Keepers of Secrets: Arthurian Fantasy Novel (Realms of the Fae Book 1) Read online

  Clearing my throat, I tapped the keyboard to buy myself a few more seconds before I told him we were back up and running. “Just the chips?” I squeaked before I could catch myself.

  Mr. Blue Eyes chuckled to himself again and made me want to melt into the tile floor on which I stood. “Yes, thank you."

  Thank me? ‘No,’ I thought while I finished up his transaction. ‘Thank you, Mr. Blue Eyes, for coming into my life.’

  “You’re welcome,” I squeaked out again as the edges of my lips curled into a smile that I couldn’t get rid of even if I tried.

  “Are you okay?”

  I nodded and cleared my throat. “Yeah, I just have something in my throat.” I pretended to cough. “You know, back-to-school season and all of that.”

  Mr. Blue Eyes nodded slowly.

  Ugh, why was I making a fool of myself? “That will be $3.20,” I mumbled while I pushed an invisible curl behind my other ear. “Will you be paying with cash or debit?”

  “Credit actually.” He pulled his wallet from his back pocket while my eyes drank in the sight of him even more.

  His white collared shirt and royal-blue jacket both looked like they cost more than the car I was trying to save for. It made me wonder if he was one of the elusive residents of Paradell Estates. I'd driven past the gated community many times, but had yet to meet any of the rich kids that inhabited it. Probably because most of them were either in Europe or on a private yacht when they weren't attending classes at one of the local private schools.

  Holding my breath, I watched him slide his card into the card reader while I glimpsed him smiling at me out of the corner of my eye. My cheeks burned with delight before the receipt began to print.

  “Would you like a receipt?” I asked while I tried to keep myself from grinning like a crazy person.

  “No, but I’ll take this.”

  He reached for the bag of chips just as I reached down to hand them to him. Our hands touched and I swear I heard a choir of angels sing in the distance. Looking up at him, I grinned and quickly apologized before I dropped the chips out of my hand and back onto the counter.

  “It’s okay,” Mr. Blue Eyes laughed. “Thank you for the excellent service. Hopefully I’ll see you again next time I come back in.”

  Next time? He wanted to see me again? My stomach did a somersault while I sheepishly whispered, “Yeah, cool.” Ugh, ‘yeah cool?’ Really, Loreali! What kind of answer was that?

  I glanced upward and looked into his eyes again one last time before he waved goodbye to me. Watching him leave left a pit in my stomach. A pit that hadn’t been there before, but was now so painstakingly obvious that I felt I needed to see him again. And I hoped it wouldn’t take another sixteen years of my life for it to happen.

  Two more hours passed before I headed to the lunch room for my fifteen-minute break. Once I was inside the room, I pulled my purse out of my locker and called Ash.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey Ash,” I sighed while I plopped down into the seat closest to me.

  “Oh, hey Loreali! What’s up?”

  “Not much,” I sighed while I leaned back in the chair, twirling a curl around my finger. “I just met this amazing guy today.”

  “Amazing guy, eh?” she asked in her usual sarcastic tone. “How old is he?”

  I tapped my finger against my lips. “To be honest, I’m not sure.”

  Ash sighed. “Wait, this wasn’t another customer from the store was it?”

  I hesitated before I answered her. “Maybe.”

  “Look, Loreali, we’ve already went over this. Attempting to hook up with customers at your job is never a good idea.”

  “And when have I ever tried to hook up with one of my customers?”

  “Hmm, I don’t know. Two weeks ago when you went googly eyed over some guy from Everstone University. What was his name again?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “Exactly! You don’t know, just like you don’t know this guy’s name either. Just take in the eye candy and move on.”

  I sighed. “You know, Ash, any other time I would say you are probably right.”

  “No you wouldn’t.”

  “I would, but I feel like something is different with this guy.”

  I could hear Ash's eyes rolling through the phone. “And next you will be telling me that it was fate that you two meet. That he’s the one you’ve been searching for all your life.”

