“Okay,” he said, his eyes bleary because apparently getting up early was not something he enjoyed.
I was a morning person, so I felt far more like myself this morning than I had last night.
Or maybe I felt more like myself because I was wearing my own clothes.
Either way, I jabbed West’s shoulder with a pen. “Pay attention.”
He nodded, rubbing at his eyes as he reached for his coffee. “I’m up. I’m up,” he mumbled.
“What’s with you? Did you stay out too late with the science crowd?” his roommate asked. He appeared to be kidding.
West shot him a sidelong look. “I noticed you failed to make it to the meet-and-greet last night.”
Jay shook his head. “Dude, there was too much drama going on for my liking.” He laughed loudly as he finished tying his running shoes. “Pretending to date your new tutor? Man, this is like a scene from a CW show or something.”
West gave a little wince as he looked my way.
His big plan to make Robert jealous? Not a success. Not that I’d helped much. I mean, you could fake date till the cows came home, but that didn’t accomplish anything unless I figured out how to make Robert look at me the way he’d looked at Stella.
I patted West’s arm because his regret was apparent. “It wasn’t your fault.”
His brows arched in question.
“You did your job well. It was just that your premise was flawed.”
“Yeah, man...” Jay smacked West upside the head as he squeezed past him on the way to the door. “Your premise was flawed, dude. Anyone could see that.”
I frowned as I watched his roommate. He was making fun of me, I was almost sure of it.
He paused in the doorway and gave me a little wink. Apparently winking was all the rage in college. But his friendly smile seemed to indicate that his teasing was of the nice variety, like Emma’s or Lulu’s.
“You two kids have fun,” he called out as he shut the door behind him.
West leaned forward, his elbows on the desk that we were currently sharing. “How exactly was my premise flawed?”
“You failed to take into account that while you might make for a truly envy-inducing fake date, I am not the kind of girl anyone would have a duel over.”
I’d meant to make a joke. Albeit not a hilarious one, but I’d thought the image of a duel breaking out in the middle of a science competition meet-and-greet was rather humorous.
West did not.
His brows drew together making that absurdly handsome, but typically smiling, face look far more intimidating.
I blinked and scooted back. Not that I was afraid of him, necessarily, but for some reason beyond my comprehension I’d grown comfortable around this guy. Almost like he was a friend. He was astonishingly easy to talk to. Possibly because he seemed permanently amused by me rather than confused by me like most guys were.
And his laughter seemed nice, not mocking, when he teased me.
Last but not least, I was rapidly coming to the conclusion that West was just a little bit odd. Not odd enough to make him an outcast, but enough to set him apart.
What are you thinking about right now?
Really. Who asked a stranger that?
West did. Because he was a little odd.
Because of that mild dose of oddness, I felt like I could be myself around him. Until a moment like this one came along and I found myself facing a mildly terrifying, absolutely intimidating, ridiculously attractive football player.
“What do you mean by that?” he asked.
“Uh...” My eyes narrowed as I tried to think. He leaned forward farther into my space which didn’t help matters. For a football player, he sure smelled nice. “You smell good.”
Wonderful. Way to go, brain.
His eyes widened slightly but he didn’t pull away from the weirdo sitting next to him. “Thank you. But what did you mean about not being the kind of girl guys duel over?”
I stared at him. He was kidding, right?
No. His glare said he was not joking right now.
I glanced down at myself meaningfully. “I’m not exactly a siren.”
“You looked hot last night.”
Again, I peered at him. Was he kidding? I mean, he’d made comments like that last night, but I’d assumed he was merely trying to boost my confidence.
He did not appear to be joking.
A warm little wave of sensation rippled through me at the compliment, made all the more meaningful since I was currently back in my normal, utterly unsexy clothes, with my typical non-made-up face.
And yet, he seemed to honestly believe that I was attractive. “Thank you.”
He scowled. Apparently that was the wrong response. “Charlotte, you’re never going to get this guy if you don’t own it.”
“Uh huh,” I said as I picked up the pen and tapped it against the notebook. “Own what, exactly?”
He waved a hand at me. “This. You. What makes you awesome and irresistible.”
Okay, surely now he had to be kidding, right? Wrong. He looked deadly serious. My brows drew together in confusion. “But I’m not irresistible.”
He huffed in annoyance. “To the right guy you will be.”
My heart felt like it was pounding too hard in my chest as our gazes met and held. It was stupid, obviously, my heart was working the way it always did. It was just my perception that was skewed.
“What are you thinking about right now?” he asked.
“My heart.”
His lips quirked up at the corners and...there it went again.
My heart was absolutely racing faster than normal right now. Which was weird since I was sitting still. It normally didn’t race like this unless I attempted to exercise.
He leaned in farther until his big muscly chest was leaning on the desk and his hands were centimeters from mine. “Honestly, Charlotte, you have a lot to offer. If you want this guy Robert—or any guy for that matter—you need to realize that first. They’ll see it if you do.”
I stared at him for a long moment. “That sounded very wise.”
“Thank you.”
