Kaylee glanced over at Celia’s empty desk and then shook her head, turning back to me with a very obviously fake smile.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing...just...” she let out a big sigh. “I wish Celia would let me help her, too. She’s failing almost everything. Except gym, of course.”
I cringed. “I thought she was doing better this year.”
Kaylee shook her head. “Worse, actually. I think she’s actually given up. I’ve tried to help her, but when I offer we just end up in a big fight. Sometimes I feel like she hates me. I know she doesn’t, but she gets really angry.”
Celia had to know Kaylee was only trying to help, but she did have something of an explosive temper sometimes. “That sucks.”
“It does. But I can only do so much. I can’t do her work for her.”
I opened my mouth to say something else, but before I got the chance, the lock turned with a loud click and the dorm room door opened. Who else could it be but Kaylee’s roommate Celia: the girl we were just talking about?
Covering up seemed like a good idea in that second, so I started rambling the first thing that came to mind. “...haven’t see the outfit yet. But he said it was going to be showy, whatever that means,” I said and then turned to Celia and gave her what I hoped was an innocent smile. “Hey.”
If she’d heard anything we’d been talking about before she came in, she didn’t let on. “Hi,” she said to us as she slid her little suitcase of chef’s knives into the cubby by the door. “I need a shower; I smell like yesterday’s lasagna.”
I snorted. “Yum. Yesterday’s lasagna; something we should expect on tomorrow’s menu?” I asked. Not that I was worried, since the food here at Rosewood was always good. Maybe too good.
She grinned at me. “No. Stuffed peppers, actually. I’ve just been chopping onions and peppers for what feels like eternity.”
I raised an eyebrow. “With that hot chef of yours?”
She sputtered and her cheeks pinked, which was so cute, especially with her dark complexion. “I’ll take that as a yes,” I said.
“He’s not my chef,” she said.
“Not yet,” I said as I got up off Kaylee’s bed. “But, that reminds me...”
Her turn to lift an eyebrow. “Reminds you of what?”
“So if you’re into him, you’re not after Jenks, right?”
She did a double-take. “Jenks?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “You were sitting awfully close with him at the bonfire, so...”
“Hmm,” Kaylee said, drawing our attention to her. “You’re right. I didn’t think of it until now, but...”
Exactly. “Anyway,” I said, turning back to Celia. “I thought maybe I’d add him to my list of prospective boyfriends, but wanted to check with you first to make sure I wasn’t going to be stepping on any toes.”
“Uh, well...” she said, which told me everything I needed to know.
“Okay, so he’s off my list,” I said.
“Wait,” Celia said, propping her fists on her narrow hips. “I never said I was into him.”
“Oh really,” I said. “So your red face and stuttering means you’re not into him? You need to work on your signals, Celie.”
She huffed.
I held up my palms toward her. “Hey, if you want to keep your options open, I get it. If the chef thing doesn’t work out, Jenks is a fine candidate and you have that sports thing in common. Maybe you can run triathlons together or something.”
“God,” Kaylee said wistfully. “Can you imagine what their babies would look like?”
“Oh yeah,” I said. “With his ginger hair and her dark skin. Stunning. Exotically gorgeous.”
“Chelly,” Celia said in warning.
Not wanting to push her too hard, I walked over to her and wrapped her into a hug. “Gross,” I said into her hair. “You do smell like yesterday’s lasagna. More like last week’s lasagna.”
“Shut up,” she said as she hugged me back.
“You can have him,” I said as we parted. “I really don’t mind.”
“So who’s on this list?” Kaylee asked.
I screwed up my face as I thought about my options. “I removed Miles because he’s...well...Miles. And he isn’t looking for anything more than a hookup. Jenks is obviously no longer eligible.” I held up my hand toward Celia who was still standing there staring at me, mouth open to protest. “Don’t even.”
She huffed again but didn’t say anything else.
“Hunter...” I sighed. “He’s really hot, but maybe he’s just too...” I shrugged.
