Page 23 of Wish You Were Mine (Kings of Eden Falls #3)
OWEN
I pulled my apartment door shut behind me on Thursday morning, locking it with the keypad.
It was mid-January in Connecticut, which meant the air felt like punishment and the sun was mostly for decoration.
My breath fogged in front of me as I adjusted the strap of my satchel across my chest and started down the stairs from my second-floor apartment, squinting against the sharp gusts of wind that whipped across the parking lot.
Then I saw her.
Lucy.
She was walking past my building, bundled in the puffy white coat she’d worn the first night I met her. Her hood was up with her long blonde ponytail draped over one shoulder, head slightly bowed against the wind.
I froze mid-step.
I could duck back inside, pretend I forgot something, and avoid that awkward shuffle where we both had to decide whether to walk together or politely ignore each other— something I should probably do if I wanted to avoid any slip-ups like the one I had when I bumped into her Tuesday night.
But then, she looked up.
Saw me.
And smiled.
It was casual. Innocent. Just a girl acknowledging her professor on the sidewalk.
At least, that was what it was probably supposed to be.
So naturally…I read way too much into it.
And instead of heading back inside like a sane person, I made my way down the steps and toward the sidewalk so I could meet up with her just as she was passing by.
“Hey,” I said, boots crunching on the salted pavement.
She pulled one earbud out and glanced over at me. “Morning.”
“Heading to campus?”
She nodded. “Just heading to the dining hall to grab something to eat before class.”
“Nice,” I said, matching her pace. “How’s the semester going so far?”
“Pretty good,” she said, tugging her coat tighter. “I only have twelve credits this semester, so it’s been a dream compared to last semester.”
“Do you usually take more?”
“Usually,” she said. “But I only needed a few more classes to graduate. Which is good since competition season always kicks my butt.”
“I bet.” I chuckled softly. “You’ve got a full-time job just keeping your body from falling apart.”
“Pretty much.” She gave a little laugh. “Most of my classes are fine, though.”
“Even your chemistry classes?” I arched an eyebrow, trying to sound casual as I inquired about the classes she had with me .
“I mean, I had a bit of a rough start.” She glanced over at me, her expression teasing. “Totally insulted the professor. So that wasn’t great.”
“I’m sure it was an honest mistake,” I said, thinking back to that first class when she’d assumed I was a non-traditional student, wide-eyed and taking a crack at college for the first time.
“Maybe.” She shrugged, a playful smirk tugging at her lips. “But I’m a little worried he’s gonna be extra hard on me.”
“Why’s that?” I furrowed my brow. Had I done something to make her think I was upset with her?
Sure, I’d been surprised when I saw her in my class. Might’ve freaked out a bit when she mentioned her dad was President Archibald.
But I didn’t think I’d treated her any differently since that first day.
If anything, I’d probably been too nice.
At least in my head I had.
Hopefully, she hadn’t noticed the way I’d stared at her as she twisted her hair into that messy bun during last week’s lab, or how I secretly wished she’d sit in the front row of the lecture hall instead of the back just so I could actually see her face when she smiled.
“Oh, you know.” She glanced over at me, blue eyes dancing with mischief. “I just figured my chemistry professor might be a little tougher on me…just so no one suspects that I tried to seduce him into giving me an A before the semester even started.”
I stumbled slightly on a patch of ice, catching myself just in time.
Smooth. Real smooth.
“Too soon?” She laughed, clearly amused by my lack of coordination—or maybe by how hard I was trying to play it cool.
“Yeah, maybe,” I said, dragging a hand up to tug at the collar of my coat, trying not to smile.
Trying harder not to think about the truth behind the joke.
We walked in silence for a few seconds, the wind howling softly between us.
Then I said, “Also…in case you were wondering, I’m slightly terrified of your dad.”
“What?” Lucy shot me a skeptical look. “My dad is scary? That’s crazy talk. He’s like…the biggest softy I’ve ever met.”
I gave her a long, pointed look.
“Okay, fine.” She huffed a laugh. “So maybe my cute niece is the only one who brings out that side of him.”
“Yeah.” I shoved my hands deeper into my coat pockets. “When he sat by us at the meet, I about had a heart attack. I was convinced he’d somehow pick up on…something. Like if I so much as glanced your way, he’d know.”
She gave me a sideways glance, cheeks pink from the wind—or maybe from the memory of the meet. “Well, did you like it? What you said afterward was really nice. But do you actually like watching gymnastics?”
“It was really cool,” I said honestly. “I’ve watched a little. The Olympics, a few meets back at Yale…but that was my first in a while.”
