Your Gravity: Part Two

by L. G. Castillo

  Those blue eyes flicked up locking with mine. They widened a moment, and then his lips curled into a flirty, dimpled smile.

  Okay, this super cute guy was not Cooper. He looked way too happy.

  “You’re in my chemistry class. I’ve seen you sitting in the back corner,” he said. “I’m Jax. Jax Reynolds.”

  “Oh.” For some reason I was disappointed in his answer.

  His smile faltered a bit. He tilted his head, blinking with curiosity. “And you are?”

  Should I give him my real name? Even if he wasn’t Cooper, what if he was related to him? Would this somehow get back to him? Would this change anything in the future?

  I bit down on my lip, wishing I’d taken physics instead of chemistry. A little bit of time travel theory would’ve been very helpful right about now.

  “Uh . . .”

  “You do know your name, don’t you?” He leaned over the counter. He was so close I could see flecks of gold in his blue eyes and a light splattering of freckles across the bridge of his nose. “You haven’t tried any of Lou’s mushrooms have you?”

  I blinked. “Uh, no. Sorry. I’m Nicole . . . uh . . .”

  My eyes shot to Lou as he munched on his apple and pounded a calculator with a thick finger.

  “Apple . . .”

  “Apple?” He raised a brow.

  “Apple.” I thrummed my fingers on the wood counter. “Wood! Yeah, my name is Nicole Applewood.”

  Applewood sounded like a reasonable last name. Better than just Apple.

  “Like the bacon?”

  Crap!

  “Um, yeah. I guess. So Caroline is looking for someone named Ethel,” I said, quickly changing the subject.

  He smirked, his gaze holding mine. I wasn’t sure if he was buying into the obviously fake last name.

  “Yeah, Jax. I need to find Ethel. I can’t find her,” Caroline said.

  Giving me one last look, he turned his attention to Caroline then shrugged off his backpack, unzipped it, and pulled out a doll. “You left her in my backpack, remember?”

  “Ethel!” She grabbed the doll and hugged it to her chest. Then, holding it away from her, she wagged her tiny finger. “Don’t run off like that again.”

  I chuckled, remembering that Cabbage Patch dolls were the rage in 1984, and each of them had their own name when they were born. There were so many of them I couldn’t keep up with all the names. No wonder the girls were laughing. What I would’ve given to have access to a computer and Internet. How did people live without it?

  “Can I go back to the park, Jax?” Caroline asked.

  “Now, wait a minute. You weren’t supposed to be there in the first place.” He frowned.

  “I know.” She dropped her head. “But Daddy came home, and he smelled funny again and then he started yelling at Mommy and—”

  “I’ll go with you,” he said quickly, his blue eyes flicking to mine uncomfortably.

  “Really?” she beamed.

  “Yes, but only for a while. We need to help Mom with the laundry this afternoon.” He rubbed the top of her head.

  “Okay.” She skipped to the door. Then she stopped and turned, running back to me. “Thank you for helping me find Ethel. You’re nice.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said. She was so cute. She had the same matching freckles across the bridge of her nose as her brother, but they were more visible across her porcelain face.

  “And pretty. Do you have a boyfriend? My brother needs a date.”

  “I, uh . . .” My face flushed with heat.

  “Caroline!” He chuckled. “Sorry about that. My sister can be a little forward.”

  “Well, it’s true. Mom says you need to date. And Nicole’s nice and pretty. Don’t you think so? And you like bacon.”

  Blue eyes locked with mine as he took in my features. My stomach fluttered as he answered her.

  “Yes, she is and yes, I like bacon. But someone as pretty as her probably already has a boyfriend.”

  “Do you?” Caroline blinked up at me.

  “No.” It was hard not falling in love with Caroline. She looked so cute, pigtails swinging as she worked on negotiating a date between her brother and me.

  “See, Jax. She doesn’t,” she said. “ And you think my brother’s cute, right?”

  “I, uh . . .” I gazed down into doe-like eyes. I’d never had a little girl play matchmaker before.

