Everbound by Brodi Ashton

blond hair I had in my pocket. Will had to steal it from the new bartender at Mulligan’s on Main Street. There was a shocking lack of blond people in my life, except for Jules, and I couldn’t very well nonchalantly ask her for a strand of her hair. Bartender Jimmy let Will get away with a lot more than the previous owner did, but I think even he was a little surprised about the hair thing.
    I checked my phone. Time was up. But there was still no sign of Cole. My heart was no longer drumming. It now felt as if it were lodged in my throat. I shook my head. Maybe I was stupid to think I meant anything to him. Maybe he’d finally had enough, and the possibility that he’d found his queen was no longer worth it.
    I still brought the strand to my mouth, trying not to think about the fact that I was about to eat the hair of a bartender named Jimmy. Will and I had already planned to go through with the eating of the hair in case Cole was watching from somewhere else.
    If Cole caught me in this bluff, I’d probably be blowing my last chance to get him to come with me. Then again, I’d already run out of chances.
    The hair was light and roughly Cole’s length. It could’ve been his hair. I wondered for a moment, if I really had a strand of his hair, would I go through with it again?
    “Here goes,” I said softly.
    Just as I opened my mouth, a hand grabbed my wrist hard.
    I whirled around, expecting to see Cole but it wasn’t him. It was Max.
    With his hand clenched around my wrist, he took the hair out of my fingers, held it up to his eyes, and examined it.
    “This isn’t Cole’s.” His hair looked black under the fluorescent lights, and his eyes looked even blacker.
    “How do you know?”
    He flicked the hair aside, ignoring my question. Turning his tall, lanky body to the window, he made a motion, and then he watched me silently, leather-clad arms folded across his chest. The muscles around his mouth were tight, making him look hard and detached at the same time. Like a bodyguard.
    I looked out the window, to where he’d signaled, but I didn’t see anything. “What, did you alert the authorities or something?” I mumbled. “Unauthorized attempt to eat hair at the Shop-n-Go?”
    He looked unimpressed but stayed quiet. The doors to the store opened and shut, and moments later Cole joined us.
    “Pay up,” Max said to him, holding out his hand.
    Cole sighed and pulled a ten-dollar bill from his pocket. Max wadded it up and wandered toward the front of the store, leaving Cole and me alone.
    “What was that about?” I asked.
    “Ah, Nik.” He ran his fingers through his blond hair, and my gaze darted to his hand to see if he had any loose strands. “You’re always losing me bets. You see, Max bet that you were bluffing. Lying . About having a hair of mine. As usual, I was blinded by my high expectations of you. I didn’t think you had it in you to pull that kind of bluff.”
    “Jack and I played poker once a week for years. I can lie.”
    “An admirable trait, to be sure.”
    My eyes involuntarily went up to his head. His hair. Maybe if I—
    “Stop thinking about it, Nik!”
    “What?”
    He grinned and shook his head. “You know what. You’re looking at my hair like an addict at a crack carnival. Enough already.” He took a step closer. “Look. You may have bluffed, but I know enough about you to know you won’t stop until you get my hair; and at the risk of you taking my scalp with you, I’ll go.”
    His words didn’t quite reach my brain. “You’ll go where?”
    He rolled his eyes and then spoke slowly. “I’ll go with you.”
    “You’ll go with me?” I said, incredulous.
    “Yes. But not because I have any feelings for you or I’m attached to you in any way. I’m just attached to my hair. Quite literally.”
    I didn’t know what to say. “You’ll go with me?”
    He gave a sideways glance. “Oh boy. It’s like your brain is on a ten-second delay. Just do what you have to do and then