“Oh.” Now it was my turn to be eloquent. But really, the tension in this room just got a whole lot thicker with Stella’s sudden arrival.
“How do you know West?” I asked.
It seemed like a good question at the time. Innocuous. Simple.
I was wrong.
She winced slightly and West’s grip on my shoulders started to hurt. “I was his tutor for his intro to Biology class.”
“Oh.”
Yup, this conversation was rockin’ now.
I wished with all my might that Emma would suddenly appear at my side and make everyone laugh, like some deus ex machina of awkward silences.
“So.” Stella clapped her hands together abruptly and turned her attention to me and Robert. “Would you two like a tour of the science labs?”
“Yeah, that would be great,” Robert said.
His blush was back with a vengeance now as he beamed at Stella in a way I’d never seen him smile before.
I couldn’t stop staring at Robert and this newfound smile. It was...bizarre. And oddly enough, it made his attractiveness fade. With a big, dopey grin like that, his IQ appeared to dim right in front of my eyes and his normally mature personality seemed to morph into a people-pleasing adolescent.
Too harsh? Maybe. After all, I wasn’t sure what Robert made of my transformation. Maybe he didn’t like my new look any more than I liked this change in him.
I was staring at him for so long that I forgot to answer Stella and after a lengthy pause I heard West answer for me. “I’ll show Charlotte around later. She and I have some people to meet.”
Stella laughed. “Do you even know where the labs are, West?” She gave his arm a nudge and laughed again when he frowned. “I’m just kidding.” She turned to Robert. “You ready, Rob?”
I waited for him to correct her that his name was Robert.
“Ready!” he said, and then he was chasing after her with an eagerness that was embarrassing.
I turned to face the rest of the crowd. “Who did you want to meet?”
I glanced back up and saw West’s brows draw down and his eyes narrow as he slid his arm from my shoulders. “No one. I was saving you.”
“Saving me,” I repeated. “From what?”
He arched one brow. “Did you not get the sense that maybe...”
“Maybe what?”
He took a deep breath as he eyed me. “Robert seemed awfully eager for this tour.”
I nodded. “He’s hoping to go here next year.”
He continued to stare at me. He stared at me for so long that I shifted beneath his watchful gaze and tugged at the hem of my dress. “What? What is it?”
He gave his head a little shake. “Nothing.”
But he still stared.
I exhaled loudly. For a guy who was typically straightforward, he was acting irritatingly mysterious. “Why are you looking at me like I’m nuts?”
“Not like you’re nuts, like you’re crazy,” he said. “There’s a difference.” He softened the words with a smile that made my heart race and my palms grow clammy.
Why? I wasn’t totally sure. I had a hunch this was physical attraction.
I’d always found Robert physically attractive and yet I’d never felt like this, so...what did that mean?
I frowned, turning to stare at the other competitors who were helping themselves to what appeared to be lemonade at the front of the conference room.
I stared at the others, but my mind was still replaying the scene we’d just endured. The tension that had filled the air once Stella had arrived.
Stella...his former tutor.
A flicker of something unpleasant had me scowling over at the lemonade bowl. “Do you know Stella well?”
“We dated.” His answer was abrupt, which I wouldn’t have noticed or minded coming from...anyone else. But it seemed weird from this guy with his easy smile and laid-back attitude.
“Oh.” That was my go-to word of the day. It said nothing and yet filled silence. Oh was an underrated word, in my opinion.
He arched a brow again, his attention firmly fixed on me as I took in the crowd. “Well?”
“Well what?”
“Most people would have an opinion about me and Stella.” He paused as if waiting for me to say something. When I didn’t, he rolled his eyes. “We were a bad fit. Obviously.”
“Obviously?”
He narrowed his eyes like he couldn’t tell if I was joking.
I wasn’t.
Then it clicked. “Ahh.”
He gave me that funny confused look again. One that said he was confused but amused. “What ‘ahh?’”
“That’s why you got so weird just now.”
“I didn’t get weird.”
I opened my mouth and shut it. It wouldn’t do to get in an argument with my fake date over something that didn’t matter in the least.
“I didn’t get weird,” he said again.
“Okay.”
“You got weird,” he said.
“Okay.” This was probably true. But for me, acting weird, particularly at a public event, was par for the course.
He sighed. “Fine. Maybe I got a little weird. It’s just... She makes these comments sometimes like...I don’t know, I mean I knew I wouldn’t fit in tonight but...”
He trailed off with a sigh.
I stared at him. I’d officially lost the thread of this conversation. From my experiences with my girl friends this year, I had one guess as to what could be making him act so oddly. “Are you still in love with her?”
“No! What?” He turned his head like he was seeing me for the first time. “I was never in love with her.”
“Okay.”
“It’s not like I want her back or anything,” he continued.
I nodded.
“It’s just…” He made a show of eyeing all the people that were parading past us, not one of whom didn’t return his stare with wide eyes.
He didn’t fit in with this crowd of scientists. His big broad shoulders and too-handsome face made him seem like a visiting alien from another planet.