  “Maybe he is.”

  “Yeah well, I doubt it. Anyway, you need to be focusing on school right now, not boys.”

  Now it was my time to roll my eyes. “Why do you always have to bring up schoolwork?”

  “Because it’s important and you need good grades if you want to get into a decent university.”

  “Yeah, I know. Look, I’ve got to go because my break is over. But I’ll call you when I get home, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  I hung up the phone and leaned back in my seat. Who cared about schoolwork when there was a hot new English boy in town?

  Chapter Four

  Thursday, four weeks till Thanksgiving.

  I WAS THANKFUL THAT I didn't wake up to strange girls standing in my room the night before and that school managed to go by in a flash. Of course that left me to contend with work, which I learned quickly could be either tolerable or horrible, depending on who I was working with.

  "Hello Loreali."

  I looked up and forced myself to smile when I saw Barry Coolridge, the self-proclaimed shift leader of whatever shift he worked, standing in front of me. Today was going to be horrible.

  "Hello Barry," I replied flatly before he flashed me with his smile that always made me squirm uncomfortably.

  "How are you today?"

  "Good." I hoped that my straight-to-the-point answer would be enough for him to realize that I wasn't in the mood to talk while I made my way to our break room. But of course he didn't get the hint.

  "Great!" He followed me into the break room and leaned against the bank of lockers next to the wall while I unlocked my locker. "Did you know that we made our targets for the month?"

  "Oh?"

  "Yeah, Mr. Hendrick told me the other day. I'm pretty sure he's trying to prep me to run this place next summer once I'm done with school."

  "Cool." I nodded and placed my purse into my locker before putting on my name tag for the afternoon.

  Meanwhile, Barry sighed beside me. I just knew his beady eyes that looked like yellow push pins hiding in the folds created by his pale pudgy cheeks, were staring at me. "Yeah, so I was thinking maybe we should go out to celebrate this weekend."

  I froze for a second before I turned to look at him. I'd already heard rumours about Barry. Rumours that he was interested in me when it was painfully obvious to almost everyone that I had zero interest in him. "What do you mean by we?"

  "I mean, you, me, and the rest of the team."

  "That sounds cool and all, but I don't know if I can make it out this weekend."

  "Why? Do you already have plans?"

  "Well no, but—"

  "Then you can come." Before I could say no to him, he pushed himself off the wall and started to walk away. "I'll let everyone else know," he yelled before the door slammed shut behind him.

  Crap! The last thing I wanted to do on my only weekend off for the month was go out with Barry Coolridge. Even if it was under the guise of a work celebration.

  Slamming my locker shut, I made my way to the front of the store and logged into my register. Forcing a smile to my lips, I was ready to take on my three-hour shift when I turned around and saw Mr. Blue Eyes standing across the counter from me.

  "Hello again," I muttered after catching a glimpse of his beautiful smile.

  "Hello, Miss Loreali. How are you today?"

  "How am I?"

  The good-looking stranger nodded and chuckled to himself before he threw a bag of overpriced organic chips onto the counter.

  "Yes, that is what I asked."

  "Oh, well..." My mind drifted back to Barry and the Saturday evening I was now dreading to spend with him. "I'm good, I guess."

  "You guess?"

  "Yes. Just the chips again?"

  "Actually no," the handsome stranger said as he grabbed a pack of gum and a candy bar off the aisle's rack and threw it on the conveyor belt. "I'll get this too."

  Picking up his items, I quickly scanned them. "That will be five dollars and fifty cents."

  "Okay," Mr. Blue Eyes said while I looked over at the clock on my register's monitor and wished that it said seven o'clock instead of four o' five.

  "Pardon me, but did you say you were doing good?"

  "Yeah," I sighed.

  "That's interesting."

  "What is?"

  "What you just said," he said as he fished his wallet out of his back pocket and handed me a twenty-dollar bill.

  Taking his cash, I quickly made him change before I printed out his receipt.

  "You don't seem good. What's wrong?"

