Luke tensed as Maura stopped beside his desk on her way to the front of the classroom. "Hey," she said. "How's it going?" Bewildered by her unexpected pleasantness, all he could do was stare. The smile on her face wavered at his silence. She tucked a red curl hair behind her ear. "Um. Same time, same place today?"

Evelyn, invisible to everyone but him, sat perched atop the adjacent desk. "Doesn't she look lovely today?" She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes in apparent ecstasy. "She smells nice, too. Like sunshine and morning dew."

Personality aside, Luke wasn't oblivious to Maura's physical charms. Still, he wasn't about to comment on them now to Evelyn, and he certainly didn't want to risk thinking about her in that way.

Maura waved her hand in front of his face. "Earth to Luke. Did you hear me?"

Luke cleared his throat. "Yes."

"Is that a yes you heard me, or a yes that we're meeting after school?"

Evelyn leaned forward. "Tell her you enjoyed the cake."

"What?" He said. He had no idea what the faery was talking about.

Maura's brows pushed together. "Huh?"

"Go on," Evelyn coaxed. She reached out and pinched him. Hard. "Tell her."

"I, uh . . . I enjoyed the cake," he said, gritting his teeth against the pain in his arm.

Maura's face brightened. The words obviously meant something to her. She tucked her hair behind her ear again. "Oh! Well, I'm glad. So?"

He continued to stare at her. "So?"

She laughed and shook her head. "Are you okay? You seem a little off this morning."

"All you have to do is nod your head and agree to meet her," Evelyn said. "Or would you rather I involve the queen?"

"I'll be there," Luke replied.

Maura's smile grew, the corners of her eyes crinkling. "Great! See you later."

As Maura walked away, Luke turned a harsh look on Evelyn. "We hung out last night," she said with shrug. "We baked a cake, although I ate your half, as well as mine, on the way home. We're practically besties now."

"Stay away from her," Luke said.

The guy sitting in front of him turned around. "What?"

Evelyn leaned down and kissed the guy on his cheek, a feather-light touch of her lips that caused him to rub his face against his shoulder as though scratching an itch. She laughed and waved her fingers at Luke. "Toodles," she said, and then disappeared, presumably to cause trouble elsewhere.

"So I decided to start fleshing out a preliminary outline according to our notes," Maura said to him later that afternoon when he sat down at their usual table. She slid a few stapled pages across the table toward him. "It's just a rough draft, but tell me what you think."

Luke picked up the pages and flipped through them. Though they were just notes, he could tell she put a lot of thought into the project already. Maura didn't do anything halfway. After the span of a few breaths, he met her inquiring gaze. "It's okay."

Maura blinked, her expression turning stony. "Could you be a little more specific?"

"Sure." He pushed the papers back at her, sending them spinning off the table. "It's not interesting."

"Not . . . interesting."

"Dull. Boring. Drab."

"I get the picture," she said, holding up her hand for him to stop. She tapped the tip of her pen against the table and stared at him. There was a little less kindness in her eyes now than there had been this morning. But that was the point. He couldn't afford for things to be otherwise.

But then Maura's expression softened and she sighed. "I told you I'm not a writer, Luke. As much as it pains me to say this, I think maybe you should take the lead."

"No, thank you." He could think of a million things he'd rather be doing during the last days of his existence. Completing a school assignment wasn't one of them.

Maura's brow wrinkled. "We agreed that I would take the lead, and yet you don't like what I wrote. You barely helped with the outline. I mean, I get the impression you don't even particularly care about this project."

"I don't."

Her mouth fell open. "Then . . . why didn't you just lie and tell me you liked what I wrote?

"You want me to lie to you?"

A furious blush rose up the pale skin of Maura's neck and settled in her cheeks, clashing with the color of her hair. "No, I don't want you to lie to me," she said. "But a little constructive criticism would be nice."

"That's exactly what I gave you."

"That's not what that was," she argued. "That was just . . . criticism."

Luke shrugged. "It's not my fault you can't handle it."

Maura's nostrils flared, her mouth pinched tight. She gathered her books and folders, shoving them violently into her bag. She rose and stalked off without another word, but then turned on her heel and marched back. "You know, I told myself I would be nice to you and actually give you a chance, but you're making it really difficult. I don't know what your problem is, but I'm done with you. I'm talking to Mrs. Raines in the morning and telling her there's no way we can work together. We're just . . . incompatible!"

Luke watched Maura storm out of the library. He spied the pages on the floor that she had forgotten and picked them up, folding them in half and tapping the edge against the table as he stared at the doors through which she'd fled.

Her reaction was exactly what he had wanted.

So why did he feel so bad?

**********

She should have known better than to try to be nice to an obvious jerk. After spending the previous night with Evelyn, Maura had convinced herself there might be a kernel of truth to the ludicrous things she'd been saying. Maybe Luke did have a crush on her and she'd been too dense to see it. Tunnel vision was sort of her thing. But now, in the light of day, the only possible explanation was that Evelyn must be playing some kind of joke on her. She was just as awful as her brother.

