Chapter 39
“All out-of-office, work-related events (such as: conferences, research opportunities, or academic events) must be approved by the corporate office and are subject to denial should they see fit.”
Entity Employee Handbook: R&C Edition
Waylan and Nic ended up getting along extremely well.
Although the kid had a habit of interrupting Nic mid-lecture and distracting him with an entirely new topic which was fairly amusing.
Nic appeared to have endless patience and managed to keep up with each new line of thought effortlessly.
From pill bugs to family pets to favorite foods, Nic navigated one conversation to the next without missing a beat.
Alexys was content with taking a back seat, happy to watch the two race circles around each other and chatter the time away.
The temperature was cooler today, so the hike through the woods was far more enjoyable than it had been the day before. The humidity had, unfortunately, turned Alexys’s hair into a frizzy mess of a ponytail, but it was tolerable with the light breeze.
“You ain’t from here,” Waylan said sagely. It was apparently time to switch topics once again. “I can tell.”
“How can you tell?” Nic asked, smiling.
Waylan looked him up and down, deeply considering his answer. “The way you walk. Like you’re in a hurry and got places to be.” Waylan pointed at her. “See her? She walks the right way.”
Suddenly aware of her every movement, Alexys froze. Why was it that as soon as someone pointed out a thing about your body, you forgot what to do with your hands? Her movements felt robotic and stiff as they both turned to look at her with critical eyes.
Waylan rambled on, “She walks like she’s got plenty of time. My Papaw says you can trust a person that ain’t in no hurry.”
Nic’s lips twitched. “She does walk rather slowly, doesn’t she?” He winked at Alexys and then asked Waylan, “Does that mean you can’t trust me?”
She pursed her lips to keep from smiling. The banter was cute, but that wink of his was becoming too comfortable. She was willing to accept the fact that Nic was enjoyable to be around, but admitting he was attractive and nice was just too much.
Waylan stopped to inspect Nic, squinted up at him. Alexys allowed her own gaze to do the same, admiring his still-white t-shirt that clung to his shoulders in just the right way. The rain had made his curls extra bouncy and … She shook her head and forced her eyes away.
Coworker, she reminded herself firmly. Horribly attractive, pain-in-the-ass coworker!
“I dunno,” Waylan finally answered. “But if Miss Alexys trusts you, then I can, too.”
Nic turned his gaze toward Alexys just in time to catch her blushing.
Did she trust him? At this point, she’d kind of have to be an idiot not to.
He’d tracked her down, voluntarily trekked into the woods with her, was even prepared to fight feral Jackalopes and ancient creatures. There was no way around it.
Nic had her back.
So, yes, she did trust him. The man had ditched work, abandoned his precious research, and put up with her sour attitude for several days, all while sleeping in a dusty cave or on a lumpy couch in a witch’s house.
Okay, okay, maybe Nic’s motivations weren’t entirely selfless given his fascination with the Hollow Walker, but he’d proven time and again already that he was truly there to help.
She should’ve trusted him from the beginning, they might have found Elliot already, but she just had to fight him every step of the way.
It annoyed her, this little revelation, both that Nic was possibly very helpful and that she herself had been downright stubborn.
Alexys looked up to find Waylan and Nic both looking at her expectantly. Waylan was bouncing from one foot to the next, incapable of staying still for even a moment. Nic was waiting for her reply, an expectant look on his face.
“I do trust him, yes.” She smiled down at Waylan because she was too nervous to look at Nic. “He’s a good friend to have.”
Waylan asked, “Is he your best friend?”
“No,” she laughed, thinking of Natalie. “He’s not my best friend.”
“Why not?” Waylan frowned at her and pointed at Nic. “He’s the smartest person I’ve ever met!”
“We only met today,” Nic pointed out. He was smiling at the pair. Alexys fidgeted despite herself. Turned out discussing feelings with yourself was only half as hard as discussing them with a ghost boy in front of your work nemesis.
“Well, I already have a best friend, she’s back home,” Alexys said, then added, “Can I have two best friends?”
Waylan pondered this with a deeply serious expression.
Nic, in his endless capacity for being helpful, asked her, “Is Natalie your best friend or your best work friend? Maybe I’m your best work friend?” He was very pleased with himself. Alexys wanted to groan.
“Wait!” Waylan bounced up and down on his toes. His smile stretched wide with excitement. “Natalie is a girl name!”
She blinked down at him. “Yes, yes, it is.”
“Then that settles it.” He planted his hands on his hips and declared, “Natalie is your best girl friend, and Nic is your best boy friend.”
Nic made a sound that was caught somewhere between a squawk and a choke. He buried his face in his hands, but Alexys could see his shoulders shaking with laughter.
She was mortified. There was no chance she was going to explain to Waylan the difference between friends and boyfriends. She needed the conversation to move on, preferably to a topic that didn’t involve her or her relationships.
“Yeah,” she acquiesced, “that sure settles it, Waylan.” When Waylan just stared at her expectantly, she relented. “Nic is my … best boy friend.”
“I sure am.” Nic wrapped an arm around Alexys’s shoulder and pulled her against him.
