Scarlet shifted, guilt making her uncomfortable in the doorway. “I know.”
After a long pause, Nate exhaled and moved to leave. “Don’t stay out too late. Tomorrow is testing day with you and Tristan.”
Scarlet’s stomach filled with dread. “Yay.”
She left out the front door and headed for New York University. Once there, she entered a stairwell door and climbed her way to the third floor of the building.
She stopped outside an office with a sign in the window that read GENEOLOGY and softly rapped her knuckles against the open door. A middle-aged man wearing the world’s worst toupee looked up at her and smiled.
“Are you Miss Jacobs?”
“Yes.” She stepped into the office. “You must be Professor Baker.”
“Yes, but you can call me Kirk. You’re here about researching your family history for a school assignment, correct?”
Scarlet nodded. So she’d lied a little on the phone.
“Then you’ve come to the right place. I help students retrace their family trees all the time. Please, sit.”
Scarlet sat in the chair across from Kirk’s desk as he scratched the top of his head, his toupee moving back and forth with the motion.
He pulled a form from a desk drawer. “Do you have a list of surnames we might begin with?”
“Yes.” Scarlet pulled a piece of paper from her pocket with the names of her mother, father, and uncle written down. “I want to look for anything related to these names in or around the Avalon, Georgia area.”
“Oh. That’s a rather specific request.” Kirk scanned the list and gave a single nod. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“I’m not doing this,” Gabriel held up the joystick in his hand. “It’s weird.”
“It’s not weird,” Tristan said. “It’s Atari.”
Nate made a face. “Isn’t Atari a video game for kids?”
“Yeah. It’ll be fun.”
“I don’t really feel like having fun.”
“And that’s the problem.” Tristan shoved the other joystick into Nate’s hand. “You’re miserable. You need a distraction, so suck it up and play the damn game.”
Tristan started hooking the cables to the TV.
Gabriel looked around. “Is Scarlet here?”
Nate frowned. “Nope. She snuck out an hour ago.”
“She snuck out?” Gabriel asked. “Where did she go?”
“I don’t know.” Nate shrugged. “But she’s been secretive lately, sneaking off every day to go to the ‘library’. So who knows?”
Tristan felt his chest twist up. Scarlet’s emotions had been all over the place lately. Scared, excited, worried, afraid. And now she was sneaking out?
What was she up to?
CHAPTER 30
“It’s so early.” Scarlet stretched her arms above her head.
Tristan shifted in his seat across from her at the table in Nate’s lab. His dark hair was tousled and long enough to hang in his eyes and the black T-shirt he wore stretched across his shoulders in a way that made the butterflies in her stomach want to dance.
Dropping her arms, she looked away from him and yawned. The professor had loaded her up with ancestry books before she left his office last night and Scarlet had stayed up until the early hours of dawn searching through their pages for any sign of her relatives. She found nothing. Kirk was going to make a call to someone in Avalon to see about family documents so maybe they’d have better luck there.
Tristan stretched his neck, his trap muscles moving as he did so, and Scarlet’s butterflies started to waltz. Damn him and all his muscles.
He shifted again, scooting his chair back even farther than he had the last three times he’d moved since they’d sat down. The good doctor was only ten minutes late and Tristan was already halfway to the door in his chair.
Even though they’d seen each other at Nate’s house a few times—apparently, Tristan and Nate were best friends now—she and Tristan barely spoke. Half of her was fine with that, but the other half—the stupid half—wanted to climb into his arms and beg him to love her and kiss her and touch her until she died.
He shifted again.
“Really?” Scarlet blinked. “What’s your plan here? Are you going to scoot your way out of the lab?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I just don’t want to be here.”
“Neither do I, but you don’t see me squeaking my way to the door with my grumpy face on.” She leaned back in her chair. “Are you really that uncomfortable around me?”
“Yes.”
“Why? We’re not touching. There’s an entire lab table between us and if anyone should be freaking out about us hanging out in the same room, it should be me, remember? The girl who keeps dying? Unless you’re planning on accidentally falling on top of me, I’m pretty sure you can relax.”
He flexed his jaw. “I’m not stressed about touching you, Scar.”
Scar.
“Then what is your deal?”
He stared at her. “I can feel you.”
“Oh.” Oh.
Note to self: no more touching Tristan thoughts.
She tried to act casual. “Well, get over it.”
He scoffed and tipped his head back. “Right.”
She watched his Adam’s apple move as he swallowed.
“See?” He brought his face down. “Like that. What the hell was that?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Good morning!” Nate grinned as he entered the lab. He shuffled around the table between them and picked up a needle. “So,” he lifted the needle in the air, “who wants to give blood first?”
Four hours later, Tristan sighed into the strained silence and kept his eyes fixed on the ceiling. He and Scarlet hadn’t spoken since Nate entered the lab and started drawing their blood and monitoring their vitals.
“So,” Nate attempted conversation for the third time. He seemed to be in a better mood lately. “Do you guys maybe want to talk about how very uncomfortable this is?” He smiled tightly, looking first at Tristan, then at Scarlet. “Because I don’t know about you, but I feel awk-ward. Let’s hash it out, shall we? Tristan,” Nate said brightly. “We’ll start with you. How are you feeling?”
“Annoyed.”
“I like your honesty and openness.” Nate turned to Scarlet. “What about you? How are you feeling?”
“Tired,” she said. “Nine in the morning is too early for needles.”
Tristan said, “Maybe if you hadn’t stayed out so late, you wouldn’t be so tired.”