She inspected the young man from top to bottom. When she’d finished, she arched a brow at Alex. She was no fool.
Alex couldn’t imagine Thomas would fail to notice the pointed look Lena had given Alex. If he had, Thomas said nothing, merely urging Lee forward with a swinging hand.
“This is Senior Ward Jackson Lee, one of our top students.” Thomas clapped Lee on the shoulder. “And he has volunteered to help you acquaint yourself with the facilities, get you to your appointments and lessons, and generally help us by seeing to your needs.”
“My needs, huh?” She turned those blue-green eyes to Lee and swept them over him again.
He stood mute next to Thomas, overwhelmed by her energy, her bright bloom, and her attitude.
There’s no way this is going to work.
She tossed her hair back, and it slipped free from her ears to fall around her freckled face again. “Hello, Ward Lee.” She flashed a dazzling smile. “Or should I call you Warden Lee?”
Alex snorted softly. Yes, he could see this was going to go exactly as he expected. It was too bad his duties pulled him back to Azcon. The poor kid would need help. Ward Lee couldn’t possibly be ready to handle Lena Gracey.
Chapter 13
Lena tried hard not to like Jackson Lee. She’d made it clear in the beginning that she wouldn’t be charmed by his easy company, no matter how lonely she became. Except at some point over the last month and a half, she had been charmed.
He walked back to her now from the cafeteria line, where he’d returned because she’d forgotten the maple syrup. She liked to dunk her toast, along with nearly everything else, in the sticky sweet. She’d discovered its rich taste, more complex than the honey those in Zone Three had access to, on her first breakfast at Fort Nevada. It wasn’t all she’d discovered.
Jackson had a graceful lope that reminded her of Reyes’s sinuous, confident movements. Unlike Reyes, he was neither jaded nor buried up to his neck in plots and counterplots. Reyes was a rugged mountain—beautiful to look at, but remote, exhausting, and dangerous. Jackson was a lush valley. His quiet offered comfort and recovery.
Then why can’t you stop thinking about Reyes?
Jackson eased the little bowl of syrup onto the table as he rounded it to sit across from her, as he had every morning since Reyes had brought her to Fort Nevada. His narrow brown eyes, set high above prominent cheekbones on his long face, met hers, and he gave her a questioning smile.
“You didn’t remember something else you forgot, did you?” Even his quiet, even voice spoke of his good nature. She had never liked her boys earnest before. Maybe the good food and easy days at Fort Nevada were making her soft.
“No, Jackson. Just eat your breakfast.” She took a few bites of syrup-dunked toast before remembering and, exasperated with herself, mumbled around a mouthful of toast, “Thank you.” A tiny piece of toast landed between them on the table. Lena’s hand flashed out to swipe it away. Ah, yes, Magdalena Gracey, such a damn lady, she mocked herself.
As if he hadn’t noticed, he raised his gaze to hers without glancing down at the telltale sticky smear. A genuine smile, broad and white with teeth, spread across his face. “You’re welcome.”
“What’s on the agenda for today?” she asked, trying for crisp and detached to cover her mortification. Did he have to be so…gentlemanly? The word would have made her wrinkle her nose in distaste before she’d experienced Jackson Lee’s daily attentiveness.
He swallowed the last bit of egg and took a moment to sip from his juice to clear his mouth. That’s what thoughtful people do, Lena, she told herself, so they don’t spit food across the table when they talk. He swallowed again.
“Well, you’re scheduled to give me a private lesson this morning.” He glanced up; her wide, wicked grin made him flush. “And, uh, afterward, um, you will go have a history lesson with Guardian Erwin. He’s cleared his classes so he can clear up some of the history you’re lacking.”
She’d had periodic classes with the Guardians—the instructors responsible for educating the Wards—and the need for more wasn’t a surprise. She had wide gaps in her knowledge. She had thought she knew the history of the Great Disaster, but recently a Guardian had referred to the Dust as “nanites,” and when she’d responded with a blank stare, he’d sighed and told her she needed to spend time with Guardian Erwin. Apparently, today was the day.