Make It Count (7 page)

Tara snorted. “I’ll be sure to tell him that.”

Chapter Seven

K
AT SKIP
PED—YEP, SHE
was skipping like a giddy ten-year-old—out of her statistics class, a quiz paper clutched in her fist. She barely felt the cold as she made her way to the library for her second study session with Alec. When she reached their table, he was already there, head bent over a book. She slammed the paper down on top of his book, startling him.

“Ooooh yeah, read that Mr. Smart Alec! Who’s the genius now?” She placed her fists on her hips, elbows out, and grinned triumphantly down at him.

Circled at the top of the paper in red ink, was 7/10. Yeah, it was a 70 percent, technically a C. And there were only ten questions. But it was a heck of an improvement over 2/10.

Alec looked at the paper and then up at her, a prideful smile splitting his face. “Way to go. See, I told you we could bring these grades up.”

Kat squealed and clapped her hands, again reverting back to her ten-year-old self, knowing Alec wouldn’t mock her. She wasn’t used to this—this whole idea of being proud of herself for grades. She hadn’t realized what a high it was to work hard and see the benefits. She could get addicted to this. And to those prideful smiles on Alec’s face.

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, plopping down in the seat across from him. “I got this tutor. He actually doesn’t help me at all. I can do statistics blindfolded. But I feel bad for him and I want to make sure he feels important.”

Alec rolled his eyes. “What a sucker.”

Kat reached into her backpack, pulled out a candy bar, and handed it to Alec, knowing it was his favorite. “Yep, he is.” Then she winked.

His answering wink and the small moan he made as he bit into his chocolate-caramel goodness made her gut lurch. First in a positive way because she liked both. A lot. Then in a negative way because she had no business flirting with Alec.

Why did he have to be so charming and nice? Right now, a stray lock of hair grazed his forehead, having escaped from its pomade pompadour prison. Her hands twitched to reach out and smooth it back.

“So, I know your major is criminal justice, but what do you want to do?” Kat asked.

Alec stuffed the rest of the candy bar in his mouth, chewed and swallowed. “Lawyer, and possibly judge.”

“Is that something you always wanted to do?”

He paused. “Yeah. Pretty much. And it’s a job that pays well. Mom and I never had a lot of money so . . .” his voice trailed off and he waved his hand as if to push the conversation away. “Anyway, so you have a test coming up, right?”

Kat blinked at the change in subject. “Um . . . yeah. I have the midterm in a month.”

He smiled softly. “I say let’s make a bet. If you get a B or above, I buy you dinner.”

Kat wiggled in her seat and grinned wickedly, rubbing her hands together. “You’re on.”

They broke out their notebooks and began to go over the notes from that morning’s class. Kat yawned. She had been up late the night before, and was coming down from the high of her improved quiz score.

She was finding it hard to pay attention.

“So, in this problem, we first need to find the mean difference in the population between the male student absences and female students absences.” Alec explained. “How do we do that?”

Kat stared at her notes, but her handwriting wasn’t neat and the numbers on the page kept jumping around. She knew if she stayed silent long enough, Alec would answer for her.

But he didn’t this time.

She cringed because sometimes the letters on the page in front of her looked disjointed and the numbers didn’t match up. Add in the words from this statistic problem and the whole thing was a jumble. She couldn’t remember what the mean was. Or the difference. And the mean difference just sounded cruel.

Alec paused, his finger on the paper. He looked at her and furrowed his brow. Cripes, she felt stupid.

“Um . . .” she said.

Alec squinted his eyes, studying her face.

“Um . . .” she repeated.

He had mercy on her. Finally. “Right here,” he tapped the page. “We subtract the boys’ absences—fifteen—from the girls’ absences—ten. So it’s five.”

So, she couldn’t subtract ten from fifteen? How embarrassing. But as always, she was a master at the coverup. “Right!” she laughed, but it was fake, and Alec didn’t even crack a smile. “Yep. Sorry. Long day.”

He slowly leaned back. “Okay, you want to take a break from studying and get a coffee or something?”

“Yeah, that would be great.”

Alec seemed lost in thought as they gathered their bags and headed out of the library. He glanced at her several times out of the corner of his eye. Kat ignored the looks and focused on her second biggest gripe—after her brain—which was the cold. The icy rain had dulled to a bone-chilling mist.

But at least it took her mind off of the failed library study session.

