I Know Lucy (A Fugitive #1)(26)

I think she could tell I was looking at her because occasionally she’d glance up, hitting me with those blue eyes and making me blush.

She’d gotten prettier, I swear.

Before I left for spring break with Elliot, I would have raised my right hand and told the world I was 60% more intrigued by Dani than I was falling for her. But being away from her, thinking every blonde girl I spotted at Venice Beach was her…it made me realize I was kind of obsessed. I found myself pining for my morning swim and desperate to get back to school just so I could pass her in the corridors or sit next to her in class.

I missed her smile.

I wanted another Sociology assignment to work on. I wanted any excuse I could get to hang out with her. I wondered if she’d missed me too, because the first Monday after spring break I invited her out for coffee and she said yes without skipping a beat. Since then we’d started doing a lot more after school stuff. We saw each other most days and she regularly hung out with my crowd on the weekend now. This afternoon we were sitting in Vincenzo’s studying, supposedly studying, for our upcoming Sociology test.

“Okay, try these.” AJ swung into the room and placed a plate of steaming meatballs in front of us.

“Where’s the sauce?”

“I’m trying out some different flavors. I need you to taste them sauceless so I can get an opinion on if you like the cilantro or you think it should go.”

I wrinkled my nose at Dani, feeling way under-qualified for the task. She giggled and grabbed her fork. We’d been taste-testing stuff since getting here. AJ had skipped last period and come to the restaurant early. Wednesday afternoons were often quiet and the boss let him experiment in the back corner.

The meatball was so hot I had to spit it out and grab my glass of water. Dani, the sensible one, had blown on hers and nibbled the edge. With a chortle she passed me a napkin, then looked at AJ seriously.

“The cilantro works. I really like it. You don’t need sauce with these, they’re delicious just like this.” She took another bite.

AJ’s eyes lit up, his hands jerking into the air. He jumped on his tiptoes with a gleeful grin. “Wait till you taste the sauce.” He rubbed his hands together and practically skipped back to the kitchen.

I shook my head with a snicker. I loved how excited he got over food and I was really glad Elliot wasn’t here to put a dampener on things with his ketchup antics or ruin my time with Dani. He was still wary of her and he’d noticed how much we’d been hanging out together. The girls seemed to like Dani, but Elliot would always be cautious.

I guess he had a right to be, but the more I hung out with this girl, the more I realized how cool she was. Sure, she had a few little secrets, but I was beginning to not care what they were. She was intelligent, great to talk to, she put up with all my ridiculous observations about the world. Heck, she had noticed over half of them anyway.

“I noticed that too,” she’d softly murmur.

The more time we spent together, the more relaxed she was and I liked it. I really, really liked it.

My need to figure her out was fading by the day. I wanted her to be good and trustworthy. I didn’t want to know if her secrets were dark and dangerous. I just wanted her to be Dani, the beautiful girl sitting next to me, studying for tomorrow’s test.

“Would you stop.” She looked up at me, her lips quirking to the left. “You’re supposed to be studying. If you keep looking at me, you’re gonna fail the test tomorrow.”

I gave her a cheesy grin, which made her chuckle.

“I’m serious, Zach.” She shook her head and glanced at her watch. With a sigh, she flipped her textbook closed. “I should go.”

“Why? It’s only just five.”

“My dad.” She shrugged, shoving her things into her bag.

“He’s really strict, huh?”

“He can be.” Her voice was light, but also strained. Whenever he came up, things got like this. No one else would probably even notice, but I’d been studying her for several weeks now and Dani’s voice was definitely more tense when she talked about her father.

“He…I’d like to meet him sometimes.”

She sniggered. “Not in a million years.”

“Why not?”

Zipping her bag shut, she tucked it under her arms, hugging it close as she faced me. “He likes me to stay focused on my work. I can’t afford to let anyone distract me.”

“And I’m a distraction?” I pointed to myself, openly hopeful.

She grinned, biting her lip. She didn’t say anything, but her soft blush told me what I wanted to know.

“I take it he doesn’t know about me.”

Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, she looked to the tabletop. “I’m not at this school to score myself a boyfriend.” A sad wistfulness crested over her face.

Unable to help myself, I leaned forward and took her hand. She let me gather up her fingers and I ran my thumb over her knuckles. I didn’t know what to say, but just touching her seemed to make her feel better. Her smile was soft, her blue eyes shining with a longing I knew all too well.

I could have kissed her right then.

In fact I would have if AJ hadn’t burst through the door with his damn meat sauce.

He made Dani stay and taste it. She said all the right things to satisfy his culinary aspirations and he flounced off happily.