Trouble in Sudden Falls: A Sudden Falls Romance (21 page)

“Hey, Rogan.” Her dimples punched cute little dents in her cheeks.

“Hi.” It wasn’t exactly a brilliant response, but Amy tended to leave him tongue-tied and ill-at-ease. More so than her friend, Darlene, who left every other teenaged male in town shy, awkward and speechless. Probably because Darlene was beautiful in an undeniable way. Amy’s charms were more understated. At least until she smiled which she seemed to do in his direction a lot. He didn’t think she meant anything by it. Refused to even consider the possibility. Good girls like her didn’t hang out with trouble like him. He knew the score.

“How’s Ms. Carter’s English Lit class?”

“Good.” And it was. Ms. Carter was fair and a lot of fun. She appreciated his participation. A major improvement over Cannifarm.

“Cannifarm’s class isn’t the same now that you’re gone.”

“I’ll bet,” he said. “Did she find someone new to harass?”

She shrugged, clearly too well-bred to say something mean about someone else. Yet another reason he should stay away.

Rogan watched as Eli held open the dry cleaner’s front door for her mom, whose hands were occupied by an armful of fresh dry-cleaning. Rogan saw her mom look at him and immediately form a judgment. Her mouth pursed as she moved quickly for her car.

Amy waved goodbye as her mom put the window up. He could see an argument ensue in the next car as Eli hung his shirts behind the passenger seat before sliding into the car.

“What was that about?”

“Evidently Mrs. Goodman isn’t a fan.” Rogan felt a little of the air go out of the balloon that had been one of the best days of his life.

“You shouldn’t encourage him, you know.”

Amy looked up at her mother’s disapproving face and felt the usual resentment begin to flow.

“He’s a very nice guy, Mom.” She knew her mother would never buy it. Her mom was way too into appearances. And while she had no problem with Rogan’s appearance, her mom had taken one look at him and judged him a bad seed.

Her mother paused for a long moment before mumbling something that sounded vaguely like “I doubt that.” She sighed. “Amy, it doesn’t really matter how nice he may or may not be. You need to concentrate on your studies, get into a good college and worry about boys after you graduate.”

“And you need to learn to trust me and my judgment.”

“When I was in high school, my parents trusted my judgment and look where it got me.”

Because obviously, having Amy was the worst thing that could have happened to anyone. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’m pretty sure you can’t get preggers from talking to a boy in a separate car, parked eight feet away.” Amy allowed more anger in her voice than she ever let her mother hear. “Just because you slept around and got knocked up doesn’t mean I’m going to.”

Her mom bit her lower lip. “That was a really crummy thing to say.”

It had been and Amy felt immediate remorse.

Her mom sighed. “And for the record, I didn’t sleep around.”

“Neither do I. Neither
would
I if even if I was allowed to go out on a date.”

“Well, you’re not, so it’s a moot point.”

Amy didn’t respond, instead turning to look out the window as they drove home.

Rogan stood at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the Sciences building, feeling butterflies attack his stomach. He was the master of tackling new situations. Why was the idea of starting college throwing him so off course?

This was exactly what he wanted.

It took him a moment to realize that he was wondering what Eli would do in this situation. It was so odd to have someone who was worth looking up to. Eli would, no doubt, grab the bull by the horns or make a goofy movie reference and head on into the building.

“It’s time to separate the wheat from the chaff, the men from the boys, the awkwardly feminine from the possibly Canadian,” he muttered to himself. Since neither Eli nor Maddie were around to hear him, he acknowledged the quote. “Gary Cole—
Dodgeball
.”

Not that Rogan would ever admit how much fun it was to watch those two lob quotes at each other or admit how much he wished to be part of the fun.

He shifted his backpack on his shoulder, and marched up the steps. A fellow student, a goth-girl sporting dark magenta hair with very bright pink stripes gave him a nod as he passed and he couldn’t help but grin.

She wasn’t cute like Amy Goodman, but hey… at least he wouldn’t stand out quite so much here.

Following the room numbers marked at the side of each door, he found his classroom and took a seat directly in the middle of the room. He wasn’t going to play suck-up to the teacher, but his days of sitting at the back of the class were over.

Chapter Twelve

“Mayor, you have a call on your private line. Should I patch it through?” Rob looked from his computer screen to the phone sitting on his desk, not at all welcoming his assistant’s interruption.

He sighed. This was the third call he’d received on the private line today. All of them from Silver Shadow’s members asking about when they were going to be able to get their stuff out of the basement of the Antique store.

