WIP: Breaking The Code

I’ll be doing the cover reveal for Breaking the Code in January.

She swiveled back to the laptop. As her fingers flew over the keyboard, he leaned his elbow on the desktop and watched her type while flipping through responses in his brain. He couldn’t believe more than fifteen years had passed since the four of them used to hang out together in the Daniels’ sprawling backyard. Even the eleven years since the family took him and Carson with them on a trip to Disney World down in Orlando, Florida felt like they’d gone by in a blur. They’d all been kids. Now, just like that, they were adults with responsibilities. 

Carson and O.B. were married. He had a facial hair that he had to constantly get trimmed to keep it low when, in middle school, he would have sold his left kidney for peach fuzz. Raina owned several fitness centers, modeled, conducted international trainings in clinical physiology, and was opening an eating disorder clinic in Charlotte. Delilah was applying to medical school, shadowing physicians, had developed curves at some point, and cared about makeup and manicures as equally as she did her academic pursuits. It literally felt like one day, they were arguing and fighting with each other, trampling on Mr. and Mrs. Daniels’ last nerves. The next day, they were here.

Blinking, all of a sudden, became precarious. One blink, and Delilah could be gone—as well as the rest of their Chapel Hill clique. His thoughts singling her out made sense because she was sitting right in front of him.

“What kind of perfume are you wearing?” He leaned forward to get a stronger whiff. “Something that smells like…I actually don’t know what that is.”

“It’s a new fragrance I’m trying. Sampled it at Ulta.” She arched her neck. “Nice, right?”

The tip of his nose brushed her neck. “Very.”

Is it ever really innocent?