Things That Shine

by Bria Quinlan

Tiny mob of tiny dogs. Tiny mob dogs.

  That little gray one with the blue eyes was obviously in charge.

  Sage sat as still as he could. He knew his feet had migrated to the top rung of the stool, pushing his knees up to his ears. He probably looked ridiculous. But he was concentrating too hard on deep breathing and staying calm to care. They could sense fear.

  The gray one was sensing it right now. They locked eyes and Sage’s pulse kicked up.

  “This is my nightmare,” he said matter-of-factly.

  Emily let loose with a riot of giggles, which is what she’d been doing a lot over the past couple of hours. Sage hadn’t figured out what was so damn hilarious, but he was fairly certain it had something to do with adorable animals and his aversion to them. Not a strong aversion... he wasn’t a monster. But he had a healthy respect for the damage one of those furry creatures could do if you weren’t looking.

  He was having a hard time being upset about any of it.

  Maybe if Emily had been irritated with his lack of manliness, that may have made the evening less enjoyable. But she was perfectly delighted with his hand-wringing and chin rubbing. Not one of the dogs she’d taken pictures of that night had been the size of the poodle. Not even close. It was almost as if she specialized in teacup breeds. It was okay—up until they stopped coming in one at a time and an entire gang of little dogs showed up at once for their “appointment.”

  Seriously. Ten tiny dogs of varying breeds and colors swarmed around the girl he was currently and quickly growing attached to, demanding her attention. And her allegiance. And her lunch money.

  Sage couldn’t decide if he should attempt to save her, or flee for his life.

  The giggles and gentle admonishments told him she was fine. Still. He was sweating.

  “Can you hand me that string of pearls?”

  Sage jerked his head up to see Emily staring at him expectantly.

  He pointed to his chest.

  She laughed and nodded. “Yes. It’s in the trunk. I forgot to grab it.”

  That meant he would have to leave the stool. Sage uncurled his hands from around the lip of the stool where he’d tried hanging on to keep from hand-wringing. His legs made a slow descent to the floor and he straightened his torso, trying to pull his shoulder back to look bigger and discourage a sneak attack.

  He made it to the trunk, found the pearls, and was handing them gingerly over to Emily when it happened.

  The Blue-Eyed Boss barked, signaling the attack he knew was coming. Sage’s eyes darted down to the penned-in area surrounding Emily and the dogs. He lost focus on what he was doing with his hands and his body weight shifted, causing him to lose his footing. He tripped over the eight-inch plastic wall, knocking it down, and fell headlong into the swarm.

  Tiny dog bodies pummeled into him and he let a loud (masculine) yell. He tried to cover his face with his hands, but there were dogs everywhere. Ten had multiplied into a thousand and he was doomed. This was it. This is how it would end. He was going to be eaten by novelty dogs dressed as royalty.

  It was the laughter that really brought him out of it. The loud, unabashed, delighted, laughter. He opened his eyes to see Emily wiping tears from an eye with one hand while trying to man the camera with the other.

  “Are you taking pictures of this?” Sage asked, horrified at her lack of compassion.

  “Oh, I have to. Abby is gonna love this.”

  “You can’t show Abby!” He rose up on his elbows and froze. The Boss was standing on his chest. Of course he was. Why wouldn’t he take part in his victory? “Heyyy,” Sage greeted casually. The Boss attacked. With his tongue. Covering Sage’s face in a million tiny kisses.

  Well, this was unexpected.

  “You’re too cute.”

  Sage’s eyes came up to connect with Emily’s and he suddenly didn’t care if she was talking to the dog or to him (he was going to tell himself later that she was totally talking to him). He grinned, she grinned, and then she took the picture.

  Best non-date ever.

  17

  Emily

  Puppies.

  Sage’s kryptonite was puppies.

  Not rottweiler or pit bulls or ninjas… I mean, I’m way more afraid of ninjas than basically any dog out there, so…yeah.

