His hand curled against the table. He couldn’t begin to explain how badly he wanted that piece of paper in his hand. It was more than a ticket to the job he wanted. It was a good-bye to everything that had come before it. A good-bye to that guy who couldn’t do anything but fuck up. Maybe even a way to prove to his family that he was worth something. “I have my reasons. I—” He frowned mid-thought, a flash of blond hair near the back door of the shop catching his eye. “It’s important to me.”
His gaze followed the back of the blonde.
“Then prove it and stop being such a hardheaded man.”
The tone in Allison’s voice drew his attention back for a moment. Her eyebrow was lifted, making her look less professorial and more like a bossy friend.
“A hardheaded man.”
“Yes.” She took a sip of her coffee but kept her eyes on him. “Accepting that you—like everyone else in the world—may need to ask for help sometimes. And accepting that, hey, I may be right.”
“That there’s something wrong with me.”
She groaned and set down her coffee. “No. That you’re intelligent and talented, and it’s going to get wasted if you don’t get over your pride and figure out what you need to best work with your individual brain. I’ll be really pissed if you fail out of my class because you can’t get over your ego,” she said, pinning him with a look. “This is my first year teaching this class and I will consider it a personal failing. And I’m really bad with failing. It makes me eat ice cream for dinner. And watch the home shopping channels and buy stuff I don’t need.” She leaned forward on her elbows. “I could end up ordering mom jeans and bedazzled sweaters. You don’t want that guilt following you around, do you?”
He had to smile at that. “That would be tragic.”
“So tragic.” She put her hand over his. “The future of my dating life is in your hands. Save me, Lane.”
He chuckled. “If you weren’t my professor, I’d think you were flirting with me.”
She shrugged and pulled her hand back. “If you weren’t my student, maybe I would be. But you are and so I’m not. At least not until you’ve passed my class and moved on—emphasis on passed because you’re going to get evaluated and not fail out.”
The more he talked with Allison the person instead of Professor Arquette, the more he liked her. This was the kind of woman he should be pursuing. Someone who made him laugh and didn’t take herself too seriously. She was pretty. Smart. A genuinely nice person.
“You’re persistent.”
“As a pit bull. Now tell me you’re going to get tested, and I can put grading your paper on hold.”
He opened his mouth to respond, but the glimpse that had caught his eye earlier flickered in his peripheral vision again. This time, instead of just getting a flash of a familiar shade of golden hair, he got the full side view. Elle McCray had taken a seat on the other side of the restaurant. She had a glass of iced tea in front of her, was bouncing her crossed legs, and eyeballing the main door as if she were waiting for someone.
Just the sight of her sent a bolt of electric awareness through his system. She looked so damn prim and proper—forever perturbed. Like the world was constantly letting her down with its idiocy and she didn’t have time for its bullshit. The attitude should be a turn off. But he couldn’t pull his gaze away and forgot what he’d been about to say.
“Lane?”
“What?” He looked back to Allison and her expectant face. “Oh, sorry. Uh, yeah, I’ll go.”
The words were out before he could consider them, but if nothing else, at least the answer bought him time. The thought of getting evaluated made him want to punch things and he wasn’t sure he’d do it, but he wasn’t going to make that decision now. He wasn’t going to seal his fate quite yet with the failing grade.
Her face lit like a happy child’s. “Really? Excellent. That’s great news.”
“Yeah. Great,” he said without enthusiasm. His gaze drifted to the other side of the cafe, but he dragged his attention back to his professor. She’d gone out of her way to meet with him, to try to help. It would’ve been a hell of a lot easier for her to just slap a D on his paper and call it a day. “I appreciate you talking to me about everything and taking the time. I’ll let you know how it goes.”
“Thanks, Lane. I’m really glad you’re going to give it a try. I’ll hold off grading your paper until you get your results.” Allison must’ve caught on that he didn’t want to linger on this conversation any longer, and she was smart enough to get out when the getting was good. She pulled a few bills from her purse and pushed her chair back. “Well,
I’ve got to get going. I’ve got more papers to grade and a Walking Dead marathon to watch.”
He peered down at the money and picked it up to hand it back to her. “I’ve got it, Professor.”
She looked down at the money. “I don’t mind buying you coffee, Lane.”
He shook his head. “I’ve got it.”
She pressed her lips together at his determined tone but nodded. “Okay, well, thanks. I’ll see you in class.”
He let her go with a polite good-bye and then zeroed his attention back on Elle. He didn’t want to think about what he’d just agreed to. And he didn’t want to ponder why he hadn’t turned on the charm to flirt with Allison when she was exactly the kind of woman he probably needed in his life. All he wanted to do right now was figure out what Elle was up to. She was checking the time on her phone and her posture was stiff, her movements unsure. She kept dipping her straw in and out of her glass as if she were fishing for her lemon, but she’d already taken that out and put it on the table.
Lane frowned. The obvious nerves looked strange on someone as poised as Elle. Was she waiting for a date? Was that why she was nervous? The thought didn’t sit well with him—her waiting for some other guy. But he’d told her no drama and they’d walked away from each other. He had no claim.