by Piper Lawson
He drags my face up to his and kisses me, long and deep.
“That’s for crashing my party.” Sawyer’s thumb brushes my lower lip, as if he’s tracing the path of his mouth. “I missed you tonight, too.”
My heart kicks in my chest, because the confession feels like so much more.
“You want to stay for a drink?”
“Just had one,” I say.
His mouth curves. “You know what I mean.”
But I can’t. We both know it.
I need to go back to my world and he needs to stay here in his.
He walks me downstairs and I take the telescope.
“We used to look at the stars with that,” Sawyer says.
My chest aches. “Really? I can’t—”
“Take it.” He pushes it into my grip, closes my hands around it. “Build something amazing.”
When I get back out to my team, Adam’s on his phone and Madison’s pacing.
“What the hell took so long?” Royce demands.
I cut a look at Madison, but she’s facing away—on purpose or by accident, I’m not sure.
“We found something else we needed.” Adam holds up a rake.
“Where’d you get that?”
“Across the street.”
I look over toward Daniel’s house. “That one?”
“Yup.”
Crap.
“Did he—they,” I amend, “see you?”
Adam smirks. “Nah, we’ve got mad skills, Liv.”
The front door opens, and Daniel’s there.
“What are you…”
He spots the rake in our hands.
Then pulls on shoes and comes after us.
“Do something!” Madison hisses.
“You do something!” I retort, because he’ll recognize me.
Madison flashes him.
I can’t believe it.
We’re laughing the entire way to my car.
“Thanks to you, we’re way behind,” Madison says, breathless, when she catches up. “We have an hour to get back to campus.”
The sixty minutes are a strange kind of bliss.
We drive around town, grabbing whatever we can, being young and alive.
It’s a different kind of freedom than I felt with Sawyer. With him, I still felt safe to explore because I knew he had me.
Here, it’s only us.
When I notice the time, I grab Madison’s arm. “We have fifteen minutes to get back!”
“We can’t get the last item.”
“Yes, we can.”
I run back to the car, and Adam’s in the driver’s seat.
“Get in,” he hollers.
We do, Madison and Royce piling into the back and me leaping into the passenger seat. I’m still grabbing for my seat belt when Adam peels out of our spot, racing down the street.
“Glad you came?” he demands.
“Only if we get back in time to build our tower.”
“Better than being yelled at about basketball.”
“By your coach or your dad?”
“Both. Coach wants more of my time. Dad wants me to quit.”
Empathy rises up, and I shift in my seat.
I kick something in the passenger side and bend to pick it up.
It’s a bottle of liquor.
Numbness washes over me. “Adam? What the fuck is this?”
“Slow down!” Madison yelps.
I brace against the glove compartment with one hand, still fishing for the seat belt with the other.
Two tiny glowing orbs light up the road in front of us.
A cat? A dog?
My throat tightens. “Adam! Look out!”
He swerves, his hands jerking on the wheel.
Too late.
Tires screech.
Lights blind me from my window.
The crunch of metal and plastic sounds like it’s coming from inside my head.
The world slams into me.
Everything goes black.
17
Sawyer
“They’re interested in putting in an offer,” the realtor murmurs at my back.
“A productive evening.”
The soft hand on my arm has me looking up from where I’m staring out the front window, watching the last of the people leave.
“You disappeared for a long time after you told me not to let anyone upstairs.”
“Had to attend to something.”
A young woman in black leggings sucking me off from her knees.
I made sure no one was going to interrupt us, but didn’t need Olivia to know that.
“Tonight doesn’t have to be over.” The realtor eyes me appreciatively.
“You’re clearly very good at your job, and you’re an attractive woman, but there’s someone in my life.”
“Is it serious?”
She made me promise no feelings.
Promises are made to be broken.
Especially after what went down an hour ago.
“Yeah.”
The realtor sighs. “I figured. It’s too bad she couldn’t come tonight.”
She did.
The other woman nods to the bowl of apples on the foyer table. “Can I take one for the road?”
“Help yourself.”
All I can think about is the girl who came in here tonight like a punk.
Until she arrived, it was a boring evening with boring people. I actually imagined her here with me more than once.
When she appeared, face flushed with guilt and longing, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
I never got anything I wished for before.
I needed her to admit she couldn’t stay away from me, either.
She should’ve been at my side downstairs, making comments under her breath and straightening out-of-place decor and blushing every time she looked at those apples.
“So is she moving to New York with you when you go?”
The question throws me.
I never let myself hope for more, but now…
She’s not a kid. She’s an adult, and not only because of what we did upstairs.
Olivia helped me prepare for tonight. She’s mature enough to make her own choices.
My phone rings and I grab for it when I see the name on the screen. “Hello? Olivia?”
The realtor’s eyebrows rise.
