Page 105 of The Other Side of Green

Ignoring her, I slipped through the white door of the bathroom, but her words circled in my head.

Love against the odds.

That wasn’t what we were was it?

Chapter Twenty-Five

Jack

I watched for her out the rearview, waiting for her to be safely in sight.

I hadn’t meant to stand under a tree in the middle of campus, but I’d driven back to see if she needed a lift to work, and when she didn’t answer a single call I’d begun to prowl.

I wasn’t embarrassed.

Then I’d heard her. A sound that echoed from the very worst times of my life. It had sliced through me, pulling open locked memories.

As I listened, a vortex had been created. I could sense it swirling in my chest, asking questions of me.

I’d been so damn impatient to get back to Lyra and tell her that her crazy idea she was my sister was just that—plain fucking crazy—that I hadn’t waited around to talk to Mom or Phillipe.

I hadn’t even talked through what I now knew with Lyra.

A glance of her in the mirror pushed the thoughts away once again.

“Sorry,” she rushed out as she slipped inside, filling the car with flowers and sunshine. “I had to get changed.” She motioned to her Blue’s Bar T-shirt under the jacket. Leaning forward, she crushed a minty kiss against my mouth, warm lips and a sweep of her tongue as she lingered for a moment, stretching a simple greeting into a ball tightening hello.

I palmed my hand through her curls, angling her toward me so I could steal deeper into her mouth, sliding into her warmth.

“How was class?” I breathed against her skin and she pulled back slightly.

“You wanna talk about class?” Her eyes glinted.

“No. I don’t want to talk about class.” I pulled her back in.

We shouldn’t kiss so close to the college gates… but… we’d move in… five… four… three… two… ahhh this was going to hurt… one.

I pulled away, grinning.

Reaching forward, she touched my lips, cheeks a little flushed. “I love it when you smile.”

“Does it make me more ‘handsome young man’, and less ‘brutish asshole’?”

She chuckled and strapped on her belt. “Well, you haven’t shouted at me in a while.”

I glared in the rearview at campus. “That’s Shaun Parks job now, apparently.”

Lyra chuckled again and pulled against the belt to lean forward and give me another kiss. “So cute when you sulk too.” She pulled gently at my hair but then smoothed it back from my face. “Shaun is probably for the best; less chance of people talking.”

“More chance of him to enjoy being in a small room with you,” I muttered.

Lyra shook her head, but didn’t answer. “Are you giving me a lift to work or what?”

“Work.” I shook off thoughts of Shaun and pushed the auto start for the engine. Before long we were cruising through dark streets, Lyra watching through the window. “You know it’s strange, before I never really looked at the city?”

“No?” I glanced at her briefly as I flicked the indicator to turn left.

“No. I guess I was so focused on going back home that I didn’t stop to appreciate where I was.”