“How’re you liking Highbanks, Miss Monroe?”
I’d missed his warm, blue eyes. “It’s amazing.” From the corner of my eye, I caught movement. Mateo now stood nearby, with the redhead behind him. He frowned at Johnny and me.
I gulped. “Hey, Teo.”
His frown morphed into a smile, and I noticed a dimple on his right cheek. “That’s what Dane calls me.”
“Is that okay? I mean, I wouldn’t want to use a name you hate.”
He nodded. He’d shot up in height since I’d seen him.
“Mr. Ramirez, please join Agent Kennedy so you’re not out in the open.” Johnny pointed to a corner where the redhead now stood after clearing the area of partygoers.
Mateo’s dark eyes studied me. “Will you…come with me?”
“Sure.” I followed them. As I passed by Elyse, I waved at Mackenzie next to her. They both looked impressed.
We stood near the wall with the agents a few feet away, barricading us from the prying eyes of the party. When a new song started, a girl screamed and started to dance. Just like that, we were no longer the center of attention, and I let out a breath.
I turned back to focus on Mateo. He had a five-o’clock shadow and perceptive eyes that seemed to see through me.
“Why’re you here?” I asked.
He blinked at me for a moment, and I felt the urge to brush away the black hair hanging over one of his eyes. Finally he shrugged. “Probably stupid to come, drag Secret Service here. I’m not an athlete or anything.”
“Did you know I was here?”
He nodded. “Dane told Lucy, and Lucy told me. I just thought I’d say hi, but she didn’t want me to come—said it was too dangerous.” He shrugged again. “Obviously, I didn’t listen.”
Mateo glanced at the beer in my hand, my second of the night and just as nasty as the first.
“Oh, you want one?”
He shook his head. “Somebody will take a photo of me drinking and use it to embarrass my dad.”
“That’s awful.” I couldn’t imagine dealing with such scrutiny. And now that I thought about it, standing next to a Ramirez put me in the spotlight, too. I didn’t want to get into trouble with my coach, so I set the can aside.
“Everyone here’s a swimmer?” he asked.
“Most of them, I guess. I heard there were some rowers, but I haven’t met any.”
“When do you start practice?”
“Not sure. We have a team meeting and physicals tomorrow, but we’ll be in the water for sure by the time school starts.”
“Three days.” He shook his head. “What are you majoring in?”
I smirked. “You sure ask a lot of questions.”
His eyes widened. “Lo siento. Sorry, I, uh…”
“No problema.” He was so cute! “I’m majoring in art.”
“Really?” His head cocked to one side like he was surprised. “What medium?”
“Not sure. They told me it’ll be tough to swim and major in art, but I have to try. Maybe painting? Or three-D? What about you? What do you want to major in?”
“Music performance.”
“Wow.” He was artistic, too.
“Hey, Jess?”
I turned to see Blake peering around Johnny. “Wanna call the dogs off?” He tilted his head toward Johnny, who didn’t look pleased. “I got you a real drink.” He held aloft a glass of clear liquid on ice. “You want it?”
Smoking-hot boy was offering me a drink? Of course I didn’t want to turn him down. “Sure.”
Johnny’s mouth set into a firm line as he let Blake through.
I took a sip through the small straw and tasted sweetness and lime…and a lot of alcohol. “Vodka tonic’s my favorite.”
Blake’s face lit up. “I like a girl who knows her booze.” He knocked back a swig of his own drink.
I realized Mateo was frowning again. “Uh, Teo, this is…Blake, right?”
“Blake Morrell.” He shook Mateo’s hand. “The president’s son at my house. Epic. Why are you slumming with us commoners?”
Mateo started to speak, but Blake interrupted him. “How rude of me. What can I get you to drink, man?”
“I’m good,” Mateo said.
Blake squinted. “You don’t drink?”
“I…” Mateo looked at me for help.
“He doesn’t want to get caught drinking underage.” I looked around as I lowered my vodka. I didn’t want to get caught, either.
“How old are you?” Blake demanded.
Mateo raised his chin. “Eighteen.”
