Page 125 of Holidating
“I’m a little worried about the modern stuff,” she confessed. “He covered it really fast. The Russians… I don’t remember what any of those paintings look like.”
“Like…The Knife Grinder? We can tackle those,” I said. “You know that little sofa in the back of the coffee shop? I’ll park my butt on that puppy while you’re changing. We can sit there and flip through the paintings on my laptop.”
There was a pause, and I hoped she wasn’t about to tell me that she’d rather study alone. “We are going to rock that test,” she said instead. “We are going to kick its ass.”
Again, I grinned in the dark. “We are going to send it home, crying for its mama.” Katie giggled again, and I felt it in my chest.
Then it got quiet for a little while, and I wondered if she’d fallen asleep. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to fall asleep. Because I didn’t want to miss a moment of being with her.
“Andy?” she asked suddenly.
“Yeah?”
“Have you ever had a one-night stand before?”
Now there was a tricky question. “Well… I’m not sure I can say.”
She turned to peek at me over her shoulder. “Never mind. That was a really personal question.”
I dropped my arm around her waist and gave her a squeeze. “That’s not the problem. It’s just that I’m not sure. The answer is no. Unless I’m having one right now, and I was really hoping that wasn’t the case.”
After I said it, my heart nearly failed. Was that too much, too soon?
“You’re definitely safe,” Katie whispered.
Whew. I dropped my nose into her hair and took a deep breath of her. “Good to know,” I said.
Her slim fingers gently stroked my wrist for a few minutes. And then she began to breathe deeply. I lay there smiling in the dark for awhile longer, until I fell asleep too.
And I had very, very good dreams.
EPILOGUE
Dash McGibb had a way of flipping his pen up in the air and catching it again. He did this while sitting in one of the old wooden lecture hall seats, waiting for the exam to begin. He flipped the pen a dozen times. Flip. Catch. Flip. Catch. It helped take his mind off of two uncomfortable things.
The exam was one of them. He’d taken this course because it had sounded easy. Looking at paintings — how hard could that be? And football season had ended only two weeks ago. That had taken up most of his time.
This test? It might go badly.
Also, there was the matter of the empty seat next to his. Until a week ago, that seat was always occupied by the most attractive girl in the freshman class. But Katie Vickery had not appeared in class for the last two lectures. And Dash guessed that he was the reason why.
The other night at the party, she had seemed okay. She’d even spoken to him a little bit. (Something about party planning trucks with pigs on them?) He’d hardly been able to concentrate on their discussion, because he’d been freaking out.
Because sheknew.
Somehow, she’d figured out the ridiculous prank they’d made him pull. He’d seen the knowledge of it on her face the moment she appeared beside the Christmas tree. Even though his frat brothershad told him that the girls never found out. They’dpromisedthat it would be a secret, and that there wouldn’t be a shred of evidence.
At least that last part held true. He sure didn’t want pictures floating around campus of him getting…
Shit. It was such a stupid thing that he’d done. So colossally stupid.
And for what good reason?
She must have figured it out immediately. Because Katie wasn’t the sort of girl who would skip the last two lectures. All he could do about it now was watch the door, hoping that Katie didn’t blow off the final exam just because he’d been the world’s biggest asshole. He didn’t want that on his conscience.
There was plenty on it already.
The minutes ticked by, and he waited. At the front of the room, the teaching assistants set up a projector. They would show sixty paintings, pausing thirty seconds on each one. There had to be a few easy ones in there, right? He was hoping to see the Mona Lisa’s odd smile, or maybeThe Last Supper.