  “Nicole. Can you look over this? The numbers don’t seem to be adding up,” Lou called out.

  Thank god! My life was already complicated, and as cute as Jax was, I couldn’t think about anything else except figuring out how to get back home.

  “Sorry, I need to get back to work. I’m glad you found Ethel.”

  Before I could get away, Jax’s hand was suddenly over mine. My breath hitched at his touch, and a familiar electrical current zoomed up my arm. Slowly, I lifted my eyes to meet his. He blinked as if he was surprised too. We gazed into each other’s eyes for a moment. Then his lips curled into a sexy smile.

  “See you in class tomorrow, Nicole Applewood.”

  Chapter Three

  Walking with Charlie across campus was an experience. Texas State looked pretty much exactly the same. The same large fountain in the middle of the quad was there with students hanging out and sitting on the benches or under the large trees that circled the area. The only difference was the clothing and hair. I felt like I was in a John Hughes movie—the college version. I’d never seen so much permed and crimped hair in my life. And what was with all the blue jean jackets?

  I gawked as we passed a guy with a pink Mohawk. He had a Walkman in one hand and a backpack slung over his shoulder. His spikey hair was so long and hard it seemed to hold up the headset. If he wasn’t careful with all that head bobbing, he was going to poke someone’s eye out with his hair.

  I hugged my textbooks against my chest. I missed Greg. He would’ve loved to see this. Time travel would’ve been way more fun with him. Rather than worry about how we’d gotten here and how to get back home, he would’ve insisted that we hit Vegas. He would’ve made fun of me for bringing all my books. Worrywart that I am and with no clue what class I was headed to, I’d brought them all.

  Instead of enjoying myself and exploring, I’d subtly gathered information from Charlie over dinner. Although I hadn’t gotten much information, I found myself really liking her. She was amazing and so smart. She’d gone into detail about Geraldine Ferro’s potential of becoming the first female president. I’d managed to find out she had a degree in women’s studies and was working on her master’s in social work.

  I’d wanted to ask her what I was majoring in. Hell, I didn’t even know if I was an undergraduate. For all I knew, I could’ve been in medical school. The most I could deduce was from what Jax had mentioned. I was in his introduction to chemistry class, which meant I was probably a freshman.

  Like I said, I wasn’t having much luck in gathering intel. And here I was, walking across campus with no clue what class I needed to go to.

  I glanced at Charlie, who had her nose in Women Who Run with the Wolves, highlighting passages.

  “So, we’ve been roomies for quite a long time, huh?”

  She glanced up. Her brow furrowed with confusion. “Long time? It’s only been a couple of months.”

  Oops!

  “Yeah, well, it feels like I’ve known you forever.” I smiled wide as she stared at me blankly.

  Oh boy, she thinks I’m bonkers. So what’s new?

  “I was thinking about,” I took a breath, my brain whirling as I searched for the right words, “how funny it was the way we met.”

  She chuckled. “You can say that again.”

  “Wanna tell it?” I bit down on my lip.

  Way to be subtle.

  “Tell what?”

  “Your favorite part about how we met,” I prompted.

  “Which part?”

  “There are parts?”

  She laughed. “You’ve be
en acting so strange the past couple of days.”

  “Is that something, uh, normal for me?”

  Great, now she was definitely going to think I was nuts if she didn’t already.

  She stopped. Studying me with kind brown eyes, she said, “I know we haven’t known each other for a long time, but if you need a listening ear, I’m here.”

  I paused, wanting to spill everything. What would I tell her? I was from the future. I didn’t know how I got here and maybe she had the answers?

  “Um, well, what do you think about time travel?”

  “Time travel?”

  “Yeah. You know, like when Doc Brown built a time machine out of a DeLorean and Marty McFly accidentally went back to the 1955.”

  “Who’s Marty McFly?”

  “You know, from the movie Back to the—”

  Crap! That movie hadn’t come out yet.

