Make It Count(2)
She’d believe it when she saw it.
Right now, that raised-eyebrow frown pinned her where she stood. His pale green eyes behind thick black frames roamed over her shoulder to the library and then back to her. With his pin-stripe button-down, dark jeans with Converse shoes and hair styled in a short, messy pompadour, he looked like a nerdy Elvis.
His frown morphed into a smile when he spotted the smoothie in her hand, and she definitely didn’t notice his full lips. “You know, you don’t have to venture into the forbidden zone just to get a smoothie.”
Oooh. The jerk. She glanced around surreptitiously, then leaned in and spoke in a low voice. “Just play it cool. Don’t let it slip someone like me snuck in the library.” She gripped his forearm and whispered. “Password today is rosebud.”
His face blanked and he looked at her like he’d never seen her before. Kat debated whether or not that was an improvement over his other look.
But then those intelligent eyes narrowed and a smirk curled his lips. “I know. We nerds get an e-mail every morning.”
See? He always needed the last word. She propped a hand on her hip and leaned in. “Well, sounds like you have a mole. Might want to look into that.”
He opened his mouth but she cut him off. “Just looking out for you guys. Anyway, see ya around!”
Before he could shoot back a snarky comeback, Kat skirted around him and bounded down the stairs. She chalked that up as Kat 1, Alec 0.
She pulled out her phone and texted Max.
Come get me. At campus entrance in 10.
Kat stuffed her hands in the pockets of her fabulous—bought for a total steal—red peacoat, and took the long walk to the head of campus. The air was cold, that damp chill typical for Maryland. She glared sullenly at the bare trees on campus, wishing for spring, when they’d bloom again. She’d visited the campus in the spring of her junior year of high school with her parents, and everything about the university and nearby town of Bowler felt right. During her first year as a student, she’d built friendships and kept a decent reputation.
This second year was proving to be a huge pain.
Kat arrived at the large stones marking the entrance of the campus, BOWLER carved into them and painted red. She began to worry about the condition of her frozen toes until Max pulled up to the sidewalk in his old truck.
“Babe, get in.”
She didn’t need the invitation as she wrenched open the rusted door and hopped inside, smiling at him.
The first time she saw Max, he was standing on a table in the middle of a raging house party in October, fist at his mouth as he belted the chorus to “Don’t Stop Believin’.” He was gorgeous in that confident, cocky way. And he looked like he belonged on the cover of a romance novel, wearing nothing but unlaced football pants and artistically placed eye black, the right amount of sweat running down the middle of his tanned pecs.
Their gazes had met and when he winked those big brown eyes at her, flashing a wide easy smile, she was a goner.
And one of the things she liked most about him was he didn’t ask her too many questions about herself. So she didn’t pry into his life.
She wasn’t going to marry the guy. But she liked his kisses and his cookies.
“Your roommates around?” She buckled her seat belt.
“Uh, I think Cam went home for the weekend. Alec is around, I guess.” He squeezed her thigh. “You know, he’ll be busy studying like always. Should be quiet if you want to spend the night.”
She sighed and wondered if Max was fed up with her evasion of sex. It wasn’t that she didn’t like sex. She loved it, actually. And while she was attracted to Max, something was holding her back.
“Maybe,” she said.
Max sighed, and she absorbed the sting of his disappointment.
Kat gingerly placed her feet on crumpled fast food bags. Something oozed out of a damp corner and she hoped it was ketchup. The color suggested otherwise.
“I thought we agreed you were going to clean out your car.” She eyed the suspicious substance and wished she had one of those hazardous-waste trash cans from a doctor’s office.
Max snickered and nodded toward the bags. “I’m saving that for later.”
Kat wrinkled her nose and he laughed harder. Organization was key to her life. She could control that—her bedroom tidy and her calendar neatly filled out with color-coded highlighter. Of course, it was a stark contrast to the riot of chaos that was her mind. But fake it ’til you make it, right?
Max parked along the sidewalk outside of his townhome off campus and as they crossed the street, Kat tried to grab his hand. He evaded it like always and wrapped a beefy arm around her neck. She huffed under her breath. For once, she wished he didn’t act too cool to hold her hand.