“It’s just what?” I asked.
“Nothing.” He smiled and the West I knew was back. “So tell me, Charlotte, how are we going to pass the time while we wait for your boy toy to return?”
6
West
If you’d told me I might actually have fun at a science nerd’s meet-and-greet I would have laughed in your face.
But that would’ve been before I’d met Charlotte.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “Like...never?”
I watched Charlotte sip on her drink, her expression so impassive, especially considering she’d just made me snort laugh.
I was not a not a dude who snort laughed regularly.
Or ever.
I laughed, obviously. But making the people around me stare because of a snort?
Nope. Not my thing.
I shifted so I was facing her head-on. After making a quick round of the room we’d settled into a spot on the sidelines where we could watch everyone else awkwardly mingle.
“You’re telling me you have never been to see a movie at the movie theater?” I asked again, just to make sure I was hearing this right.
She nodded. She’d been painfully shy as we’d walked around and introduced ourselves, but she’d been relaxed ever since we’d found this little spot on the edge. Her eyes were darting around the room, tracking people, watching them, but that tension that had made her voice turn to a whisper and her cheeks turn splotchy and red seemed to have disappeared entirely.
I loved the fact that she was chill around me. Was it weird that I took pride in that?
Yeah, probably. It likely had nothing to do with me. In fact, my best guess was, she wasn’t nervous around me because she didn’t feel like she needed to impress me in any way, but...whatever. I’d take it.
The girl was surprisingly fun to talk to when she wasn’t terrified of her own shadow.
“So like, none,” I said.
That had her looking my way with a roll of her eyes. “None.”
She was also surprisingly cute with this mini-makeover I’d given her. I mean, she’d been cute before in an adorable, I want to protect your naive little butt from the world sort of way, but with these new clothes that didn’t hide her body and the hair pulled back so I could actually see her high cheekbones and her lips...
Oh crap, was I staring?
I gave my head a shake, returning to the conversation with a start. “That’s nuts.”
She shrugged. “My parents don’t believe in screen time.”
“Well, yeah, I can get that as a little kid, I guess.” Though it still sounded nuts to me. “But what about when you got older? Didn’t you ever want to go to the movies? See what the fuss was about?”
She shook her head, but only after a little hesitation.
Interesting.
“What’s the point of fiction?” The way her eyes crinkled in the corner, the way her brows drew together...she wasn’t being rhetorical. She honestly wanted to know.
“What’s the point?” I repeated in disbelief. I opened my mouth to respond and then shut it again. What was the point? I’d never really given it any thought. “Can’t it just be for fun? An escape?”
She lifted a shoulder. “I suppose.”
She didn’t seem impressed by the idea of fun.
“You can’t work all the time, can you?” I asked.
Her gaze met mine evenly, but she didn’t respond.
Well, okay then.
She turned away and looked toward the door. “Maybe we should leave. Robert hasn’t returned yet and he might not return at all.”
I tried to see any emotion cross her features. Not a single emotion.
None.
Not for the first time it occurred to me that maybe Charlotte hadn’t understood what was happening here. It had been clear as day to me. I mean, I’d seen the way Robert had looked at Charlotte when we’d first shown up and for a second there I’d thought we’d done it. We’d won. The dude practically drooled at the sight of his lab partner looking like a human.
But then Stella had arrived and then it was truly game over.
I couldn’t totally blame the guy. Stella must have been a geeky science dude’s dream come to life. Smart, sweet, and outgoing. She was approachable and easy to talk to, but smart as a whip. Not to mention, she was older and wiser. A college girl.
I winced as I glanced over at Charlotte now.
Poor Charlotte didn’t stand a chance.
“Do you think Robert has developed feelings for Stella?” she asked abruptly.
“Uh...” Crap. How could I have thought for one second that this uber smart chick hadn’t picked up on that? “I, uh, I don’t...”
She frowned up at me. “That would be awfully quick, wouldn’t it? I mean...” She pursed her lips and the move was ridiculously cute. “He just met her. But then, I’ve known him for years and I’ve never seen him act like that. Like...” She waved her hand in the general direction where Robert had been standing.
“Like a moron?” I suggested.
Her lips quirked up a bit and I felt a surge of triumph at making her smile right now when she was clearly distressed.
I looked around the room as if help might be standing by. Crap. I didn’t like seeing this girl upset, even if she hid it well. Something told me she would never lose her cool, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t feeling something right now. The guy she had a crush on had just chased after another girl.
Literally.
“Maybe...” I eyed her profile. “Maybe I overplayed my hand. If he thinks we’re dating, then maybe he thought he didn’t have a chance and—”
She surprised me with a choked laugh.
“What?”
Her eyes glinted with amusement when she looked up at me. “My, aren’t we conceited?”
I laughed. “Not conceited, just honest. Look, Robert’s got to know that if it came down to him or me...” I shrugged, my expression a wince that said ‘sorry not sorry.’