  “Never mind. So, do you need a ride after your class?” I asked.

  “You have lab after your nine o’clock chemistry class, remember?”

  “Oh right, lab. After chemistry. My introduction to chemistry class. The one I’m taking this morning.”

  Why do I keep babbling?

  Her eyebrow arched so high it disappeared beneath the cluster of curly bangs.

  “Yes, that’s the class. Shouldn’t you be there already?”

  I glanced at my watch. “I’m late!”

  Dashing to the chemistry building, I thought I’d take a chance and head to the same classroom where Professor Cooper had taught his class. Charlie already thought I was nuts, and I wasn’t about to ask her where my class was located.

  When I approached the classroom, I slowed down, trying to catch my breath. Running in the Texas humidity in 1984 wasn’t any different from 2002. Leaning against the wall, I watched as the crowds of students filtered into the classrooms. When the crowd thinned, my racing heart skidded to a stop at the sight of Jax standing by the door across the hall.

  “Well, hello there, Nicole Applewood.” He walked to me, giving me a lopsided grin. A dimpled, insanely sexy lopsided grin that made my ability to inhale the much-needed oxygen more difficult.

  “Hey . . . Jax,” I gasped. I was hot and thirsty. And his presence wasn’t helping at all. I needed a distraction.

  I scanned down the hall, looking for a vending machine.

  “Looking for something?” he asked.

  “Yeah, a bottled water.”

  “Bottled water?”

  “Sure, you know it’s water in a—” I clamped my mouth shut. I totally sucked at time travel. If I kept yapping about things that happened in the future, I was probably going to prevent something from being discovered, like the Internet or something.

  “There’s a water fountain over there.” He pointed to the fountain down the hall. “Here, let me take this for you.”

  I froze as his hand reached out and took the books from my hands. His hand brushed against my arm, sending the familiar jolt of electricity through my body. My heart pounded even faster. How could someone be so incredibly gorgeous and sweet at the same time? And how could I have mistaken him for Cooper?

  I willed my feet to move to the fountain. I drank until my heart slowed down to normal, which was hard to do with Jax hovering over me, watching me drink and looking so incredibly sexy.

  “Wow, you really were thirsty.”

  “Yeah, it’s the heat and the humid . . . uh . . .”

  My brain shut down as I watched Jax lean over the fountain. What he did next had to be considered illegal in all fifty states.

  It was like everything moved in slow motion as I watched his lips pucker into a perfect pout. Then he ducked his head to the fountain, and the water splashed against those sexy lips. When he sucked in a breath, taking in water, a familiar tingle washed over me.

  When he was done, he stood and turned to face me, wet lips parted. A droplet of water slid down his defined chin. I imagined how it would feel to glide my tongue across his chin, lapping it over the light stubble that had grown there. I could almost feel my tongue on his moving over his skin.

  Then his lips started moving. And a hand flashed over my face.

  “Hello, Nicole? Are you all right?”

  “I, uh, yeah. Good water. Cold. Class, now?” I spun around horrified that he’d caught me staring at him like a moron. I dashed into the room and sat down in the far corner.

  Chuckling, he plopped my books onto my desk and sat next to me. This was going to be torture. I opened my text and notepad to the first blank page. There was no way I was going to be able to concentrate with Jax sitting next to me. Not that it mattered. As soon as I figured out a way to get back to 2002, all of this would just be a memory.

  * * *

  I was right. Class was torture. Professor Madsen was so boring. At least when Cooper taught he was somewhat entertaining, and it wasn’t because he was drop dead gorgeous and had every female in the class hanging onto his every word. Cooper actually engaged the class.

  Professor Madsen looked like your stereotypical professor. He wore a tweed jacket with elbow patches—even though it was a hundred degrees outside, and he had the requisite goatee and round spectacles. His white hair was a messy mop, as if he couldn’t be bothered to take time to run a brush through it because he was too busy thinking up his next Earth shattering chemistry break through. Unlike Cooper, he stood behind the podium, droning on and on and on obviously in love with his own voice.