“Sawyer.” Her voice is panting. “We were driving back to campus and it happened so fast.”
Every muscle in me tightens. “Are you hurt? What happened? Where are you?”
She gives me an intersection. “The ambulance is here. Adam was driving. He was…I think he was drinking.”
Fuck.
I watch my words when I hang up. “I have to go.”
Jaw set, I head outside and get into the car.
A ten-minute drive never passed this slowly. My knuckles turn white on the steering wheel.
When I arrive at the scene, they’re loading her car onto a tow truck. Not one but two police cars and an ambulance are there, sirens blinking.
I wrench the car to the side of the road and leap out, leaving the door open.
I spot Olivia first, her hair a mess and eyes round with shock.
“What the hell…” I start.
I want to drag her into my arms but I have to shake myself. I can’t. Not here in front of Madison and Royce, hanging their heads by the curb.
“What’s going on?” I demand of the officer nearby.
“They were street racing,” he replies.
Not drinking and driving.
I see a breathalyzer apparatus in one of his hands. They must have checked Adam and he must have passed. I feel an ounce of relief, but nowhere near enough.
I might be reckless, but this is inexcusable.
“Where is Adam?”
She nods to the ambulance. “He hurt his arm on impact.”
Sure enough, I can see paramedics working on someone in the bright lights of the vehicle.
“Somet
hing ran in front of the car. A deer, I think.”
“How fast were you going?”
Olivia turns away but Madison answers.
“Pretty fast. We hit another car. Everyone in it was okay.”
I turn back to the officer.
“They weren’t street racing,” I force myself to say. “It was an engineering event.”
“And you are?”
“Sawyer Redmond. Professor Sawyer Redmond. These are my students.”
“This was a school initiative?”
My throat is tight with disgust. “An unsanctioned one.”
The officer pulls up his belt. “We need to finish our investigation. There may be criminal charges pending.”
“They’re kids. They were stupid and careless.”
In the corner of my eye, Olivia pulls her knees tighter into her chest.
“Just a moment,” the officer says, departing to speak with a colleague standing at the flashing cruiser.
“What were you thinking?” I hiss at all of them, but my gaze is locked on Olivia.
Madison is the one who answers, her voice shaky. “We were going to miss getting back to campus by the deadline.”
I rub a hand over my face, catching sight of Olivia’s wrecked Audi being loaded onto a tow truck bed.
Unbelievable.
They could have been hurt, or worse.
I could have lost her over some idiot prank.
I never got any handouts in my life. These students have had everything they could want—money, opportunity.
This is a lesson they need to learn.
Royce’s face is downcast, his fingers drumming on his knee shakily. Madison rocks back and forth. And Olivia’s got a blanket around her shoulders.
I start to turn away, but see a dark splotch on Madison’s temple in the streetlight.
“Are you hurt?” I grab her chin and tilt her head.
“It’s a scrape.”
“Anyone else? Olivia?” I turn to her.
She shakes her head slowly, but when she moves to re-wrap the blanket around her shoulders, I spot a rip in the side of her shirt—the one I hung onto a few hours ago.
When the officer returns, I wave him over. “They need medical attention.”
“Medics are finishing up with the other kid, said everyone was okay—”
“Then why is there blood on them?” My voice rises.
Adam appears, his arm bound in a sling as he shuffles over. His face has scratches, possibly from the impact of the airbag deploying.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” I grit out. “You let them go home—all of them. You need any more statements, you can get them in the morning.”
“We’d rather take them tonight.”
“They’ll sleep in their beds tonight. They’ve had the living shit scared out of them, and by the looks of them, worse than that. You think I’m up your ass, you have no idea what kind of a stink their parents are going to cause.”
We head to my car without waiting for an answer.
We’re halfway there when Royce blows out a breath. “Professor Redmond, that was—”
“Shut up.”
“Wait.” Olivia cranes her neck to see the tow truck starting up. “I need to get stuff from my car.”
“Leave it,” I say, exasperated, but Olivia runs back in that direction, speaking to the driver.
The other students follow her and she passes out the items they borrowed for the event. They pile into my car, along with half a dozen tools, toys, and my dad’s telescope. Olivia shifts into the back between Madison and Royce. Adam takes the front, sliding in gingerly to avoid hitting his arm.
“Doesn’t look like you’ll be playing basketball for a while.”
He doesn’t answer.
We drive in silence. I sneak a look in the rearview mirror; the streetlights run over their faces in the dark.
Olivia looks shaken and guilty and too damn young, her arms wrapped around the telescope.
I focus back on the road. “That rake looks like the one my neighbor Daniel has.”
Madison shifts lower in her seat.
Olivia’s gaze flicks toward her, the first sign of life. Adam coughs and Royce grumbles.
