The Newcomer (Thunder Point #2)(75)

“Isn’t there anything closer?”

“There are lots of good universities that are closer, but I want to go to the east coast. There’s a lot out there I haven’t experienced—museums, libraries, galleries, theater, observatories. Not only does Harvard have a lot to offer but the whole area is a cultural mecca. Not to mention—I just want to spend some time in New York City. And D.C. I’ve never seen the monuments. And the National Air and Space Museum. I guess you already know—I like space and numbers.”

She was mesmerized. “You are going to be Bill Gates....”

He chuckled. “Bill Gates is taken. I’ll just be me.”

“Would you drop out of college?” she asked, thinking of Gates.

“If I had ideas that were bigger than what I could get in college, I might. That hasn’t happened yet. And I don’t see it happening soon. I’m more excited about the classes I’ll get to take than the prospect of getting out of school and making money. I have a long way to go.”

“You don’t have as far as everyone else,” she pointed out. “Show me the constellations again,” she said, leaning back and looking up.

He leaned back. “See the Big Dipper? Ursa Major. And right across from that is Cassiopeia—the Lady in the Chair. See it? Shaped like a W. And see the North star? The last star in the handle of the Little Dipper.” And then two burning stars shot across the sky. “Whoa,” he said. “Nice.”

“Make a wish,” she said.

“Don’t I get two?” he asked. “There are going to be more. It’s the perfect night for it.”

She laid back on the porch, her legs hanging down the stairs. “I love summer nights in Thunder Point. Tell me what you want to see in Boston, in New York.”

“Everything—revolutionary landmarks all over New England. And there’s the Museum of Fine Arts, the biggest art museum on the east coast. The Freedom Trail. Fenway and Boston Harbor.”

“Fenway?” she asked with a yawn. “So you are a baseball fan?”

“You don’t grow up a Downy without being constantly immersed in sports. I’m not as obsessive about spectator sports as everyone else, but I enjoy them. I’ve never been very athletic, but I like to sail. I have a friend who has a small sloop and we’ve taken it out on the ocean when the weather is decent. I like biking, which is probably a good thing since there’s no way I’ll have a car in college. In fact, I wonder if I can get a messenger job—that could be fun, biking through traffic, not that a good old Oregon boy knows much about real traffic. There’s a great observatory at Boston University. They have nights open to the public and seminars. That’s Coit Observatory. Harvard has a great observatory, too—and the Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Did you know it was founded in the eighteen hundreds?”

A soft snore answered him.

He chuckled and laid back, watching the sky. “Big surprise, I put you to sleep. Don’t feel bad. It happens all the time. And I didn’t even get to New York or D.C. yet. My mother says you should never ask me a question. If you visited me at Harvard, there are about a million things I could show you. We’d take the train to D.C. and spend a whole day on the mall, go to all the museums and monuments, check out the Naval Observatory, spend a day in Georgetown...”

Undeterred by her sleeping, Frank just kept talking, though softly. He knew he missed a lot of meteors because he had turned his head and was looking at her. She slept with her lips parted just slightly and her rusty brown lashes, so thick, fanned over her high cheekbones and he wondered why she bothered with makeup at all. Her lips were peachy and full, her skin so smooth and ivory. She was so much more beautiful than Selena it just made him laugh inside—Selena was going to be the emotional death of his older brother. But then that was Downy, so egocentric, thinking with his dick. With Downy he was either watching sports, playing sports or angling a way to get laid. It was a miracle he got into State, he could barely maintain a B average and that was taking classes that didn’t require much study.

Ashley, when she was only a sophomore, had helped Downy with his homework. Sure, she had called Frank a few times to ask him questions for her math assignments, but he was sure she had no idea how smart she was.

He wanted to touch her, but if she caught him it would send the wrong message. “If you wanted to, you could make it to an Ivy League school,” he whispered. “You could do anything. Be anything.”

He just looked at her for a while, letting about twenty minutes of silence pass. Then he gave her arm a soft jostle. “Ashley?”

She opened her eyes. “Did I fall asleep?”

He smiled and nodded. “Were you dreaming of some geek going on and on about observatories and museums and libraries?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t realize I was so tired.”

“Why don’t you go to bed,” he said. “I’m headed for the beach. Just for an hour or so.”

She yawned deeply. “Want me to go with you? So you’re not alone?”

He smiled at her. “No. I don’t want to have to drag you home. Go to bed.”

“I think I will,” she said. “Thanks for coming over, Frank.” She rose, stretched, gave him a wave and went inside.

* * *

Ashley went to her bedroom, slipped into the boxers and T-shirt she slept in, put her earbuds back in and crawled into bed. You could do anything. Be anything.