Sean
Four Days Later
hopped out of his jeep into the parking lot outside the university’s library, grabbing his backpack off the floor and a large thermos of hot chocolate. And not just any hot chocolate. It was the world’s best hot chocolate. His nonna made it for him after he sneaked over to his grandparents’ to pull a few weeds before he headed to the library for his study session with Blue. Still at five a.m. She was a stubborn one.
He would’ve done the weeds later in the day, but he had tests all morning, and then he had to go to work at two, delivering pizzas until eleven. People would be surprised by how many orders came in after ten.
Summers were always scorching hot in Tampa during the summer, but the early mornings had a crispness in the air he’d noticed got to Blue. She was constantly curling in on herself and rubbing her arms. He didn’t mind the short cutoffs she wore to the library last week—her legs could stop traffic. But they didn’t help keep her warm—a job he would be more than happy to add to his already full schedule. So, he’d bargained with Nonna. He’d pull weeds if she’d make her famous hot chocolate. Truth be known, he’d pull the weeds anyway, but Nonna had gotten in the habit of waking up at four lately, and would wander aimlessly, restlessly—according to Grandpa—around the house. tried popping in, but Nonna wouldn’t have it—she’d gotten restless in the mornings. Irritable. Totally unlike herself. It was weird.
But she’d given in when he told her the hot chocolate was for a girl. As soon as she discovered that, it was the extra whipped cream on top for her. Nonna was such a softie. Plus, it gave her something to do in the mornings. It was a win-win.
Well, a win-win-win, really. The third win for him was watching Blue enjoy it. His stomach somersaulted as he thought of the way her lips touched the edge of the cup, the way her eyes closed, and the little moans of pleasure as she tried it for the first time. She’d been in heaven, and so had he watching her.
He jogged across the lot enjoying the crisp morning air against his skin, and the symphony of cicadas, as his mind wandered.
The first time he’d seen Blue, on the first day of class, sitting at the back of the classroom by the door, he’d been intrigued by her. She’d been in cut-off jean shorts and a large hoodie she’d pulled up over her head. Halfway through class, the room had started to heat up, and she’d yanked it off, letting him get his first real look at her. He wasn’t sure why he’d been so fascinated but he had. He’d never met a girl that looked like she looked so intent on vanishing into the shadows—her desire to downplay her looks instead of flaunting them was refreshing. She just was what she was. Her reserve wasn’t from shyness, though she seemed to want people to think it was.
He’d kept watching her as the semester went on. She didn’t speak up often, but when she did, he could tell she was holding herself back. Like she wanted to say more but was stopping herself. It was strange, and fascinating all at once.
The longer he watched her, the more he thought everything she did was to draw as little attention as possible, from the clothes she wore, to where she sat, to what little she allowed herself to say. Problem was, she was the kind of person that was meant to stand out; smart, witty, drop-dead gorgeous—despite her attempts to hide it under baggy clothes and forced silences.
He’d learned well over the last week, with just the two of them working on the assignment, that she had plenty to say. Had plenty of bite too. He liked that.
made his way up the stairs to the library Rocky-style, punching the air at the top of the steps, before pushing inside the building. The front door made a pop-hiss sound as air passed through. His gaze found her instantly, even though she wasn’t at their study spot on the sofas, and an eagerness inside him had him picking up his pace. She sat at the computers with her back away from him, intently focused on whatever it was she was looking at.
Careful not to stomp his way over and startle her, he came up behind her quietly. He was momentarily distracted by the way she’d pulled her long, dark blond hair into a ponytail allowing him to see the delicate curve of her neck. Then his gaze darted to the screen, and the word “acquitted” caught his eye.
“Thank goodness,” she whispered, clutching the strings of her hoodie in one hand.
He came up short and he shifted his full attention to the screen.
Behind the kid stood a courthouse in Chicago, or at least that’s what the moving banners at the bottom of the newsreel read. He had an attorney on one side of him, and a woman with auburn hair and a ton of makeup on the other who was probably the kid’s mom. He had dark hair and eyes, a bandage on his jawline, and scowled at the cameras. But there was something in his expression that made pause. Hurt? Fear? Frustration? A combination of it all that he was trying to hide under an angry mask?
leaned forward, absently resting his hand on the back of Blue’s chair.
“What’s this?”
