Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 174544 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 698(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 174544 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 698(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
I text back.
He might already be at Halway Comics to meet my dad for dinner. It seems like a cataclysmic event, and so I definitely want the full report on how it all went down.
Slipping my phone in my pocket, the elevator dings. I step out and see her.
Frog is waiting in the apartment’s lobby. No one would suspect she’s a bodyguard—not just because she’s thin and unimposing in stature—but because she’s wearing a slim emerald-green dress, a trendy velvet coat, and black heels. The only giveaway is the mic cord in her ear.
I’ve always loved that she blends in so well, but seeing her eyes dart left and right with nervous anticipation stabs my heart.
Here I go.
I slip my backpack-purse straps on my shoulders and trek forward. My sneakers squeak on the marble floor, and anxious heat gathers beneath my black hoodie. I’m thankful for Past Luna (really, Ten-Minutes Ago Luna) who decided to wear jean shorts and fishnets even though it’ll be cold outside.
Frog catches sight of me, and her spine straightens.
“Hi, howdy, ho,” I greet with a wave.
“Hey.” She peeks over to the revolving entrance doors. “Your mom isn’t here yet.”
“I know. I came down early.” I notice about four beefy dudes loitering near the lobby’s reception desk, pretending to be interested in the sage paisley wallpaper and gold lighting fixtures. But their eyes noticeably veer to me, and they’re wearing identical black suits.
“My backup,” Frog says, glancing to them, then to me. “At least that’s what they should be called. Frog’s Backup Security. Extra reinforcements. Not that I really need them, but those SFE d-bags threw a stupid stink over comms about my ‘size’.”
It probably didn’t help that I ditched her. “I’m sorry for not telling you I was leaving,” I say. “I didn’t mean to get you in trouble.”
“Yeah, well…” Her voice sounds strained. “It hasn’t been awesome, but their anti-Frog campaign has been going on since O’Malley got hurt. I can deal with the boys’ club and being on the bottom rung. It’s not like I was coveted by anyone in Buffalo. Sometimes it felt like the whole state of New York rejected me.”
That hurts more. “I’m not rejecting you.”
She scopes out my surroundings before looking at me. “It feels like you did. Donnelly told me you’re just scared of what happened to O’Malley happening to me, but you don’t believe I can escape a situation like that?” I’m sure she hears the doubt enough from Epsilon, and she might be small but she’s fast and nimble. I do believe we could outmaneuver crowds together better than any big burly man.
Still…
“O’Malley couldn’t escape it,” I say. “I’d be scared every bodyguard I really love couldn’t too.”
Frog looks conflicted. She shifts her weight, peeks at her backup security, then tells me, “Maybe it’s better if you love me a lot less.”
Ouch.
She cringes in pain too. “You’re not supposed to worry about me, Luna. That’s written somewhere in my cousin’s twenty-pound rulebook. Clients can’t worry about their bodyguard’s safety.”
“I know. You’re just my favorite bodyguard I’ve ever had.”
Frog makes a face close to the doe-eyed emoji. “You seriously can’t tell me that.” She sighs into a wounded noise. “I need to like you way less too, but I don’t want to.”
“I don’t want to either.” I hold my backpack strap. “I know we’re on two polar opposite sides.” I’m famous. She’s security. “But I never want to lose your friendship…and sometimes I’m not so good at keeping friends in the loop, but I know you’re different.”
She’s my bodyguard too. I need to try to respect that more.
Her stiff posture loosens, more open and warmer. “Then can you just like…pretend I’m Wonder Woman or something? No one can defeat me unless they have eight titanium abs and hail from some planet where all the hot guys exist.”
My lips rise. “And you can only be taken down by the hottest male specimen.”
Her smile appears. “Who also happens to be the sweetest, and the hottest, sweetest guy doesn’t exist, so I’ll be safe forever.”
I laugh, then nod. “I can pretend.” It’s what I’m good at.
She skims my cheeks that I streaked with nail polish. “I’m liking the new look. It’s giving Lost Boy from Hook.” Her gaze falls to the black analog watch on my wrist. “That is not yours.”
I tuck my wrist protectively to my chest. “Has anyone ever told you you’re really perceptive?”
“Just my Auntie Mint.” Akara’s mom. Her smile fades since her aunt passed away recently, but before I can reply, she speaks. “I don’t know exactly what’s going on between you and Donnelly, aka Wonder Bread”—I heard she found out about our Fanaticon usernames—“but he better know I am still your Number One Protector.”
I smile. “Always.”
19
LUNA HALE
“It’s not because of you,” my mom assures, her hands tight on the wheel. She’s sitting up straighter than usual in the driver’s seat.