  Puppies.

  When Mrs. Tennent had brought in her herd of teacup dogs, I thought Sage was going to pass out and fall off that stool he was hiding on.

  But, no. It took me asking for props to be his downfall. Literally.

  And then he kept calling Rumplefluffkins “Mob Boss”—which made about as much sense as anything else that day.

  I pulled the door shut behind me, double-checking the lock while Sage waited at the bottom of the stairs, glancing down the street. Probably waiting for the next influx of tiny dogs.

  He scanned the area and all I could picture was him creating an in-depth retreat plan in his head.

  “So, you think we can get home safely?” I asked, trying not to laugh out loud.

  I’m sure he was aware enough that I was laughing in my head.

  But the problem—the real problem—wasn’t that he had microcynophobia (thank you, Google). It was that I thought his microcynophobia was adorable.

  A-freaking-dorable.

  It was hard to believe a guy who was afraid of tiny dogs could purposefully set out to use another person. I had to believe this was one more tick in the Safe column.

  We walked side by side, him glancing down at me, then away. Rinse, repeat. I thought he was going to take my hand, but instead he shoved his in his pockets.

  Which was great. Totally great. It meant I didn’t have to dodge the hand-hold.

  Yup. Super glad he did that.

  I think.

  Darn it, I couldn’t get Ashleyton out of my head telling me to give him a chance.

  “So, the last guy I went out with kind of ruined my life.”

  His sneaker scraped on the pavement, as he stutter-stepped but didn’t otherwise react.

  I walked on, trying to figure out if that was enough sharing for one day.

  I mean, that was more than I typically told anyone. It was almost the total of what Ash and Megan knew. So, yup. Maybe I was done for the day.

  I took a deep breath, congratulating myself on opening up like that.

  “So…” Sage spoke up after about half a block. “So, when you say ruined your life, you mean, broke your heart or something, right?”

  Did Troy break my heart? Maybe. But his actions weren’t the most heartbreaking to me.

  “Kind of.”

  Sage nodded. I could almost hear him thinking, Well, that’s not so bad.

  “Did he…” I watched the run of emotions on his face, looking to ask questions without prying.

  His trying to be sensitive instead of nosy made me feel more comfortable. I knew it wasn’t going to be like other people. The questions. The pushing. As if being outside the normal expectation they had for me meant they had to know everything about me right away. As if they had the right.

  Sage cleared his throat before finishing his question. “Cheat?”

  “Oh. Probably.” I guess I hadn’t really thought about it, but my money would be on yes.

  Sage looked at me funny and I realized my answer was really dismissive of something that should be a big deal.

  “But that wasn’t the thing, I take it.” It wasn’t a question, and he went on, his hands fisting at his side, his gaze staying straight ahead. “He didn’t…hit you, right?”

  I was really thankful in that moment Troy had never laid a hand on me, because for a moment Sage’s rage at the idea rolled off him in a way that screamed Guy Retribution.

  “No.” I reached out, surprising myself when I felt my hand touch the skin of his arm. “No. He never hit me.”

  I saw that this opening up thing was way more complicated than I’d expected it to be. I could tell Sage was just going to keep going to horrible places in his head over and over. I co
uld also tell he felt like his questions were limited and he’d reached that limit.

  We walked on, Sage quiet at my side, me cursing Ash and her “just open up” advice.

  I couldn’t leave it like this, but I also didn’t want to drag it out. I started spitting out words faster than I knew I’d stored them up.

  “He was rich.” I guess everything felt rich to me, but money was a thing for his family. “He was dealing on the side. For fun or rep or something. And, when he got caught, he said it was me. That it was all my stuff.” I glanced over as Sage stopped walking, knowing there was no turning back now.

  He pulled me down a side street to a little park for families.

  “And, people believed that?” He sounded so shocked that my heart double-timed its thumping in my chest.

