Discovering You (Miller Lodge Romance Book 1)

by Jadelynn Asher

  Lisa shifted from foot to foot. “I’ve got an hour before my next class and there’s something I’d really like to talk to you about…about all that…but could we do it inside somewhere?”

  Jason chuckled. The cool air felt great to him, but she was freezing. “Sure. I was just thinking about hash browns and eggs. Beth says one of the eateries serves breakfast.”

  “Two buildings over. Come on.”

  She didn’t give him time to respond but started off across the icy walkways, hurrying to get inside.

  The building proved to be not one eatery, but a college food court with a dozen different options. Most of them were still closed at this time of the day, but Jason smelled bacon and followed his nose to the one eatery selling something warm instead of doughnuts or huge muffins.

  They both ordered breakfast, the double breakfast slam for him and a bagel and hot chocolate for her, and found a booth that wasn’t being used. They ate in silence for a few minutes, but it was a companionable type of silence which Jason wouldn’t have thought possible. Finally, Lisa licked cream cheese off of her finger and cleared her throat.

  “So…I think the very first thing that needs to be said is that I’m sorry.”

  Jason raised his eyebrows, finishing the bite of potatoes. He hadn’t expected that to be where the conversation began. He’d thought they’d talk about the campus or Beth or something. When he didn’t say anything she kept going.

  “I was a real jerk up at the lodge. I was surprised when Charles showed up and surprised again when Beth needed to come back, but I didn’t handle either of those things as well as I should have, especially when it comes to how I treated you. I thought about texting to explain, but that just seemed dumb and now that you’re here well...I guess it’s kind of a chance to do better. So I’m sorry, and I would like to start over as friends if you’re willing.”

  The apology all came out in a rush, and he wondered how long she’d thought about what she would say. She seemed the type to want to do things right, even something as simple as being sorry. He looked at her, his gaze catching on her earnest expression and the little wisps of hair that curled around her face. There were a lot of things in life worse than being friends with a pretty girl who was also showing herself to be a good person.

  He reached across the table and took her untouched mug of hot chocolate in hand. With a teasing smile he sucked the whipped cream off the top. “Mmm…friendship tastes good.”

  She stared at him, blinked, and then burst into laughter.

  It was the sweetest sound he’d ever heard.

  7

  Lisa cursed at the snow as she hustled through it. The white flakes were fat and drifty and made it hard to see where she was going and harder to tell where the sidewalk ended and the snow covered lawns began. She knew the school had a big grounds crew, but keeping up with Colorado snow in January was still a challenge, even here in Boulder where it didn’t snow nearly as much. She couldn’t imagine living in Denver where they dealt with feet of snow and blizzards.

  She shoved her way into the science building and stomped the snow off her feet before jogging to her astronomy class and rushing inside. The professor was already speaking and didn’t give her a second glance as she settled in, but she still felt guilty. She pulled out her notebook and flipped it open, finding her notes page and trying to catch up. A few seconds later the phone in her pocket buzzed with an incoming text message. She saw Jason sitting a few seats down with his phone on his desk. He caught her eye and pointed to the phone and then at her.

  Lisa glanced at the screen to make sure she wasn’t missing anything she couldn’t catch up on and then eased the phone out.

  *Hey, there you are. Stay up too late on a hot date? Or did the snow just bog you down?*

  *Stayed up for a while with Jean Luc, but mostly the snow. Who knew only three inches could be so slick? Beth wants to take me shopping for better boots. I’m thinking online shopping would be faster with the same outcome.*

  She saw his eyebrows raise, the dimple in his cheek flashing as he grinned. *Jean Luc, huh? Older French man with an unnatural fondness for Earl Grey?*

  *Yep.*

  *Kirk was better.*

  Lisa wrinkled her nose and sketched the diagram from the board into her notebook, adding the equations for rotational forces. *Kirk was a womanizing loud mouth. And Shatner? Ew.*

