The Libby Garrett Intervention (Science Squad #2) (3 page)

As Avery and Grayson joined their friends, I thought about Libby and how much she’d changed over the last year. It started with her clothes, and then for reasons beyond my comprehension, she dyed her hair an obnoxious platinum blonde that looked terrible on her. After that, her attitude and her confidence slowly started changing, too. Now she was thoughtless, selfish, and constantly hurting her friends. I wanted to blame it all on Owen—and I did blame plenty of it on him—but
Libby
had been the one to screw up today, not Owen. Owen might have been ruining her, but she was letting him.

I liked Libby, but Avery was my friend and I didn’t let people jerk around with my friends. I was going to have to say something to Libby the next time I got the chance. Imani startled me from my thoughts. “Hey, Adam, the delivery truck’s here. Did you want me to take care of it?” She flicked a concerned look toward Avery. “Is everything okay?”

I nodded. “They had a rough day, but they’ll be all right. Avery’s got it handled. I can do the deliveries.”

The delivery guy, Sam, had already unloaded the first set of boxes by the time I made it out the back door with the inventory list. “Hope you’ve got a lot of space cleared,” he said as he pushed a dolly of coffee beans through the door I held for him. “The drop-off’s a lot bigger than normal.”

“Yeah, we’re switching brands of coffee, so we needed everything. Come on back this way. I cleared a spot for it all back in the break room this morning.”

As I reached the break room, I heard a loud moan on the other side of the door that didn’t sound like a cry of pain, if you know what I mean. I swung the door open, and my fear was confirmed. “What the hell!”

“Oh, damn,” Sam said, peering over my shoulder at Libby and Owen in their very compromising, mostly naked positions.

Libby was so startled that she fell off the couch and landed with a soft thud on the floor. “Sorry!” she squeaked as she scrambled to locate her misplaced shirt and bra.

Slapping a hand over my face, partly to keep my temper under control but also to stop myself from staring at parts of Libby I had no right looking at, I took a deep breath. “This isn’t a damn motel.” It was impossible to keep the anger out of my voice. “You both have one minute to get dressed and get the hell out of this store before I call the cops.”

When Owen told me to “Chill, man,” I spun around and stormed out of the room before I got myself fired for assaulting a customer. It didn’t matter that the jackass was almost a foot taller than me and had who-knows-how-many pounds of muscle on me. If he said one more word, I’d do my best to ugly up that pretty face of his.

The door slammed shut behind me, and I grimaced at Sam. He was trying to wipe the grin off his face, but I couldn’t find the humor in the situation. Maybe if it had been anyone but Owen and Libby. “Looks like it’ll be a minute before we can unload,” I said. “You want a cup of coffee or something?”

Sam’s smile finally cracked wide open. “Sure.”

I led him back to the front of the store, where Imani met us with a curious expression. “Imani, could you get Sam whatever he wants?”

“Sure.” She frowned at me, waiting for an explanation, but I was already headed over to the couches in the corner where Avery and her friends were sitting.

Tara sipped from her mug with shaking hands, flanked on either side by Brandon and Levi. “Thanks for the hot chocolate,” she whispered when I arrived.

“Not a problem. Sorry about today.” I glanced at Avery. “Can we talk?”

Seeing the grim look on my face, Avery scrambled to her feet, pulling Grayson up with her. I led them across the shop near the restrooms, and ducked into the small hallway that led to the back of the store. “What’s wrong?” Avery asked.

Her timing was perfect. The words were barely out of her mouth before Libby and Owen tumbled out of the break room, giggling and kissing. They didn’t see us as they crashed against the wall. “The sneaking around in public thing was super hot,” Owen said, just before shoving his tongue in Libby’s mouth again. When he released her from the kiss, he added, “Let’s go somewhere else. What about the movies? It’s the middle of the day. We’ll find an empty theater.”

“We’d get caught. We could get thrown in jail.”

“You’re in a skirt. We could be discreet.”

Classy. What a douche.

“Libby,” Owen groaned. “We can’t leave things like this.”

I cleared my throat loudly to gain their attention. They snickered again until they realized that Avery and Grayson were standing there with me, gaping at them in shock.

“Avery!” Libby gasped. She pushed Owen off of her and tried to straighten her clothes and hair. “Hey! Hi! I didn’t think you were working. I didn’t see you when we came in.”

Avery’s little hands clenched into white-knuckled fists. “I wasn’t working today. I had other plans. With
you
. Remember?”

Libby frowned, clearly still forgetting about the science fair. Before Avery could say anything else, Grayson spoke up. “Dude,” he said to Owen. “I thought you had some family thing you had to be at all this weekend.”

“I did,” Owen said. “I mean, I do. I was…we were just…”

“Fornicating in the break room,” I offered when his voice trailed off.

Owen shot me a glare, but he was too embarrassed to want to start anything. His face flamed bright red, and he cringed as he met Grayson’s eyes. Grayson smirked at him. “You could have just told me you wanted to come see Libby this weekend. It’s not like Avery and I don’t know you guys have been dating for almost a year.”

Owen’s blush was so deep his face was almost purple. “We’re not
dating
,” he muttered. “We’re just…friends.” He cringed again.

As much as I’d been trying to keep a poker face, my eyes doubled in size. Libby had been seeing him for almost a year, and he wouldn’t even admit that they were dating? He wouldn’t even admit it to
Avery and Grayson
that he hooked up with her? The guy was worse than I thought.