  Handing him his receipt, I frowned before I looked up into his baby blues that looked more concerned than I knew they should be. "I'm sorry, but I don't think that's any of your business."

  Mr. Blue Eyes sighed. "You're right," he said as he leaned forward onto the counter that separated us. "It isn't any of my business, however I don't like seeing a pretty face like yours not smiling."

  "Thanks, but I really am fine."

  "Really, because that scowl on your face says otherwise."

  "And why exactly does it matter to you if I'm okay?"

  Mr. Blue Eyes shrugged. "Maybe because seeing you has become one of the best parts of my week."

  I raised my brow at him. He was hot, but even his hotness couldn't save him from sounding cheesy. "But we just met," I protested.

  "And I'm already taken by you. Sad, isn't it?"

  "Yeah, it kind of is."

  Mr. Blue Eyes ran his hands through his hair and laughed uneasily while I shook my head.

  "Anyway, is there anything else I can do for you tonight?"

  "You could maybe tell me what you are doing this weekend."

  "Going out with my coworkers."

  "And after that?"

  I was flattered and annoyed all at once. Why was he questioning me so much? "I'm not sure," I finally answered after a moment or two of awkward silence. "Why?"

  "Well," he sighed as if the two people who were now lined up behind him didn't exist. "If you are free then I would like to take you out."

  Was he joking? I mean seriously, this had to be a joke. There was no way anyone as hot as him would ask plain ol' me out on a date. That was, unless he really was crazy.

  "I'm sorry, Mr...?"

  "Blackmore. James Blackmore," he said before he flashed me his pearly whites again.

  "I'm sorry, Mr. Blackmore, but I think I'll have to decline."

  "Why?"

  "Because I have a personal rule against mixing business and pleasure. That and you're holding up my line."

  Glancing over at the people waiting impatiently behind him, James nodded in their direction before he picked up his bag. "You know, rules were meant to be broken," he said as the woman behind him began to load up my conveyor belt with her grocery haul that looked like it could feed an entire army.

  "Good thing I'm not a rule breaker," I quipped before I watched him walk out the door.

  Looking down at the pile of food in front of me, I felt my cheeks warm as I replayed our conversation over in my head. James Blackmore, the hottest guy I'd ever met in Paradell, had just asked me out.

  Maybe my night wasn't a total loss after all.

  Chapter Five

  Saturday, four weeks till Thanksgiving.

  BARRY COOLRIDGE'S CAR was already parked on the street outside of Steam N Co. when I pulled up on my bike. Locking my bike onto the rack outside, I looked at the building's front door and sighed.

  This was not how I wanted to spend my weekend, yet here I was. "Time to get this over with," I muttered to myself before I began to walk forward towards the dark wood door that led into the quaint cafe. I pushed the door open and stepped into the lobby where Barry was waiting... alone?

  "Where is everyone else?" I asked while he greeted me with his annoyingly vigorous handshake.

  "I'm not sure. But how about we get a seat before they come."

  "Or we could wait."

  Barry laughed nervously. "We could, but then we would be taking

  up space in the lobby."

  I nodded at him slowly while the cafe's hostess returned to her post in the lobby. Greeting us with a warm smile, she asked if we were waiting for anyone else to join us. I was just about to answer yes, when Barry cut me off.

  "Yes, but we'll get out of your way and take a table for now."

  "How many people will be joining you?" the chipper hostess asked.

  Now it was my time to cut him off. "Four," I said before he had a chance to say anything else.

  The hostess grabbed six menus off her podium and smiled at us both. "Perfect! Follow me."

  Each step I took felt like torture until we arrived at a cramped round booth that was obviously made for a max of four people and not a group of six. To my horror, Barry slid in close to me when we sat down.

  As soon as our hostess disappeared, he turned towards me and leaned in far too close for my comfort. "What else do you like to do on your days off, Loreali?"

  Cringing at the lovestruck look in his eyes, I wished that either our waitress or someone from my job would appear sooner rather than later.

