Hot & Nerdy

by Shannyn Schroeder

  Layla was stuck in Georgia, but she’d be okay until Felicity landed and could get her some cash. Another deep breath. Layla would not leave her to attempt to do spring break on her own. She and Layla went to school mere miles from each other but hardly ever hung out. Their schedules were hectic, so Felicity was really looking forward to spring break. This would be their last spring break since they were all graduating, except Charlie who needed an extra year. By this time next year, Layla would be working at the NSA doing mysterious government security and Felicity would be working at her father’s lab in the R & D department developing her own perfume. Frivolous vacations probably wouldn’t happen.

  Felicity walked back to her seat and wrestled her textbook from her bag. Working out equations would soothe her and ease the gnawing stress. She was scribbling furiously through an equation when she felt another tap on her shoulder. She glanced up and saw the guy staring at her again.

  “They’re boarding. You were pretty engrossed in what you were doing.”

  She blinked rapidly to clear the numbers from her mind. He turned and walked away. She slammed her book closed, and in looking at her watch, realized that she had been working for more than twenty minutes. She watched the guy step into the boarding line. He probably thought she was crazy, or maybe stupid. She shoved her book back in her bag and got in line.

  As if sensing her presence, the guy—what the hell was his name?—turned again and looked down at her. “Business or pleasure?”

  Now that she really paid attention to him without irritation poking her, she realized he was cute. His dark hair was a little messy, but his blue-gray eyes somehow managed to be both inviting and piercing. “Huh?”

  “Are you going to Texas for business or pleasure?” He’d slowed his rate of speech like he was speaking to someone without command of the English language.

  “Pleasure. Spring break with a friend.”

  His gaze wandered down her body and back up to her face. “What school do you go to?”

  “Harvard.”

  His mouth opened, he paused, and then did it a couple of more times. Now who looked like he didn’t know English?

  “South Padre Island?” he finally asked.

  She nodded. The line shifted forward.

  “You’ll love it. It’s a lot of fun.”

  The flight attendant at the gate asked for his boarding pass and welcomed him aboard. Felicity handed over hers as well, grateful to finally be getting on the plane. Not that she should be in a hurry now since Layla wouldn’t be arriving for at least a few days. A sharp spear of panic hit her. What was she supposed to do alone for days?

  Once on the plane, Felicity hooked right, suddenly aware that she was following the tall guy. She paused to make sure she was, in fact, in first class. The flight attendant looked at her pass and pointed toward her seat to confirm she was going the right way. As she walked down the aisle to her seat, Felicity saw the same darn guy in her spot. She absolutely couldn’t catch a break today.

  “Excuse me, you’re in my seat.”

  He stood, checked his pass, and looked at the window seat beside him. He smiled at her again, this time flashing teeth and a dimple in his right cheek. Damn, he was cute. “Is there anyway you would consider switching with me? Even in first class, my legs are cramped. Being in the aisle allows me a little more space.”

  The smile dazzled her enough that it took a minute to process what he was saying. She didn’t want to give up her aisle seat. Taking the window seat effectively trapped her.

  A little voice in her head said that there were worse things to be trapped by than a hot dude with a killer smile.

  “Fine. Whatever.” She stepped aside so he could move, and she slid into place by the window.

  “Would you like me to put your bag up for you?”

  “No. I’ll keep it here.” She smashed it under the seat as best she could. She would definitely need to be able to work some equations to get through this flight sitting next to him.

  He took his seat. “Sorry, I didn’t catch your name earlier.”

  She leveled a look at him. “I didn’t give it.”

  His mouth slid into a half smile, enough to let the dimple peek. “I think we got off on the wrong foot. Hi, I’m Lucas. May I ask your name?”

  “Felicity.”

  “Nice to meet you, Felicity.”

  She buckled her seat belt and willed the pilot to get moving.

  “So, Harvard, huh? Where are you originally from?”

  “Chicago.”

  “I’m from Chicago too. Small world. What’s your major?”

  “Chemistry.” Even as she answered him, she knew he was trying to carry on a conversation and she should do more, but she wasn’t any good at it.

  The flight attendant did her usual safety speech, and the pilot announced they were ready for takeoff. Lucas buckled himself in and suddenly got quiet. The plane began to move, and Felicity felt the waves of tension coming from her seatmate. She looked at him from the corner of her eye. He had a death grip on the armrest, his knuckles white.

  “Are you okay?”

  He nodded.

  She turned back to look out the window.

  “Actually, no, I’m not. I don’t like to fly.”

  “It’s no big deal. The flight will only be a few hours.”

  “The takeoff and landing are what get to me. My kids have a habit of rattling off statistics, and one of them told me that almost thirty percent of crashes occur during that time.”

  “Kids?”

  “I’m a teacher.”

  She studied him. She’d never had a teacher who looked like him. “Gym?”

  “Special ed.”

  That surprised her. She couldn’t imagine him in a room full of rowdy, out of control kids or kids who had a hard time learning. Gym teacher she could picture. He looked like the athletic type.

  “I’m also the baseball coach. Which is why I didn’t want to come on this trip. I had to leave my assistant coach in charge of practice while I’m gone.”

