Thin Love (Thin Love, #1)(22)
“Just so you know, I wasn’t talking about that game, smartass.” He nodded in Tonya’s direction. “Chasing ass isn’t a game for me, no matter what you think. I’m talking about football.”
“I guess everybody has to have something.”
“Exactly what I mean. You don’t get me playing, doing something I love and I don’t get why you’re so into a bunch of stories written a billion years ago.”
He wouldn’t understand, she thought, convinced that Kona didn’t see the world like she did. He was beautiful and strong and clever, but he was all action, all grit and movement. She wasn’t. She liked the deeper meaning and believed that not everything in life was about the flux of motion. For some reason she didn’t understand, she wanted Kona to get that about her. She wanted him to open his dark eyes just a bit further and see her, really see her.
“Because it’s life.” Keira’s voice was low, but steady and she turned away from the monitor, twisted her body and her eyes to stare right at him. “Because it’s history. Stories, words, how they fit together, how they flit through time, how they connect people separated by generations, it amazes me.” She was gesturing with her hands, moving her fingers and Kona followed the movement, watched every expression that she made as though he’d never seen anything like her before. “There’s one big story working through this world, and we’re all a part of it. I love that. It makes me feel like I’m part of something greater than myself. Maybe one day I can write my chapter in the big story.”
She expected Kona to laugh at her, maybe tell her what a dork she was. But he didn’t do that. He only stared at her, let his eyes soak her up.
After a moment, Kona blinked, nodded once as though processing her words and organizing them into files of Crazy Things Keira Says in his mind. “I get that. You want to be part of something. I totally get that.” He sat up, came close to grabbing her hand, but then just rested his elbows on his knees. “It’s why I play. It’s the team, the work we have to do to get our win.”
“It’s your grail quest.” He frowned, confused. “You and your teammates are like the Knights of the Round Table. All of you doing your part to grab the grail, the football, and to win. See? Everything goes back to the Legends.”
He smiled and sat up with his back straight. “I like that.” Kona’s mouth took on a stupid smirk and he puffed his chest out. “I’m a Knight.”
“Yeah,” Keira said, turning back to the computer. “Lancelot.”
“Why am I Lancelot?”
She laughed, trying to keep the sound low before she leaned toward him, narrowing her eyes. “Because he couldn’t keep it in his pants either.”
Kona’s laugh was loud, sudden and earned him another glare from Miller and quick shush from the librarian walking around the lab.
When Miller rumbled his paper again, Keira stopped laughing, but kept the smile on her face before scrolling through another list of article. “Okay, so we have to connect one Legend or at least a theme in it to a contemporary work.” Kona opened his mouth and she shook her head. “Not Die Hard.”
Keira came across an article from 1985. The piece was useless, but one particular word caught her eye. Betrayal. “We could explore Lancelot’s infidelity and how he and Guinevere’s betrayal impacted Arthur with the elements of betrayal and forgiveness in Les Mis.”
“What’s that?”
She stared at him, but was speechless. “You’ve never heard of Les Miserables?”
“Is that on the syllabus?”
She laughed. “No. It’s about the aftermath of the French Revolution… it’s about several different… it’ll work.”
Kona squinted and he wore a frown that Keira suspected was forced and mocking. “You expect me to put all my faith in you on this?”
“You have another suggestion… aside from Die Hard?”
“No, but I need more information.”
“You can always read the book. Victor Hugo. I’ll even help you check it out.” When Kona wrinkled his nose, Keira held back the urge to search the racks. “Fine. Um…” she clicked onto the keyboard, pulling up the library’s media database. “We can rent the musical.”
“Musical?”
“God, Kona, you really should invest a little more attention into stuff off the field. Les Mis is one of the longest running Broadway musicals of all time and has the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard.” He seemed dubious, so she hurried to explain. “We can rent it and watch it in my room and I’ll explain the stuff you don’t get.”
“Okay.” When he said that too quickly, Keira was surprised to see a crack in his constantly cool composure. He’d seem too eager, too willing to relinquish his argument. “I mean, whatever. You’re the Word Lady.”
“Good. When are you free?”
“Tuesday night. That good?”
“Yeah. That’s cool.”
“Sweet. It’s a date.”
Keira frowned. Whatever this was between them, it wouldn’t add up to much, she knew that. The mild flirtation with that tart Tonya made that clear. Kona Hale was beautiful, an athlete, part of the crowd that Keira would never be welcome in. No matter what she thought she felt that night in her dorm, the two of them together would never be a good idea. With one glance at Kona that invented idea of something between them deflated and Keira was brought back to reality. Kona wanted physical connections, not attachments. An attachment was all Keira wanted, just once in her life. An attachment that stuck. Love that didn’t leave. So she took a breath and watched Kona’s smile twitch until it disappeared when she shook her head.