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Guilt floods my body as I stare at her. I left and didn’t look back after Vivian served me with divorce papers, and now I really want to change that.

“No, we can’t skip this,” I say softly. “Come on, Nina. It’s just a few minutes. Can’t you give me that?”

Her hands fist for a moment before she releases them, and she moves to sit down.

“You can have whatever you want,” she says dismissively. Damn, I guess I deserve that.

Nina sounds so much like her mother at that moment, it’s hard for me to see anything else. Pulling in a breath, I try to think of something to ask, instead of the dark vitriol that sits on the end of my tongue. She doesn’t deserve any of that.

“What made you decide to come here for school?” I ask her, pretending to take notes. I need to try to seem less judgmental orimposing. Nina is tall and now that she’s sitting, I can see that she has curves. I shouldn’t be staring at her from underneath my lashes, but I’m curious to see how she’s changed. I never would have picked her out off the street.

I’m also no longer her step-father, so what does it matter?

“The University of Lyons will open doors for me, it’ll give me a great education, and it’s far away from Mom,” she says.

I think the last part surprised her as much as it did me, because she flinches. I know there were a lot of things she wasn’t fond of doing with her mother, and they were fighting more often by the time we divorced, but I didn’t think she would run from Vivian.

“What’s your major?” I ask inanely.Dumb, so dumb.I’m going to press her for harder questions, so I may as well ask the easy ones first.

“I’m a business major with a teaching minor to fall back on in case I can’t find a job right away,” Nina explains confidently. My brow furrows as she says this, because I don’t really see why she’d need to worry about finding a job right away.

“I’m sure Vivian will be more than happy to help with anything you need once you get out of college,” I say pointedly. Nina flushes with embarrassment and a bit of anger, and it annoys me.

What am I missing here?

“So it appears you’re doing well in my class, you have perfect attendance and Dr. Adams noted here that you’re a joy to be around,” I continue.

He said nothing of the sort, but Nina seems like one of those students that would be. “What extracurriculars are you in currently?”

Forehead pinching as I keep her off balance, Nina rattles off some of the networking clubs that she’s in. Most of them are in the fields she wants to work in, and one is a club that caters toward volunteering in the community. It seems like a lot.

“It sounds like you’re keeping yourself busy,” I murmur. “What are you doing during your downtime?”

“Sleeping,” she laughs, almost exasperatedly. I don’t tend to frustrate women, so this is new territory. On the other hand, it intrigues me. Most college students are partying, especially the freshmen.

“Did I say something funny?” I ask, pretending to be confused. I watch as her fingers twitch, and she very much looks like she can’t wait to get out of here. Nina also refuses to look at me. “My eyes are up here, Nina. It’s rude not to meet the eyes of the person who is speaking to you.”

Taking a breath, she slowly looks up at me, and I can see she’s upset. These questions shouldn’t be this hard, yet she appears to be seconds away from crying.

“Now tell me what’s wrong?” I attempt to coax her. “You never had any problems telling me what was on your mind before.”

“A lot has changed since then, and I’m not that girl anymore,” she sighs. “I was late earlier because I had to take a work call about a shift change. I was arguing with my boss.”

“Why are you working along with this schedule?” I ask her.

“I don’t know, so I can live?” Nina scoffs. “If we’re quite done, I don’t think it’s appropriate for you to be asking me so many personal questions. Either change to something within your purview, or I’m leaving.”

Her tone is biting, her blue-green eyes struggling to become the same glacial color that her mother’s would turn when she’s done with a conversation, but it doesn’t quite feel the same.

“Very cute,” I mutter. “Apparently your mother is turning you into her clone. Look, it’s none of my business, but do you really want to be like her?”

“Like the woman who abandoned me for her latest rich husband?” Nina smirks cruelly. “I can say with absolute certainty that I do not want to be anything like her. Now, your time is over. See you around, Mr. Thornefield.”

Standing as my lips part in surprise, she grabs her backpack. It looks like she has all of her books for the day, and she sags for a moment under the weight of it.

Unable to keep my mouth shut, I remark on it. “You know, most people go back to their dorm room in between classes, right, Miss Sterling?”

“Isn’t it nice to have a dorm room? I don’t have one of those,” she bites back, throwing open the door and walking out of the room.