  During the entire class, all I could think about was Jax: the warmth of his muscled arm rubbing against mine whenever he moved, the way his hand kept brushing his brown hair off his forehead, and the way his perfect white teeth bit down on his pencil. And, of course, those lips, those perfectly shaped, sexy lips.

  I forced myself to sit straight and not lean over to him and smell his deliciously sexy scent. It was so subtle. I could bury my head into his neck and smell him all day.

  “And as usual, class hours are posted on my office door for those who have questions about the midterm. My assistant will return the midterms to you.” His last words were still echoing in the room once he was out the door.

  Groans filled the room as students looked at their grades.

  “Yes! A sixty. Dude, party tonight.”

  “Well, there goes my scholarship. Is there still time to drop this class?”

  “No way! I got an eighty-nine. I’ve never made anything lower than an ‘A’ in my life.”

  “Someone ruined the curve.”

  The grumblings grew louder as students compared grades, searching for the person who had ruined the grade curve for the entire class.

  “Hmm, not bad,” Jax said when he opened his blue book. “How’d you do, Nicole?”

  I stared down at the blue book in my hand, at a midterm exam I didn’t remember taking. My name was scrawled in my handwriting with the date October 8, 1984. I closed my eyes and gulped. It was like déjà vu. I’d done this before, but in the future.

  “Scared? Want to me to look for you?” he asked.

  My eyes flashed open when Jax’s warm breath hit against my neck, making me shiver.

  “I’ll hold your hand if you want.” He flashed his dimples.

  I laughed. It was hard not to with that grin of his. He was too cute.

  “I’m fine.” I opened the booklet. A ninety-nine flashed up at me. I flipped through the booklet filled with my handwriting.

  “No way,” I breathed. How could I not have any memory of this? Even more strange was that I really did know the answers to the questions. Cooper had taught his class well and somehow I’d taken the knowledge back to 1984.

  “Whoa, it was you. You ruined the curve,” he whispered.

  He closed the booklet quickly, tucking it into my textbook.

  “I better get you out of here before the hordes descend on you with pitchforks.” He winked as he picked up my books.

  “I can’t believe it.” I was in such a daze, I barely registered that he held my hand as h
e led me out of the classroom.

  “What’s there to believe? You’re smart and you obviously understood the class content.”

  “I guess so.”

  He stopped and turned to me. “There’s no guessing. You know the stuff. Professor Madsen is the toughest professor on campus. You get the grade you’ve earned in his class.”

  I gazed into his sincere blue eyes. He made me feel like I could do anything. I’d just met him, yet it felt like I’d known him forever. “Okay, I guess I’ll have to take your word for it.”

  “Good. Now that I’ve improved your self-esteem and saved you from the mass hordes of disgruntled students, you owe me a favor.”

  “Sure. Free roller skate rental?”

  He chuckled. “That’s not what I had in mind. But I’d like a rain check on that one.”

  His face turned serious as he gazed at me intently. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach, and I felt myself melting into him.

  “Help me study this Saturday. Show me your secret to learning chemistry.”

  “I don’t know how much help I’d—”

  “Self-esteem.” He raised a brow, a way too cute brow.

  “Right. Okay, sure. After work?”

  “I’ll meet you at Magic, and we can study at the library.”

  I watched as he left, and for the first time I actually forgot that I was stuck in a different decade and was excited. I had my first date—to a guy I actually liked—in years. I was finally attracted to someone who was cute, sexy, and sweet all rolled up into one.

  I pushed back the little voice warning me that meeting up with Jax, even if it was just a study date, wasn’t a good idea.

  Chapter Four

  Time travel was a total bore. It wasn’t at all like in the movies, where the characters roam around the town in awe of going into the past. Nope. It was grocery shopping, working, writing checks to pay bills, going to classes, cleaning the house, going to the post office, you get the picture. Major yawn. It wasn’t any different from what I’d normally do at home.