3. Lucy
LUCY
L ucy was pretty sure she’d made a mistake. Allowing Elliot to walk her home and buy her dinner — albeit with his meal card instead of cash — had been acceptable. After all, it was nighttime, and despite the safety of the campus, it had been nice to have company.
Accepting his offer of help with her assignment was another matter entirely.
The idea of spending a little more alone time with Elliot had been too appealing to turn down, but Lucy wasn’t sure if she’d be able to keep her crush under wraps when it was just the two of them, alone together.
Even now, Lucy couldn’t stop replaying the moment outside her dorm when Elliot had promised to keep her safe.
Of course, he’d just been worrying about her brother’s wrath, but it was still the kind of swoon-worthy moment that belonged in romance novels and rom-coms, not in real life.
Lucy climbed the stairs to her dorm, listening to each step creak as she went, and slipped inside. Karin was already in bed, watching a show on her laptop. She took off her headphones and smiled at Lucy when she came in.
“How was the library?”
“Good.” Lucy smiled back at her roommate and set her backpack on her desk chair before flopping onto her bed. “And I think I’ve figured out my statistics report.”
“That’s great. What worked?”
“Well, my brother’s friend Elliot offered to help me.”
“Ooooh, did he?” Karin sat straighter, her eyes lighting up as she closed her laptop. “Now, remind me. Elliot is the handsome one with the blond hair and brown eyes, right? The one who’s all tall and dreamy and muscular?” Karin’s voice went a little sing-songy on the last bit.
“Um, I suppose.” Lucy felt her cheeks redden and quickly turned away from her roommate. She busied herself unpacking her laptop and notebooks.
“Come on. You have to know that he’s probably hitting on you.”
“No.” Lucy felt her blush deepening. “I’m sure he’s just being nice. He’s Dominic’s friend, after all.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Lucy could hear the smile in her roommate’s voice. “You’re gorgeous, Lucy. Who wouldn’t be into you? Anyway, I need all the drama. My boyfriend can’t come visit for at least another two weeks.”
“Really? Why?”
The conversation veered down another path about Karin’s high school boyfriend, who she was still in touch with.
He went to a nearby college but was apparently swamped with getting settled into all his classes.
Lucy listened sympathetically, but a part of her mind was still focused on Karin’s comment about how Elliot was probably hitting on her.
Lucy knew he was just being nice. And even if he wasn’t, Dominic had warned her that Elliot wasn’t looking for anything serious. Still, the thought that Elliot might be into her was… interesting.
The next day, Lucy flew through her classes.
She met Karin for lunch at the dining hall, went for a quick swim in the sports center pool to clear her mind, and then went back to her room to get ready for her study session with Elliot.
Lucy was tempted to put on a little extra makeup and a nice sundress, but it was too chilly for that, and this was just a study session, anyway.
In the end, she just washed her face, redid her hair, and grabbed her backpack.
Elliot was waiting for her outside the library with his own backpack. Today, he wore a pair of jeans with rips at the knees and his own Eastwick sweatshirt. He was leaning against a wall, but he straightened when Lucy approached and came to meet her.
“Did you encounter any ghosts last night?” he asked as they entered the library through the double doors.
“No, I was lucky.”
Elliot turned away from the main study hall, and Lucy paused. “Where are we going?”
“The study hall is a complete mess most of the time. You can hear every little noise. But there’s a quiet study room with comfy chairs on the fourth floor. We can have more privacy there.”
Privacy to study, Lucy reminded herself sternly. It wasn’t like Elliot was thinking about anything else, so she shouldn’t be, either.
“Sounds great.”
They rode the elevator to the fourth floor, where Elliot led Lucy past a few stacks of books and into a quiet alcove.
Two armchairs stood facing each other with a low table between them.
The window beside them looked out over the golden-leafed maple that stood on the quad just in front of the library.
“It feels like we’re in a treehouse,” Lucy said, setting her backpack down and claiming one of the chairs.
“Isn’t it great?” Elliot grinned as he sank into the chair opposite her. “I always like to study here. Sometimes it’s occupied, but I think most people don’t know about this place.”
“Do you and Dominic study here?” Lucy asked. It seemed best to talk about her brother plenty to remind them both of who he was to them.