“Patch it through, Dora.” He sighed, resigned to dealing with this yet again. It was only 10:30. Would this day ever end?

“Rob Watson.”

“Hey Rob. It’s Colin.”

“What’s up?”
As if he didn’t know.

“The April gathering is coming up in about a week and a half. We had to cancel March’s gathering because we couldn’t get the equipment. Any chance we’ll be able to get it soon? You’re the only one with a key.”

Rob sighed. “I’m working on it.” He looked at the calendar. It looked like the upcoming weekend would be the best time for a little breaking and entering. His stomach churned as he pictured his mug shot when he got caught. “Can you be available Sunday evening around dark? The store will be closed. I should be able to get away without too much trouble.”

“I’ll bring the truck,” Colin assured him.

“See you then.”

Rob hung up, his digestive system still in turmoil. This had all the earmarks of a complete disaster. But it was his responsibility to get their equipment out of Millie’s shop and he was the person least likely to get arrested if he got caught.
Hopefully.

Maddie looked across to the diner in time to see a woman she’d never met accosting Eli as he tried to cross the street. Word that Eli was “looking for a good forever woman” had spread far faster than she would have imagined. He stopped for all of fifteen seconds and the woman went away with a frown. She felt bad that she’d put this whole mess into play.

The gossip machine in Sudden Falls was second to none. You couldn’t burp in public without three people driving across town to offer you a Tums. She knew that he hadn’t even been so much as tempted by any woman in town—or if he had, he certainly hadn’t let on.

The end result was two-fold. First, he’d become a challenge to the entire single female population of Sudden Falls. Second, she was starting to believe that he wouldn’t stray, which scared her to no end. The bell above the door rang as he opened it.

“Afternoon, neighbor,” he said, looking better than any man had a right to. Today he wore a polo shirt in a dark blue which made his eyes stand out even more than usual, and a pair of trim khakis that hugged his waist and hips in a way that was probably illegal—or at least should have been.

“Afternoon,” she said. “What brings you by?”

“I was going to invite you over for dinner.”

“Can’t,” she said, more disappointed than she’d admit to herself or anyone else. “The store’s open until nine on Thursdays.”

“That’s too bad. Rogan will be disappointed. He started his classes at the college this week. We’re celebrating.”

“That’s great! I’ll swing by on my way home.”

“Maybe we can have dessert after he goes to bed,” Eli said meaningfully.

This was clearly a continuation of his seduction attempts. They were getting steadily harder to turn down.

“You’re in the mood for chocolate?” she asked, innocently.

Eli leaned forward until he was nearly whispering in her ear. “Not unless it’s Hershey’s syrup licked directly off your bare skin.”

Lightning flashed through her abdomen.
Oh, hell.
She was gonna break like cheap glass.

“You wish.” Her voice cracked halfway through. Eli straightened to his own side of the counter, the expression on his face triumphant. He saw through her.

She wondered if Eli would be willing to let her use the Explorer while he was tooling around in her car for the next couple of years.

On Thursday, three days after starting classes at the college, Rogan endured his morning march through the gauntlet better known as the main hallway of Sudden Falls High School. It really would have been nice if he could have taken all his classes at the college. Two periods at the high school were better than six, though, so he tried to count his lucky stars.

Then he noted a derisive look from Mrs. Cannifarm who had yet to forgive him for the dressing down she evidently took from Eli and felt grumpy again. A couple of the jocks snickered off to the side and two of the “nice” girls cleared out of his way. Good grief. He was hardly toxic.

Screw it.

He saw Amy Goodman to his right, digging through her locker. She looked extra cute today in a fuzzy sweater and jeans that rode ever-so-slightly low on her hips. Enough that if she reached into the top shelf of her locker, he’d probably get a view of some skin. Sadly, she didn’t reach up, instead she closed the door and turned around, falling into step a half a pace behind him.

She skipped a step to catch up. “Hi, Rogan.” Her smile lit her face and he couldn’t force himself to look away, nearly running over a freshman in the process.

“Hey,” he responded.

“Are you going to the Spring Formal?” Her face turned pink and she glanced down at the books in her arms.

He’d noticed she blushed a lot. She really was terminally adorable.

“Hadn’t planned on it.” He couldn’t think of a single reason why he’d want to go.

“Oh.” Her face fell.

Huh
. Maybe he could think of a reason after all.

“Are you?” he asked.