He was smiling down at her with the most shit-eating grin, and she just knew the conversation was going to haunt her for a long time.
“I’ve been upgraded from nemesis, to coworker, to boyfriend overnight.
That has to be some kind of record. Do you think it’ll get me a spot on the Entity Wall of Heroes? ”
Alexys elbowed him in the ribs and slipped out from under his arm. When Waylan had walked a few steps ahead of them, she turned to face Nic and whispered, “Boy friend not boyfriend.” But just saying it made her palms clammy.
“He doesn’t know that,” Nic teased.
“Don’t you dare try and explain the differences to him. Can’t you go back to talking about plants or something?”
“But this is far more entertaining than plants.” Nic’s gray eyes danced with mirth. “Is calling me your best boy friend such a horrible thing?”
“No, it’s the thought of you bringing it up at every available opportunity that’s going to keep me up at night.”
“Why, Miss Alexys.” His words rolled off his tongue in an exaggerated re-creation of Waylan’s accent, and she tried not to think about how good her name sounded coming out of his mouth.
“I didn’t realize you lay in bed at night thinking about little old me.
” He leaned in close until their faces were barely inches apart. “How scandalous.”
Her thoughts immediately turned in the wrong direction, and she scrambled to keep the inappropriate ideas at bay. There was absolutely no chance she was going to think about Nic Dyre in any way, shape, or form that involved her bed. But the way he breathed the word scandalous was just …
“You’re impossible to deal with.” Alexys gave him a stern push, creating some distance between them. She was flustered, and the heat of embarrassment quickly warmed her face. “You’ve barely made it into the zone of friendship, Dyre. Tread lightly.”
“Or what?” He wasn’t backing down. If anything, he looked even more interested in the tension between them and the bright color forming along her cheeks. “Will you put me in another zone?”
She fumbled. Her brain was on the fritz.
She wasn’t equipped for handling the increasingly flirtatious energy that was building between them.
Every HR policy on intercompany dating went flashing through her mind quicker than she could blink.
Was she losing her mind entirely? Was this real?
On the one hand, the Hollow Walker and a missing Warden.
On the other? A stupidly attractive colleague with great banter and even better biceps.
Waylan chose that exact moment to shout from somewhere among the trees, “Are y’all comin’ or what?”
Alexys immediately shouted back to let him know they were right behind him.
She pointed a finger up at Nic and warned, “You’re on thin ice, Dyre.” She wasn’t even sure what she was referring to anymore. She just needed the security of having the last word, but she was pretty sure they both knew it was an empty threat. “I won’t hesitate to leave you here.”
He grabbed her finger and lowered it out of his face.
His large hand wrapped around hers was warm, and it created new fissures in her flimsy defense.
“We really need to work on how you treat your best boyfriends.” He sighed, and his expression fell into one of mock disappointment. “The relationship is starting to feel very one-sided.”
Alexys snatched her hand back from his. “That’s because we don’t have a relationship. Boy friend. Friend!” She whirled away from him, nearly losing her balance. “Besides, I was appeasing a damn Haint,” she whispered.
Nic clucked his tongue. He caught up to her and slid his hands into his pockets. “Hmm. Maybe I wasn’t.”
She was about to ask what the hell that meant when Nic reached out and grabbed her.
“What the …”
His eyes went wide. “Don’t move.”
Alexys froze. She stared at him, stomach sinking. Her ears strained her hear any signs of a monster. Were the Jackalopes back? Had they run out of whiskey and come looking for more?
Nic reached out and grabbed hold of something above her head.
The cicada, held carefully between Nic’s fingers, immediately started screaming, and Alexys nearly leaped out of her skin.
Nic grimaced, clearly displeased to have the bug in his hand, and tossed it toward the trees.
The cicada, still screaming its displeasure, easily took flight after being tossed and flew off.
Alexys quickly ran her fingers through her hair, feeling the phantom itch of insect legs on her scalp.
Once she was sure there were no other unwanted passengers, she smiled gratefully at Nic.
“Thank you. I didn’t even feel it.”
Nic gently combed his fingers through some of her hair, no doubt fixing whatever mess she’d made in her search for other bugs.
“No problem. They’re sneaky like that.” Her heart skipped a beat as his lips pulled up into a small, lopsided smile.
“Yeah, come on,” Alexys said, carrying on walking. As she approached Waylan she frowned. He stood still as a statue, eyes wide, and one foot lifted in the air. He looked frozen mid-step.
“Waylan?” Alexys waved a hand in front of his face.
Nic, apparently understanding why Waylan was frozen, grinned and said, “You can move now, Waylan.”
The boy instantly moved and bounded up to Nic, a wide grin on his face. “Did I win? We were playing freeze, right? And I won?”
Nic ruffled Waylan’s hair. “Yeah, kid, you definitely won.”
Something in Alexys’s chest tightened watching Nic and Waylan, but she shoved it away as quickly as it appeared. It must have been heartburn—she was starving. Nic laughed at something Waylan said, and her heart squeezed again.
Yup, Alexys told herself firmly, definitely heartburn.