bad. I like it.” As always, except for that one slip with her brother, I use my nerd voice. This girl is way too bright.
She gives a modest smile and sips her cappuccino, loaded with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles.
She glances disparagingly at my no-frills iced latte. “That looks very plain.”
“It fits me.” I take a sip and sigh with pleasure as the bite of espresso and the smooth taste of chocolate coalesce and slide down my throat.
She leans forward, her expression both curious and knowing. “Plain’s exactly what you’re not, but for some reason you want people to think you are.”
Startled, I jerk upright. The cup, slick with condensation, starts to slip from my hands. I set it down hastily.
“What are you talking about?” My stomach jumps.
“You’re the only girl in school who hasn’t tried to befriend me in order to get to my brother. It piqued my curiosity.” She places her elbows on the table, rests chin in hands, and studies me.
I squirm. “He’s not my type. I’ve barely noticed him.”
“Oh, you’ve noticed him all right. Even with those tinted glasses, I’ve seen you follow his progress down the hall. So why haven’t you tried to worm your way into my good graces?”
Why indeed? My brain shuts down. “I’m shy,” is all I can think of.
“Maybe.” She sips her frothy drink and leans back, her gaze still on me.
“Your brother isn’t the complete God’s gift to women everyone seems to think he is.” Liar. Liar.
“That’s telling me,” an amused voice speaks over my shoulder.
Crap! Busted.
Chapter 2
I’m so going to die of embarrassment. And after he chivalrously came to my rescue when I smashed into Edgar the Asshole.
I straighten my shoulders and mumble in a rough alto, “I’m sorry, that was very rude of me after you helped me earlier.” When I first decided to change my voice, I should have gone for high and squeaky. It would have been in keeping with Fahrenbacher’s mousy image of me, but it’s too hard on the voice box.
“What happened?” Holly’s eyes widen and she leans forward.
“I collided with Edgar Fahrenbacher. Your brother came to my rescue before Fahrenbacher could turn me into his boot-licking slave,” I say with more asperity than I mean to.
I feel a lean hip press against mine as Tyler lowers himself into the booth. The warm thigh squeezing intimately against mine sends a sharp jolt of electricity through me. It takes every ounce of self-control I possess to keep from leaping over him and running for the door. Instead, I nonchalantly ease over to give him room.
Can he hear the erratic thumpity-thump of my racing heart?
“Fahrenbacher’s full of himself but harmless.” He acknowledges an acquaintance at another table with a lift of his hand.
“I wonder.” I’m good at reading people. I can sense more at an elemental level than most folks bogged down by social mores cluttering their perceptions. Beneath Fahrenbacher’s social facade of arrogance is meanness and cruelty. He bears watching.
Before Tyler can respond, three girls from my lit class come over and flirt shamelessly with him.
“Take your entourage and go away, bro.” Holly waves him off.
He grins and rises. “See you at home. Bye, Piper.”
I nod.
He ambles away, the three girls in his wake.
“Now you’ve done it.” Holly shakes her head and sighs. She throws her voice to be heard above the chatter going on around us.
“Um?” Tyler strides with a loose-legged gait to the counter. I love the way his soft, faded jeans cup his extremely pinchable butt. He and his harem place their order.
I shift and give Holly my attention. “Done what?”
“You’ve become his latest cause.”
My ears tingle. Something’s wrong with my hearing. “Excuse me?”
“Tyler’s a big believer in accountability. Now that he’s come to your rescue, he’ll view you as his responsibility.”
“I am not his responsibility nor do I desire to be.” I jab at the ice in my latte with my straw. Yeah, right. For a moment, I imagine myself as Tyler’s responsibility. A second later, sanity returns. “It’s entirely unnecessary. I’m equipped to take care of myself.” Better than most.
Tyler goes outside. The three girls trail after him. “He seems to have gotten over it.” I watch, through the glass wall, as the girls flirt their empty heads off. I immediately feel ashamed. I have no way of knowing whether their heads are empty or not. Mortification surges through me. I’m jealous.
Holly smiles knowingly. “The bro has that effect.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My belly knots. Holly Carlisle sees entirely too much. I suck down the rest of my latte and stand. “Thanks. It’s been...” My voice trails off as I try to figure exactly what it has been.
“Educational,” she suggests, eyes twinkling.
“You’re a witch,” I accuse.
“And you mean that in the nicest possible way.” Her shoulders shake with suppressed laughter.
The girl is incorrigible. I shake my head and beat a hasty retreat.
“See you tomorrow,” she calls.
I wave a hand over my head and keep walking.
He can’t have seen me with his back to the door, but before I can push through it, he reaches behind and pulls it open. Startled, I dart through. My head down, I try for inconspicuous.
“See you, Piper.”
His awareness of me catches me off guard. I don’t know what to make of it. He’s the prince and I’m the frog—or dolph-girl. I nod and pick up my pace. The girls smile in a friendly fashion. Maybe, I’ve misjudged them, never given them a chance.
Again, I have the uncomfortable feeling that his gaze follows me. As soon as I’m out of sight, I pick up my pace.
“Piper, wait.” Footsteps sound behind me.
Crap.
Why can’t he and Holly leave me alone? I want to shake my hair free, lose the nerdy glasses and clothes, and jump into the ocean, free to be myself. What can he possibly want with me? I’ve gone out of my way to be invisible and he’s surrounded by girls.
“Where