She stared at me for a long moment before her lips curved up, softening her features and making her...beautiful.
Almost beautiful.
Something better than beautiful.
She was...intriguing.
“By that logic, if it comes down to Stella or me...” She gave me the same wince and that made me laugh.
“You don’t seem upset about it.”
She shrugged, facing forward again. “I’m nothing if not a realist. If he’s not attracted to me, then there’s nothing I can do about that.”
I nodded. “How romantic.”
She glanced up at me. “What about you and Stella?”
“What about us?”
She narrowed her eyes. “I didn’t like the way she laughed.”
I arched a brow. Honestly, everyone liked Stella, girls and guys alike. Plus, I didn’t take Charlotte for the jealous type. “Why not?”
“She seemed like she was laughing at you,” Charlotte said. Her gaze met mine with unflinching directness. “When she asked if you knew where the labs were.”
“Oh, yeah that.” I sighed and faced forward. “That’s because she knows I suck at science.” After a pause, I added, “And math.” And then, with a self-deprecating smirk, “And every other topic.”
Her eyes were fixed on me with an intensity that was alarming.
She wasn’t laughing at my rueful humor. In fact, she looked...pissed.
“You think you’re not smart.” She said it like an indictment. Like an accusation.
It hit me like a punch in the gut. “What? No, I didn’t say that. I meant, I’m not good at school and—”
“You’re not dumb.” She was glaring at me like I was fighting her on this.
“I know.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Do you?”
I looked away. “Look, school has never been my strong suit. I’m more a physical kind of guy—”
“And that is its own intelligence,” she said. “As is emotional intelligence.”
I frowned down at her. What was she even talking about?
She huffed. “I just got done tutoring you, remember? I know that you are smart.”
“Um...” I had no idea what to say to that. As if to prove her wrong, my brain failed to come up with any sensible response to her compliment.
She pursed her lips again, looking like a petulant child as she glared at the room at large. “If you are falling behind in classes, you’re either not trying hard enough or your teachers are not doing their job properly.”
I opened my mouth and came up with this gem. “Ummm...”
“Stella was your tutor, right?”
I nodded.
“Why are you failing biology then? Weren’t you dating? Aren’t you friends?”
So many questions and so much... Holy crap, so much passion. I’d never seen Charlotte like this, like she was coming alive as I watched. Pink tinged her cheeks, but this wasn’t embarrassment or shyness, it was...anger.
On my behalf.
It was.... Well, it was freakin’ sweet. Painfully sweet. My chest hurt for a second and it took my brain a minute to catch up on her rampage about teaching and learning and obligations and...
I’ll admit it, I totally lost track of what she was talking about. I was more focused on how passionate she was on the topic.
But then she turned that passion on me. “Were you not trying?”
I blinked in the face of her ferocity. Holy crap. I faced giants on the football field who were less terrifying than this girl right now.
“Ummm...”
“You weren’t.” She narrowed her eyes.
“But I am now,” I added. “That’s why I asked for your help.”
She studied me for a long moment and I held still. I may have been holding my breath. Something about this girl, this moment. I felt like I was being studied and analyzed and awaiting her judge
ment.
Finally, she nodded. “Okay. If you really want to learn, then I will make sure that you get caught up to speed.”
Relief rushed through me because...I believed her.
Granted, she’d already agreed to help me and she’d even already begun, but this...this vow felt like something more. Like, with her in my corner there was no way I could fail.
She wouldn’t allow it.
“And I will make sure you get your crush,” I said. The moment I said it I realized that it was a promise I couldn’t keep—and she knew it, too. Of course she did. She was too smart for false promises.
She gave her head a sad little shake. “You can’t promise that.”
I exhaled loudly. “Then I’ll find you someone else, I’ll—”
She held up a hand. Her lips were curved up in a small smile, but I hated the flicker of sadness I saw in her eyes. “Forget it, West. I’ll help you just because you’re...”
I waited with a weird tenseness in my chest as she paused.
“Because you’re nice,” she finished.
I flinched at the word. I wasn’t nice. I mean, I wasn’t a jerk, but I wasn’t nice, either. Nice sounded so freakin’ lame.
“And because you're Max’s stepbrother,” she continued. “And because...”
I nudged her arm, needing to lighten this mood. “And because you can’t resist my handsome face?”
She blinked in surprise. She’d been so earnest this whole time that I could see the slow realization in her eyes when she caught on to the fact that I was kidding.
Amusement had her gaze warming. “Yeah. That too.”
7
Charlotte
He was kidding about the handsome face, I knew that. But also? He truly did have a handsome face.
However, if that was his only appealing aspect, I likely would not have given him the time of day.
And by ‘time of day,’ I meant my time when I ought to have been making nice with the professors at St. Archer’s or maybe finalizing my presentation with Robert.
Instead, the next morning I found myself in West’s dorm room, tuning out his roommate and attempting to explain the difference between ligase, lipase, and lyase to West.
First Kiss with the Quarterback (How to Catch a Crush Book 4) Page 5