Description
College student Olivia St. Claire didn’t mean to fall in love with pianist Mark Daniels. Her innocent conversation with him was only to exact revenge on evil prize piano student Elaine. Who knew one conversation would lead to an intimate dinner at Mark’s apartment? Innocent enough. But the laws of attraction don’t stop with one dinner. Olivia’s plan for revenge turns into a messier problem. Namely, she might be engaged.
Chapter One
I sat next to Dwight in the passenger’s seat of his Porsche and stared at the snow, the evergreen trees, the mountains whipping passed the window. The views mesmerized me. They soothed me. They kept me from thinking of this presence that filled the sports car and repeated over and over and over--something was terribly wrong.
Spring break had ended. Dwight was driving me back to college, back to Aberdeen, Colorado.
Dwight whipped the car around a hairpin turn. I reached for the door handle. My hand skimmed the bump in my pocket.The ring.
I didn’t want to think about it.
He shoved the gearstick. His breath came in short, rough intakes. There was a catch in his throat as if each shove of the gearshift exerted the strength of the Volga boatmen.
My heart pounded slow and hard, and bruised the inside of my chest. He was angry but said nothing. Did this mean our relationship was over?
He had never been moody. He was happy and full of life.
Not today.
I wanted our relationship to end. Since neither one of us spoke, we weren’t doing a very good job of ending it. I was pretty sure words were required.
We approached the edge of town. Dwight downshifted.
In front of the Snack-And-Go sat the local deputy. He was young, maybe two years older than the college students. He propped a hip against the fender of his car and pointed his radar gun down the highway. It was his usual greeting for the students returning to town at the beginning of each quarter.
A muscle pulsed in Dwight’s jaw. He shifted. The jaw muscle pulsed. He shifted again. The jaw muscle pulsed again. He shoved the stick hard. The car shimmied. The skin on his face vibrated. His glare seemed to impale the deputy against the mountain that towered over the college town.
Dwight turned onto the lane that passed through the campus, through a grove of blue spruce, to the edge where the campus apartments stood.
My roommate Cookie burst out the entrance door with two friends.
“Hey.” She waved. She and her friends half-walked half-ran across the green lawn toward the rugby field.
“Hey, yourself,” I said.
“We’re going for pizza after the rugby game. Meet us at Dino’s.”
I looked at Dwight. Would I have plans for dinner?
His gaze shot from Cookie, to the sky, to his car keys, everywhere except at me. He pulled my suitcases from a trunk that was so small it would’ve been lucky to hold Barbie’s® Winnebago.
“We’ll talk.” I told Cookie. I tried to sound exact, decisive, certain. I failed.
She sucked the corner of her mouth into her cheek. She knew. She’d have me in the interrogation room before the night ended. What happened between you and Dwight? Are you breaking up? You can always date my brother. He’s still hot for you.
No thanks on the brother part.
She turned away so hard that her long hair flipped out from her head like a fan. She knew she’d get all the details out of me later. What I had to tell her would drop her into the nearest chair.