Maura hoisted her bag over her shoulder and walked angrily down the sidewalk. She had called for a tow truck during her lunch period and arranged to have her car taken to McCallum's Garage downtown, which was a three-mile walk from the school. Just her luck, the day had turned out to be abnormally hot for mid-spring, and it was even hotter among brick and concrete. She pushed her hair off her forehead and pulled her shirt away from her chest.

She had walked several blocks when a car pulled up alongside her. "Maura!" She slowed briefly at the sound of his voice but didn't stop. "Maura!" he called again.

"Did you follow me just to criticize me some more?" She looked straight ahead as she walked.

"No," Luke replied. "I followed you to apologize." He was driving too slowly for traffic, and the car behind him honked impatiently.

"Fine. You apologized. Now leave me alone."

After a few seconds of silence, she heard the whir of the automatic window. Luke's car zoomed past. Just one block down, however, it slowed again. "Want a ride?" he called out to her as she caught up.

She scoffed. "Don't sound so enthusiastic."

"I'm sorry. I just . . . Where are you going?"

"None of your business." The car came to a dead stop in the middle of the road, and so did Maura. "What are you doing?" she demanded. "You can't stop in the middle of the road."

"Let me give you a ride."

"No, thanks. I can walk."

A long line of cars began to form behind Luke's. She saw him glance in his rearview mirror and shake his head. He turned to her again. "Please let me give you a ride."

"Why? Because you feel guilty for being an asshole?"

"Maura, I—"

"Just get in the damn car!" another driver yelled, honking the horn and drawing even more attention to the scene.

Aware of everyone's eyes now on her, Maura gritted her teeth as she stepped off the curb and yanked open the car door. Before she had it fully closed, Luke sped off. She hoped he was a better driver than his sister but quickly fastened her seatbelt anyway.

"Now, tell me where you were going," Luke said.

"McCallum's Garage. A few miles down that way," she said, pointing straight ahead.

"I guess that explains why you don't have your car."

"I could have walked," she said, not particularly wanting to make conversation. She stared out the window instead. Thankfully, Luke didn't seem inclined to talk either.

They pulled into the parking lot of the garage a few minutes later. "Thanks for the ride," Maura said as she got out and slammed the door behind her. She didn't expect Luke to follow and was annoyed when he appeared at her side. "You know you don't have to come with me," she said.

"Actually, I do."

"You must feel really guilty," she muttered.

Maura gave her name to the receptionist and was told to take a seat. Luke sat down near her, but not next to her. "You don't have to wait," she said to him while giving her cell the better part of her attention. Instead of answering, he picked up a magazine and began flipping through the pages.

"Hey, Maura." She looked up to see Colin McCallum walking toward her. She and Colin had known each other forever. He was quiet and sweet and, she had always thought, especially cute.

"Hey, Colin."

"How'd you do on that history quiz?"

"Not bad."

He rolled his eyes. "You aced it, didn't you?"

"As if you didn't?" she teased.

"Well, I had a good tutor."

"I tutored you one time," she said. "And really, all I did was give you a few pointers about how to be more organized."

He raised one shoulder. "Still . . ."

"Did you figure out what's wrong with my car?" she asked hopefully.

Colin shook his head. "The tow truck didn't bring it in until an hour ago. We've been pretty swamped."

"Damn," Maura muttered. "I was afraid of that. I should have called ahead to check."

"I'm really sorry," Colin said.

"It's not your fault," she replied with a wave of her hand. She stood, shouldering her bag. "Do you think they'll get to it tomorrow?"

"Oh, yeah. Definitely."

"Okay. Good. Thanks, Colin." She started to walk away when he called after her.

"If you hang around for half an hour, I can drive you home."

"That's sweet of you, but I can grab a bus." She saw Colin glance at Luke and had a feeling she knew what he was thinking. "Um, do you know Luke?" she said. "He started last month."

"Hey," Colin said. He held out his fist. Luke's brows pushed together, but he obligingly bumped it with his own. "So, you and Maura are . . ."

"No!" they said in unison.

Luke suddenly stumbled forward, as though someone had pushed him from behind. "Are you okay?" Colin asked, grabbing Luke's arm to steady him.

Luke wrenched his arm free. "I, um . . . I drove her here. I can give her a ride home."

"I don't mind catching the bus," Maura said. Judging by the expression on Luke's face, he looked like he would rather shove bamboo spikes under his fingernails than be stuck in the car with her again.

"Ow!" he said, clutching his upper arm. "Just a . . . bee, or . . . something," he added when he saw Maura and Colin gaping at him.

"Anyway," Maura said, pointedly turning to Colin. "I'll catch the bus."

"I'll drive you," Luke said.

"You should let him drive you home if you don't want to wait for me."

Maura closed her eyes and sighed, wondering into what sort of alternate universe she had fallen where two guys argued about how she would get home. As if she wasn't capable of getting there on her own. She would have happily waited for Colin, but she had told her mom she would make dinner that evening, and it was already getting late. And who knew how long it would take for the bus to arrive and run its route?

"Fine," she relented. "I'll get a ride with Luke."

Colin walked them out to the parking lot. He touched her briefly on the arm. "See you tomorrow?"

"You bet." She had always thought there might be a little spark between them, and she was definitely feeling it today.

Colin glanced at Luke, though Luke was looking everywhere but at them. "Great," he said, touching her arm again. "Looking forward to it."

*****

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