That was my age too, and I smiled.
Blake laughed. “Really? You look fifteen.” He shook his head, and Mateo’s eyes narrowed. “But it’s a stupid law. If you’re eighteen, you’re old enough to die fighting for your country. You should be able to drink.”
I agreed.
Blake draped his arm across my shoulders, and I smelled his musky aftershave. “This one gets it.” He gestured to me. “Swimmers are strong. They can handle anything. Right, Jess? Five four-hundred IMs, descend one to four, number five all-out. Piece of cake.”
I watched Mateo inch back, uncertainty flitting across his face.
“Swimming isn’t everything,” I said feebly as I took another sip. Blake’s body heat was getting to me, and I felt sweat beading at my temples.
“I better go,” Mateo said.
Crap! I didn’t want him to leave. I wiggled out of Blake’s hold. “You don’t have to.”
“It’s okay.” He gave me a sad smile. “Lucy was right. I don’t belong here. I’ll see you around.”
“Teo—”
But he’d already signaled his agents, who led him to the door.
“Glad the kid knows his limits.” Blake took my hand. “C’mon. I want to show you something.”
I felt dizzy—how much vodka was in my drink? I allowed myself to be tugged along up the stairs, careful to climb each one without falling. At the top Blake pulled me into a room and shut the door. Ah. A blessed decrease in music volume up here.
I swayed a bit as I took in the navy duvet on the bed—a neater space than I expected for a college boy. “Wow, I’m tired.”
“Yeah, move-in day can take it out of you.”
That must’ve been it.
“But now the real party starts.” He grinned as he crossed over to his dresser. After closing the drawer, he held up a small cigarette. “Time to get high, baby.”
Oh, shit. That was a joint? I swallowed.
He sat on the bed and patted the spot next to him.
“What about drug tests? I don’t want to get in trouble.”
He shrugged. “They never test the freshman athletes. You’ll be fine.” When I remained perched by the door, his eyebrows drew together. “C’mon, Jess. I was sixth in the country in the fifty last year. You really think I’d do something to jeopardize my career? Studies show weed helps your lung capacity. You’ll see. It actually helps your swimming.”
The bed did look inviting. I floated over to him and set my drink on the floor.
“I rolled this myself.” He lit the joint and handed it to me. “This is your first time, right?”
I chewed on my lip and gave a small nod. He probably thought I was lame and naïve. I’d turned down weed in the past because I’d heard it would hurt my swimming, but now he was saying the opposite. “Smoking can’t be good for you.”
“Then why do they give it to cancer patients? This comes straight from the hemp plant, with lots of medicinal properties.” He nudged my shoulder. “We’re teammates now. I wouldn’t do anything to slow you down. I just want you to feel how awesome this is; have a little fun.”
The sweet, earthy scent invaded my nostrils. It was hard to think straight. Should I?
“Just relax. Getting high is so much better than getting drunk. No hangover, no calories. Breathe in and hold it.”
I tried to hide the tremble in my hand as I inhaled the scalding smoke. Of course I started coughing
, which made Blake laugh.
“You’ll get used to it.” He filched the joint from my fingers and took a hit.
We passed it back and forth several times—I lost count—and in a flash I found myself looking at the ceiling. When had I fallen back on the bed? The walls undulated around me as the air took on a hazy quality. Blake entered my line of vision, hovering over me.
“How’re you feeling?” he asked.
I was too tired to speak. As my eyes closed, I thought I saw a smile spread over his face.
Chapter 2
WAY TO GO, CHICO. My first college party couldn’t have been more of a disaster. First a stud upperclassman swimmer thinks I’m a child, then he swoops in to steal Jessica away from me. And of course she liked him better. Who would want a sick, scrawny loser like me?
“Do you need anything from the store?”
I looked up to see Karen staring at me from the front seat. Next to her, Johnny turned the vehicle onto the main campus drag on our way back to the greenhouse, where I now lived with Lucia. My sister had nicknamed the house because a Highbanks professor who was an expert in green energy had lived there.
