Unspoken(44)

When I did, he dropped down close beside me and stretched his legs out, throwing his notebook on the floor. His large thigh was only a palm’s width away. I knew the exact measurement because my hand was resting on the bench between us, and if I moved my pinky just slightly, I could be stroking the denim covering his leg. His hands were braced on the back of the stone bench, giving him a lazy, comfortable appearance, as if he was lounging in the grass instead of on a stone bench. “Thanks for saving me.”

I glanced at the empty doorway through which our resource had disappeared. “Aren’t you supposed to be pumping a worker here for information for our lab project?”

Bo rubbed his forehead. “I’m all for doing the least amount of work for the most amount of gain, but I’m not up for selling myself for a good grade.”

“Was that what was on the table?”

“I think we were headed there before you got up here. I barely was able to text you my SOS message.”

“What’s our plan now?” I asked.

“Don’t know. I spent my time fending off Marissa.”

“I’ve some ideas.” I opened my own notebook. “Professor Godwin is into disasters. Last year he had people write about weather-related apocalyptic events. This year he started class with a lecture about how we’re all going to die.”

“So we do some crossbred plant that would be a hardy food source and maybe something that would be a tradable commodity, like a sugary substance.” Bo offered. He smiled approvingly at me. “We do think alike.”

This time it was my turn to rub my forehead, but I was doing it to hide my surprise. Bo’s attention to this project was serious.

“You’re surprised, aren’t you? Why?” Bo asked, nudging me.

Because you’re too good-looking to be a serious student, I thought but didn’t say out loud. Instead I gave him a vague truth. “It doesn’t fit the image I have of you, I guess.”

“Think about me a lot, do you?”

I hoped I wasn’t blushing because I had thought a lot about him; I’d fantasized about him. Although my cheeks remained pale, my silence gave me away, and Bo’s response was a wicked grin. He winked and said, “Probably not as much as I’ve thought about you.”

This response did send blood rushing to my cheeks. I mentally slapped myself. Lots of guys thought about me, I’d learned early on, and none of it was good. Mercifully, Bo did not mock me further but instead reached down and picked up his notebook and flipped it open.

“So stevia and soybeans are both plants that grow well in the Midwest. Together they’d provide a filling bean that could be ground for its sweetness.” He showed me a sketch in progress of two plants, one leafy and one with bean pods.

“You draw?” The sketches were in fairly good detail.

“Again with the shock and awe.” He shook his head at me. “Anyone can draw a leaf, Sunshine.”

“What’s with the sunshine?” He kept using it like he didn’t know my name.

“What’s with the honey buns? You couldn’t think up a better nickname than that?” He gave me a sideways grin. “Besides, I thought I was Thor?”

“Like sunshine? How many girls have you called that?” I scoffed.

“None.” His expression turned serious.

“Oh.”

“There’s an art to nicknames,” Bo began.

“And you’re going to teach it to me?”

“Can’t really be taught. It’s just an innate skill. Although yours is so obvious I can’t believe no one else has called you that.”

I shrugged. “AM is my nickname. Short for AnnMarie.”

“I know, but the logical extension is sunshine because AM is a good time—” Bo stopped and then corrected himself. “AM is a time designation for the morning.”

“Were you going to say ‘good time in the morning?’” I shook my head at the brazenness of his explanation.

Bo gave me a wry smile and replied, “I think you’d hit me if I told you what I was about to say, and you’d probably be justified in doing so.”

It was a clear warning, yet I thoughtlessly charged ahead anyway. “I thought you were a fighter?”

My poke was met with a slight widening of Bo’s eyes. His face took on an expression I couldn’t decipher, but I thought might be excitement.

“Since you put it that way, I’m just making an assumption here because I don’t know you well enough. Are you a good time in the morning? Because that’s one of my favorite times of the day.”

“By the speed at which you left the other day, it seemed like you weren’t interested in seeing how I looked in the morning.” It was a reckless reference to our sleepover.