“Max never mentioned you were so wise.”
“Max doesn’t know me all that well.”
Something about the way he said it made me sad. “She’s great. I think you’d like her.”
He nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving mine. “Probably, if she’s a friend of yours.”
After a silence, I prompted him to continue because his statement felt incomplete. “But?”
He shrugged and his gaze dropped. It felt like a moment ended. “But it’s weird, that’s all. I mean, I have a family. I had a family. After our mom died it was just the four of us and now...”
I stared at his profile willing him to continue. I wanted to know what he was going to say in a weird way. Like it was crucial to my existence. Like the future depended on it. “Now...what?”
His lips quirked up at the corners as he cast me a sidelong look. “You are persistent, you know that?”
I nodded. “I’ve been told.”
I waited. He sighed. “Fine, it’s just that...it feels too late, you know? Like, I’m already grown up and out of the house so why go to this trouble of trying to....” He waved a hand as he sought the word. “Bond, or whatever. It’s not like I’m ever going to think of Max as another sister and as for her mom...” His expression hardened a bit, making this nice, easygoing guy look more than a little intimidating. “It’s not like I’ll ever think of her like a mother.”
I stayed quiet and he grew tense. “What? Just say it.”
I arched my brows in surprise. “Say what?”
He eyed me oddly. “Whatever it is you’re going to say. She’s your friend, I’m sure you’ve got feelings, or whatever. So just say it.”
I smiled at the dismissive ‘feelings, or whatever’ part. “I’m not big on feelings,” I admitted. “They have their time and place, but this is not it.”
He
stared at me. “You’re serious.”
I shrugged. “It’s none of my business if you want to be a brother to Max or not. And honestly, I have no idea how she feels on the topic, so it’s really not my place to speak out of turn.”
He nodded slowly. “You’re....”
I braced myself for it. You’re odd. You’re weird. You’re strange.
“You’re refreshing.” He grinned at me and I had to blink rapidly to keep from being blinded by dimples and clefts and bright white teeth.
He nudged my knee. “What about you? You have siblings?”
I shook my head. “Another reason I should keep quiet on the topic. I know nothing about it. No firsthand knowledge, at least.”
“That sucks.”
Said so simply. As if it was a given. I shrugged. Since I’d never had siblings I had nothing to compare it to. “I’ve never missed having siblings.”
The words tasted funny in my mouth. Like maybe they were a lie? Not an intentional one, just...the kind of fib that you don’t realize it’s not true until you hear it out loud. I frowned at the thought. “I don’t know, maybe sometimes I think it would be nice to have someone in the house with me.”
“You don’t have parents?” he asked gently.
“Oh no, I do. But they’re busy. They both work a lot so it’s usually just me.”
He nodded and his gaze was disarmingly soft. Almost like... Almost as if...
I squinted. “Are you pitying me right now?”
He let out a huff of air and I couldn’t tell if he was amused, or exasperated, or both. “No, not pity, just...sympathy. It must be lonely not having people your own age at home.”
I didn’t answer. Was I lonely? I didn’t think so. But I was also aware that I had come up with a plan to woo Robert because I’d wanted him to be my person.
I wanted a person. Someone who was mine. Who liked me more than anyone else. I dreamt of having someone in my life who understood me and liked me, quirks and all. I wanted a partner. A best friend.
I’d assumed that was what everyone wanted, but maybe I felt this need because I was lonely.
I pulled back with a start. What was this? My throat was tight, my eyes felt prickly, and my lungs felt like they were being crushed. I struggled to take a deep breath.
“You okay?” West’s voice was too low, too soft, too understanding.
I didn’t like it. “Of course.”
“Look, I didn’t mean to bring you down...” He seemed to be waiting for me to reply. Reassure him, probably.
“I’m fine, really. I don’t need people around all the time. I’m used to being alone.”
He made a little grunting noise that seemed to make his big broad chest rumble. I couldn’t tell if it was a grunt of acknowledgement or disbelief.
“Yeah, well, I love my brother and sister. I even love my sister’s loudmouth boyfriend.” He said that with a roll of his eyes like he could barely believe it himself. “And my dad’s the best, it’s just...I don’t really need anyone else, you know?”
I stayed silent. I didn’t know. I had no idea what it must feel like to have so many people you were close to, you didn’t want any more in your life. He seemed to be waiting for a response.
I thought about giving him the same ambiguous grunt he’d given me, but I had a hunch I wouldn’t be able to pull it off.
He tapped a pencil against the desk. “They’re all on me to come home for a blended-family Thanksgiving.”
The disdain in his voice when he said ‘blended-family Thanksgiving’ had my eyes widening in surprise. I might not have known this guy for long but for some reason I’d felt like I’d known him from the moment I’d collided with him at Max’s house. Whatever it was that gave me this magical insight into this guy, I knew that sarcastic and cynical were not natural for him. It wasn’t his default setting.
His default setting was curious, laid-back, and caring.
Just like I knew I could describe Robert to a sketch artist if the need arose, I also felt absolutely certain that I could accurately describe West’s psychological profile.