  Jason’s grin deepened. *Picard was a pansy, and totally should have been with Dr. Crusher.*

  *Picard withstood torture and knew his place as a captain. It would have been weird for him to date a crew member. Especially Wesley’s mom.* Lisa paused. *This is the later series anyway, and it’s really good.*

  *I haven’t seen it yet. Wanna convince me over breakfast?*

  Lisa felt a smile spread across her lips. They’d done breakfast after class every day this week. She’d stopped eating granola bars before leaving the dorm in anticipation of bagels and conversation. *Sure. Now stop it. I need to pay attention.*

  8

  Jason let the screen door close behind him without slamming, a feat that was harder than it looked. Once it warmed up he was going to convince his parents to replace the whole thing. He looked out into the morning, the light sparkling on the snow and smiled in approval. It was going to be a good day.

  His stomach rumbled, reminding him that this was usually when he went for breakfast with Lisa, but it was Saturday and he had no plans to venture on campus. He sat on the stoop, after making sure there wasn’t snow under his butt, and pulled out his phone.

  *Hey. Doing anything this morning? I’m hungry.*

  He flicked open his Guys and Gals profile while he waited for an answer, thumbing through to see if there were any new messages. His brothers gave him crap for having an online dating profile, but it made sense to him. People meet each other online all the time and did well. Daniel and Austin were just old.

  *I’ve got yoga class this morning.*

  The message covered the top part of his screen, but he didn’t mind until he read it. An unexpected stab of disappointment hit him. It wasn’t like they had a relationship or anything, but in the last week he’d become accustomed to seeing Lisa every day. Even when they didn’t have class they had still made an effort.

  The phone buzzed again.

  *You could come. If you wanted to.*

  Yoga?

  That wasn’t a fitness activity he’d ever tried. It always seemed a little painful, but there would probably be a lot of cute girls there. That was at least as much potential as Guys and Girls wasn’t it? And Lisa would be there, so it wouldn’t be weird or anything. Right?

  *Sure. Why not? Though if I put on stretchy pants for this, you pay for brunch.*

  *Sure.*

  Why had he agreed to do this? Jason shifted his hands, trying not to slip down his borrowed yoga mat. It smelled like rubber and sweat, and the blood rushing to his brain was making him light headed. When Lisa had argued that football players and professional climbers did yoga, this had all sounded like a better idea. A room full of women around his age sounded like a good idea too, but there was no chance to talk to anyone because everyone was busy breathing and turning themselves into pretzels. Walking miles up a steep incline he could totally do, but this was not in his wheelhouse.

  The Spandex-clad yoga instructor came to a stop behind his lifted posterior and placed her hands on his hips. It was the nicest thing that had happened yet.

  “Do you mind if I help with your form?”

  The request was quiet so as not to disturb the rest of the class or the tinkling windchime music.

  “Sure. I love form help.”

  He heard a faint snicker from his right where Lisa’s form apparently didn’t need any assistance.

  “Okay. Deep breath in.”

  Jason breathed in.

  “Now breathe out and relax into the stretch.”

  Jason blew his breath out the way he’d been instructed to at the beginning of class. She grasped his hi
ps and pulled them back and up. Agony shot up his hamstrings, which didn't want to be that flexible, and his elbows buckled, sending him sprawling face first onto the mat.

  Lisa’s face crossed his view, her expression filled with deep concern. “Jason, are you alright?”

  He flopped over onto his side feeling like some huge, worn-out fish. “I’m great. Fantastic. Superb. I’m gonna lay here and breathe for the rest of class, okay?”

  She grinned and patted him on the arm, her fingers soft against his skin. She didn’t seem to be in any discomfort at all, which was entirely not fair. “Okay, tough guy. Just lay there and breathe.” She moved back to her mat as the instructor returned to the front of the class. Jason closed his eyes, mentally apologizing to all the muscles that were complaining. Distantly he heard her murmur.

  “I bet Picard could do yoga.”

