Page 40 of Wish You Were Mine (Kings of Eden Falls #3)

OWEN

I hit the unlock button when I saw Lucy step out of the big yellow house, fully expecting her to slide into the front seat beside me. But instead of doing that, she walked right past the passenger door and opened the back one.

Okay…not what I was expecting.

“Hi—” I said, twisting in my seat to look at her as she climbed in. “What are you doing back there?”

She shut the door, a little breathless as she buckled her seatbelt. “I figured if anyone was watching me leave, getting in the back would be less suspicious since your car looks like it could be from a rideshare service.”

“Oh.” I let out a quiet laugh and turned back toward the windshield. “That’s actually genius.”

“I thought so.”

“Sorry I took so long,” I said, casting a quick glance in the rearview mirror as I eased the car onto the street. “Ian likes to talk.”

She smiled faintly. “It’s fine.”

We drove in silence for a moment. Not uncomfortable exactly, but not the same kind of ease we usually had when we were together. Did something happen at the party?

Or was she just not as excited to hang out with me as I’d hoped?

“So…” I said, clearing my throat, “you still up for that movie?”

“Sure.”

Okay… Not exactly the enthusiastic response I’d been hoping for.

Had something changed within the last hour? Had hanging out with all those people from school made Lucy realize that hanging out with her chemistry professor wasn’t actually as cool as she’d thought?

I drummed my fingers once against the wheel, trying to shake the feeling, and turned onto another street.

But I probably should have chosen a different way home because the sight of the sprawling mansion on the corner, with its expansive lawn and stately trees, just brought the reality of what I was doing suddenly into focus.

Because the huge brick home glowing in the warm yellow light just ahead was the president’s house.

The house where Lucy’s mom and dad currently lived.

My jaw tensed. And for an irrational moment, I wondered if President Archibald had some kind of sixth sense. Like, could he somehow feel me driving past with his daughter in the backseat?

Did he have some sort of fatherly radar that told him his daughter was doing something he didn’t approve of?

No…that was just my paranoia talking. He was probably fast asleep. Dreaming about the big donation Ian’s dad had just made to the university to help build a much-needed parking structure .

“Did you like living there?” I asked Lucy, trying to keep things casual as we drove past the big house.

“It was okay.” She followed my gaze. “Kind of strange, though, since it wasn’t really our home. Just the house the university gave us.”

“I can imagine.” I paused. “How long did you live there?”

“Only two years,” she said. “I moved into the dorms a few months after I turned eighteen.”

“And your dad’s been president for, what—five years?”

“Yep.” She nodded. “Since I was sixteen.”

Which meant that I’d been twenty-three when she was sixteen.

That one realization shouldn’t have hit me the way it did, since theoretically I’d known how old she was.

But yeah…with the different scenarios I’d had in my head for how tonight might pan out…it suddenly felt almost wrong.

“When’s your birthday again?” I asked. “You told me you were almost twenty-two, right?”

“I’ll be twenty-two in May.”

“Geez.” I shook my head, letting out a breath. I really am trying to rob the cradle, aren’t I?

There was a small pause. Then her voice drifted forward, calm and knowing. “Trying to figure out exactly how much younger I am than you?”

“Maybe.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-eight,” I said. “I’ll be twenty-nine in March.”

“So…” She did the math quickly. “You’re just over seven years older than me.”

“Yeah.”

She was younger than Callie would’ve been. And somehow that hit me harder than the age gap itself .

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel and drew in a breath, wondering—for the hundredth time—what I was doing.

“You’re feeling weird about hanging out with me now, aren’t you?” she asked. Not accusatory. Just…quietly disappointed.

“I’m sorry,” I said, glancing in the mirror again. “I didn’t mean to make you feel like that.”

“But you are feeling weird?” she asked, her voice even softer now.

I hesitated before nodding. “A little. I just…” I sighed. “I don’t want to be that guy. The one who crosses a line he shouldn’t.”

She didn’t respond. When I looked back again, her gaze was down, fingers tugging at the edge of her sleeve.

And just like that, the spark I’d been so drawn to—her fire, her lightness—dimmed.

And I hated that I was the reason for it.

I slowed the car at the next intersection, sitting with the weight of everything I wasn’t sure how to say.

“Maybe I should just take you home tonight,” I finally said.

There was a pause. Long enough for my chest to tighten.

Then she nodded once. “Okay.”

No teasing. No protest.

Just quiet resignation.

Disappointment.

And somehow, that made me feel even worse.