Page 3 of Test Me

“Last week you were all about that guy on the soccer team.” Nate reached over me and swatted him.

“By the end of the year, it’ll probably be someone on the bowling team,” I chimed in with a chuckle, glad to get the attention off of my awkward moment du jour with Josh.

“I hate both of you.” Then Jesse grinned. “But do we have a bowling team? I can actually bowl!”

2

JOSH

Iwas a confident guy. Keyword:was. I was popular, I was a good lacrosse player, I didn’t suffer in the dating department. But, as I stood just inside the U’s Academic Assistance office under Logan’s unwavering, slightly confused stare, heat crawled up the back of my neck toward my cheeks, threatening to become a full-on blush.What the hell?

I cleared my throat, steeled the cowardly lions I suddenly had for balls, and held up a sheet of paper my coach had given me. “I guess I need help in physics. Coach sent me. I think I can get by on my own, but he insisted.” I couldn’t. Physics fucking mystified me. I had gut instinct and fast reflexes for objects flying through the air, so what the hell did knowing the precise velocity and arrival time matter as long as I caught the ball? “So, here I am.”

“You’re in the right place!” the woman next to Logan chirped. “I’m Alicia. This is Logan. And you are…?” Just a glance at her dangly earrings, big smile, and the red hair piled loosely on top of her head suggested a cheerful type. I liked cheerful types. Plus, her eyes weren’t trying to drill holes in my forehead the way Logan’s were.

“Joshua Pickett.” I tried to match her level of enthusiasm with a winsome smile. “So how does this work?”

“All right, Joshua?—”

“Just Josh is fine.”

“Okay, Just Josh.” She chuckled at her own joke while Logan smirked.

Then she explained the process of matching me with a tutor and coming up with a schedule, before turning aside to Logan. “Since you’re here…”

“No. Nope.” Logan shook his head vehemently. “I’ve got too many already, and Mara is better at physics than I am, anyway.”

Alicia blinked rapidly at him while I continued to stand there like an unwanted side of beef. “Two of yours discontinued tutoring last week, and you’re a physics minor. Mara’s not. This makes more sense.”

“Actually, my teammate Kevin recommended you specifically,” I chimed in reluctantly. Logan clearly didn’t want anything to do with me, which shouldn’t have unsettled me as much as it did.

I should’ve just kept my mouth shut the way his expression flatlined as he glanced at me again.

“I really think—” he started, just as I tried to let him off the hook by saying, “Mara sounds great.”

Alicia shook her head. “Mara’s got enough for the next month. Logan has plenty of room for you.”

With a beleaguered sigh, Logan stood and led me to a couch on the far side of the office. He sat and gestured for me to do the same, then pulled out his phone, flicking the screen.

“I can tell you’re seriously dedicated to helping other struggling students.” I smirked. “The joy is practically roasting me alive.”

Logan glanced over at me as I plopped down beside him, brows quirking as if I’d surprised him somehow. Then hisexpression smoothed. He tilted his head. “Should I just plan now to do your homework for you, or will you actually be showing up for our tutoring sessions,Joshua?”

Him being such an outright jerk should’ve annoyed me, but instead his prickliness was amusing. Maybe even a little adorable. “Right, okay, so this about the project that I bailed on, yeah?” I continued before he could open his mouth again and scorch me with more sarcasm. “I’m sorry about that. I don’t have a good excuse. I let the group down. I was really caught up in freshman year and lacrosse and, okay, partying too much. I fucked up, flat out. But I’m trying to do better on the academic stuff, I promise, and physics is killing me. Or vaporizing me. Or some physic-y term I don’t know. That’s how bad I am at it.”

Before Logan ducked his head away to stare down at his phone again, I could’ve sworn I saw the beginnings of a begrudging smile.

“If you miss more than two sessions, I’m going to force Mara to take you. My schedule really is tight. I’ve got Tuesday evenings, and Wednesday at noon.”

I was pretty sure it was supposed to go the other way and we were supposed to work around my schedule since I was an athlete, but I didn’t argue with him. “I think I can make either of those work. Can we just decide which one on an as-needed basis?”

“Sure, yeah, I guess that would be okay.” He made a note on his phone, then tucked it away.

“Would this Tuesday work? Say around eight?” I stretched my arms behind my head, a tendril of heat unfurling in my gut when I noticed his gaze dipping from my eyes down the length of my torso. Logan was studiously cute, seriously sexy, with his floppy dark hair and silvery-hazel eyes behind some stylish navy plastic frames. He had a sharp nose and a masculine jawline offset by kinda delicate looking lips that I kept sneaking glancesat. He wasn’t outright nerdy-looking, but maybe more like one of those super-smart tech CEOs. I’d thought he was cute last year, too, in a passive way. But I’d pretty much forgotten about him after Western Civ until that day in the caf when I’d talked to Nate while Logan’s vendetta gaze bored into me. While I considered myself bi, my bi card remained sadly unpunched, because the guys I was attracted to were few and far between. In fact, I’d sometimes questioned whether I was truly bi at all or just curious.

Until Logan.

Even right then, under the gun of his unimpressed stare, my pulse sped as I wondered what it might be like to kiss him.