“I’ll see you guys at the room later?” I asked. We had planned on exchanging our gifts to each other this afternoon before Jane’s mom showed and Syd caught the train to New York.
“Sounds good,” Syd said, and she and Jane walked over to Montrose’s table/lectern area. I wanted to stick around, but I knew I’d get all the juicy details later from them both.
Besides, my man was waiting for me outside.
I nearly floated out of Bailey Hall and saw him across the parking lot. His pose was similar to that night we’d looked at the graffiti wall as he leaned against the blue car Stick had lent him. I went and stood next to him, my butt against the cold metal of the car. Together, we faced the front of Bailey Hall.
“No boobs and penises on this wall,” he said, and I knew he was remembering that night as well. He slung an arm around me, and I nestled my head against his chest, happy to stay like this for a while, even though it was cold enough to be snowing, which it probably would later.
I thought about the stark differences of our “walls”—his covered in illegal graffiti, mine covered in tasteful brick and ivy. It could be said that it symbolized the differences in Lucas and me. But both walls were beautiful in their own way.
And both were strong and sturdy, and would stand the test of time.
Somehow, I knew that Lucas and I would too.
* * *
Chapter1
I didn't believe in love at first sight, until I first saw Lucas Kade.
I was givingswimming lessons to at-risk kids at the pool on campus when I saw him. He sat on the old-fashioned observation area that was made of the same aquamarine tile, which surrounded the pool. Several rows up, he leaned forward, arms on his thighs, his hands clasped together. He was pretty far away, but I felt his gaze burning into me, watching me as I helped teach kicking skills to the four little kids assigned to me.
He wore a black Bribury College polo shirt and jeans. What looked like big work boots were on his feet, though the angle I was at didn’t give me the best view. I couldn’t tell how tall he was, but his legs seemed to go on forever. His shoulders were broad and, even leaning forward, I could see the strength in them.
I was dying to see the color of his eyes, but it was just too far away. His hair was jet black and straight, and longer than what the typical Bribury boys wore. As he leaned forward even more, the ends of his hair brushed along his jawline and I imagined how soft it would feel.
One of my students, Andy, sputtered and started flailing, his hands coming away from the wall. He went down like a rock. I calmly reached for him and lifted his little body to the surface. When I pulled him up, he looked at me with suspicion, like he knew I was watching the hot guy in the stands and not him.
He’d be right.
I patted Andy’s head and gave him a “great job” as I made sure he was grasping the wall again, but my eyes turned back to Black Polo Shirt. There was a little smile playing across his lips and I swore he quirked a brow at me, almost like he knew I inadvertently let Andy go under because I was ogling his long legs and broad shoulders.
He’d be right.
Okay, I couldn’t see for sure that he quirked a brow at me…but somehow I justknewthat he did.
My heart started beating a little faster and I tried to remember if I’d seen him on campus before today, but I knew I hadn’t. I would definitely have remembered him.
“And you’ll never forget him,”some little melodramatic voice in my head whispered.
Seriously? I don’t do thunderstruck. I don’t do voices in my head—at least not of the romantic sort. No, just your normal voices, like “would you please stop talking, you dumb bitch” while you smiled and nodded as the girl next to you in class droned on.
But this voice, in both the message and tone, was very different.
I’m no cynic, and I’d had a couple of semi-serious boyfriends in high school who I was hot for, but I don’t ever remember this dryness in my mouth, this slight tremble in my hands, as I watched a boy watching me.
“Hey, Lily, watch me,” Jessica, one of my other students, said. I turned my attention to my kids and helped them turn on to their backs.
It wasn’t my first time teaching kids to swim, but I’d always done it at the country club. There, the mothers watched halfheartedly while gossiping with each other, or flaunting their newest piece of jewelry.
A very different group of mothers sat and watched this group of kids. Some were even no-shows. There was no flaunting of any kind.
I’d been at Bribury College a month. A month of making new friends and checking out the male population and realizing that, yeah, I was probably in over my head academics-wise, but I'd work my ass off to make sure my father didn’t have anything to bitch about.
I always did what I had to do to keep the peace.
When the lesson finished, I switched the two boys in my group with the two girls in Freddy’s group at the locker room. They wanted to have integrated groups—all part of the socialization, apparently—but obviously we at Bribury played by the rules and didn’t allow boys and girls to shower together.