“Alpha?” Celia asked.
“Arrogant?” Kaylee offered.
I thought back to him at the bonfire and the way he’d treated Miles. “Yeah. He’s kind of a dick.” Although, maybe he was just being like that to eliminate the competition. He had definitely been angling to be with me. And he had brought the coffee, which had earned him some points.
“Maybe he could change, though? You think I could tame the alpha?”
Kaylee frowned. “I don’t know. But if anyone can tame him, I’m thinking you could.”
“Dave?” Celia said.
Both girls looked at me and I opened my mouth to say that while he was definitely cute and sweet, his history with both Emmie and Brooklyn made me very reluctant to go down that road.
But Kaylee beat me to it. “Wait. Didn’t Brooklyn say he told her he was still messed up over Emmie?”
Nobody bothered to answer her because that was enough to definitively disqualify him, but then she blurted, “What about Abe?”
I snorted out a laugh. “Abe?”
Kaylee looked at Celia and then back at me. “Yeah. Why? What’s wrong with him?”
What’s wrong with him? Everything. Starting with the fact that he had insulted my clothes and had issued the dare. But worse, he was the one guy who had never shown even a shred of interest in me. I wasn’t about to admit that to my girls, but I had to say something. “He is so not my type. Too nice.”
Celia sat on her bed with a heavy sigh and toed off her shoes. “Right and too hot and too smart. He’s all those awful things. How could you even suggest him?” she fake scolded Kaylee.
I looked over at Celia. I’d never had trouble with a guy being too hot before (could there even be such a thing?), but she’d hit the nail on the head with the too smart bit. More stuff I wasn’t ready to admit.
“Why don’t you go for him, then?” I suggested, suddenly aware of the edge to my voice.
She shrugged. “He’s a good guy.” Which was completely not an answer to my question, but I could tell she wasn’t interested.
“I’m with Celia,” Kaylee said. “I think Abe’s totally a good guy for you.”
“Brooklyn dumped him.”
She gave me a very pointed look. “Not because he’s not a good guy.”
“I don’t want a good guy,” I said giving them a big shake of my head. “I want me an alpha male. A manly man who knows what he wants. Like Hunter.”
And then before either of them could call me on it, I took my laptop and left.
Add Frozen H2O
It seemed stupid to be nervous. I mean, it was just Abe. But something about meeting him one on one in the auditorium so we could rehearse for his magic show had me up in knots. Sweaty palms, racing heart—the whole package.
Maybe it was because I didn’t really know what to expect; he’d been showing different sides of himself since the night of the bonfire. Mostly at my doing, I suppose. But now that I was no longer (quite as) mad about his dare, I realized my retaliation might have been a bit over the top and mean, so maybe I deserved him to be angry at me. He hadn’t seemed exactly mad at me the night he’d asked me to be his assistant, but thinking back to his memoir and how I was now shoving that magic thing into his face, I couldn’t expect him to actually be happy about it.
As I made my way down the main stairs to the lobby, I wiped my hands on my jeans, hoping he would
n’t notice. I’ll tell you what he would notice—my shapeless body in what may as well be potato sacks, thanks to my roomy jeans and an oversized long-sleeved t-shirt. Not that he cared, I told myself. But I couldn’t wait for this thirty days to be over. Don’t even get me started on what I was supposed to wear to the dance. I was seriously considering not even going.
I stopped at the dorm monitor’s desk to ask if he’d signed in yet.
Liz stopped poking at her phone long enough to look at the sign-in sheet in front of her. “Not yet,” she said.
“Can you send him down to the auditorium when he gets here?”
Liz nodded and returned to her phone, my confidence in her ability to relay the message at slightly above zero. I glanced out the window toward the parking lot; his car wasn’t there, but I did notice a crapload of snow. Huh. Something about eating, studying and living all in the same building makes you sometimes forget there even is an outside.
I didn’t see any headlights coming up the long drive, so I pulled out my phone to see if maybe he’d bailed. Nope, just the text from him from this afternoon asking if he could come after dinner so we could go over his routine.