“You don’t want to go,” I said, stating the obvious.
He gave me a little smirk that made my chest hurt for some reason. “I don’t want to pretend we’re a family when we’re not.”
I nodded as I processed that, but my gaze was distant because my thoughts were racing.
“You don’t agree with me,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
“It’s not that I don’t agree, I’ve just never given family dynamics much thought before.”
He arched one brow, watching me closely. “And now?”
I met his gaze evenly as my thoughts clicked into place like a puzzle coming together. “I think families, and relationships in general, are what you make of them. I think ‘family’ is just a word. It can mean a lot of things to a lot of people.”
He stared at me for so long, I started to get uncomfortable. I ducked my head until my hair fell forward and covered my face. My cheeks were burning, a sensation I was so familiar with it shouldn't have startled me. But today it did because for some odd reason West rarely made me blush and when I spoke to him my voice didn’t come out as a whisper.
My shyness dissolved around him...or it had until he looked at me like this. Like he could see right inside me to every broken part of my personality and into the loneliest parts of my heart.
I slapped a hand down on the textbook. “Let’s get back to work.”
He winced. “Much as I’d love to feel my brain ooze out of my ears as you once again try and explain enzymes, I’m afraid I have to get to football practice. We don’t have a game this weekend but that doesn’t mean our coach will give us the day off.”
I nodded. Right. That made sense. “Your brain wasn’t oozing out of your ears.”
He laughed. “I was exaggerating.”
“I know.” I shoved my chair back to stand. “But you need to stop doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Selling yourself short.”
He’d come to stand too so we were facing each other and his expression was comically stricken before he seemed to catch himself. “Are you, uh...” He glanced toward the door. “Are you going to be okay? I mean, do you know where you need to be today?”
I nodded. “I have to meet up with Robert this morning to go over our final presentation one last time and then we present later today. We’re one of the first to go so after that this weekend will be all about watching the others and waiting to see who won.”
“You are a wild child.” He said it seriously, but I caught the teasing in his eyes.
I shrugged.
“It’s your first time on a college campus, alone, no parents and me for a chaperone and...you want to hang around and watch a bunch of geeks present stuff?”
I smiled as I headed toward the door. “You forget. I am one of these geeks.”
8
West
Oh, I hadn’t forgotten.
I definitely hadn’t forgotten that Charlotte was a science nerd. How could I when I’d just spent my precious early morning hours listening to her rattle on about biology like it was the most exciting topic on earth?
But the weird thing was...I liked that about her.
Not just because she was helping me, although that was a perk. What I liked was that she explained things in a way that I could understand. What I loved was that she didn’t look at me with a patronizing smile or pat my hand and just have me repeat things back to her like Stella had done.
No, this girl had explained things one way. When I’d stared at her blankly she’d switched tactics, explaining it in a way I got. No patronizing, just an absolute certainty that I was not some dumb jock but rather a smart guy who’d understand it if she presented it in the right way.
That was a first for me and I liked it.
No, I loved it.
I also loved the way this girl talked. I loved the way she saw the world, like she had this
unique bird’s eye view of the rest of humanity.
Probably because she was so intelligent. Maybe that perspective came with having a crazy whip-smart analytical brain. Or maybe it was a side effect of being a loner—and that was totally what she was.
I glanced over at her as we headed to the elevator together, me with my gym bag slung over my shoulder and her looking like a self-contained little island. My lips hitched up at the thought. A tiny country of one.
“So, you sure you know where you’re going?” I asked again. She might be smarter than me—and everyone else I knew, for that matter—but I couldn’t shake this protective instinct she brought out in me, and that instinct made me want to keep her by my side, even if that meant dragging her along to practice.
“I’m sure,” she said. “Robert’s room is also on the third floor and we agreed yesterday that we’d meet at his room and—”
She stopped and we both turned when a door from the opposite hallway opened. The door was on the girls’ side of the dorm, so it was a bit of a shock to see a guy coming out of the room.
It was even more of a shock to realize it was Robert. Coming out of Stella’s room. Wearing what he was wearing at the meet-and-greet and looking disheveled.
He spotted us just as he shut the door behind him.
“Oh.” That was all he said for a while as we stared at him. “Morning.”
Rage kicked through me, shaking off the last of my tiredness and making me more alert and on edge than caffeine ever could. How dare this little dweeb hurt Charlotte?
I looked over to Charlotte but her pale face was impossible to read.
She was too smart not to know what was going on here, but her expression gave nothing away. “Morning,” she responded. “Are you ready to head to the lab to prepare for our presentation or would you like to go to your room first to shower and change?”
I stared at her aghast.
Robert at least had the good grace to turn red. His ears looked like they might burst into flames if they got any brighter.
But my rage wasn’t going anywhere. I had to clench my fists to keep from reaching for him, throttling him.
“Uh, yeah, if you don’t mind waiting, that would be great,” Robert said, shuffling his feet as he approached us.
First Kiss with the Quarterback (How to Catch a Crush Book 4) Page 6
