Second Nature
Natural Family Disasters
Manhattan Moon
True Nature
The Vampire Diet Series:
Good Enough to Eat
Unexpected Love Series:
Under a Falling Star
Wrong Number, Right Woman
Chemistry Lessons
The Principal’s Office
There were only two rules for book shopping with Regan, and as Ky looked around the mystery-and-thriller section of Powell’s City of Books, she realized she had already broken both of them.
Rule number one: Never let Regan out of your sight, or you might lose her for the next three hours. Rule number two: Always take a snack because Regan will get hangry while browsing the shelves.
But maybe her violation of rule number two would solve the problem breaking rule number one had caused.
Right next to the gold room, where she had last seen Regan, was the bookstore’s coffee shop. Maybe a treat would lure Regan back to her side.
Just as Ky paid for two coffees and a chocolate peppermint cookie, Regan appeared from behind a bookshelf and bounded over from the graphic novels section like an excited puppy with its favorite squeaky toy. Her dark locks bounced wildly, and her brown eyes twinkled as she held out the book she carried. “Ky, look! I found the perfect— Ooh, is that for me?”
Her stomach gurgled more loudly than the coffee shop’s espresso machine.
Ky laughed. “Of course it is.”
Eagerly, Regan took the cookie from her and handed over the book in exchange.
Ky tried to focus on the cover, but the moans of delight coming from Regan as she devoured the treat were incredibly distracting. “A graphic novel about a superheroine?”
Regan pulled one of the paper cups from the cardboard tray and took a big sip to wash down her mouthful of cookie. “Not just any superheroine.” She gestured at the title. “Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute.”
Now that the distracting little sounds had stopped, Ky took a closer look at the cover. This superheroine wore an apron and rubber gloves instead of cape, and she fought the villains with a spatula. “Cute.”
“We’re getting it.”
“We are?”
“Yep. I’m buying it for you.” Regan fed her the last piece of cookie as if trying to stop any protest. “Because lunch ladies are my favorite superheroines.”
Ky playfully narrowed her eyes at her. “Lunch ladies, plural? Are you sure it’s not just a particular one?” She tapped her own chest.
“Well, Lilia gave me an extra big slice of pizza yesterday.”
“Wow, you’re easy. If I had known all it took to win you over was a slice of pizza, I would have…”
Regan tilted her head in a half-challenging, half-curious stance. “You would have…what?”
Ky chuckled. “Convinced myself that you just like my pizza, not me, and buried my unrequited crush so deep that I needed an excavator to dig it up.”
“So basically, exactly what you did.”
Ky swept her bangs out of her eyes. “Um, yeah.”
“For the record: I like your pizza. I really, really like it.” Regan looked around, then leaned closer and whispered, “But I love you.”
It had been two weeks since Regan had first told her that, and they had both said it often since then, but it still made Ky melt into a puddle of goo. Too bad they were in public. While they didn’t exactly hide their relationship, a heartfelt kiss in the middle of Portland’s busiest bookstore was out of the question, especially since their colleagues and admin at school still didn’t know about them.
“I love you too,” Ky said quietly.
“More than pizza?”
Ky made a show of rubbing her chin. “What toppings are we talking about?”
Regan bumped her with her hip, then hooked one arm through Ky’s. “Come on. Let’s head up to the red room. I’m in the mood for a sapphic romance.”
Ky tugged her through the gold room and up a few stairs to the orange room instead. “We’ll get to the romance novels, but if you’re getting me the lunch lady novel, I’m also getting you something.”