“Nope. I come here when I’m studying alone. I never bring anyone here. It’ll have to be our secret.” Elliot’s brown eyes lifted to Lucy’s, and she felt warmth flood her. Quickly, she looked down at her backpack.
“Let me grab my laptop, and I’ll show you the report.”
“Great.”
Lucy fished out the laptop and opened her document, then spun the screen so Elliot could see her work. “My problem is that I can’t figure out how to make the graphs match what the teacher was showing.”
“That’s an easy fix. Your x-axis doesn’t start from zero, which is why your line looks so jagged like that. Let me show you.”
Patiently and expertly, Elliot walked her through sprucing up her report.
Lucy couldn’t help being impressed that, as well as being handsome and charming, Elliot was also helpful and considerate.
He also seemed to know a lot about the subject.
Within half an hour, he’d explained everything that Lucy was struggling with in such clear terms she was sure she’d never forget it.
“Thank you so much,” Lucy said once they were finished.
“You really don’t have to thank me. Your report was almost perfect already.
It just takes a little time to get used to the software the statistics classes use.
” Elliot sat back in his chair. He’d taken off his Eastwick sweatshirt, under which he wore a white shirt that showed off every muscle in his chest. He must be strong from basketball.
Lucy had spent the last twenty minutes since he’d taken off the sweatshirt trying her best not to be distracted by his good looks.
“Well, it looks much better now, and I appreciate your help.” Lucy bit her lip. “Maybe I can repay you for your kindness. How about something from the dining hall?”
“I just ate.” Elliot hesitated. “But I never say no to coffee from the café in the lobby.”
“I can do that.” Lucy got to her feet. “Shall we?”
As they walked back toward the elevators, something else occurred to Lucy. “How are you drinking coffee this late? I’d never sleep if I had any caffeine after about three.”
“I’ll be up a little longer,” Elliot explained. “I have a paper due tomorrow.”
“Oh no.” Lucy’s eyes widened. “I kept you when you had actual work to do! I’m sorry.”
“Hey, don’t be.” Elliot nudged her with his shoulder. It was a gesture Dominic often did, but it cued up a very different reaction when it was Elliot. “I was happy to help. And I never start papers until midnight the night before they’re due, at the very soonest.”
“How do you live like this?” Lucy shook her head.
“I like it.” Elliot grinned. “It’s fun not being responsible to anyone but myself.”
“I can’t imagine that.” Lucy pressed the button for the elevator, and the doors immediately dinged open.
“In our family, we’re all responsible to each other.
Or, at least, Dominic and I are.” Their parents tended to be a little more distant.
They were both career people who cared about work, friends, and each other as well as about their kids.
They weren’t distant in a bad way, but it had pushed Dominic and Lucy closer.
“I can see that. Dominic is very protective of you.” To Lucy, it sounded like Elliot was reminding himself of that fact.
“He is.” Lucy sighed. Before either of them could say anything else, the elevator arrived in the lobby, and they stepped out.
At the café Lucy bought a red eye for Elliot and a cup of chamomile tea with honey for herself.
They fitted their drinks with plastic lids and exited the library into the fresh evening air.
“Shall we walk around the lake?” Elliot asked. The Eastwick campus boasted a large lake with paved, lit walking paths along the banks. The lake was also home to the college’s resident flock of multicolored ducks, who were known for following students around and quacking for scraps of bread.
“Sure.”
They set off, their steps slow. Lucy kept looking around for Dominic, even though she knew he probably wasn’t going to show up.
He had an evening class on Thursday nights and should be there for another half an hour at least. Plus, it wasn’t like she and Elliot were doing anything they shouldn’t be.
They walked side by side, Lucy sipping her tea and Elliot downing his coffee in a few quick gulps before tossing the empty cup easily into an open-topped trash can.
The path along the lake was relatively empty at this time of evening, and the reflection of the setting sun against the water was lovely.
The trees hung low overhead, their leaves tinged yellow and orange and red with fall’s paintbrush.
“I always love fall,” Lucy said. “I know it’s about things ending, but it always feels like a beginning to me.”
“Let me guess. You were one of those kids who looks forward to school starting again.”
“Of course I was.” Lucy grinned at Elliot. “I dreamed of the smell of new pencils and the crisp paper of fresh notebooks all summer long. And I spent plenty of time imagining my perfect first-day-of-school outfit and planning how I was going to impress my teachers.”