The Girl of Diamonds and Rust (The Half Shell Series Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

good place. Still friends. Didn’t we?
    “Well, I thought you were going to grab my couch,” I counter quietly. Something in how he looks at me makes me anxious and sad. I add, “I really want you to stay here, Neil.”
    I can feel him watching me in that way he has when he’s trying to make sense of me. A few seconds pass. He sinks back down on the couch.
    “Thanks, Chrissie. If you are sure you feel up to it and you’re cool with it, I would really like to stay here tonight.”
    “Good.”
    Neil sighs, closes his eyes and lays his head back against the couch. “Fuck, it feels good to be here. It’s quiet here. I can breathe. I’ll probably be terrible company tonight. I feel like I could sleep for a week.”
    My anxiety fades and I take in more detail of him. He definitely looks exhausted. Neil is such a gorgeous guy—tanned skin; tall, long, lean-muscled body; messy sun-streaked shoulder-length chestnut waves framing a strongly featured face with brilliant green eyes—I often miss details, like the fatigue lines beneath his eyes and around his lips.
    “You look really tired, Neil. Was it awful out on the road this time? You didn’t make it sound awful whenever we talked on the phone. You always sounded really good. Happy. ”
    Neil chuckles in a tired, loose way. “Worst four months of my life, ever. Trust me, Chrissie, it was miserable every day. The larger the venues, the more shit. Everything went wrong that could go wrong from the first day out of Seattle. And the fucking band fought almost the entire time. The minute things start to go good everyone goes crazy.”
    His eyes open and I make a pout of sympathy.
    He reaches out to lightly touch my cheek. “It feels good to be here with you. I missed you so much, Chrissie. I kept thinking about you. What I did wrong. I know I fucked up. Why you dumped me. I get it.”
    “You didn’t fuck up,” I say contritely, guilt flooding my digestive track. “And I didn’t dump you. We are just going in different directions and it didn’t seem fair to you or to me for us to try to stay together. It was the right thing for us both, Neil.”
    His eyes burn into me, and the heat increases across my cheeks.
    “No, Chrissie. It wasn’t the right thing for me. Not by a long shot. You always thought I was joking when I asked, but I really did think we’d end up married someday.”
    “I thought you weren’t going to do this, Neil.”
    He runs a hand through his hair in an aggravated way. He looks impatient and annoyed with himself. “You’re right. Sorry. I won’t do it again.”
    I stare down at my fingers, digging into my knees. “I’m not someplace where I can even think about us. I just want to hang out. Keep everything light. I could really use that, Neil. OK?”
    “I said I won’t do it again,” Neil counters, and I can’t tell if he’s irritated with me or himself.
    This moment just got extremely awkward, to the point of feeling almost smothering, and I’m starting to feel really badly when the front door opens with enough force to hit the wall with a boom. We both turn to look as Rene pauses in the doorway, hands on hips encased in too-short Cal shorts, her pretty face awash with pretend irritation.
    “When the hell did you get back?”
    Neil laughs, pulling his body away from me to settle with more space between us on the couch.
    “About twenty minutes ago. How ya doing, Rene?” he says, amused.
    Rene closes the door and crosses the room in a flurry, dropping down on the couch on the vacant spot beside Neil. I watch her lean in to give him a sloppy kiss on the cheek, and their easy closeness gives me a sharp stab in my stomach. They hated each other when Neil first moved into the condo, and now they are more comfortable as friends than I am with Neil.
    Rene’s pretty face fills with a dazzling smile. “Really. How long are you staying?”
    “A day. Maybe two…” He makes a face in my direction. “…or I might just stay until Chrissie