“Yale?” Her brow lifted. “The bartender went to Yale?”
I chuckled under my breath. “Yeah. Full-ride scholarship too.”
“Geez.” She shook her head with a sheepish grin. “How embarrassing for Nicole and me to assume you’d never even been to college.”
I shrugged it off and pivoted the conversation. “You got a scholarship here, though, didn’t you? ”
“For gymnastics,” she said. “Academics were okay. But spending so much time in the gym and barely scraping by with my online classes…let’s just say, academics weren’t exactly my forte. Which I’m sure you already know if you’ve graded my test from yesterday.”
“You didn’t do too bad,” I said, glancing at her. “A B’s pretty solid.”
She let out a sigh. “Tell that to my dad.”
“Is he pretty tough, then?” I asked, remembering the way he’d critiqued her routine. Not harsh but definitely exacting. Focused.
We stopped at the intersection, and I hit the crosswalk button. A few cars whooshed past, tires hissing against damp pavement.
“I don’t know how much Theo’s told you about growing up,” she said, checking for traffic. “But Archibalds don’t get B’s.”
“So he expects a lot.”
“Yep.” She gave a small nod. “But it pushes me to do my best. To work hard. So I guess I can’t be too upset.”
I looked at her, noticing the tight line of her shoulders, the fatigue behind her eyes. It wasn’t hard to recognize the signs of burnout when you’d lived through it yourself—and I’d bet she was closer to the edge than she wanted to admit.
She must’ve noticed me watching too closely because she cleared her throat and glanced away.
“Anyway,” she said quickly, “Theo’s turning thirty in a few weeks. I was thinking of planning a surprise party and inviting a bunch of his friends.”
“That sounds fun.”
“I thought so.” Her smile returned. “And since you two seem to be buddies, I had this idea that maybe you could take him out for dinner or drinks that night. I’ll offer to babysit Charlotte as an excuse to get in, and while you’re out, Nora and I can decorate and get everything set up.
Then when you bring him back—bam! Surprise party. ”
I smiled. “That’s actually a pretty genius plan.”
“Thanks. So…would you be up for that?”
“What day were you thinking?”
“February twelfth.”
I pulled out my phone and swiped to my calendar, scanning through the second week of February. “Looks like it’s a Saturday,” I said. “I sometimes work at The Garden on weekends, but I haven’t made the schedule for that one yet. I’ll just swap and work Friday instead.”
“Thanks,” she said, her breath puffing visibly in the cold air. “That would be amazing.”
We were almost to the intersection where I’d need to veer right for the science building. She was headed to the dining hall in the student center. Our impromptu walk was coming to an end, but she slowed slightly, like something else had occurred to her.
“Hey…do you happen to have the numbers for Theo’s friends?” she asked. “Maybe Miles and Bash? Anyone else you think he’d want there? I was hoping to text out the invites soon, but I don’t want to be suspicious and ask Theo for a ‘friend list.’”
I nodded. “I can send those to you. I should have a handful of numbers at least.”
“Perfect.”
We both paused at the edge of the sidewalk, a little awkwardly, realizing at the same time what that meant.
“I, uh, I guess I’ll need your number to do that,” I said, glancing around instinctively as I pulled out my phone again.
No one seemed to be paying attention—just a stream of students rushing past us, bundled in coats, backpacks bouncing as they crossed toward their respective buildings.
“Oh, right. Of course,” she said, fishing out her own phone.
“So…what’s your number?” I asked, thumb poised to enter it.
She gave it to me, and I typed it in, then fired off a quick message:
Me: This is Theo’s bartender friend.
Her phone buzzed a second later, and she looked down at the screen, a tiny smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
I saved her contact info under the safest thing I could think of: Theo’s sister.
She peeked at my screen as I tapped it in. “Nervous one of the other professors will see your phone in the faculty lounge?”
“I might be slightly paranoid,” I admitted, pocketing it again.
She gave me a knowing smile but didn’t press it.
I glanced to the right, toward the science building. “Well, I gotta go this way.”
“And I’m headed this way.” She nodded, motioning to the left.
“I guess I’ll see you in the lab this afternoon.”
“Yep.” Her smile tilted playfully. “Can’t wait.”
I watched her go for a beat, wondering if that had been sarcasm because chemistry definitely wasn’t her favorite subject. But who knows, maybe there was a part of her that looked forward to it for the new reasons I did.
I sat at my desk near the back of the lab, pretending to review quizzes while doing a truly pathetic job of not watching Lucy Archibald.