Eighteen years ago
Victoria’s anatomy textbook took up half of the table. Her notes took up the other half. She’d spilled coffee on her notes. It hadn’t been her fault. A jock had jostled her elbow as he’d pushed by her little table in the crowded coffee shop. She’d recognized him as a Stanford football player. A rowdy group of students had invaded the little store, raising the decibel level several points. The shop was always loud, but she found it easy to study. Somehow tuning out the noise helped her stay focused.
She concentrated on the drawing of the distal end of the femur in her text, committing to memory the differences of the anterior view from the posterior. She wanted to hold one in her hands and feel the actual ridges. She’d slip into the classroom early tomorrow. A traditional wired-together plastic skeleton stood in the corner of the room. Since they’d started the skeletal system, she sat as close as possible to the grinning form, eyeing the bones as the professor lectured. She couldn’t dawdle after class because she immediately had a chemistry class. But going in early was a good option.
She loved college. She loved the independence and the ability to immerse herself in what she found important. High school had so much extracurricular crap that simply didn’t matter. What good would pep rallies do for her career? Or student council? They weren’t going to get her into medical school. Books and her own determination would.
Her adoptive parents had been very nurturing. They valued education and hard work. They’d brought her up in a structured one-child household, teaching her self-discipline and manners. What if she hadn’t ended up with them? What if she’d ended—
A tall male pulled out a chair from her table and sat directly across from her. She stared into intense blue eyes and lost her concentration.
Seth Rutledge was sitting at her table.
She tightened her grip on her pencil, her hands suddenly icy. Seth met her gaze and gave a comfortable half smile as if he sat with her every day.
“How’s it goin’?” He leaned on his forearms on the table and shifted closer so she could hear him over the noisy hum of surrounding conversations.
Victoria froze.
She’d studied him in class as much as she’d studied the skeleton. As a teaching assistant for her anatomy class, Seth usually sat in one of the front corners of the lecture hall, his profile prime for her gaze. Occasionally he would turn her direction, but she’d hastily shift her gaze to the professor. Seth Rutledge was a bit of a distraction. Tall, athletic, dark-haired, with a genuine smile that made most of the girls in the class focus on him instead of the professor. Victoria had noticed that Seth’s line of students with questions during office hours was usually longer than the professor’s. And mostly female.
She’d been guilty of stopping in during office hours with a question or two. Seth had always been polite and spot-on with his answers. It’d been more of a test to see if the brain in his head was as gorgeous as the man. As far as she could tell, Seth Rutledge was the real deal. Blessed with smarts and looks. But he didn’t seem to have the ego that accompanied the looks.
“You having any problems with that?” He nodded at her text.
Victoria blinked. Speak. “No, not at all.”
The silence dragged between them. She continued to study his blue eyes. He had the slightest bit of gold around the pupils and his black lashes created perfect frames for the masterpieces.
Speak more!
“I really like this section of the class. I’d rather study the skeletal system than the respiratory system any day.” Much better. She commanded her lips to give a casual smile. “What are you doing here so late?”
Sometimes Victoria ran down a checklist when she carried on a conversation. Social skills weren’t her specialty. She admired women who could talk on and on about anything under the sun, but for her it was a struggle. She was a private person. She spent a lot of time in her head, studying and analyzing the world around her; that didn’t mean she wanted to share her thoughts with every person she met. To avoid the tongue-tying conversations, she’d formed a mental checklist. First on the list was to turn the topic back to the other person. She didn’t care to talk about herself.
Seth smiled as if he’d recognized her tactic. “I’m usually walking by here about this time of night after using the pool. I live only a block away. I’ve seen you in here at late hours several times.”
He’d noticed her?
“Ah… I haven’t seen you.”
“That’s because you’ve always got your nose buried in a text. No wonder you ace every test.”
Elation bubbled in her chest. He’d noticed her and he’d noticed her scores. The look in his eyes was frank admiration. Was he flirting? Or was he just being polite? What had driven him to sit at her table? She tilted her head. Sincerity rang true in his voice and gaze.
He’s interested in me?
“Do you swim every day?” Victoria repeated rule number one, turning the conversation away from herself.
“Just about. I like to do it in the late evening. The pool isn’t crowded and I can focus and think about other things. Helps me sleep, too. I get a weird sort of energy that I need to burn off in the evenings or else I can’t sleep. It’s a nighttime ritual for me.”
“I like to read,” said Victoria. “I switch to fiction before I go to sleep, otherwise I lay awake thinking about what I was studying.”
Seth nodded. “But what do you like to do for fun?”
“That is fun. You’re not a reader? Fun doesn’t have to be physical.”
His eyes crinkled as his grin grew, and she winced at her words.
“That was funny.”
Victoria’s cheeks heated, but she kept her chin up. Seth continued to grin, and she felt her stomach do a quick series of flips.
“I guess I feel like I read so much for school, the last thing I want to do is read some more,” he said. “Usually I’m dying to get out the door and get moving. Apparently that isn’t a problem for you?”
She shook her head. “I take a yoga class twice a week, but I can’t say I go there with energy to burn.”
“I’d ask if you need any extra help in class, but it’s pretty apparent that you don’t. You could probably do my job.”
She studied his face and mentally dissected his last sentence. Why would he ask if she needed help in class? Because… “Are you asking me out?” she blurted.
“Yes,” he said calmly.
“Isn’t that against some sort of rule?”
“Only if I’m a professor.” He frowned lightly. “Or are you uncomfortable with the idea of going out with a teaching assistant? I’m not going to screw with your grades or help you out. You don’t need help anyway. I don’t know why you’ve asked me the questions you have during office hours. It was pretty clear that you knew the material inside and out.”
Victoria held her breath. And held his gaze.
“You’re smart, you’re gorgeous, you’re going places. Why wouldn’t I ask you out?”
He thought she was gorgeous? “How many other students from your classes have you asked out?” The question slipped through her lips. It was a bit rude, but she wanted to know. She wasn’t falling for the teacher-boinking-the-student scenario.
“None.”
“None? Really?”
She must have looked doubtful. He straightened in his chair and repeated firmly, “None. I dated someone back home for a couple of years. We ended it a while ago. I haven’t dated anyone else since I’ve been here at school.” His gaze touched her lips, then cheeks and went back to her eyes. “You’ve been stuck in my head for weeks. I think it started one of the rainy nights I was passing by here. You were studying at this same table, scowling at the text like you were furious with it, and chewing on your lower lip. Did you know you do that in class too? Mainly during tests but sometimes during the lectures. Anyway, I was passing by, considering grabbing a coffee for the cold walk home, and I recognized you from class. Since then…” He shook his head, that half smile curling up his right cheek. “Yeah, you stuck in my head.”
Victoria stared. If he’d said he was a time traveler, she wouldn’t have been more surprised.
In shock, she agreed to a date.