Page 71

“Oh, they’re cute.” Neither suitemate asked anything else, and she breathed a sigh of relief, glad her moment in the spotlight had passed.

She started back to work the night before her first class began. Thankful and yet disappointed to learn she didn’t share the shift with Logan, she went through the motions, more distracted than paying attention to what she was actually doing.

When the next day began, she was up early and ready for some good hectic chaos, which she got. Her new schedule was much tougher this semester. But it still didn’t keep her mind from straying at the most inopportune moments, like the first Tuesday her grief group meetings resumed. She was so preoccupied about seeing Logan again she was lost in her own thoughts as she hurried down the front steps of Grammar Hall to the exit.

Einstein popped out from behind the staircase. Paige screamed.

“Oh my God.” She closed her eyes and waited for her heart to settle. “I swear, Einstein, you just scared ten years off my life.”

“Where’re you headed?”

“My grief group.” She glanced at her wristwatch, knowing she didn’t have time to small talk. “It starts in five minutes.”

His shoulders deflated. “That’s right. It’s Tuesday, isn’t it?” His depression tugged at her sympathies and reminded her it had been a while since she’d hung out with him. Suddenly remembering his story about his mother—though she still didn’t believe it—she said, “Hey, why don’t you come with me? You could talk about your mom.”

Instead of brightening, his scowl grew darker. “I don’t need a room full of strangers picking at my brain, telling me what I should and shouldn’t feel. I’m not a freak.” Brushing past her so hard he actually knocked her back a step, he rounded the staircase and hurried up to the second level.

Startled, Paige gaped after him. Well, okay, then. He must think she was a freak, then, because she did need help. She made an immediate note to herself never to mention counseling or group therapy to Anthony Morris again.

When she slipped into the Crimson Room five minutes later, she scanned the circle until she spotted Logan. Though his back was to her as he spoke to some guy who’d lost his sister in a car accident, he reached up and touched the back of his neck before he turned and looked directly at her.

Longing swirled in his gaze, and suddenly she couldn’t breathe.

This is bad, this is bad, this is bad.

Jerking her attention from him, she jumped when Sam descended upon her. “What happened? Were you in an accident?”

Paige had no idea what she meant until Sam winced and brushed her fingers delicately across Paige’s cheek.

Gritting her molars hard, Paige silently cursed that stupid shiner. After three weeks, the cut had healed and was barely noticeable, but the bruise had gone through every color of the rainbow already. Though it had faded a lot, it just wouldn’t disappear.

“Oh, I tripped over a laundry basket in the dark one night when I was trying to find my way to the bathroom.”

Holding her breath as she spilled out the lie, her gaze unconsciously sought Logan. By the way he watched her, she knew he’d heard her story. His lips tightened with disapproval, but he said nothing as he turned away.

And he wouldn’t. That was just the kind of person he was.

Glancing away, she focused on the group leader just as Samantha clapped her hands and called the meeting to a start.

After going around and sharing what they’d done for their winter break—Logan quietly passing his turn, and Paige merely saying she’d spent it with her dad—Sam cleared her throat once everyone had gotten a chance to share. “All right, let’s have a cancer center visit report from—” she checked her schedule “—Jamie, Paige, and Logan.”

“Oh my God.” Jamie gasped, slapping her hand against her forehead. “I totally forgot about that.” She turned toward Paige who sat beside her. “I’m so sorry I didn’t make it. I owe you big time.”

“It’s okay,” Paige said, waving her apologies aside. “We managed.” Glancing across the circle toward Logan, she grinned. “Just the two of us. Though, a warning: don’t open the old wooden trunk sitting against the wall. It’s only there for looks.”

Logan held her gaze a moment, his eyes glittering with amusement. As if on cue, her body lit up, her nerves tingling out of control with an overdose of awareness.

He gazed back, blue eyes going heated. She knew he was remembering the same exact moment from that day that she was.

Clearing his throat, he glanced away and flushed. “Yeah. The trunk is a definite taboo.”

Paige turned away too, guilty and yet giddy. She couldn’t control the stir of excitement swirling through her.

“Well,” Sam encouraged. “What happened? Stand up, you two, and share.”

Together, Paige and Logan dragged themselves upright and met in the middle of the circle. Facing Samantha, Logan scratched the back of his neck as Paige gripped her hands at her waist.