  9

  Lisa sat at the booth she was beginning to think of as ‘their’ breakfast booth, biting into her bagel and holding it between her teeth while she dug a stack of notes out of her bag. She usually waited for Jason to get his breakfast – a process that always took longer than it took for her to grab her simple choices – but she had a test in her next hour and the equations were pinging around her head like crazed fireflies. She had to straighten them out before she got to class.

  Jason scooted into his seat across from her, setting his meal down and licking ketchup from his finger before looking at the pile of notes. “Those don’t look like star charts.” He poured sugar into his coffee and popped open three creamers which he somehow managed to do without flicking cream everywhere. Lisa could never manage that and always got specks of cream on her shirt.

  “They aren’t. It’s inorganic chemistry. I have a test in an hour and it doesn’t all want to stay straight in my head, but I have got to get a good grade in this class. If I can’t get these basics down everything else is going to be awful.” She rubbed her eyes. “I get why I need it, and I can work the equations once I have them right. I just have to remember all the rules.”

  “Hrm.” He flipped his runny eggs over, mixing them into the hash browns.

  Lisa tried not to shudder. She liked her eggs solid. There was something wrong with gooey eggs.

  “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll help you with learning the rules if you agree to come skiing on Monday since it’s a holiday. Beth and I are going with a group, so you can meet new people and get out of your dorm. I already have all the passes. You might even like skiing.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “It’s faster than running if it’s winter and you’re being chased by an apex predator.”

  Lisa snorted. She’d voiced her opinion of running earlier in the week and made him laugh. Now he used the phrase every time he thought it was funny. “I don’t want to strap sticks to my feet and fall down a mountain. I tried that once. It sucked.”

  “You don’t have to fall down a mountain. Just one run down the bunny hill.”

  Lisa heard the challenge in his voice and her competitive nature stirred. “The bunny hill, huh?”

  “I did yoga. You can try skiing again. I’ll help you learn. You might even be better at it than you think.”

  “Hrm.” Lisa glanced at the papers in front of her again, running a finger across one of the explanation lines. “Okay. I’ll go skiing on Monday, but if I still hate it I’m allowed to retreat to the lodge and read books and drink hot chocolate without interference.”

  “Are you still powering through that Sanderson doorstop?” He asked the question around a bite, but without ire. They’d already had a rousing debate about the course of epic fantasy a couple days ago. Lisa loved the complexities of long sagas with a cast of hundreds and world spanning implications while Jason judged everything by his Lord of the Rings standard. In the end they’d agreed to exchange favorites and revisit the discussion later.

  “I am.” She twitched her hair out of her face. “Okay. So skiing for equations. What’s your proposal for how I’m going to remember these?”

  Jason sat up straighter, pushing his half full plate to one side and pulling his coffee in front of him. “Easy. Teach them to me.”

  “Huh?”

  He reached over and tapped the list. “If you can explain what the equations are and when you would use each one well enough that I understand it, then you’ll know you know it. I’m sure you actually know every one of these things, you study too hard not to. You just need to know that you know it. So…” He glanced at his watch. “Teach me everything you can in 30 minutes, Einstein.”

  Lisa walked out of her chemistry class, fighting back the urge to pump her fist into the air. She almost couldn’t believe how well the test had gone, and she was certain she’d done well even though the grades hadn’t come back on it yet. Every time she’d hesitated she’d thought back to Jason’s questions at breakfast and pretended she was teaching all over again. She still didn’t understand why he wasn’t doing more with his schooling than just drifting through this last semester so he could graduate. He was a smart man, so why didn’t he want more?

  She shook her head, ducking out of the way of the other students and pulling her phone out.

  *Hey…so, I guess I’ll see you on Monday morning.*

  *Congrats on the test! I’ll tell Beth and we’ll be around to pick you up at 8. Dress warm. If you don’t have ski pants I’m sure Beth has extras.*

  *Oh don’t fuss about my winter wardrobe. I’ll come up with something.* Lisa typed the words, though as she thought through her choice she wasn’t sure she actually had anything designed for skiing. Beth had been bugging her about a shopping trip for the last few weeks and she hadn’t seen Beth in almost a month. A girls’ day out would be fun. It was about time.