“Uh…” I shrugged. “I think I forgot to pack shampoo.”
“We shouldn’t stop,” Johnny said. “Too many people out.”
Karen took that in. “Could you use your sister’s for now? I’ll run to get you some tomorrow.”
So I couldn’t even enter a store here? Or attend a party unaccompanied? I’d thought security would be looser outside of DC. “This is how it’s going to be?”
“’Fraid so, Teo.” Johnny met my eyes in the rearview mirror.
Despite my frustration, I did enjoy hearing him use that nickname. It reminded me of Jessica. She’d looked so hot in that turquoise shirt. Her long arms were tan and strong, with the muscular curve of her triceps reminding me of her swimming talents. Lucy had told me Jessica was one of the top swimming recruits in the nation. Highbanks had been lucky to sign her. And her blond curls were so spunky. Since meeting her on the debate stage two years ago, I’d longed to tug one of those thick curls and watch it spring back. Boing.
She’d asked why I came to the party, and I’d considered telling the truth. I did. But I chickened out and mumbled something stupid. The truth? I wanted to see you.
Would she still have ignored me for that older guy if I’d been honest?
I sighed as we drove through the greenhouse gates. Probably. What on Earth did I have to offer compared to that suave swimmer shithead? A lifetime of nurses and needles could hardly compete.
“Come see me before bed,” Karen told me as we walked in the house.
Johnny looked up after resetting the alarm and waggled his eyebrows.
I rolled my eyes. Coming from any other woman, that comment would be full of sexual innuendo. But I knew Nurse Practitioner Karen just wanted a blood sugar check.
“Thanks, but I got it.”
Karen frowned. My parents had encouraged me to leave my endless diabetes care up to her so I could focus on school, but I wanted to do things myself.
“Since you’ve refused to get the pump, I thought we’d agreed I would check your blood sugar,” Karen said.
I shook my head. “I never agreed to that, especially at college.”
Johnny slid his hands into his pants pockets. “Hey, Kar, how ’bout we table this discussion for later? We should go review the latest death threats.”
“Death threats?” Lucia paled as she looked from Johnny to me. I hadn’t seen my sister enter the foyer. She held our cat, Escuincle, in her arms.
“Hey, Lucia.” Johnny grinned. “Security threats, I should say. Just a little joke I have with Mateo. He thinks sniffing out terrorist plots is a cool part of my job.”
Lucia glared at me. “Yeah, real cool. Hilarious.”
“C’mon, Lucy, lighten up.” I reached out to pet the cat, and he leaned into my touch. “How’re you liking your new home, Squinks?” Sated purrs were his only response. Our older brother, Alejandro, had been the one to name him Escuincle—Spanish for brat. Señor Squinks wasn’t very fond of Alex.
I headed to the kitchen with Lucy on my heels, leaving my agents behind. As I checked out the pantry, I told her, “It’s not like we can do anything about people trying to kill us. Might as well joke about it.”
She watched me open a bag of chips. “Alex’s scars aren’t a joke.”
My heartbeat kicked up as I crunched on a chip. Two years ago, in a hate crime against Latinos, a deranged man had shot Alejandro while he was here visiting Highbanks. I forced down a swallow of salty grease. “Having scars from getting shot? Now that’s cool. Instant street cred.”
Lucia’s lips pursed. “Give me one of those, idiota.”
I offered her the bag, and to my surprise, she grabbed a few—proof she’d come a long way in healing from her eating disorder.
“How was the party?” She bit into a chip, then offered the other half to Escuincle. He sniffed at it but turned his head and wiggled in her arms. She set him down. “You didn’t stay very long.”
I sighed as Jessica’s sparkly top bedazzled my memory. “This is the part where you say ‘I told you so,’ huh?”
Her face fell. “You didn’t have fun?”
“Adult chaperones and fun don’t really go together. ‘We’re not normal college students,’ remember?”
“I’m sorry, Matty. I shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t have told you not to go.”
My eyebrows rose.
“Truth is…” She sighed. “I was really lonely my freshman year until Dane and I found each other. Until Maddie became my best friend, too. I’m lucky they understand what it’s like to be protected by Secret Service.”