In a flash, Blue reached up across her body, grabbed his hand, stood, whirled, and had him pinned to the table next to the monitor. He was still gripping his thermos of hot chocolate in his other hand, but his backpack had slid down his arm and to the floor with a resounding thunk that echoed through the lifeless building. He had four textbooks in there.
Whoa! “Blue?” he chuckled. Well, that was the last thing he’d expected of such a slight woman. Man, she was just full of surprises.
“?” she snapped in a shocked whisper.
Then it was his turn to move. He grabbed her wrist where she was holding his against his back, ducked under her arm, spun her, and pulled her back against his chest, wrapping his arm over hers—thermos still in his hand. No way he was dropping it and risking losing its precious contents that made the girl in his arms so happy.
Blue was in his arms. Double whoa!
“Morning, Blue.” He laughed against the side of her head as he breathed her in. What was that scent? Mint? Heaven?
“? What are you doing? How?”
Right now, he was trying hard to think clearly. She pinched his wrist where he held hers as if to remind him he was holding her—like he could forget.
“Raised in a military family, remember?”
“So, getting pinned to a desk by a girl half your size, was what? Intentional?” She wriggled out of his grasp and turned on him, one brow raised. He liked her fire.
He couldn’t stop smiling.
“Nah, you pinned me fair and square. You’ll have to tell me where you learned that move some time.” The guy on the screen was being guided into a waiting car, catching ’s attention once more. The kid’s hands were in fists at his sides, he opened one for a split second, his hand trembling before he clenched it again. He was definitely scared. pointed at the screen.
“What’s this about?”
Blue turned, bumping the desk, and sending today’s 64 oz soda to a tilt. She lurched for it, grabbing it before it spilled. Girl loved her soda. She glanced at her monitor as the boy, his mom, and his lawyer ducked into a black sedan with tinted windows. She shrugged her shoulders.
“Don’t know. I didn’t get a chance to watch it before you sneaked up on me. I guess he was acquitted of murder or something.”
furrowed his brow. What on earth had that kid been doing caught up in that mess to begin with? “I don’t think he did it.” Murder was a big deal, and that kid didn’t have it in his eyes. had a gut instinct, and Gramps always told him to trust his gut.
Blue furrowed her brow, then quickly gathered her stuff, and shut off her computer.
“Your hair’s dry today,” she stated, changing the subject.
“Yeah, I didn’t have time for my morning swim.” He picked up his bag.
Her lips tilted down for just a moment as they made their way over to their spot at the sofas. He loved the way her ponytail swished back and forth, dusting her shoulders.
“But I brought hot chocolate.” He lifted the thermos.
This time, she smiled, and it lit her eyes.
“I love that stuff.”
“I know. Maybe not as much as those sodas, though.” He pointed to the cup she held smushed against her chest.
“What flavor is it today?”
“Hazelnut Pepsi,” she said.
“It was the only flavoring they had for the coffees today.” They took their seats—she set her bag down, and it toppled over letting a few things slide out.
“I still want cocoa though.”
He opened his bag looking for the plastic cups he’d brought. He found them smashed at the bottom and lifted them out for her to see.
“I guess we’ll have to share the thermos,” she said nonchalantly as she started pulling papers out of her bag. He opened the thermos and handed it to her. She took a slow sip, her eyes closing, her body practically bent in half in pleasure, even her little toes curled on top of her flip-flops. She pulled the thermos back, showing a line of chocolate over her top lip. Her tongue darted out and swiped it away in one lick, except for at the corner of her mouth.
’s stomach clenched at the thought of putting his mouth where hers had been. Then he thought of kissing her. Of kissing away that little smudge of chocolate at the corner of those full lips of hers. His body burned and he wished he hadn’t skipped his swim. Swimming was a good way to burn off unresolved tension he’d discovered this week.
“I don’t know what I’ll do after today when these hot chocolates stop coming.” She wrapped her delicate fingers around the mug, warming them probably, and gazed up at him through thick dark lashes.
Was this an opening? An invitation to ask her out? He wasn’t sure. All right, he’d drop his own vague opening and see what happened.
“You know where to find me for a top-off.”
Red rushed to her cheeks, and her gaze shot to their homework. He loved her blushes.
Without thinking, he leaned closer to her, reached out slowly, and wiped the line of chocolate at the side of her mouth away with his thumb, then brought his thumb to his mouth and sucked it off. The chocolaty taste exploded on his tongue, stronger than if he’d sipped right from the thermos. Blue’s indigo eyes went wide and she inhaled sharply. A heavy silence fell over them, and for a split second, her gaze darted to his lips.
