tried to imply in their lectures and syllabuses. Their expectations were less than Nola faced at BU. It was almost a disappointment, really, the knowledge that she wouldn’t be as challenged here as she had been before.
Not that she really concentrated on her classes. Her thoughts were more focused on Scribe, on the expectation of seeing him again this afternoon. She was almost afraid he wouldn’t be there when she came out of her last class.
But, of course, he was. He even climbed off his bike as she approached.
“How’d it go?”
Nola shrugged. “It was school.”
“I bet you enjoy it. All those lectures and all the writing and stuff you have to do. I’m sure you love it.”
“Is that what you think?” She moved close to him, laying a hand on his chest just over the patch that spelled out his name. “You think I’m some sort of nerd? Does it turn you on, the idea of corrupting my ideals?”
“Maybe.”
He kissed her hard enough to make her bottom lip smart as he pressed it a little too roughly against her teeth. But then his touch softened as he slid an arm around her waist and drew her closer to the length of his body. She kind of melted there, molding her body into the angles of his.
“Or maybe you’re just turned on by the idea of being with a bad boy,” he whispered in her ear.
“Maybe.”
Chapter 4
Scribe took her back to the lake. They didn’t talk at first, just walked along the shore, hand in hand, like a couple from one of those cheesy made-for-TV movies her mother used to watch obsessively. And it was the first time in a long while that Nola’s mind was free of everything but the moment.
“Why Lubbock?”
Nola glanced at Scribe. “My dad was a pediatrician in Dallas. I grew up there; Our lives were there. But when my dad died—my mom couldn’t start over under the microscope of all the people she’d mingled with at cocktail parties, you know?”
“I get that. It would be like leaving the club and trying to go legit on their streets.”
“Yeah, exactly like that.”
“What about you? Why couldn’t you go back to BU?”
“No money.”
“Your dad must have left you pretty bad off.”
Nola blushed even as she nodded. She knew she shouldn’t be embarrassed. It was her father’s failings that created this mess, not her own. But, somehow, not being able to overcome them well enough still felt like her fault.
Her mother relied on her to keep her perfect world perfect. That was her failure.
“My dad took off when I was ten,” Scribe said. “My mother wasn’t much of a mother. When she wasn’t high, she was off with one guy or another. Left me and my brother to pretty much fend for ourselves.”
“That’s rough.”
He shrugged. “It’s a common enough story in the neighborhood where I grew up. Some parents, they cared enough to keep their kids off the streets as much as they could. But others didn’t because that was how they grew up and if it was okay for them, it was great for their kids, you know?”
“Yeah. Kind of like my dad pushing me to be a doctor because his dad was a doctor.”
“I guess, yeah. Just a little more pretentious.”
“You think I’m pretentious?”
He laughed after he caught the look of surprise on her face. “Surely you understand what a girl like you is to a guy like me. I’m not the kind who’s going to be accepted in the circles you live in.”
“Used to live in.”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from life is that those who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths never travel far from that life, even when bad things happen. Just like guys like me are destined to live and die by the club rules.”
“You don’t ever see yourself doing anything more than riding with that club?”
“No, I don’t.”
Scribe lifted her hand and twirled her around until her back was pressed into his chest. Then he wrapped his arms around her and stared out at the lake with his chin resting lightly on the