Jessica wasn’t under protection now, but she likely remembered how the government guardians squelched any sense of social life.
“Of course you wanted to go to the party,” Lucia said. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”
I ate another chip. “But you were so against it. Why the change of heart?”
“Dane talked to me about it, made me remember what it was like to start at Highbanks. I don’t want you to be lonely like me.”
“Luz!” Dane hollered from somewhere deep in the house.
“In the kitchen!” She smiled at me. “I bet he’s mad I left him watching the movie all alone.”
“Where’ve you been?” The six-foot-eight blond giant stalked into the room, scowling at Lucia. “You’re missing the trash compactor scene.” He snatched the bag of chips from my grasp. “Hey, Teo.”
Lucia’s lips parted as she watched him stuff about ten chips into his mouth. “Gross.”
“Whooaat?” He paused mid-chew.
I shook my head.
“Matty was eating those, cerdo.”
Dane grinned at me, likely because his girlfriend had called him a pig. “Hey, was Jess at the party? Did you see her?”
“Yeah.”
“Did she seem okay?”
I shrugged. “I guess.”
“What was she doing? Did you talk to her?”
“She…was kind of busy.”
Dane squinted. “Doing what?”
I chewed on my lip. “There was this older swimmer guy she was with. I don’t know…seemed like I was intruding.”
His blue eyes clouded as he stared down at me.
“It was a swimmer party, and I’m not a swimmer or anything,” I added.
Dane was quiet for a few moments. “I wonder if I should go over there.”
“What?” Lucia bumped his arm with her shoulder. “You are not going there.”
“Why not? What if this guy’s a creep or something?”
Her hands found her hips. “What’d you call Alejandro when he tried to interfere with my life?”
He closed his eyes. “Overprotective control freak on a fucking power trip.”
“Exactamente. You don’t want to be that way with Jessica, right?” She smoothed her hand down his forearm.
I considered the responsibility of being an older sibling. I only knew the experience of being bossed around by mine. They’d never seemed to care one iota how controlling they were, so it was strange to watch Lucia and Dane deliberate now.
“Let’s get back to the movie,” Lucia suggested, then looked at me. “Want to join us? We’re watching Star Wars episode one.”
“It’s actually episode four,” Dane said.
Lucia rolled her eyes. “Way to fly your geek flag.”
“How dare you.” He tossed the bag of chips onto the table and hoisted her off her feet.
She shrieked as he slung her over his shoulder. “Put me down, gigante!”
I shook my head as he manhandled my muscular sister, who was only a couple of inches shorter than me.
“Could a geek do this?” He patted her bottom affectionately as he turned toward the TV room. He glanced over his shoulder. “Coming, Teo?”
They seemed so happy together, and I didn’t want to bring them down as a depressed third wheel. “That’s okay. You guys go ahead. I’ll unpack.”
Lucia’s upside-down position muffled her voice. “Feel free to change your mind!”
As he walked away, I heard Dane say, “You really think Jess is okay?”
I followed them out of the kitchen to hear Lucia’s response: “It’s gonna be a long year if you’re freaking out about your sister the first night.”
She was right. I sighed. It would be a long year if Jessica consumed my mind after only one night.
I headed to my new bedroom. It wasn’t as big as the one I’d had in the White House, but it was more modern. It was painted a kind of olive khaki, and I liked the sage green duvet. I also appreciated the sleek, contemporary furniture. My acoustic guitar rested against the black chest. I’d already checked to make sure it was unharmed in the move.
I stacked some socks and underwear inside a drawer. My jaw clenched as I placed syringes and glucose test strips in the drawer above. Supplies to maintain my status as a human pincushion. It was probably time for me to check my blood sugar yet again.
Meow. I looked up to see Escuincle saunter into the room. He leaped onto my bed and curled up on the duvet. Lucia had been thrilled that I’d brought him from the White House. Mom had said she was glad to be rid of him and his destructive ways, but I knew she and Dad would miss the First Cat.
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