Libby’s shoulders hunched. She glanced at the ground, trying to hide how hurt she was. Seeing her hurt, again, by the jerk, I glared at Owen.
“Friends?”
I didn’t really have a place in this conversation—I didn’t even really know Owen or Libby, but I couldn’t keep my temper in check any longer. “If you were really her
friend
you wouldn’t come down here whenever you feel like it, take what you want from her, and then leave again without agreeing to any kind of relationship. You aren’t her friend. You’re just using her.”

Everyone seemed shocked by my outburst, and now Owen was finally pissed enough to make a move toward me. Stepping up to me, he poked his finger into my chest. “This doesn’t concern you, ass wipe. Why don’t you stay out of our business?”

I didn’t budge. He was bigger, but I’d been in my fair share of fights. People underestimated me. “Why don’t you take your
business
the hell out of this store. And don’t come back, or I’ll call the cops.”

Owen’s hands balled up and so did mine. Grayson pulled Owen back by the shoulder while Avery set her hand on my arm. “I’m sorry, Adam,” she whispered. “I’ll make them leave. I’ll make sure they don’t come back. Grayson, will you take him out the back door?”

Grayson nodded. Flashing me an apologetic smile, he pushed Owen down the hall and out the back door into the alley behind the store.

“Adam, I’m so sorry,” Avery said again.

“What are
you
sorry about?” Libby snapped. “
He’s
the one causing the trouble.” She glared at me. “What’s your glitch, anyway? It’s not like we hurt anything.”

Didn’t hurt anything?
Libby was too frustrating. Seeing the pain on Avery’s face, I couldn’t let Libby get away with any more of this garbage. I completely lost it. “Right. You didn’t hurt anything. Except your best friend. And your science team. Your partner is out there, sitting on a couch in
tears
right now, heartbroken because you blew her off today. How do you think she’s going to feel when she realizes she had to drop out of the science fair because you were too busy screwing a douche that doesn’t really care about you to show up?”

All the blood drained from Libby’s face. Slowly, her hand came to her mouth and she covered a small gasp. She whirled around to face Avery, panicking. “Avery…” Her voice cracked from the overwhelming guilt. “I am
so
sorry. Owen surprised me last night, and I completely forgot.”

Avery finally looked at her—glared at her—with glossy eyes. “We called you all day long.”

Libby winced. “I sort of fell in the hot tub last night. My phone was fried.”

“Tara couldn’t make it through her presentation,” Avery said. “She dropped out of the competition. She’s
devastated
.”

Libby swallowed so loudly I heard it. She shook her head and whispered, “I screwed up.”

When Avery looked at her shoes, unable to say anything, I responded for her. “Yeah, you did. More than you know.” I was still a mass of barely controlled rage. “Do you know how many health code and safety violations you broke today? How many
laws?
Do you know what will happen if Sam decides to report what he saw? Jo’s could be put under investigation. There could be all kinds of fines and lawsuits. They could shut this place down.”

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I won’t do it again.”

“You’re damn right, you won’t. You and your
friend
are both banned from this store for life. If I see you in here again, I’ll call the cops. I can’t afford to lose my job because some selfish slut likes to get her jollies off in public.”

I knew the words were a mistake the second they escaped my mouth, but it was too late to take them back. I was just so frustrated, and I’d never been good at controlling my temper—especially not when I was angry. But I’d liked Libby Garrett for so many years, and I hated what she was doing to herself. I hated the person she was becoming.

Libby reared back as if my words had slapped her, and her face turned slightly green. I wanted to apologize, but I didn’t know how to when I couldn’t take it back. For all that I’d been hurtful, I’d still spoken the truth.

A heavy silence settled on the three of us, and then Libby spun on her heels and left. I heard the shocked cries of her friends when she wandered out into the front of the store and felt bad for not remembering to make her leave through the back. Tara didn’t need this today.

I glanced at Avery, lifting my brows in question, wondering if we should go out there and mediate that disaster, but Avery wasn’t paying attention to me. She’d leaned up against the wall as if it were the only thing keeping her from collapsing, and hung her head in her hands. When I realized she was crying—like, hard, ugly sobs—I dragged her into the break room.

Adam

Avery plopped down onto the couch
and got her sobs down to sniffles. I didn’t know what to do; I’m not great with emotional girls. I’ve only ever spent a lot of time with one girl, my kid sister Kate, and she’s tough as nails. She never cries. “You okay?” I asked, feeling sufficiently helpless. “You want me to go find Grayson for you?”

I grabbed a napkin from the counter and handed it to her. After she wiped her nose, she shook her head. “I’m sure he left with Owen. He’s going to try to talk to him, but I know it won’t do any good. Why would Owen change when he’s getting exactly what he wants? He doesn’t care about Libby. He just uses her, and she refuses to see it. I don’t know what to do anymore.”

She looked up at me through glistening eyes. The devastation on her face was heartbreaking. “I’m so sorry, Adam. I never thought she’d do something like this. I swear I won’t let it happen again. I’ll make sure she doesn’t come back. I’ll even quit if you think I should. I don’t want you to get in trouble. If anyone is responsible for what happened, it’s me. I’ve brought her back here before. She knew this room was here, and that it would work for…” She sucked in a sharp breath. “It’s my fault they came in here.”

I sank down next to her and patted her knee. “It’s not your fault,” I said, even though it wouldn’t make her stop blaming herself. I knew all about taking the blame for other people’s bad choices—I was the king of it. It took me years to learn that I wasn’t responsible for the things other people did. I wished I knew how to help Avery understand that as well. I could ease her mind about one thing, though. “I don’t think there will be any trouble. I don’t even know if all that stuff about health codes is true. I was just pissed off.”