Always Only You by Chloe Liese (z-lib.org).epub

Willa snorts. Axel narrows his eyes at her.
“No one’s staring, Ax,” Freya says, pouring more wine into the pitcher.
“You just walked in. People tend to look at a person when they enter a room.”
Axel sees me, but his expression doesn’t change. An odd prick at the back of
my neck makes me sit straighter.
“You’re Frankie,” he says. There’s very little inflection in his voice. Because
faces confuse me, I rely on tone of voice to intuit subtext. I get nothing from this
neutral delivery.
“I am. You’re Axel.” I offer my hand. “Good to meet you.”
Striding my way, Axel takes my hand, squeezes it. “You too.” When he
notices Rooney, he does a double take. “Your hair’s shorter.”
She grins. “Yeah. I chopped it. What do you think?”
He stares at her, wetting his bottom lip with his tongue. “You changed it.”
Her smile falters. “You don’t like it?”
“Change makes Ax hive,” Freya says, stirring the sangria. “He nearly
disowned me when I got the pixie cut a few years back.”
Axel stares at Rooney still. “I think…I need to get used to it. In my head you
have long hair.”
“Well, at least I’m in your head,” Rooney tells him. Her smile’s back, and it
is formidable.
Clearing his throat, Ax backs away. “Bathroom,” he says.
Three long strides, and he’s gone. The kitchen goes unnaturally quiet. And a
furious blush stains Rooney’s cheek.