  That this guy wouldn’t believe that when he just barely knew me compared to—

  “Yeah. Everyone did.” I sucked in a breath. “Actually, one person didn’t believe him.”

  “Your mom.” He nodded like this was obvious.

  “No. The prosecutor.” I watched as my answer hit him like I’d smacked him upside the head.

  “Your parents believed him?” The shock was so clear that he might as well be carrying emotional emojis around with him for clarity.

  “Yes…well, no. But, yes.”

  This part seemed rougher than the rest. It seemed to say something more about me than I wanted it to. This was the part that hurt every time I thought about it. The part where my life switched its course and never changed back.

  I’d been trying to catch up with how to make things work since that day, and was still struggling with it. Emotionally, financially…obviously in the trust-bank.

  “So, I was in foster care.” I took a deep breath and pushed the words out as fast as I could. “I’d been with the family for almost three years. The plan was for me to stay on with them. To be part of the family. To go to college on scholarship. But holidays and such would always be with them. I felt like I had a home. But when Troy accused me, when they believed him and his rich family and his powerful dad over me…they kicked me out.”

  “They what?”

  I’d never seen someone so angry before.

  Sage got up, pacing across the small children’s park before stalking back.

  He opened his mouth. Shut it. Turned and stomped across the park and back again.

  “Just kicked you out? Boom. Just, see ya, Emily. It was nice having you as part of our family, but we obviously don’t know you one bit and we’re not freaking human beings?”

  Part of me, a small corner of my heart, healed just a little bit at his anger.

  “Basically.” I cocked my head to watch him where he bounced on his toes, energy tightly contained. “Yes.”

  “So, what did you do?” He ran his hands down his jeans. I watched as he pushed the energy out of himself and a calm fell over him—centered him. It was like watching someone change their soul for a moment.

  People didn’t usually want to know that part.

  “Well, the Kingstons gave me the money they’d set aside from their monthly foster care payments they didn’t spend. They said it was for college, but I was obviously going to need it now.”

  “Generous of them.”

  “So, I moved in with some girl I met on Craigslist. It was okay. Except her boyfriend was always there. He was the one who got me my overnight babysitting job. I think it was a way to get me out of the apartment. But, that first job let me figure things out. Then I’d get another job. Then another. I had been accepted to school, so I changed it to two classes so I could work.”

  “But what about financial aid?”

  “Well, when I had to cut my class load to pay for food and shelter stuff, the financial aid changed to almost nothing.”

  This had become my normal over the last few years, something I just dealt with step-by-step.

  I’d been lucky to find Ash and Megan this past spring. And another job at The Brew with good pay and good people. And now, because of Sage, a chance to work a couple days under one of my idols.

  Sage spit out a breath that sounded of all things frustrated.

  “Don’t do that.” I all but smacked him as I said it. “Don’t do the pity thing.”

  I stood up, done with this all. Pity was the last thing I wanted. Embarrassment at being betrayed like that was bad enough.

  “It’s not pity.” He shook his head, looking at me with a gaze that I couldn’t read. “It’s…respect and frustration. For you. Both for you.”

  I stood there, shocked that he respected me. It wasn’t something I expected from people. It was a high goal.

  “Are you walking me home?” I asked, because I really needed to change the topic since any more of this chatter would have me in a puddle of humiliation on the ground. No matter how accepting he was, it was still embarrassing when your “family” gave you away.

  “Of course.” We walked back to the sidewalk, the comfortable silence different now. I knew he was thinking about what I’d just told him. I tried to trust that he was being honest about the no-pity thing.

  But, trust…yeah. I wasn’t exactly great at the trust thing.

  This putting yourself out there—sharing stuff you didn’t tell people, trusting they wouldn’t think you were an escaped criminal thing—was scary.

  I hadn’t realized how much Sage’s reaction mattered to me, what he thought, until the words had started flooding out of my mouth.

  And then it didn’t just matter. It mattered.