He drew in a breath.
She gasped and turned away, intent on finding something in her backpack; shutting the window on the brief opportunity. He hoped it would come around again.
“We have a lot to go over before our presentation,” she said.
“I’m worried about the B2B section.”
breathed out the breath he’d been holding as disappointment and excitement fought for dominance inside him. It was fine. Now wasn’t the time to kiss her anyway. was a slow-burn kind of guy. He liked drawing out the anticipation. It meant when he finally did kiss her, it’d be all the sweeter. He leaned back, resting his arm over the back of the sofa.
“After the hours we spent going over it yesterday?” He clucked his tongue.
“Don’t be. The B2B is nailed. You’ll have the best one in the class. I mean, I wish I had a fraction of an idea about what I want to do that you have about what you want to do. I’ve never met anyone your age with so much figured out. It’s impressive.”
“You really think so?” It wasn’t like Blue to seek validation, but she had a vulnerability in her eyes that had him wondering if his words had had an impact on her.
He nodded.
“You don’t want to be a Marine Engineer?”
shrugged.
“I don’t know. I love the water aspect of it, but it’s not quite hitting the mark. But that’s not really the point of this assignment—to know for sure what we want to do, but to show that whatever we decide we’ll be able to get it up and going in the right way.” He pointed to all her papers.
“But just think how far ahead you’ll be than everyone else who doesn’t know like me. Yeah, you don’t need to worry. You’ve got this. And I’ve got your back.”
She froze again, then quickly faced him, brow furrowed.
“Why are you so reliable?” she asked.
He laughed—she kept surprising him.
“That’s not a compliment you hear every day.” He liked it. It felt nice to be thought of as reliable by his crush.
“It’s true though. You are.” She pointed at his chest, her eyes dipping to his pecs. Dang if he didn’t want to bust his chops in the gym just to make her look.
“Feeling guilty for making me come here every day before the crack of dawn?” he asked, nudging her with his shoulder.
She cleared her throat and set the thermos that she’d practically been cuddling for warmth down before picking up their marketing plan.
“I was looking over our notes. We really don’t have much else to do.”
He followed her gaze and nodded. If she wanted to change the subject, he’d let her.
“Let’s go over how we want to present it to the class.”
“Okay.”
He glanced at her bag where she’d dropped it on the floor—a few CDs had spilled out. Curiosity got the better of him, and he snagged them. She was such a closed book about most everything, he couldn’t resist.
The top album was The Killers—excellent choice—second down was Maroon 5—not bad—and the final band was . . .
“You like The Venturists?” He blinked at her, feeling slightly like he was in the twilight zone or something. His brother’s band had just reached notoriety for the first time in the last year or so. Of course, he’d heard Axel’s songs on the radio, but he’d never met a fan. Or at least, he didn’t know if he was meeting fans. Maybe he’d met lots and was oblivious to Axel’s fame. Shoot. That wouldn’t do. He had to be aware so he could make sure it didn’t get to Axel’s head.
“I love them! Axel’s an incredibly talented songwriter. His song Cheated and Cheated On is one of my favorites.” Her shoulders fell.
“I tried to snag tickets to their concert in Orlando tomorrow, but they sold out months ago.”
He had tickets. Axel had reserved seats for the whole family. had been vacillating on whether he’d be going or not. He had so many things he was supposed to do tomorrow. He was taking Nonna shopping in the morning, then he had a shift at work, and he also promised some of Nonna’s neighbors he’d start pulling weeds for them too.
Their Tampa neighborhood consisted of a lot of older folks who had trouble spending hours hunched over their flower beds.
Mrs. Brundidge, Nonna and Grandpa’s 90-year-old next-door neighbor, had nearly fallen in her flower bed last month. had practically dived over the hedges in his haste to catch her. Of course, Grandpa and Nonna were right behind. Grandpa had her left arm only seconds after had grabbed her right. He was fast for an old goat.
’d immediately volunteered to help her, and she offered him cookies in exchange. It was a good deal. After that, he’d somehow gotten himself roped into helping a bunch of other older folks in the neighborhood with different things. He wasn’t sure what it was about pink and purple cotton-candy-colored, curly-haired old women smiling up at him that made him want to bend over backward to help them, but one look at their delicate, papery skin, and eyes starting to fog over with age, and became a ball of mush. Malleable mush, theirs for the molding.