  10

  “So what do you think of that one?” Beth’s voice drifted over the dressing room door to where Lisa was peering at herself in the mirror. She pushed the door open and turned to her friend, holding her hands out to her side.

  “It’s very…very…purple.” Lisa sighed, pushing at the puffy purple ski pants and matching coat. “I suppose it would mean I couldn’t get lost. Where’s Lisa? Oh, she’s that neon purple monstrosity over there.”

  Beth burst into laughter, not even trying to hold it back. “You have a point. It didn’t look that purple on the rack, but under these lights it almost glows.”

  Lisa shook her head, unzipping the jacket and pulling it off. The snow gear was rated for the ski slopes, not a heated store, and after trying on four different outfits she was hot and done. “Okay. So I can mix and match, right? The purple ski pants aren’t so bad and I could put them with the white jacket, since you said the matching white outfit made me look like a yeti.”

  “A very cute yeti.”

  “That doesn’t make it better.” She stepped into the dressing room—why they had to try on outerwear in a dressing room was beyond her—and grabbed the white jacket, pulling it on. “So…is Charles coming to the skiing thing?” Lisa tried to keep the question casual. She’d meant what she’d said about not being interested in him, and she was conceptually fine with Beth dating him, but she wasn’t sure how it would feel to actually see her best friend and her ex together.

  Beth sighed and shook her head, “He’s got a conference this weekend and won’t be back until Tuesday.” She twirled her finger in the air, motioning for Lisa to spin around. “But I know a couple of Jason’s friends and one of our cousins are coming, so it won’t just be the three of us. Okay, that combination works. You aren’t either a yeti or a purple monster.”

  Lisa tried to ignore the rush of relief she felt at Charles being absent from the outing. It couldn’t be fun for Beth to be without her boyfriend. “I haven’t met any of Jason’s friends before, and I’m sure I don’t remember the names of cousins. There were a lot of them.”

  “You didn’t meet Connor. He wasn’t at the Halloween party, but he’s cool. Even if he thinks country music is written by the devil.” She threw a scarf, which Lisa caught instinctively. I
t was soft with swirls of white, purple, and blue. “You need that to go with the coat.”

  Lisa laughed, resisting the urge to rub the scarf on her face. Who knew how many other people might have done that very thing? She’d learned to wait until she’d washed new clothes to get really snuggly, but it was beautiful. “You’re spending all of my Christmas money.”

  “Hey, that’s better than spending all of my Christmas money.” Beth waved at the dressing room. “So change and get your shoes back on and let’s go look at gloves. You need to look hot while not freezing your ass off.”

  It took a little shake and some shimmy to get the snow pants off. “And why would I care about looking hot while falling down the mountain?”

  Beth snorted, flipping her hair out of her face. “Because there will be cute boys there? I’m taken, kinda, and related to at least two of them, so my flirting potential is all limited and stuff. You, however, are available and a great catch.” She paused, wiggling her eyebrows. “Unless there’s more to these morning breakfast meetings with my brother than anyone is telling me.”

  Lisa nearly dropped the handful of clothing she was hanging on the return rack, startled by the tease. “What? No way.”

  “No way?” Beth’s eyebrows raised, her lips taking on a stubborn twist that Lisa knew meant she was offended, either for herself or on someone else’s behalf. “And what’s wrong with my brother that he gets an unqualified ‘no way’?”

  “Nothing. He’s a great guy, honestly. We’re solid friends, but there’s nothing else going on. I mean I like him and such, but he’s not the kind of guy I’m looking for.”

  Beth made a dissatisfied noise, leading the way from the dressing room to a large rack of ski gloves. She waved at a smaller rack where there were knitted mittens. “Grab a pair of those for layering, then try some of these on and see which ones fit best.”