence crackles briefly through the line.