He’d promised to clean out a pool, fertilize a lawn, water house plants for another neighbor who was going to see her granddaughter for the weekend, and walk a dog. He’d wanted to go to the concert, but his schedule was packed. Now, however, his mind seemed to be going into overdrive. This. This was the perfect opportunity to create a window.
Could he do all the stuff he’d promised to do, and still take Blue to the concert?
Maybe if he fertilized the lawn before work? Who needs lunch anyway? And if he got up at five tomorrow and skipped his morning swim. Yeah, he could do it.
turned to Blue.
“I have tickets.”
“Really?” Her eyes widened.
“You’re a fan too?”
He shrugged.
“Sort of, I guess.” His brother’s music was good, but his brother was also the biggest nerd on the planet.
She furrowed her brows as her full lips tilted up on one side.
“The cheapest tickets they had available were fifty bucks.”
didn’t know how much the tickets Axel gave the family were, but considering they were right at the front of the stage, he would bet they were a heck of a lot more expensive than fifty dollars.
“Want to go?”
“I wish; you’re so lucky.”
This was another one of those moments where he wasn’t sure if she’d gotten his meaning or was deliberately misunderstanding him.
“I meant do you want to go with me?”
Blue couldn’t pretend now.
Her gaze shot to him, then to The Venturist CD he held in his hands. She bit her lip, and had to hold back a groan.
“I . . . I don’t know.”
She wanted to go. He could see that she did in her longing look. And suddenly, he desperately wanted her to say yes.
“I don’t really—”
“Go to concerts with friends? Or on dates?” he offered.
“There’s a first time for everything.”
Her shoulders rounded, and she glanced at their assignment.
“Let me think about it.” She didn’t sound happy.
He didn’t get it. Didn’t get her. Why was she so worried; so reserved? Why did she force herself into the shadows when it was clear that wasn’t where she wanted to be? “Okay . . .” he whispered. He didn’t want to push her. His pride—though large for an average man—could still be wounded. He glanced at their individual business plans.
Hers was much more detailed than his. When they’d first started the project, which was to identify what it was they wanted to do, and come up with a business plan, all he could think was the ocean. He wanted a job working in the ocean. He’d gone with Marine Engineer, but that still wasn’t quite right.
Blue, she knew exactly what she wanted to do. She wanted to design clothes. Had hundreds of drawings of different outfits—all ones that were intended to make a person stand out—not that she ever wore anything like that. Though, she had confided in him yesterday that she’d already made several of them.
“What was it that got you so interested in making clothes?”
She glanced down at a couple of her sketches—white paper covered in light pencil lines.
“The control.”
He quirked a brow. “What?”
“Everything about it, from conception to completion, is a hundred percent in my control. I get to pick the design, the cut, the color, the fabric. And I can change my mind as I go. If I don’t like what I’m doing, I can take my scissors to it and change everything.” She shrugged a shoulder.
“No one gets to dictate to me.”
“Does that happen a lot?” It didn’t sound so bad to him. He and his brothers had always been latchkey kids—he’d loved the discipline he’d gotten from Grandpa. It felt safe. Plus, he liked keeping busy. But he wouldn’t call Grandpa’s strict routine being dictated to.
“People dictating to you?”
A lock of her dark blond hair, loose from her pony, fell over her cheek and she blew it back.
“Not anymore.”
“Do you ever wear your designs?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“I can’t imagine there’d be much more empowering—freeing—than wearing something you made,” he said.
“The freedom isn’t just in making it, right? It’s in putting it to use?”
There she went again, looking at him like a startled doe. Those big eyes of hers went wide, the light from the building reflected out of the whites and indigo in a surreal sort of way. He’d never seen eyes so beautiful before.
He chuckled.
“You’re kind of an enigma, Blue.” He faced her.
“All right, I’m throwing in my bid. I’d love it if you came with me to the concert tomorrow and wore one of your creations.”
“I don’t—” she hesitated, her gaze honing in on one of her drawings—his favorite of them, actually—then she worried her bottom lip again.
“Don’t what?” he asked.
“Go to concerts with friends? Or date?”
“Either,” she said and bit her bottom lip.
“But you want to go?”
She didn’t respond. She didn’t need to. He just knew.
He picked her cell up off the tan couch between them and put his number in it.
“Okay, I’m going to plan on this, and wait for your call to say you’re coming.”
She nodded slowly.
Sanding his hands together, turned from her and to the work.
“All right, let’s do this.”