The Man Who Never Looked Away novel Chapter 119

It was pouring rain, which meant the convenience store was dead.

Lavinia sat behind the counter, mindlessly scrolling on her phone. Bored out of her mind, she finally pulled up her financial analyst study guides. She skimmed the material for a bit, then pulled out some scrap paper and started working on a practice exam.

As she was scribbling out an equation, a long, elegant finger tapped the center of her page.

"You carried the zero wrong here."

She didn't even need to look up to know who it was. A wave of intense irritation flared up. She crumpled the paper into a ball, chucked it in the trash, slapped her phone face-down on the counter, and crossed her arms, violently refusing to look at him.

Charley raised an eyebrow. "Hitting your rebellious phase a little late in life, aren't we?"

Lavinia ignored him.

A solid five minutes passed before she slowly peeked over her shoulder. He was gone.

She sat there stewing for a few more minutes, then let out an annoyed sigh. She leaned over, fished the crumpled paper out of the trash, smoothed it flat against the counter, and stared at the math problem. After a minute, she realized he was right. Grumbling, she corrected the mistake.

After her shift, she went for a walk to clear her head. Charley trailed behind her, keeping his usual distance.

Somehow, she had been hiding out in Penbrook for a week, and he had been babysitting her from the shadows the entire time. Today, she didn't turn around and glare at him. Eventually, he closed the gap and fell into step beside her.

"Come back to Blossom City," he said quietly. "If you really want to hide, you can hide in your own house just as easily."

"I'm not hiding," Lavinia retorted. "I'm on vacation."

"You call scanning barcodes in the slums a vacation?"

"Yeah, it's incredibly relaxing. Honestly, I've never been happier in my entire life."

The second the words left her mouth, they both stopped dead in their tracks.

Garnett and Sigrid were walking out of the glass double doors of a massive luxury hotel just down the street. He was holding her hand, his eyes locked on her face with obvious adoration. She looked up at him, her smile radiant and intimate. They stood on the curb waiting for a valet, completely lost in their own world.

Lavinia immediately spun around, turning her back to them.

"Garnett," he called out. He didn't shout, but his voice sliced clearly through the ambient noise.

A few people turned around. Garnett looked up, the affectionate smile still lingering on his lips. Sigrid turned, too.

Charley moved like a predator zeroing in on a target, picking up his pace as he locked eyes with the couple.

Suddenly, a small figure darted out of the crowd, throwing herself directly into his path. Charley had to brace his legs to avoid running her over.

Lavinia stood in front of him, arms outspread, chest heaving, staring at him in sheer panic. The wind whipped the rain into her face, matting her choppy blonde hair against her cheeks.

Charley tilted the brim of his cap up and stared down at her. "What's the matter? Worried about me getting hurt, or worried about your husband?"

Lavinia bit her lip hard, refusing to answer.

The rain fell harder, sliding down her forehead and dripping off her chin.

Garnett squinted through the downpour and finally recognized Charley. There was a girl standing right in front of him. She was wearing an oversized men's jacket that swallowed her frame. Underneath, she was practically bare, her long, impossibly pale legs exposed to the cold, a blue wave tattoo pasted above her knee. Her bright blonde hair looked soaked and messy.