  "I erm...I like to..." The words struggled to come out of my throat while my eyes scanned the room for a way out. "I like to..." My eyes lit up when I noticed a familiar face sitting at the coffee bar across the room. Mr. Blue Eyes!

  I wanted to yell his name, but realized that I had forgotten it just as quickly as he had told it to me.

  "Is something wrong?" Barry asked while I looked over his shoulder at Mr. Blue Eyes, who was too busy lifting a cup of steaming hot goodness to his lips to notice me.

  "No," I mumbled while I racked my brain for his name.

  "Are you sure? You seem distracted."

  I shook my head and smiled at Barry. "Do I?"

  "Well you did." Barry grinned while I looked past him at Mr. Blue Eyes once more. Beaming help signals to him with my mind, I hoped he'd get one eventually so I could figure out a way to get out of what I was now certain was an ambush date with Barry. Luckily, something must have gotten through to him as he started to stand up from his seat and make his way towards our table.

  His eyes locked onto mine and I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that my ordeal would soon be over.

  "So this is what you do on your weekends," Mr. Blue Eyes said as he sat down at our table uninvited.

  "Who are you?" Barry asked as if he had just been personally insulted by my new hero's presence.

  "James," Mr. Blue Eyes said as he offered Barry his hand from across the table. "James Blackmore."

  Barry reluctantly shook his hand. "Cool, I'm Barry Coolridge."

  "Ah yes," James said as he leaned back in his seat like a spy who knew he was on the brink of taking down an international villain. "You work at the grocery store with Loreali."

  "Yes, I'm her man—"

  "Coworker," I interrupted him with an angry glare before he could spin any more tales today.

  James nodded and looked from Barry to me. "Nice. So are you two waiting for some more people to join you?"

  Barry puffed his chest out. "Yeah, we are."

  "Oh, should I leave then?"

  "No," I shouted while Barry grumbled yes.

  James' grin widened as he looked from me to Barry, and back at me again. "I see. Well it was good seeing you again, Loreali." Standing up, he was about to leave when I grabbed onto his arm. Apparently my eyes said what my mouth couldn't because he sighed and sat back down beside me.

  "Have you ever eaten here?" he asked me while Barry glared at us both.

  "No, I haven't."

  "Oh then you are in luck. The chicken alfredo paninis are amazing! I highly recommend you try one."

  "What else would you recommend?" I asked as I tried my best to move closer to him and farther away from Barry who was now pouting beside me like a spoiled child who hadn't gotten everything on their Christmas list.

  "Yes, I do. Do you like prawns?"

  "I love it."

  "Then, you should try the spicy prawn soup. It's pretty good as well."

  "You mean shrimp, right?"

  James laughed while I scooted closer to him. "No, I definitely mean prawns."

  "What's the difference?"

  James laughed again before he began to give me an impromptu lesson on the anatomical difference between prawns and shrimp. Meanwhile, Barry fumed beside me.

  "Don't you have somewhere to be?" he finally yelled, interrupting our conversation.

  "I'm sorry?" James asked while I spun around and looked at Barry whose chubby cheeks were now beet red.

  Barry sat up in his seat and cleared his throat. "I said, don't you have somewhere else to be?"

  Throwing his head back, James chuckled to himself before he looked at Barry again. "Luckily for Loreali here, I don't. I was just stopping by here for some coffee before I headed home to study."

  "Oh, so you're in school?" I asked while Barry squirmed uneasily in his seat beside me.

  "Yes, why?"

  Barry shrugged. "Well, I've never seen you at our school before."

  "And what school would that be?"

  "Paradell Secondary."

  "Ah yes, that's because I go to the Academy. Kingsfield Academy, to be exact. Ever heard of it?"

  Barry shifted in his seat again and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well yeah, I mean I'm sure everyone has. It's full of uppity rich kids whose parents want nothing to do with them."

  The light in James' eyes dimmed a bit. "Yeah, sadly it is. Anyway, I should let you two go."