Chapter 10
AN OCEAN
JACOB
I can still feel the prickle of her skin. The hum in her chest. The heat of her breath.
I can still taste the mint of her gum floating in the air between us.
Too close.
I’m getting too close.
It took everything in me to leave the library tonight, and yet, I wait in my car, parked outside in the darkness until Patience is done. I watch her climb into the back of the car she ordered and follow her through the streets of LA until it stops outside her apartment.
Just in case.
This isn’t a city where she should be trusting anyone, and yet, that’s all she seems to do.
Staying late at the library.
Taking rides with strangers.
Gripping the steering wheel, I watch her get out, and I tell myself I’m just looking after my investment. That’s all this girl is to me.
You’re lying to yourself.
This girl has been more since I read the essay she submitted for the program.
It didn’t matter what she put on the paper.
To get what I need from her family, she was always going to be accepted into the program.
Yet, there was something that had me reading it over and over again, like I needed to understand it deep in my core.
Something I couldn’t put my finger on until I met her on the plane.
Until I felt those defenses of hers firsthand.
Patience Lancaster’s mind is an ocean. Beautiful on the surface but dark beneath.
Endless.
Violent and raging deep at sea, while the beach seems at peace.
Reading her essay, I sensed it. I needed to learn more. No one thinks quite like her. She picks and pulls at threads most people don’t bother paying attention to. She’s smart, but it’s more than that.
She understands.
Patience might think I’m unimpressed. She might even think she doesn’t belong here. But she does. I’m starting to think she might belong with me.