Light Unshaken (Unveiled #2) by Crystal Walton Page A

thing for David Bowie.”
    Pellets of rain torpedoed down, stealing my chance to make some clever comeback. I dove into his car’s cozy leather seat the second he hit the unlock button.
    He cranked up the heat to full blast to dry us off. As much as I’d teased him for being a college student with an Acura ZDX, this was one time I was thankful his parents could afford luxury. God bless the inventor of seat warmers.
    We were a good ten minutes into the drive before he turned off the heat. Without the noise, soft music from the stereo became audible. Open Arms?
    I looked from the player to A. J. and tipped the psychedelic colored CD cover out from behind the cup holders. “Since when did you start listening to Journey?”
    He snatched the case and tossed it back into its secluded compartment. “Since when did you start nosing around people’s stuff?”
    “Touchy.” I held my hands high in the air.
    He turned up the volume to drown out my laughter.
    Nice try. I belted out the lyrics and flung an air microphone at him to join me.
    He batted my hand away and scrambled to turn off the stereo. “Okay, okay. Laugh it up.”
    “At least your taste in music is improving. Jae and I might even let you into our eighties fan club now.”
    His dimples curved around a half smile. “Might, huh?”
    “I don’t know. It’s pretty exclusive,” I joked. “We don’t let just any ole riff raff in.”
    “Harsh as ever. One album isn’t enough to prove myself, huh? I see how it is.” He rolled down my window. “Better be careful. I might toss you back out in the rain. You’re getting my leather seat soaked.”
    I threatened to wring out my shirt right there.
    He rolled up the window. “Easy, Rosy.”
    I’d forgotten how much I’d missed that smile.
    Our laughter tapered off into a silence that seemed louder than any previous noise. He lined up my car door with the walkway in front of my apartment. Slouching in his seat, he dragged his hand over various points on the steering wheel.
    “I started listening to them at the end of last year.” He kept his voice soft and his eyes on the windshield. “Guess it reminded me of you.”
    I toyed with the knob on the vent. My thoughts followed the wipers’ back and forth motion. There’d been plenty of times this summer when I’d retreated to memories of the way things used to be between us. I never imagined A. J. would have done the same. If he missed our friendship too, where did that leave us now?

chapter fourteen
    Buoyancy
    Slim chance whatever held Jaycee silently amused the next morning had anything to do with the magazine she was pretending to read or the chocolate Pop-Tart she was devouring a piece at a time.
    I let go of the kitchen table. My chair dropped onto all four legs. The sharp noise didn’t garner so much as an upward glance from Miss Unreadable or shake the overzealous grin she’d been sporting all morning. One of her generous sips of coffee was bound to trickle down the corners of her mouth at any moment.
    I drew an invisible circle on the table with the bottom of my mug, silently trying to lure it out of her.
    So much for Trevor’s theory on us being clairvoyant. I chugged my tea and grabbed the nearest reading material within reach.
    Big mistake. Stuck with Bridal Guide in my lap, I tried not to regurgitate my breakfast onto the airbrushed models’ fuchsia bouquets.
    “So . . .” The word arced with a note of intrigue.
    I looked up at the first excuse to sever contact with the ghastly magazine. “So, what?”
    “So, last night? Complete meltdown, duking it out with A. J., crying in the rain . . . Ring a bell?”
    “You guys saw that?” Figures. I combed my fingers through my air-dried hair. “It was bad, wasn’t it?”
    No telling what everyone must’ve thought about the scene A. J. and I’d made.
    Jaycee’s scrunched expression said enough. “Maybe a tad on the dramatic side.”
    We cracked up at the same time. Jaycee flung her hand over her