I opened his message to send a reply. You still on your way?
Y. Gtting in car now.
Sign in and come to the auditorium.
K, he sent.
I slipped the phone into my back pocket and headed down the hall to the theater. I took the hidden key that Kaylee had told me about from the little nook beside the bottom of the doorframe and was about to slide it into the lock when it became obvious that the door was open. I ducked inside and up the few stairs to the stage. “Hello?” I called out, my voice echoing ominously.
“Someone there?” I heard from the direction of the wardrobe room.
A man. Mr. Stratton. It had to be.
Pressing my palm over my thumping heart, I willed it to calm down and rounded the corner to see him going through a rack of clothes, his back to me. God he was hot, especially in his non-teacher outfit of fitted black t-shirt and faded, worn jeans that hugged his butt to perfection. I fought the urge to sigh as I took him all in, not wanting to ruin the moment by giving my presence away. I allowed myself a few seconds just to appreciate.
Finally, I cleared my throat and approached him. “Hi Mr. Stratton. What are you doing in here?”
“Oh hey, Chelly,” he said glancing at me over his shoulder. “Just going through these costumes. I think I need to send them out for dry-cleaning.” He wrinkled up his nose. If the clothes smelled half as musty as the room, he was right.
“Should we figure out which ones we’re wearing first? We can go through them with Kaylee at next rehearsal.”
He looked at me blankly for a long moment before speaking. “Yeah, I guess that would be smart. But I’m worried our next rehearsal will leave it too late. I’ll just send them all.”
I thought about how Kaylee had borrowed one of the gowns for her night of mystery at the masquerade ball. “You could just Febreeze them,” I suggested.
As if on cue, he sneezed three times. “There isn’t enough Febreeze, I don’t think,” he said after.
“Hey,” I heard from behind me.
I squeaked and nearly jumped out of my skin. I whirled around to find myself face to chest with Abe, whose hands shot out to steady me, his big palms landing on my upper arms. “Sorry,” he said, an apologetic look on his face.
“God, you nearly scared my pants off!”
Abe lifted an eyebrow. “You knew I was coming,” he said.
I willed my panicked heart to slow down. “Yes, but I didn’t know you were going to sneak up on me.”
He shrugged and adjusted the backpack strap on his shoulder. “The door was open.”
Mr. Stratton cleared his throat behind me, making me realize he probably thought Abe and I had arranged to meet here for a hookup. Right. Like that would happen.
I turned around to face the teacher. “Mr. Stratton, you remember Jared Abramovich...”
Before I got a chance to continue, Mr. Stratton stepped forward and shoved his hand out at Jared. “I remember from the food drive. Good to see you,” he said politely, though there was something in his tone and the steeliness of his stare (authority? protectiveness?) that made me want to quickly make him understand our meeting was completely innocent.
“Jared is doing a magic act in the upcoming talent show and he’s enlisted me to be his lovely assistant, so he’s here to rehearse,” I said, adding, “Nothing lurid, I promise.” I gave Mr. Stratton a smile, hoping he believed me.
“Definitely nothing lurid,” Abe said, unnecessarily. Thanks for that, Captain Obvious, I thought. A tiny little bit of me hurt at his assurance that he had no interest in being lurid with me.
Okay, yes, I realize I have now used the word lurid way too many times and now it just sounds like a disease. Which is what I was starting to feel like. Anyway...
“Ah,” Mr. Stratton said with a smile that erased the stern face from before. “Well you go on then; I’ll just stay here and sort through these costumes.”
Which I guess was his way of saying he was going to keep his eye on us by staying close. I wanted to tell him he’d be better off outside by the stables if he wanted to catch kids making out, but refrained.
I motioned Abe out of the wardrobe room and followed him up onto the stage, just keeping a few of the lights on because it was like the surface of the sun with all of them beaming at us. “So, you brought all your tricks with you?”