“We should be able to use something for transportation around campus. Like little enclosed golf carts or those Zipcars. Something with heat.” Kat wrapped her peacoat tighter around her body. “Ah! I know. Segways with umbrellas. Then we would be protected from rain and sun. Dual purpose.” She hummed thoughtfully to herself. “Covered Segways. Gosh, I’m a genius.”

Alec seemed to jerk out of his thoughts and raised an eyebrow at her.

“It’s necessary,” she explained. “This misting rain or whatever is making my hair frizz.”

Alec’s eyes roamed her head and then returned to her face. “I don’t think it looks any different.”

“What? Are you blind? My hair is all kinky from the humidity. And these little whispies of hair around my temples look awful and drive me nuts.”

“Whispies? Are we speaking the same language?”

Kat shrugged. “Um, probably not. This is Kat-speak.” She rolled her eyes dramatically and waved her hand in a circle. “I thought you were supposed to be smart. Keep up, Alec.”

He stared at her for a minute and then started laughing. That wasn’t the first time she’d surprised him into laughter. She liked it. It made her feel clever. She’d never felt clever in her life.

“Hey, since when are you two friends?” The familiar voice of Max—oh right, she needed the reminder she had a
boyfriend
—reached her as Alec held open the door to the campus coffee shop.

She turned around to see Max grinning, striding toward them. “And making Zuk laugh? Wow, Kat, that’s a tough thing to do.” When he reached them, he slung his arm around her shoulders and guided her inside. He turned to wink at Alec, who still held open the door. “Thanks, buddy.”

Kat tried to crane her neck to watch if Alec followed them inside, but she couldn’t see over Max’s massive shoulder. She faced ahead and bit her lip, letting Max lead her to a table. He took her bag from her shoulder and looped the strap over her chair for her, then gave her a swift kiss on her cheek. “I’ll get your mocha for you, babe,” he said, then left to stand in line at the counter. Alec appeared at his side, and their heads bent as they talked.

Sometimes Max could be so nice. Sure, he made comments every once in a while that made her feel dumb. But nowhere near the level previous boyfriends did. And there were times he treated her like a queen.

But Alec never made her feel dumb  . . .

No.
No.
She could not do this. She would not be sucked into some weird love triangle like some teenage rom com. She was twenty years old, for goodness sakes, and Alec was her tutor. At most, a friend. That’s it. She smacked her palm on the table for emphasis, and then looked around, hoping no one noticed her lips moving like a crazy person.

“Hey, you okay?” Max appeared over her shoulder and nodded toward her palm. “Did you smack the table?”

“Um . . . yeah. I did. There was a fly. Black one. Wicked huge,” Kat made up, reaching for her coffee as Max took the seat next to her. “I missed it though.”

Max twisted his head from side to side, front and back. “I don’t see it. Let me know if you do. I’m a pretty good fly swatter.”

Kat had no idea why that was such a stunning claim to fame. She pictured Max armed in a beekeeper outfit, but skintight of course, since he liked to show off his muscles. He had a fly-swatter extension in each hand and several cans of insect killer in a handy-dandy tool belt around his waist. He flailed wildly with his swatter hands, yelling, “
Vanquish!
” as flies the size of bats swarmed him, breathing fire-

“Hey.” Alec appeared at her other side and sat down, breaking her out of her dragon/fly hybrid-infested fantasy.

“Kat said there’s flies buzzing around,” Max said.

Alec blinked at Max and then looked at Kat. She widened her eyes at him.

Alec’s lips twitched and he took a sip of his chocolate milk, probably to cover his grin. “I’ll be on the lookout.”

Max nodded and then scanned the room again. The laughter bubbled up in Kat’s throat and she sighed loudly to stuff it down. Max ignored her, intent on his fly-hunting mission and Alec was doing the opposite, staring at her intently.

Yep, despite her best intentions, she was in a romcom.

Kat zoned out while they were talking, and eventually, Alec left for class, his gaze lingering on her as he said his good-byes.

Once he left, Max pulled out his phone, tapping away. Kat continued her musings, bestowing Max with the title Maggot Manager. She choked on a laugh and Max looked up, quirking an eyebrow at her.

“Hairball,” she explained.

He did that head-shaking thing he always did when she said something weird. Which was a lot.

“Hey Max,” a female voice called from over her shoulder.

