“Logan said you work at The Bookie with him, right?”
“Right.”
Logan told him about me. How nice. I would have to thank Logan for this the next time I saw him.
Doug glanced blankly around at the lockers as we walked. “It must be a boring job.
Sort of like working at the library. You have to be quiet all of the time.” Now his gaze turned back to me. “I bet you can’t wait until your shift is over, and you can cut loose and have fun.”
And there we were again, heading away from school topics and going places where you wore corsages.
“I like my job most of the time. It has its problems, but then all jobs do. And of course, working with Logan is the biggest—” I stopped myself before I added the word problem. I couldn’t let any insults creep out of my mouth and find their way back to Logan.
Instead, I smiled as though I was simply trying to find the right adjective and said, “pleasure.”
Doug cocked his head. “Working with Logan is a pleasure?”
“No one stacks and shelves the way he does. It’s one of his best talents.” With the same smile still plastered on my face, I added, “You’ll have to ask him to arrange your locker for you sometime. Really. He’d love to do it for you.”
Doug raised an eyebrow, but before he could comment about Logan’s organizational skills, or anything else, I saw my chance for escape. The girls’ bathroom was off to my left.
I veered sharply in that direction and gave Doug a wave as I did. “See you later.”
Once inside the bathroom, I leaned up against the wall and stared at myself in the mirror. I didn’t want to have to keep worrying about this type of thing. I didn’t want to have to dart through the hallways avoiding Doug. I needed a date for the prom. Soon.
I couldn’t think about anything else for the rest of the day, which is why, when school ended and I headed down the school steps, I almost thought I was imagining things.
There, standing on the school steps, looking like the angel-of-teenage-girls’-
daydreams had just dropped him off, was Josh.
I nearly stumbled at the sight of him. I caught myself before I did—which was a good thing, since I’m sure the very last way to impress a guy is to pitch yourself down a flight of stairs, arms waving and books flying in all directions.
Josh was turned sideways talking to someone, so he didn’t see my hesitancy. Another good thing. I had a moment to compose myself before I walked up to him.
And I was going to walk up to him. I was going to walk up and say something charming and witty. I wasn’t sure what, but I had a dozen steps to figure it out.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Okay, I couldn’t come up with anything charming or witty, but I was still going to stop, say hi, and welcome him back to Pullman.
Then I saw who Josh was talking to—Logan. I was half tempted to keep on walking.
Instead I called out, “Hey Josh, what brings you back to high school?”
He glanced up and gave me a grin that nearly toppled me down the rest of the stairs anyway. “I’m meeting Elise here to give her a ride to our store. She’s helping me do in-ventory today.”
Great. If I stayed here talking to Josh, I’d have to endure not only Logan but also Elise.
Still, I smiled back at Josh and stayed. That’s how good he looked.
Logan ignored me and continued the conversation he’d been having with Josh. “So who else did you see from Pullman at college?”
“Bob and I had chemistry together, and I wouldn’t have survived it without his help.
He aced all his classes. He was one of the few freshmen I knew who actually had time for socializing.”
I leaned a bit closer to Josh. “Somehow I can’t imagine you sat home every night.”
“No, of course not,” he said. “I spent every night at the library.”
I laughed lightly, and Logan raised an eyebrow at me. He was wondering why I was here, and I was wishing he would leave. I wanted him to go away so Josh could look at me softly and tell me he’d been a fool last year not to sweep me off my feet. Both of us stayed put. I ignored Logan and watched Josh talk, watched the way his blue eyes reflected the sunlight like they were two pieces of the sky.
Not only would we honeymoon in Spain, we’d buy a small villa there and spend our evenings listening to castanet music and dancing underneath the stars.
Logan said, “But then you’ve always hated biology class, haven’t you, Samantha?”
I had no idea what the conversation currently was about, and I struggled to think of a reply that wouldn’t expose this. “I have other classes I like more.”
Logan snapped his fingers. “What was that limerick you made up about Mr. Jones?
Something about him being a missing link?”
Actually the limerick said Mr. Jones was missing all of his links, but I didn’t correct Logan. “That was so long ago. I really don’t remember.” Then with a smile I added, “Mr.
Jones is really a very good teacher and a nice man.”
Josh nodded. “Sometimes the harder they are, the more you learn.”
“Uh-huh.” Logan’s eyes narrowed. “And what about that lab partner you got stuck with last semester. Remember when he set your biology book on fire? What was that name you always called him at work?”
“Adam,” I said. “His name was Adam.”
“Uh-huh,” Logan said again.
I smiled over at Josh. “So are you glad to be home?”
He turned his sky-blue eyes on me. “Sure, and getting gladder all the time.”
Was he flirting or just glad to be out of biology class? I leaned even closer to him.
“Maybe now you’ll be able to catch up on your social life.”
He let out a laugh. “More likely, I’ll get my dad caught up on every backyard-landscaping project he’s had since last September.”
Did Josh not get my hint, or was he just choosing to ignore it?
Logan, however, understood. He looked at me and then rolled his eyes like he couldn’t believe I was hitting on Josh on the school steps.
Josh didn’t notice the exchange between Logan and me. He lifted a hand and waved to someone up the stairs, then called out, “Elise, over here.”
Not only Elise but also Cassidy walked down to where we stood. And Cassidy shot me a sharp glare.
Cassidy, who always wore a saintly expression of kindness, looked like she wanted to burn down my villa in Spain.
So, it wasn’t as over for her as she’d professed.
Elise stopped in front of Josh. “What are you doing here?” and then added, “Oh, that’s right. I forgot you were coming to pick me up.”
Elise would have failed a drama class. She couldn’t even pull off acting surprised. She had obviously not told Cassidy that Josh was coming to the school, and she was feigning forgetfulness as an excuse for putting her friend in an uncomfortable situation. She smiled over at Cassidy and added, “Do you want us to drop you off at your house? It’ll be just like old times.”
Cassidy held her books closer against her chest. “No, that’s all right. It’s out of your way.”
“It’s no problem,” Josh said.
“No, really,” Cassidy said. “See you guys tomorrow.” Then she walked down the rest of the steps.
Josh watched her go, and I watched Josh watch her go. Logan must have watched me watching Josh watch her, because when I turned back to the group, Logan rolled his eyes at me again.
Josh reached into his pocket and took out his car keys. “Well, I guess we’d better not keep Dad waiting.”
Elise just sighed. “Okay, let’s go.”
As they went down the rest of the stairs, Josh looked over his shoulder and said, “Nice seeing you guys again,” but he looked at me as he said it, and he smiled. Which was a good sign, wasn’t it?
I stood on the stairs, not wanting to follow right after him—that would be awkward since he’d just said goodbye to me—and yet not really having any reason to stay on the stairs.