Page 8 of Secrets, Scandals and Baby Shoes

“Thank you so much,” Lucy said once they were finished.

“You really don’t have to thank me. Your report was almost perfect already. It just takes a little time to get used to the software the statistics classes use.” Elliot sat back in his chair. He’d taken off his Eastwick sweatshirt, under which he wore a white shirt that showed off every muscle in his chest. He must be strong from basketball. Lucy had spent the last twenty minutes since he’d taken off the sweatshirt trying her best not to be distracted by his good looks.

“Well, it looks much better now, and I appreciate your help.” Lucy bit her lip. “Maybe I can repay you for your kindness. How about something from the dining hall?”

“I just ate.” Elliot hesitated. “But I never say no to coffee from the café in the lobby.”

“I can do that.” Lucy got to her feet. “Shall we?”

As they walked back toward the elevators, something else occurred to Lucy. “How are you drinking coffee this late? I’d never sleep if I had any caffeine after about three.”

“I’ll be up a little longer,” Elliot explained. “I have a paper due tomorrow.”

“Oh no.” Lucy’s eyes widened. “I kept you when you had actual work to do! I’m sorry.”

“Hey, don’t be.” Elliot nudged her with his shoulder. It was a gesture Dominic often did, but it cued up a very different reaction when it was Elliot. “I was happy to help. And I never start papers until midnight the night before they’re due, at the very soonest.”

“How do you live like this?” Lucy shook her head.

“I like it.” Elliot grinned. “It’s fun not being responsible to anyone but myself.”

“I can’t imagine that.” Lucy pressed the button for the elevator, and the doors immediately dinged open. “In our family, we’re all responsible to each other. Or, at least, Dominic and I are.” Their parents tended to be a little more distant. They were both career people who cared about work, friends, and each other as well as about their kids. They weren’t distant in a bad way, but it had pushed Dominic and Lucy closer.

“I can see that. Dominic is very protective of you.” To Lucy, it sounded like Elliot was reminding himself of that fact.

“He is.” Lucy sighed. Before either of them could say anything else, the elevator arrived in the lobby, and they stepped out. At the café Lucy bought a red eye for Elliot and a cup of chamomile tea with honey for herself. They fitted their drinks with plastic lids and exited the library into the fresh evening air.

“Shall we walk around the lake?” Elliot asked. The Eastwick campus boasted a large lake with paved, lit walking paths alongthe banks. The lake was also home to the college’s resident flock of multicolored ducks, who were known for following students around and quacking for scraps of bread.

“Sure.”

They set off, their steps slow. Lucy kept looking around for Dominic, even though she knew he probably wasn’t going to show up. He had an evening class on Thursday nights and should be there for another half an hour at least. Plus, it wasn’t like she and Elliot were doing anything they shouldn’t be.

They walked side by side, Lucy sipping her tea and Elliot downing his coffee in a few quick gulps before tossing the empty cup easily into an open-topped trash can. The path along the lake was relatively empty at this time of evening, and the reflection of the setting sun against the water was lovely. The trees hung low overhead, their leaves tinged yellow and orange and red with fall’s paintbrush.

“I always love fall,” Lucy said. “I know it’s about things ending, but it always feels like a beginning to me.”

“Let me guess. You were one of those kids who looks forward to school starting again.”

“Of course I was.” Lucy grinned at Elliot. “I dreamed of the smell of new pencils and the crisp paper of fresh notebooks all summer long. And I spent plenty of time imagining my perfect first-day-of-school outfit and planning how I was going to impress my teachers.”

“Oh no.” Elliot shook his head. “You were a teacher’s pet, weren’t you? And you still are, based on how much you wanted that report to be perfect.”

“I may be a bit of a teacher’s pet. Just a little. But you are clearly that one kid who always says the dog ate his homework.”

“I would never be so basic. I always accidentally shredded my homework, or left it in the car, or let my little cousin draw on the back of it.”

“Sure.”

They diverged off the path into a small gazebo that stood at the edge of the water. One warm light shone down on them, but Lucy still felt they were completely alone and almost invisible. She set her hands lightly on the gazebo’s railing and gazed out across the glassy surface of the lake.

“Lucy…”

She turned to Elliot, who was right beside her. He looked down at her with an inscrutable expression that made warmth bloom in Lucy’s cheeks. She tucked her lip between her teeth, as she often did when she was nervous. As Elliot looked down at her, everything seemed to come into sharper focus, from the firm line of his jaw to the flecks of green in his brown eyes to the rough railing beneath her palms and the soft lapping of water against the lakeshore.

“Yes?” Lucy asked.

“I just… I wish we’d met at a party.”

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