Page 9 of Secrets, Scandals and Baby Shoes

“Why?”

Elliot grinned a lopsided grin and pushed a hand through his short hair. “Well, because if we met at a party, and you weren’t Dominic’s sister, I’d be hoping to kiss you right about now.”

“Oh.” Warmth spread through Lucy’s entire body, straight down to the tips of her toes and the pads of her fingers. Maybe she hadn’t misread Elliot’s intentions. Maybe he really was interested in her as something more than Dominic’s kid sister.

In an instant, Lucy considered the implications. Dominic had warned her that Elliot never stayed with one girl for very long, but maybe that wasn’t a bad thing. It wasn’t like Lucy was searching for her future husband at college. Her grandmother used to joke that women went to college looking for MRS degrees — husbands — but that was ancient history. Lucy wouldn’t mind a little flirting with a man she found attractive and compelling.

And she’d always imagined her first proper kiss being in a setting as picturesque as this one.

So, pushing away the butterflies in her stomach, Lucy let go of the railing and turned to Elliot. With one step, she closed the distance between them until she was close enough to feel the heat radiating from Elliot’s body. He was a head taller than she was, so she raised slowly onto her tiptoes and leaned towards him.

That was all Elliot seemed to need. He gently wrapped his arms around her, his palms resting against her upper back, and bent his head to hers. Their lips met, softly, like the brush of butterfly wings, and sensation flooded Lucy. She’d dreamed of her first kiss before, but she’d never imagined it would be as good as this. Elliot’s lips were soft, and he tasted pleasantly of coffee. He was a perfect gentleman, his hands never straying from Lucy’s upper back and his kiss never deepening — even though Lucy might have liked more. Even that small kiss was enough to make her glow with warmth. Her heart raced as she instinctively lifted higher on her toes.

In that instant, it was as if the whole world stood still, with them at the center. No one and nothing else mattered, just the feeling of Elliot’s lips on hers and the way her knees felt weak and how strong his arms were around her.

Elliot drew back after that first brush of lips and looked down at Lucy. Instead of his usual goofy grin, he looked serious. He brushed a strand of hair behind Lucy’s ear.

“Was that all right?”

“Of course.” Lucy still felt weak in the knees. She wanted to rhapsodize about how amazing the kiss had been. She wanted to ask for more. But she didn’t trust herself to do either. After all, while this had been an earth-shattering, life-changing first kiss for Lucy, it was probably just one of hundreds of kisses for Elliot. Sure, the setting was romantic. The picturesque gazebo along the sunset lake could have been the setting of any one of a hundred romantic movies Lucy had sometimes watched with friends in high school.

But that didn’t change the fact that the kiss probably hadn’t meant all that much to Elliot.

Lucy wasn’t going to let that change anything. Whether or not the kiss was special to him, it was special toher.She would never forget her first kiss, here on the water with a guy she really liked, and she wouldn’t let herself ruin the moment by trying to make something more of it.

“You’re beautiful.” Elliot ran one thumb across her cheekbone, sending further warm shivers of sensation through her. “You know that, right?”

“Hmm.” Lucy couldn’t think of anything more eloquent to say, but it didn’t seem to matter. Elliot took her hand, and, side byside, they left the gazebo and continued along the path. Their fingers remained interlaced, and Lucy savored every moment of walking hand in hand together. As they walked, they talked — not about the kiss, but about easier things, like the classes they each had the next day and an action movie that had once been shot on the Eastwick campus.

When the lake path merged with the main thoroughfare through the quad, they released each other’s hands by silent mutual agreement. Still, Elliot walked Lucy all the way back to her dorm, talking lightly. When they stopped outside, Lucy threaded her hands through the straps of her backpack and looked up at Elliot.

“Thank you again for your help with my report.”

“It was truly no problem. Don’t hesitate to ask me about anything math- or science-related. I’ll leave the humanities up to you.” He winked, and Lucy’s knees went weak again. If her crush had been bad before the kiss, it was ten times worse now.

“That’s fair.” She smiled. “Good night, Elliot.”

“Good night, Lucy.”

She was about to turn and enter her dorm when Elliot caught her hand. He leaned forward and brushed his lips, just once, across her cheek. Then he smiled a goofy smile and strode off down the quad, leaving Lucy standing outside her dorm with her fingertips against her cheek where Elliot had kissed her. She could hardly believe he had really kissed her. Twice, if the small kiss on her cheek counted.

Lucy wasn’t sure what it meant. It probably didn’t mean anything. But she wasn’t going to forget either kiss anytime soon.

CHAPTER 4

ELLIOT

Elliot couldn’t stop thinking about kissing Lucy.

He’d kissed plenty of girls before. Elliot made no secret of that. But kissing Lucy had been like nothing he’d ever experienced, even though their lips had barely brushed. Holding her in his arms had feltrightin a way he couldn’t quite describe. After that first kiss in the gazebo, he’d vowed to keep his distance, but he hadn’t been able to resist giving her a second kiss on her cheek outside her dorm.

The more Elliot thought about it as he speed-walked back to his dorm and got started on his paper, the more he wondered if it was worth keeping his distance. He didn’t want to upset Dominic, and he certainly didn’t want to hurt Lucy, but there was a real, undeniable connection between them. Elliot had never felt anything like it before. So, perhaps it was worth risking something to explore what was between them. If, that is, Lucy felt the same way.

Elliot finished his paper in the middle of the night and caught a few hours of sleep before his mid-morning classes. He had a long break in the middle of the afternoon for lunch, which, heremembered from his conversation with Lucy last night, she did, too. So, Elliot swung around the far side of campus to see if Lucy was leaving her statistics class.

She was.

Lucy wore her usual leggings. Today, they were bright purple and paired with a white sweater. Her hair was up in a ponytail, and she was chatting with a girl from her class. She waved to the girl before veering off in a different direction — and spotting Elliot. In an instant, her face lit up, and she made a beeline towards him. Elliot grinned. She seemed just as excited to see him as he was to see her.

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