Page 4 of Lightning Angel
They walked in silence to the worship hall, where Cassie and Brandon waited for her. Brandon spotted her first and smiled, but when he saw John, a frown tugged it down.
Alexa rolled her eyes.
Brandon was a jealous boyfriend whenever John was around Cassie, even though he wasn’t aware of Cassie’s old crush on John. And John had been around Cassie more often in the last three months.
John wasn’t fond of Brandon either. Both men treatedthe other like a thorn in their sides.
Where John had blonde curls and forest green eyes, Brandon was dark and blue-eyed, with John at least an inch taller. While John was handsome, Brandon washot—in Daphne’s words.
Alexa gave a mental eye roll remembering her best friend’s statement. Daphne’s theory had been thatitwas why Cassie was easily past her childhood crush.
“Hey, you.” Cassie smiled in greeting as they approached, glancing at John. “I was waiting. I’ve got something for you.” She dug a hand into her bag.
“Let me guess, you got your proof copy.” John widened his eyes and dropped his arm from Alexa. At Cassie’s growing smile, he added, “And you’re telling menow?”
“She received it just yesterday,” Brandon chimed in, his tone far from friendly.
John ignored him, like always. “Gosh, Cass. That’s your twentieth proof copy.”
“You make it sound like I ordered twenty proof copies of a single book,” Cassie replied with a bitten laugh and handed her book to him, correcting him, “The proof copy of mytwentiethbook.”
“Gee, thanks author.” John shot her a cocky grin as he accepted the book. Alexa hid a smile; he was trying to grate on Brandon’s nerves.
John’s eyes twinkled, just like every other time he saw the covers of Cassie’s proof copies. “Wow,thisone turned out to be massive.”
“Allof them are massive actually, don’t flatter yourself,” Alexa teased him. “But I think this one might be my favorite of all.”
“You say that all the time, little Lex.”
Alexa recoiled furiously at the old nickname but refrained from making a retort. It was just like how he felt when she called himJonny. The guy could use some justice. So she settled with a simple, “Whatever.”
Cassie was an indie fantasy author of four years, with her twentieth book releasing in two months. John had been her devoted cover designer since the beginning of her author journey. It had started as fun for John, but as Cassie’s works began to take flight, she hired him as her designer. Though, it took a lot of convincing from not just Alexa’s and Cassie’s side but their dad’s too to make him accept the payments for the covers he designed.
This one featured a female hand holding three roses; two red and the middle one white, in black background, with a fiery-red frame bordering the top edges, and the title written in golden embossed letters in an elegantly fierce font:Between Thorns.
“The elements in the cover don’t match the title though,” Brandon said cynically, dragging their attention from appraising the book to him. “Honestly, why did you add red roses instead of thorns on either side of the white one?”
Brandon was like a second brother to Alexa. They were close, though not as close as she and John were. But his annoying persona around sweet John always irritated her.
Her defensive instincts rose.
“Jonny doesn’t design Cassie’s covers the wayhewants them, though. They’re always Cassie’s decisions; he does what she wants. And this one has its ownmeaning.”
She spared her sister a knowing look at last and sawher deadpan expression. Alexa barely concealed her smile.Between Thornswas a love triangle, and Brandon and John were the inspirations for the two love interests of the protagonist.
Alexa had shipped the John-inspired lead and the protagonist since Cassie began drafting the book, and where she thought this was going to be another triangle that was going to tear her heart out—because her sister would surely go with the Brandon-inspired lead—Cassie stunned her with her favorite ship as the endgame.
“I don’t want one of my own books to break my sister’s heart,” was Cassie’s response to Alexa’s shock.
But Alexa wasn’t a fool. She concluded that, despite having ahot-looking boyfriend, her sister wasn’t completely over her childhood crush.
“It still doesn’t make sense,” Brandon argued stubbornly.
Cassie came up with an excuse for her choice of red roses and Alexa cast her eyes about the room to hide the smile trembling at the corner of her lips. Her sister was pathetic at fabricating an excuse despite being an author.
Her gaze traveled past several familiar faces before brushing over an unfamiliar one. Alexa did a double take.
Her eyes locked with the assessing stare of a handsome stranger.