Kat turned around. A fairly pretty girl, her face a little on the long side, with brown curly hair, stood behind her, eyes darting between Max and Kat.

“Oh, hey, Carrie.” Max put down his phone—a miracle—and smiled at her.

“How are you?” she asked.

Max nodded. “Good, you?”

“Good.”

Stimulating conversation, really.

“Hi, I’m Kat,” she said brightly.

Carrie sent Max another searching look before meeting Kat’s eyes. “Oh hey. I’m Carrie. I went to high school with Max . . . and Alec.”

“Oh cool! I didn’t.” Kat quipped and Carrie stared at her like she was on another planet.

“Is Alec with you guys?” Carrie asked, returning her gaze to Max.

“No, he just left,” Max answered.

Carrie nodded. “Okay, well, just wanted to say hi. Talk to you later.” She turned to walk away and Kat waved at her back.

“Super friendly,” Kat said. “She have a crush on Alec or something?”

Max tapped the table. “Uh, no. She and Alec were together. In high school. They broke up last summer, before junior year.”

“Ooooh,” Kat drawled, turning around to catch another sight of
the
ex-girlfriend, but she was already out of sight. That was Alec’s type? “What’s her major?” she asked, still craning her neck for a glimpse of Carrie.

“Um . . . biology, I think. She wants to be a physical therapist.”

Kat turned back around and huffed, glaring at her coffee. That’s the kind of girl Alec chose. Smarties like Carrie, who would fit into his life.

She looked over at Max. He wasn’t perfect, far from it. But there was no danger of falling for him and so no danger of getting her heart broken.

But Alec was different. In the way he looked at her, in the way he treated her, in the way he made her feel like she was something special. Not just another pretty girl with mediocre intelligence.

Which was why she had to keep her chips with Max. The safe bet. If she tried playing Alec’s numbers, she didn’t know how she’d keep from going all in. And then losing it all.

Chapter Eight

P
ROFESSOR
G
RIM STOOD
at the front of the classroom, her arm extended to draw an imaginary line down the center of the room, between the four rows of seats.

“This side,” she said, pointing to Alec’s section, “will be in charge of the prosecution for the cases I hand out, and the other side will be in charge of defense.”

She plopped a packet of papers down on the first desk in Alec’s column. “Pick a case, then a partner in the other column of seats.” Then she did the same on the other side of the room.

Alec was in the last row and grabbed the last packet he was passed, then turned to Danica, beside him. “Hey, partner.”

“Who said I wanted to work with you?” Today, she was some sort of angel, with a flowing cream-colored dress, white-blonde hair and impossibly blue eyes.

He ignored her and instead focused on what case they’d have to argue. He skimmed the handout, and the words
death by vehicle
and
distracted driver
each sent a heavy brick slamming into his gut.

“Fuck,” he whispered.

“What’s up? Crappy case? I wanna win,” Danica said, reaching her hand out. “Gimme.”

He handed over the papers, keeping his eyes on his desk, not risking a look at those unnatural blue eyes.

“Okay,” Professor Grim said from the front of the classroom. “I’m going to let you go for the rest of our class time. I’d prefer you take this time to work with your partners or set up future meeting times to read the material and begin your cases.”

Alec was barely listening, his mind swirling with the thoughts of arguing a case similar to the one he’d seen played out when he was six years old. The case that made him want to be a lawyer.

He hadn’t thought about that case in years, and he didn’t want to.

Danica didn’t look at him as she read out loud. “Oh, this is a good one.
Lisa Stevens was driving in a construction zone where two lanes merged into one. She ran through several cones and hit the foreman, killing him. Makeup residue was found on the steering wheel and in her car and her phone history had been deleted. But records were pulled and she’d been texting.
They are charging her with homicide by vehicle and tampering with evidence. She’s claiming she was distracted by something in her eye. Wow, this is a cool case.”

Her words were like more bricks in every vulnerable part of his body. “Fuck,” he said again, letting his head thunk onto his desk as the sounds of exiting students clamored around him.

“Stone?” Danica was too perceptive. A hand settled on his back, long nails curling to dig through his shirt. “Hey,” she said quietly. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

He took a deep breath and stood up, lifting the strap of his messenger back over his shoulder so it crossed his chest. Danica slipped her arm in his as they left the classroom. She didn’t say anything as they walked down the hall and pushed out of the doors into the chilly air, leading him to some stone benches among a grove of trees.