I did all I could by coming down here to get them.
It doesn’t feel like enough.
Why the fuck doesn’t it feel like enough?
My hands clench and relax on the steering wheel.
“When I did Black Build, we came in last, even though we had the tallest tower.”
Someone in the back seat shifts.
“Why?” Royce asks.
“We weren’t allowed to use anything...borrowed.”
“But now you’re encouraged to. There’s no way to get full marks if you don’t.”
Madison this time.
“You could’ve taken the stolen stuff out.”
Olivia’s voice is barely more than a whisper, but the knot in my chest releases a degree.
“That wasn’t the point.”
Streetlights pass, illuminating rows of tidy, expensive houses that line the streets bordering campus.
“Build it anyway,” I hear myself say.
Royce straightens. “It won’t count.”
“You’re engineers. You don’t build things because someone offered you points to do it. Build it anyway.”
They exchange looks.
“We have all the stuff,” Royce concedes.
Olivia nods. “We’d just have to stash it somewhere for the night otherwise. What do you think?” She reaches for the good shoulder of the kid sitting numb and silent in the seat next to me.
He doesn’t acknowledge for a long time.
But finally he nods.
18
Sawyer
“Why is my rake in the middle of a statue?” Daniel demands during our run through campus early Monday morning.
I lift my phone to take a picture. “You’re part of history, my friend.”
I send the image to Olivia.
Sawyer: Looks good in the light of day.
Cherry: Better than me.
Sawyer: How are you feeling?
Cherry: Like I was in a car accident.
Fucking Adam. But she had to file reports and is waiting on the insurance company’s valuation of the damage.
Still, being there for them was the right thing to do.
I was pissed at all of them for being reckless. Was that what my father felt like with me?
I hated that I couldn’t grab her by the arms and shake her, tell her she was insane.
Kiss her to make sure she was all right.
Sawyer: Stop by after your midterm.
I haven’t seen her since I dropped them off here Saturday night to work on their tower. I need to see for myself that she’s unharmed.
Cherry: You’ll see me in class.
Sawyer: Insufficient, Miss Barclay. I’ll get lunch. With chips. We’ll eat in my office.
“Any action on your house?” Daniel asks as we head across campus, him to his office, me to mine.
I pocket my phone. “An offer came in, but we can do better.”
“But if you close during winter break, you can leave by next year. Unless you want to stay and you’re looking for excuses.”
“Of course not. The plan is to leave at the first opportunity. In six months, I’ll be building something new. Leave all this behind, go back to my life. Friends in New York.”
Strange that I don’t miss New York much.
“You want to walk away from her like nothing happened.”
No. I don’t want to walk away from her at all.
Seeing her in an accident scared the shit out of me, because it made real the possibility I could lose her.
I love having her around. I want to protect her. Be with her.
I think she wants the same thing. But I need her to admit it.
I collect my belongings from my office and head to class.
Olivia’s there, and
every time I scan the students, I linger an extra beat on her. It’s instinctual, I can’t stop it.
She’s got a bruise on her face and I want to erase it.
Or kill the kid in the row behind her wearing a sling who keeps sending her looks like he’s sorry.
I grip the marker so hard it’s a wonder the thing doesn’t explode all over the whiteboard.
When I ask a question about circuits, Liv’s hand goes up, and Madison’s.
“Adam. I’ll spare you the discomfort of raising your hand, but assume you have an answer.”
He straightens in his seat, looking at his papers. “Ahh…”
“Any day now.”
“I’m not sure.”
“You want to live dangerously, incompetence isn’t the way to do it.”
I turn back to the front.
After the lecture, I’m cleaning off the whiteboard when motion at my side has me looking over.
“Are you okay?” Olivia wipes off the second board, pressing up on her toes to reach the top. “That was harsh.”
I drop my eraser and step closer to inspect her face. “This must hurt.”
“Only a little.” Her hand wraps around my wrist, and that small contact grounds me. I huff out a breath.
We’re in the middle of a classroom.
I lower my hand.
“So now you’ve seen me. Does this mean I don’t need to come to your office, Professor?” she teases.
“Not a chance.”
I watch her leave, the sway of her hips calling to me.
Yeah, I’m gone for this girl. And I need to know she feels the same.
When I get back to the department, I notice that the elevator’s operating.
About damned time things were going right around here.
“Mother trucker…” comes a female voice from the staff and faculty kitchen.
I poke my head inside the door where Betty’s wrestling with the coffee maker.
“Takedown at the ten-yard line?”
“Something like that.” She grimaces as she stabs at the “start” button. The machine offers only stubborn silence. “It probably needs cleaning.”
I wave her off and set to work.
A couple of junior faculty come in the door, groaning when they see the state of the coffee maker. “Five minutes,” Betty promises.