  She couldn’t believe he was nervous. He continued to carry the conversation effortlessly. “Whose wedding?”

  “My brother’s. He met his fiancée in South Padre, and they decided to have a destination wedding. And of course, it had to be over spring break.”

  “I guess you didn’t have a choice to skip it since it’s your brother.”

  He laughed. The warm, rich sound tickled through her, and she couldn’t help but smile back.

  A small ping let them know they could release their seat belts, so Felicity did. “Takeoff is done,” she whispered.

  Lucas Tanner’s lungs stopped working at the sight of Felicity’s smile. It felt like being hit by a line drive to the solar plexus. Her whole face transformed when she smiled. She had been cute before, but now she was beautiful. Her words finally registered in his head. They were flying smoothly. Takeoff had been uneventful. “Thank you,” he said.

  But she was already rummaging below her seat for her bag, paying no attention to him. “For what?”

  So she was paying attention. “You kept me preoccupied with talking, and I didn’t notice takeoff.”

  She didn’t respond, just opened up a massive textbook and began scribbling in a notebook. He watched over her shoulder and couldn’t figure out what the hell she was working on. An equation of some sort.

  He was far from being stupid. Numbers didn’t scare him, but the complex mess Felicity wrangled boggled his brain. Weird that she would be working while on break. Judging by the weight of her bag, she had other textbooks as well.

  “What class is that?”

  “Experimental synthetic chemistry,” she answered without looking up.

  “Why chemistry?”

  “Why not? I like it. And my father is a chemist, so I’m guaranteed a job after graduation.”

  He’d never met a woman who gave such short answers lacking in detail. “Can I buy you a drink?”

  This caught her atte
ntion, and she faced him. “You don’t have to pay for drinks.”

  “I know. I wanted to get your attention. You were doing a good job of responding instead of ignoring me, the way most of my students would, but you weren’t very invested in the conversation.” He reached over, his hand brushing hers in the process, and ran a finger over the equation she’d been working on. “You’re on vacation. You’re supposed to be enjoying yourself.”

  She shifted uncomfortably and laid her palm over the work. “I enjoy chemistry.”

  “Is that really work you need to do now? If it is, I’ll leave you alone.” He waited for a reaction. She stared at him. “Tell me about yourself.”

  “What do you want to know?” She eased the cover closed on the book.

  “Who are you meeting in Texas?”

  “I’m supposed to be meeting my friend Layla, but her car broke down in Georgia. She has to wait to get it fixed.”

  A beautiful, smart girl who was alone for at least a few days. What more could he ask for? Showing up with a sexy woman on his arm should definitely dissuade Becky from thinking he’d be interested in a repeat.

  “I’m sorry to hear about your friend. Do you have stuff planned to keep you busy while you’re waiting for her?”

  Felicity shook her head.

  He leaned a little closer and caught her scent, something unique, not overly fruity or flowery, but it drew him in, making him want to bury his nose in her neck. “What perfume are you wearing?”

  “Something I made.”

  “You make your own perfume?”

  She smiled again. “Chemistry major. I can create all kinds of fabulous things.”

  “How?”

  “My dad let me play around a lot as a kid. It’s all about finding the right mix of fragrance in the right amounts.” She held out her wrist. “For instance, this has a base note, or scent, of jasmine, and then I added middle notes of lavender and ylang-ylang.”

  He held her wrist, rubbed his fingers over the pulse, and then lowered his nose to sniff. “Beautiful,” he whispered across her skin.

  She carefully extracted her arm from his grasp.

  He offered her his best let’s-get-to-know-each-other smile. “I have a proposition for you.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Nothing indecent. How would you like to go to the wedding as my date?”

  She pulled back so quickly, she almost smacked her head on the window. “I wouldn’t.”

  Maybe he’d misinterpreted her signals. They’d been weak, but he thought she was interested. After all, she’d abandoned chemistry for a conversation with him. “Do you have a boyfriend? If so, I wasn’t implying it would have to be more than a friendly date.”

  “No boyfriend.”

  Hmm . . . her reaction to a simple invitation struck him as odd. “Do you have some aversion to weddings or me?”

  “Weddings. Definitely weddings.” Her eyes widened as she spoke.

  It wasn’t much, but he’d take the ego boost. “Why?”

  “There are so many people, and they want to hug you and crowd your space.” Then she added an eye roll. “And the ridiculous dancing.”

  “Well, no one would hug you at this wedding because they don’t know you, and I won’t make you perform the chicken dance.”

  Her brow furrowed in confusion. “You’re a good-looking guy. Why me? There are probably a hundred single women on this plane, at least ten right here in first class.”

  “The truth is, Felicity, you’re pretty, and I’ve enjoyed talking to you. Anyone who can make me forget takeoff is special. I’d like you to be my date because the maid of honor is my ex.”

  “So you want to make her jealous?”

  “God, no. I want her to stay away from me. My soon to be sister-in-law keeps dropping hints that Becky is available if I want a second shot, which I don’t.”

  Felicity held her closed textbook in a death grip, looking eerily similar to how he’d held on during takeoff.

