“Not a good idea,” Brad said, a pompous expression crossing his face.
“Why not?” Ruby asked. She turned to the others. “Who’s for working at Echoes?”
“Yeah,” Ricky said.
“Cool,” Jess added.
Ruby stared at Drew, arching a brow.
“Sure,” Drew said after a few seconds.
“Right. It looks like going to the café wins,” Ruby said. Brad’s eyebrows furrowed as though he couldn’t believe the group had gone against his master plan.
For the second time. Ha.
“Okay,” Brad said, giving a loud, clearly frustrated sigh. “We’ll go for a couple of hours. Some of us can’t afford to buy enough coffee to stay for longer.”
Ruby didn’t say anything as she figured she’d done enough already. She might have changed their location, but she didn’t want to upset Brad, since there had to be some level of cooperation for all of them to get a good grade on this assignment.
They all got up to leave, and she wondered about asking Drew for a ride to the café, but he strode off ahead of everyone before she had the chance.
Drew parked his car outside the café and sat there drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, waiting for the others to arrive. He’d deliberately kept away from Ruby since the day they’d met outside of Reese’s house. Talking to her, touching her, had unnerved him. He knew she was just being nice, because that was the sort of person Ruby was. But he didn’t want, or deserve, someone to be nice. That aside, ever since his first day back at school, he’d had feelings toward her which just weren’t right, considering the situation.
He’d always liked her. And envied Blake for having a sister he was so close to. He knew things weren’t easy in their house, because of their dad, but it still beat being the only, unwanted child of two alcoholics. Not that it mattered any more. Everything had changed so much that his drunken parents didn’t even land on his radar now.
A car door slammed behind him, and glancing in his rearview mirror, he noticed Ruby and Jess getting out of Ricky’s car. He opened his door and stepped out onto the sidewalk, torn between dread and anticipation.
“Hey, Drew,” Ruby said.
He nodded curtly in her direction and then walked ahead of her and into the café. After spotting an empty, oversized booth toward the back, he made his way there, assuming the others would follow. He slid along the bench until he reached the wall—and felt Ruby sliding in beside him before he saw her. Since he’d been working so hard to ignore her, he’d expected her to sit as far away from him as possible. What the hell did he know?
She smiled, her lips cotton-candy pink with gloss, and a feeling of desire far stronger than anything he’d ever felt for Reese snaked through him. It shocked the hell out of him. Incapable of speaking, all he could do was nod in response. She’d think he was like one of those freaky nodding dog toys people had in their cars.
Once they were all seated, one of the waitstaff came up and took their order. Drew had a triple-shot cappuccino. He figured the buzz it would give him might help make the meeting more bearable.
“Triple shot? You want to be one of our test subjects then?” Ruby grinned and elbowed him gently in his side.
Drew felt his pulse speed up to double time. It seemed like he had no control over himself when Ruby was close by. Yet, he liked being near her, even if she had no knowledge of that. It wasn’t like he could ever do anything about it, whether he wanted to or not. “I wouldn’t mind. You?” he replied, forcing some semblance of calm and control into his voice.
“I’m up for it, if you are. How much caffeine would we have to drink, do you think, to see if it would affect our performance?” Ruby asked.
Performance at what? He didn’t even want to think about the double entendre.
“No one on the project team can be one of the test volunteers,” Brad interrupted. “Our job is to record results objectively. You can’t be objective if you’re taking part. Not even in the placebo group.”
Drew exchanged glances with Ruby and could see how hard she was trying not to laugh. Her eyes sparkled while she gritted her teeth and pressed her candy-pink lips together. He doubted Brad would even notice.
Drew would always notice.
After their order arrived, Brad started spouting off, droning on and on, in mind-numbing detail, about the experiment and each step they’d take. Drew’s mind drifted to when he used to spend all his free time with Blake at his house, and how they usually included Ruby in anything they did. Back then, his greatest worry had been his parents’ drinking. And they didn’t seem to drink as much as they did now. Although it could be he’d spent less time at home before the fire, so he hadn’t witnessed it.
“Drew.” Ruby’s elbow in his ribs made him start.
“What?” He scowled in her direction, annoyed that she had caught him unaware, yet again.
“Is that okay with you?” she asked, glaring at him, her eyes wide.
He frowned. “Is what okay?”
“For us to work together enlisting volunteers?” She let out a sigh, her lips in a thin line. He could tell she was losing patience with him.
“Oh. Yeah. Sure.” He could hardly say no without looking like a jerk. But working just the two of them definitely hadn’t been part of his plan. Then again, it wasn’t like they had to get into the personal stuff. There was plenty to keep them occupied with the assignment. He could deal with it. He would have to.
Chapter Seven
Ruby had thought Drew would complain about working alone with her, so she was surprised when he didn’t make any excuses to try to get out of it. And then she panicked. There was something between them, some sort of attraction, and because of the situation with Blake, nothing good could come of it. So, what was she doing engineering a situation where they would be together? She knew that Drew hadn’t been listening to Brad, which is why she’d volunteered to work with him. It seemed a smart move at the time. Now it just felt stupid. She shuddered just thinking about what her brother might say if he found out anything had gone on between her and Drew.
But despite the problem with Blake, she wanted to be friends with Drew. If only because it would make his time at school more bearable.
Drew had gone to the counter to order them both another coffee, and her eyes were drawn to the way his Gap jeans hung perfectly on his hips, hugging his slender thighs and fitting loose on his lean waist—and backside. Yeah, it was all about being friends with him out of the goodness of her heart. Right. Who was she kidding?
He might have looked good, but as he stood in line, his shoulders hunched like he was trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. He tugged at his sweatshirt hood, pulling it further over the scars on his neck in what had become a nervous habit. Every time he did it, she ached for him.
He paid and headed back to their booth, weaving quickly in and out of the tables and not making eye contact with anyone. Instead of sitting next to her, he sat opposite. Which was normal, since it was just the two of them, but she still couldn’t help wanting to be closer to him. She’d liked the feeling of his leg as it pressed against hers when they were seated side by side a few moments ago. Too much.
“Let’s get to it,” Drew said. He took out a pen from his pocket and poised it over a blank page of his notebook. She definitely wasn’t used to seeing this all-business side of him. It could be an improvement, or it could be him trying to use work as a barrier between them.
“Now suddenly you want to work.” Ruby arched an eyebrow. “Having spent every meeting, so far, away with the fairies.”
“Meaning?” He leaned forward and locked eyes with her.
Ruby’s heart did a triple flip. Keeping things in the friend zone was definitely going to be a challenge. One look into his ridiculously green eyes, and she was a hopeless cause. “Meaning, you have deliberately made little or no contribution to this project. Which, I’ll have you know, is very important for some of us.”