Scarlett smiles at my mom, but I can see the stiffness in her shoulders. “I’m not that interesting, Mrs. Price,” she protests weakly.
My mom waves her off. “Nonsense. Nico clearly being smitten with you makes that impossible.”
“Christ, Mom,” I groan with a wince.
She ignores me. “And none of thatMrs. Pricenonsense. Call me Stephanie.” Leaning forward, excitement shines in her eyes as she clasps her hands together. “Tell me something about yourself, dear. What do you do?”
I stiffen just as Lucas chokes on his beer.Shit.I should’ve anticipated this happening.
But mostly, I hate the way Scarlett’s panicking. If I couldn’t read her as well as I can, I might not have noticed, but it’s obvious to me.
“I, uh?—”
“Scarlett’s in college,” I interject quickly. Not just because it’s my favorite pastime to remind Scarlett how smart she is, but also because mentioning academics is the easiest way to get my mother, the teacher, talking.
Sure enough, she perks right up. “Really? Where? What are you studying?”
The tiniest bit of tension releases from Scarlett’s shoulders, but it’s enough to make me breathe easier. “Um, I’m studying psychology online at ASU,” she answers with a tremulous smile.
“Oh, they have a great liberal arts program.” My mom nods along. “And psychology, that’s amazing. Why did you pick that?”
Scarlett shrugs. “I guess I just like knowing why people do the things they do.”
Lucas snorts from his place across the table. “When you find out, let me know. It would make my job a hell of a lot easier. What year are you in college?”
There’s only a beat of doubt this time before she answers. “Senior. I didn’t start until I moved to New York, so I had a two-year delay.”
Lucas frowns. “But Nico said you’re twenty-two. You’re finishing your bachelor’s in two years?”
A self-conscious shrug this time. “Two and a half.”
He’s laser focused on her now, his curiosity piquing. “Do you know what you want to do with your degree?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” she says quietly, taking a sip of her water.
“Have you ever thought about law? If you can get through a liberal arts undergrad that quickly, you’d probably kill it as a paralegal.”
To my surprise, Scarlett says, “Briefly. Never say never, but legalese doesn’t really interest me.”
He huffs a laugh. “Fair.” Then more to himself than to her, he adds, “I almost wonder what you’d score on the LSATs.”
I see the split-second debate that starts in Scarlett’s mind. She wants to say something, but her natural reaction is to hold back.
I’m waiting with bated breath, not just to hear what it is, but hoping she’ll decide to say it out loud instead of having me nudge it out of her.
A big part of me wants to cheer when she steels her spine and says, “One seventy-one.”
You could hear apindrop around the table.
Because we all know that despite his jokes, Lucas is insanely smart. And even he didn’t score that high on his LSATs.
“You scored aone seventy-one?” he asks, gaping. “What, just for fun?”
Scarlett shrugs again, a proud smile tugging at her lips. “I wanted to see if I could do it.”
Fuck,she’s impressive.
I wish I could kiss her.
