Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston Page A

her before she’d taken five full steps. “That wasn’t what I meant,” he said, a note of frustration in his voice.
    She couldn’t tell whether he was frustrated with her or with himself. She realized she felt almost exactly the same way. The crisp fallen leaves crunched under their feet as they walked side by side in what, under any other circumstances and with any other guy, would have felt like companionable silence.
    “I’m sorry about yesterday,” he said at last.
    “What, exactly, are you sorry about?” Kelley didn’t slow down, and didn’t look at him.
    “Uh…I’m sorry that I frightened you.” His voice was gruff, awkward, as though he was unused to having to apologize.
    Kelley was determined not to make this easy. After all,he had frightened her—badly. Why was she even talking to him? “Apology not accepted.”
    Beside her his steps faltered, and he fell a bit behind as he said, “Oh. All right. I…understand.”
    “No, you don’t!” she called over her shoulder, and kept up her pace.
    A moment later and he was back at her side, his long stride having made up the difference without effort. He walked silently beside her for another moment. “You’re right,” he said finally. “I really don’t.”
    Kelley sighed. “I don’t see any reason to accept an apology of that kind from a total stranger, under these particular circumstances. I can accept ‘sorry about that’ from the guy who bumps into me on the subway car. That is entirely appropriate.” She shot him another brief glance. “However,” she continued, “‘sorry about that’ from some mysterious guy who gives me a gift, then disappears, then shows up at my place of work, then disappears, then shows up lurking in the alley beside my place of work, then disappears—”
    “ You ran away that time!”
    “Don’t interrupt.”
    “Sorr—Er, go on. Please.”
    “And then shows up again, as if by magic, when I am running errands in the park—” Kelley stopped abruptly and held a finger up to his chest. “Well, I do not accept a bland, measly, unembellished, unexplained ‘sorry aboutscaring the hell out of you’ apology from that guy.” She turned away again and continued her swift progress down the path. “As a matter of fact, I’m not even going to accept the shiny, impressive, embellished, explained apology from that guy. Not without knowing who, exactly, that guy is. Your choice.”
    After she had gone several more yards, he put a hand on her arm and pulled her to a stop. “Sonny.”
    Kelley looked up.
    He shook his head, smiling a little, and tapped his chest. “My name is Sonny.” He paused, his expression turning just a bit cautious. “Sonny Flannery.”
    “Kelley,” she said slowly. “Kelley Winslow.”
    “And you’re an actress.” The tone of his voice made it almost a question, as though she was really something else entirely and he just wasn’t sure what.
    “Yes…,” she answered hesitantly. “You saw me at the theater, right?”
    “Right.”
    “About that,…Sonny.” It felt funny suddenly knowing his name. “Seeing as how you know way more about me than I know about you, how about returning the favor?”
    His brow clouded. “There is nothing the least bit interesting about me.”
    Kelley laughed. “I’m pretty sure that’s not true!”
    Sonny remained silent.
    “Okay. So…do you go to school? College? Work? What do you do?”
    “I’m a…a guard.” He shrugged, feet scuffing through fallen leaves. “Of sorts.”
    “Like, security?” Kelley asked.
    Sonny hesitated for a moment and then nodded. “Like security…I suppose.”
    “Fine. So you’re a night watchman.”
    His mouth quirked. “Yes.”
    “Nothing wrong with that.” Kelley turned to continue their stroll again, and Sonny fell into step beside her. She remembered Tyff’s theory that Sonny was some sort of junior PI or something, hired by her crazy aunt to keep an eye on her. It made a certain kind of