  “You just said your friend is delayed and you have no other plans. Sitting in your hotel room alone isn’t much of a spring break.”

  She bit her lower lip. “I don’t think so, but thanks for the invitation.”

  With that, she flopped the cover back on her book and began working.

  His determination kicked in. He knew neither of them would find a better deal. “What would it take for you to agree?”

  She didn’t look up from her book. “What are you offering?”

  “Free dinner.”

  She glanced out of the corner of her eye. “Wedding food is always crap.”

  “You get to drink for free.”

  “Not much of a drinker.”

  “What do you want then?”

  She shrugged.

  He checked his watch. By his estimation, he had another couple of hours sitting beside her. During that time he might come up with the right incentive to interest Felicity. He let her work on her equations while he checked his phone.

  Without looking up from her work, Felicity said, “For someone who was worried about my unattended bag, you’re quick to break the rules to try to use your phone.”

  He smiled and held the phone for her to see. “It’s in airplane mode. I have an app for texting. Still following the rules.”

  Returning his attention to the phone, he saw he had at least twelve texts, not surprising since his family had expected him on an earlier flight. Obviously, none of them had bothered to listen to the voice mail messages he’d left. His original flight had offered him a free ticket if he agreed to be bumped. Although he had no plans for another vacation, one look at the desperate woman who really wanted to be on that plane, and he’d agreed.

  The next flight, this one, had been delayed because of a late connection, which led him to Felicity. And his students thought karma didn’t exist. He shot off texts to everyone, letting them know he was in the air and would make it in time for rehearsal. Now all he had to do was convince Felicity to be his date.

  Chapter 2

  Felicity felt Lucas’s eyes on her, even when he wasn’t looking in her direction. He’d made some excellent points. What was she going to do while waiting for Layla? It would probably only be a couple of days, but still. This was supposed to be vacation—their last spring break to celebrate Layla’s awesome job offer. Felicity could handle a couple of days by herself. It would be like most of her weekends.

  She looked down at the equation she’d been working on and realized that she’d taken a wrong turn. She didn’t do that. Distractions didn’t affect her. At least not normally. Something about Lucas made her want to close the text again and put down her pencil. She remembered the way he’d pointed at her work and brushed his hand across hers in the process. The accidental touch had caused warmth to spread slowly up her arm.

  Lucas had finally given up on trying to get her into a conversation, so she refocused on the page in front of her. She’d had to erase the last few lines of work and backtrack to find her error. Sitting next to a guy shouldn’t do this to her. He’d done nothing more than talk. She was surrounded by guys all the time in just about every class she had. Not too many of them were as sexy as Lucas though.

  She stole a look at him. He sat sprawled in the seat, his long legs extending into the aisle, and he had to shift every time someone wanted to get by. And for each person, he added a polite, “I’m sorry,” as he moved his legs out of the path. Even though he was in the middle of texting furiously on his phone, his smile was at the ready. It was like each passerby couldn’t help but return the smile.

  He put in earbuds, and Felicity heard the harsh beat of heavy metal. A few minutes later, it was something thumpy like rap. Checking her watch, she knew they should be landing soon, so she packed up her stuff and closed her eyes to relax. The pilot came on and asked everyone to take their seats and fasten their seat belts because they might hit a bit of turbulence.

  Felicity followed the directions and checked Lucas. He didn’t seem to hea
r the pilot, but his seat belt had never been loosened. The plane hit a quick bump, and Lucas ripped his earbuds out. “What the hell was that?”

  “Just a little turbulence. Nothing to worry about.”

  His hands grasped the armrest in the death grip again. Felicity reached over and picked up one of the abandoned earbuds and held it to her ear. “You listen to Pink?”

  Lucas’s eyes were shut tight, but he nodded. “I listen to what my students listen to. Gives me insight.”

  “They listen to Metallica?”

  “No, that was for me.”

  They hit another pocket of turbulence, this time with enough force to shake things around them. Lucas looked like he was in pain. She laid her hand over his on the armrest. “It’ll be okay. We’re not going to crash. It’s a wind current going against everything else.”

  He flipped his hand over and held hers, but didn’t open his eyes. Warmth spread up her arm at his touch. She had no idea what else to say. There truly wasn’t anything to be afraid of. She’d flown plenty over the years and turbulence happened. She remembered that talking had helped distract him and relax him during takeoff. Unfortunately for him, she sucked at conversation.

  “So why are you trolling the airplane for a date instead of bringing a girlfriend to the wedding?”

  He peeked from his squinted eyelids. “I don’t have a girlfriend. I’ve instituted a moratorium on dating.”

  She snickered. He willingly placed his dating life on hold, and she didn’t know how to get a date. “Why?”

  “Long story. Anyway, I saw you and I figured, why not? I’m not looking to start a relationship. I only need to get through the wedding and you’re on spring break.”

  His face was more relaxed now, and the only sign of his discomfort was his hand linked with hers. But even that was pleasant.

  He smiled. “You must think I’m the biggest wuss on the planet.”

  “No. We all have our hang-ups. Lucky for you, I’m good at flying.”