Page 6 of Tangled Up In You

“He’s hopeless. Just try talking to him—you’ll see. He won’t be able to string two words together. It’s a bit of a joke.”

“Aw, poor thing.”

“He takes it all in stride. Anyway, last, but not least … see that one there?” She pointed to a stocky boy with dark brown hair. “That’s Martin. He plays bass. He’s the sort who’s happy to do whatever he’s told. Now, you tell me all about you. Who are you staying with here? Family?”

Sophie smiled, relieved once more to have found someone she felt so at ease with.

“Well, um, no. I’m staying with these people who work for my parents.”

Felicity’s eyebrows shot up.

“I know, it sounds weird. But they’re really very nice. And they’re pretty hands off, which is a lot like how my parents are, actually.”

“Hands off?”

“I mean, if you think your mom is too needy? My parents are the opposite. They don’t need me. Like, at all. The business they started is their baby. I get it, it’s blown up to be this huge thing that I don’t think even they dreamed it’d become. But they’re just not very involved in my life, I guess you could say.”

Before Sophie could completely regret her honesty, Felicity leaned her shoulder into hers and said, “It could always be worse.”

Sophie met her eyes.

“We could be incapable of actual conversation and instead revert to trying to slap each other in the face like eejit boys.” She nodded toward Gavin and Conor who were still going at it and she and Sophie laughed.

They chatted nonstop after that and the lunch break went by fast. When the others started toward class, Sophie lingered behind, taking her time tossing out her uneaten lunch.

“Not hungry, then?”

Looking up, she saw Gavin standing a few feet away.

“No, not really,” she said as nonchalantly as she could, aware of both her heartbeat quickening and Felicity moving away, smirking at them.

“I … em,” he started, pushing his hand through his hair and looking away. “I’m sorry that I came at you like that earlier.”

His earlier swagger was gone, suggesting his apology was sincere. Still, if he was looking for her forgiveness, she wanted to be sure he understood how he’d made her feel.

“In class, you mean? When you tried to make it seem like I was looking down on you?”

“Eh, I?—”

“And just now, when you had everyone laughing at me over my tan?”

He watched her for a moment and she sensed he was trying to sort out how badly he’d screwed up. She kept his gaze and let the silence play out.

Finally, he bit his lip and then said, “I guess Felicity was right.”

She arched a brow. “Right about what?”

“I was being an arse. You didn’t deserve that. But, the thing is, you’ve had some kind of effect on me. Since I saw you in the hall. You’ve …captivatedme,” he told her.

“Oh,” she whispered. She’d jokingly told Conor that being here was overwhelming but now she truly was overwhelmed. By this boy.

Moving closer to her, he said, “It’s just, well, you’re like some sort of exotic creature. Something rare and … beautiful.”

She took in a breath, then tried and failed to hold back a smile. If he was captivated by her, she was intoxicated by him. The heat of his singular attention was unlike anything she’d ever experienced.

His eyes fell to her hand where she was once more toying with her necklace. And then his gaze drifted further, taking in her smooth bare legs beneath her school uniform skirt. When he met her eyes again, she saw something there she could only describe as hunger. It made her swallow hard.

“So, about that offer of Conor’s to show you around?” He tipped his chin up and fixed her in that magnetic gaze of his once more. “Forget about him. If you’re after seeing some of Dublin, I’m your man.”

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