He snorted as he shrugged off his backpack and took off his jacket. “Yeah.”
I tore my eyes away from his chest in his sweater, remembering what he’d looked like shirtless back in the woods and looked around. I cleared my throat before asking, “Where are your boxes and mirrors and whatnot?”
Before he had a chance to answer, my phone went off in my pocket. “Sorry,” I muttered as I pulled it out and cursed when I saw the text from the head groundskeeper.
“What’s wrong?” Abe asked.
I sighed. “I have to go shovel snow.”
“Huh?”
I looked up at him as I slipped the phone into my back pocket. “My CSA is grounds keeping and with all the snow, I have to go clear some paths. I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to rehearse.”
Abe frowned. “That’s not good. I was really hoping to get through this.”
I snorted. “You want to help me? That will make it go way faster.” Not to mention those giant pipes of his were made for manual labor.
“Sure. Do you need to get your coat?”
It took me a moment for it to sink in that he’d thought I was serious. And that he was serious about helping. “Wha?”
He reached for his coat and put it on. “I can leave my backpack here, right?”
“Uh, yeah, sure. I’ll just let Mr. Stratton know and I’ll grab my coat. Meet you at the first floor lounge; the shed with the shovels is around back so we can go out the north doors.”
He waved toward the door. “You go, I’ll tell Mr. Stratton.”
I watched him zip up his coat and fumble in his pockets for what turned out to be gloves. As he pulled them out he looked up and smiled at me. “What?”
I hadn’t even realized I was staring until that moment. I shook it off and said, “Nothing sorry. Just...thanks.”
He shrugged. “The sooner we get back here, the more time we have.”
“Right,” I said, jogging toward the door. “Meet you in the lounge.”
~ ♥ ~
It only took about three minutes of shoveling before I realized I may as well have stayed inside with a latte for all the good I was doing next to Abe. The guy was a shoveling machine. Really, I was just in the way, but I couldn’t just let him do everything when it was my duty to clear the walks around Rosewood campus. Not that the whole campus was my responsibility—just the walkways between the maintenance barn, the back of the main building and Emmie’s library. There was a little abandoned shed on the
back campus and I probably should have shoveled to there, but it’s not like anyone used it for anything, so I wasn’t going to bother and just continue along the path over to the back doors of the school building.
But as I got close to the shed, I noticed something weird. “Abe,” I said, my voice sounding abnormally loud in the eerie quiet of the snowy night.
He scooped a pile of snow onto his shovel and looked up. “Yeah?”
“C’mere.”
He hauled one last load of snow over his shoulder and then came over to where I stood, looking at the shed. “What?”
“Look,” I said, pointing down to the snow.
He looked down to where I was pointing and then back up to me. “What am I looking at?”
“Footprints.”
“Uh, I don’t think so. Wait,” he said and then suddenly looked around. “Have there been Bigfoot sightings around here?”
“Shut up,” I said, laughing. “I’m being serious. Look closer. The snow has almost covered them over, but look.” I pointed again.
“Oh yeah,” he said, leaning over to get a better look.
“But only one set. I can’t tell whether they’re coming or going, but whoever made them only went one way.”
Abe glanced up at me. “Or followed her own tracks back the way she came.”
“Maybe.”
“What’s in there?” he asked, nodding toward the shed.
“No idea. I figured rakes and stuff, but that’s all in the maintenance barn.”
“Why are you so interested?”
“I don’t know,” I said truthfully. “It just seems weird. Should we investigate?”
“No.”
I tapped the edge of my shovel on the walk irritably. “You have no sense of adventure.”
His eyebrows raised. “I was just thinking that we need to get back inside before they’ll kick me off campus.”
“Boooooring,” I drawled.
I had enough time to register the twinkle in his emerald eyes before I got scooped up and then somehow found myself on my back, lying in the snow.
“What...Hey!” I yelled at him as soon as I realized he’d done some sort of ninja move to get me on the ground, though I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped me.
Acting Out Page 6