  Sage was the most easygoing guy on the planet, and it made life around him easy. But, I was still afraid of that good life he’d lead and that laidback style of his wouldn’t leave room for the grey area of being wrongly accused.

  My heart skipped a beat, and I forced down my fear. I kept trying to put up self-protecting road blocks, but I questioned those now.

  Glancing up at him, I hoped. I hoped.

  And he, calm and sure, stood in the middle of that hope.

  And that hope turned to calm, and that calm turned to cheer.

  He glanced down at me.

  “What?” he asked, giving me a confused smile.

  Probably at the stupid grin I was wearing after spilling my guts.

  “So, puppies, huh?”

  18

  Sage

  Sage thought he saw something move out of the corner of his eye and jumped, rolling his chair slightly to the left.

  He took a deep breath and tried to calm his heart rate.

  No puppies.

  Nothing.

  Just his imagination.

  He chuckled an embarrassed laugh at himself as he flipped the switches on the panel of the old soundboard.

  The studio was quiet; everyone had gone home for the night save Sage, who was catching up on the takes he’d missed while he’d been with Emily.

  His thought had been in a constant swirl since he’d left her at her door. They were starting to settle and fall into place as he worked the dailies.

  Emily’s hesitancy, her fear, her walls. It was all making sense.

  You know what wasn’t making sense? Her smile. Her gentleness, positivity, her kindness.

  Sage couldn’t imagine…any of it. He couldn’t relate. Not even a fraction of a faction of an iota.

  It wasn’t even the guy—even though he was clearly a dick—that had Sage so upset. It was her family. The people she’d trusted to protect her and love her and believe her.

  Her words rang through his head again and his limbs trembled with negative energy. He needed to get rid of it.

  Sitting down at the table, he cued up the track they’d been working on earlier. He settled the headphones over his ears and tried to let the sound of loud rock and roll distract him.

  The day of the stolen burrito incident replayed. As hilarious as it had been at the time, he remembered her panic and fear. He hadn’t even really known her at the time, and he knew what a ridiculous idea it was that she’d ste
al something, let alone from her employer. But looking back, no wonder she’d been scared. And that wasn’t right.

  Someone who walked through this world with the kind of integrity that was obvious to a nobody coffee customer (granted, he had only come in for one cup and kept coming back because of the pretty girl behind the counter), shouldn’t be accused of and found guilty of dealing drugs.

  Drugs!

  Sage swallowed, closed his eyes, and leaned back in his chair.

  She had had the kind of life where being bitter and cynical would be understood. Even expected. But, no. Not this girl. This girl smiled at every stranger, took delight in the feel of a real bed, was thankful for her job at the coffee shop where she worked with, well, Abby. She worked hard, she was kind, funny, smart.

  She was, quite possibly, the most beautiful person Sage had ever met.

  “Hey.”

  Emily’s head came up and her eyes went round. “Hi.”

  Sage ran a hand through his still-damp hair and then shoved both hands in his pockets. It had become almost a reflex when he was around Emily now. If his hands were in his pockets, he wouldn’t reach for her. Why he would reach for her was beyond his comprehension. Okay, that was a lie. He knew why he would reach for her.

  He wanted to know what it felt like to touch the sun.

  So, hands in pockets, no one lost their minds. By “no one,” he meant him. He was the crazy one here. Totally sack of hammers bananas.

  Still, seeing her, even though he’d just seen her last night, it was like finally waking up. Maybe his brain had been trained with the gallons of coffee he’d ingested over the past several weeks and seeing her face at the same time. It responded either way. It was science. Clearly.

  He tried his most disarming smile. Relief washed over her face before she schooled her features and returned his smile.

  “Surprised to see me so soon?” he asked after he’d made it the counter.

  Color crept up her neck and she glanced away. “A little. I know it was a lot to dump on you—”

  “No, Emily,” he stopped her. “It’s not a lot to dump on anyone. It's a lot to carry alone.”