Unlinking her arm from his, she pushed him down onto the bench. The cold of the stone seeped through his jeans and a hole in the back pocket he had meant to patch. He shifted and the skin scraped on the rough surface. The bite of pain focused him, breaking him out of his memories, so he dug his fingers into his thighs to prolong the hurt.

Danica took a gulp from her water bottle and handed it to Alec. He wasn’t really thirsty, but took a drink anyway. She didn’t say anything, and that was really the only reason he was able to speak, because there was no pressure.

“My dad died when I was five. He was a cop. Pulled a guy over on the side of the road. Some drunk asshole hit him while he was walking between cars.”

“Oh shit,” Danica whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

“That’s why I’m not really thrilled to be arguing this case.” He rubbed his palms together, the skin red from the cold because he’d forgotten his gloves at home.

Danica stood up.

“Where are you going?”

She fiddled with the strap of her bag. “I’m going to talk to Grim. I’ll get us another case—”

“No.” Alec said firmly. “No.”

“But—”

“Dan, when I’m practicing law, what am I going to do? Say, ‘no cases involving cops and car accidents’? I can’t do that. Just . . . let’s do this, okay, and let’s win the fucker.”

Danica pressed her lips together and nodded. “Okay.”

A
LEC ARRIVED H
OME
that afternoon after the last of his classes for the day. As he trudged up the stairs, Max’s voice carried through his bedroom door, increasing in volume.

He didn’t hear another voice, so he figured Max was on the phone. That guess was confirmed when he heard a strained, “Dad.”

Alec cringed. Jack Payton was one scary motherfucker. He was huge, looked like he could carry an eighteen-wheeler on his shoulders and had a wicked scar on his face caused by a failed jack while he was working under a car.

But his appearance wasn’t the scary part. It was the way he ruled over his three sons like a dictator. As the youngest, Max received the worst of it, since his mother had left after he was born. Alec had heard Mr. Payton lob the word “mistake” at Max more than once.

He owned Payton Auto in their hometown of Tory, and enlisted Max’s help almost every weekend and every summer, despite Max’s protests. Alec couldn’t mention
oil change
without inducing Max’s rage, but Max worked there anyway, needing the money for school.

And because no one said no to Jack Payton. Not without consequences.

As Alec reached the top of the stairs, a loud crash sounded from inside Max’s room. He rushed to the door, about to throw it open, but thought better of it. He knocked. “Max?”

No answer, but he thought he heard a moan.

“Max, answer me now or I’m coming in. Are you okay?”

There was a pause, followed a muttered, “Fine.”

“I’m coming in anyway.” Alec turned the doorknob and swung the door open. Max sat hunched in front of his small closet, a hole punched through the thin plywood door.

Alec took a deep breath. In the past, he’d have known what to say and what to do. But Max had been volatile lately, his moods unpredictable, for a reason he hadn’t divulged. Alec decided against Compassionate Alec and went with Macho Skirt-the-Issue Alec.

He nodded toward the closet door. “That’s going to come out of your security deposit.”

Max snorted a wry laugh, and Alec wanted to pat himself on the back for picking the right persona. He sat down on the bed and rubbed his palms together. “Ol’ Jack being his charming self?”

“Of course,” Max said softly. “He doesn’t know how to be anything else.”

Alec waited until Max spoke again.

“It’s cool, whatever. I can handle it.” Max shrugged and ran his hand through his hair. His knuckles were bleeding.

Alec knew Max had school loans, but he didn’t know if Max’s father helped him with rent and other living expenses. Max’s family was the one no-go topic in their friendship.

“Look, if I can—” Alec began as Max jerked his head up, lip curled, nostrils flared.

“God, you think you can fix everything, don’t you?” Max sneered, his normally warm eyes now dull and cold. “Believe it or not, some things are past the powers of Alec Stone.”

The bitter tone from his best friend pierced Alec’s skin like blades. His mouth dropped open. “Where the fuck did that come from?”

Max stared at him for a minute before he rolled his jaw and looked away, running a hand over his face. “Sorry, forget I said anything, okay? I’m a little worked up. Wanna go grab a beer?”

Alec had a sickening feeling he was missing something important, but he knew a peace offering when he heard one. “Sure.”

Max gave him a weak smile. “Cool.”