“Oh, my gawd, oh, my gawd, oh, my gawd.” Panting, Piper fanned herself. “He’s coming over.”
Samantha stood frozen to the spot, unable to move or speak. Finally, she understood what people meant when they said someone was caught like a deer in the headlights. Her—doe. Him—eighteen-wheeler.
Everything evaporated exceptthisguy.
Gone were the other students milling around them.
Poof.
The pressure of her backpack.
Vanished.
Piper.
Bye-Bye.
She couldn’t have run if there’d been a zombie apocalypse. Illogical words exploded in her brain.Fate. Destiny. Kismet.
Her foster sister extended a palm toward the handsome guy and grinned like a loon. “Hello, my name’s Piper, what’s yours?”
He never broke eye contact with Samantha, just peered right over Piper’s head. “That was really intuitive of you. Pulling your friend to safety just before the janitor dropped his drill.”
“You saw that?”
“You’ve got keen survival instincts.”
His words sent a heated flush over her cheeks.
“It’s more that my foster sister is superstitious as all get-out than anything else,” Piper said. “Me? I don’t have a superstitious bone in my body. I’ll walk under ladders all day long if it leads to you.”
He slanted Piper a look, then to Samantha he said, “Hi, I’m Nick Ginelli.”
“Sa... Sa... Sa...”
“SaSaSa?” he teased. “Unusual name.”
“I... um... Samantha. My name is Samantha Riley.”
“You’re new here.”
“I am.”
Lightly, he nudged Piper to one side with his elbow and came closer.
Piper frowned and sank her hands on her hips. “Hey, hey. I’m not the invisible woman here.”
“Excuse me.” Nick didn’t even glance at her foster sister.
His focused attention sent a sweet shiver through Samantha’s solar plexus. Intoxicating stuff for a girl who’d spent a lifetime moving from foster home to foster home. Her self-esteem was still a little shaky, although her three years with the Dellaneys helped.
“Huh, maybe Iaminvisible?” Piper patted herself.
Samantha’s heart pumped hard, thrilled that Nick had come to her instead of Piper.
Boys swarmed her friend like honeybees to flowers. Pretty, perky, and profane, Piper possessed qualities boys seemed to enjoy.
Guys were rarely interested in bespectacled, overly organized, A-student bookworms. Unless they were begging her to write their term paper. It was nice, for a change, to be the object of desire.