The smooth surface of my vocabulary cards lulled me to sleep as I reviewed them at the table of Marshall’s books. It was a Friday night, a week from graduation and yet, I was spending it studying. Obsessively studying some may even say. Yet did I change my plans? No, I didn’t.
Wyatt sat across from me with his head bent, nose in his economy notes, trying to ensure an A on his final on Monday.
So maybe, I wasn’t that upset to be studying, because at least a very cute boy was across from me doing the same.
Sage would die if she could hear what I was thinking now. Up until the walk down memory lane, I had convinced myself that maybe I was the only one with possible feelings. Sparks were simply illusions from my overactive brain and therefore not real. But how could I deny that things had definitely shifted after Wyatt told me guys who didn’t realize who I was were missing out?
So why, if I had realized the shift, was I not telling my best friend? This was best friend newsworthy. It should have been the first thing I did when I got home from our date on Wednesday and yet, two days later, that information was still kept lodged in my brain.
I straightened my pile of notecards and went through them again. Maybe if I remained focused on studying, I could ignore the fact that I was unsettled. Feelings for Wyatt Shaw was a bad idea. He was leaving for the big city after graduation and he might find my studious tendencies endearing now since they would help him graduate. He surely wouldn’t find them endearing when he was trying to become a big name music mogul and I was a freshman in college worried about midterms and projects.
“Your nervous energy is seeping into my body all the way over here. Want something from the counter?” Wyatt asked, never once looking up from his notes.
“My … what? Who says I’m nervous?”
“No idea what you’re nervous about when you’re going to ace your finals, but you can’t stop jiggling your leg, which has shaken the table, not to mention if you shuffle through those index cards any faster, I’m certain they will combust.”
My brows rose. “I didn’t realize.” I settled my body. “I’m sorry, I distracted you.”
See? I was already being a nag.
Wyatt finally glanced up to meet my gaze. “Didn’t say I was distracted, just wanted to make sure I couldn’t help calm your nerves with a nice drink.”
“Oh, um, maybe a chai tea? I don’t think coffee would exactly help me here.”
He nodded then stood. “One chai coming up. I’ll be right back.”
I smiled, then waited as he walked away before I threw my head over my arms and pouted. I needed to get it together. If I was that readable while I said nothing, then what would he think when I tried to pretend I had no feelings for him? Because somehow in almost three weeks, I had caught real feelings and that was not in the agreement.
The sound of his chair moving forced me to sit up and plaster a steady smile on my face. “Thanks.”
He nodded then went back to his notes, like nothing was wrong.
Maybe I just needed to focus on the business part of our arrangement. He needed my help. When was the last time I asked him about his classes or how things were going? Did I even know what his current grades were?
“How’s your studying going?”
He raised his head, meeting my gaze. “Good, I think. Economics feels solid, which is the only one I have Monday. Tuesday is Mr. Andrews and English. Wednesday is science and math.”
“That’s good. How about studying for Mr. Andrew’s test? Do you feel ready?”
“I think I will once I review a little more this weekend, but it doesn’t feel as impossible. I recognize it is more achievable now that I’m out of my hole.”
“That’s awesome, Wyatt.”
He smiled so broadly it almost hurt my cheeks thinking about it.
“What about you?”
“Like you said, I shouldn’t have anything to worry about.”
He closed his notes after placing a pencil inside as a bookmark. “Good, then I was thinking.”
I arched a brow. “About?”
“Graduation and meeting your cousin.”
My stomach flopped. “Please don’t remind me about that. I get nauseous every time I think about it. What if she sees us together and doesn’t believe it?”
Wyatt’s smile turned into more of a smirk. “You don’t think we have chemistry and could pull it off?”
My mouth instantly dried up. Grappling for my chai tea, I sucked down a few sips before answering him. “No, just that Andrea is good at assessing a situation. She also knows me.”
He crossed his arms. “Does she though? I mean if she did, why harass you about not dating? It’s not her business.”
He had a point there. “It’s more about making me admit it, I think. But if you really think we could sell it.”
“I do.” He placed his hand over mine, then squeezed my fingers gently. “So, this is also a book date night.”
“It is? I thought we were almost done and were waiting for finals to be over?”
“Well, mostly. We still have to teach each other something.”
I groaned. “Really? That is really a date in there?”
“Yep.”
“Well, I already did that, right? With tutoring?”
“Nope. No visual evidence, so it didn’t happen.”
“Well, I have no idea what I could teach you.”
He chuckled. “Good thing I have an idea for what I can teach you.”
“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”
He stood and outstretched his hand for mine.
Reluctantly, I placed my fingers in his hand. His touch was warm, invigorating me more than I thought possible. He laced his fingers with mine, pulling us out into the balmy air. It was a typical May evening. The sun was still hanging on in the sky, setting off soothing blue tones and slight oranges as the sun descended.
Town was busy. People walked toward the ice cream parlor a few stores over, but Wyatt pulled us in the opposite direction toward his truck. We stopped at the back of his truck’s bed, where he pulled down the tail gate, then went around to the front of his truck and opened the passenger door. He pulled out his guitar case and immediately my stomach dropped to my feet. He wasn’t really going to teach me guitar, was he?
Didn’t he know how astronomically bad I was at instruments? I didn’t even attempt them.
He also grabbed a thick comforter and laid it in the truck bed, then jumped up into the back. Once he stood at the tailgate, he crouched down and proffered his hand to help me up next.
I placed my hand once again in his, then jumped as he pulled, until I was officially standing on the comforter. I criss crossed my legs and settled comfortably on the blanket.
I blinked rapidly at Wyatt as he pulled his guitar from the case, then placed it on my lap. “You can’t be serious.”
His smile grew and his lashes batted over those rich brown eyes before saying, “Deadly serious. You can do this. I’m a great teacher.”
I scoffed. “I think you either overestimate your ability or overestimate mine, but either way a train wreck would go down better than this.”
“I highly doubt that, and I think I’m offended. I’ll have you know I can teach people to play the guitar.”
Once the guitar rested on my leg, he pulled the strap over my body and across it, until it laid loosely in place. Then he sat next to me, our bodies grazing here and there, sending a shiver through me every time, despite the humidity.
“Any knowledge about a guitar?”
“Besides what I read in your research on how they are consumed in the economy? Not really. Oh, and I know you use a pick to strum the strings.”
He stifled a laugh. “Okay, well, Marley, each string is used to play different notes. And notes have letters. Do you know the letters?”
I shook my head.
“That’s okay. There are six strings on this guitar and there are sections we call frets down the neck of the guitar.”
My eyes felt crossed as I focused on each part of the guitar he named and discussed with me. I couldn’t even focus on all the words, they went in and out like in cartoons where they’re squished between the character’s ears, then forced out the other end.
“Does that make sense?”
I nodded, even though I had definitely zoned out. I had tried to warn him.
He spun around front so he could see my face. “Your eyes have this glazed over look.” He chuckled. “Okay, maybe I don’t explain the parts yet. How about you play a song with me?”
My brows furrowed. “If I can’t even figure out what each string is and what notes it can play, how will that work?”
“Good old fashioned I’ll help guide your hand and you can strum it and I’ll make the other notes with my hand.”
I giggled. “That seems like it goes against the point.”
He shrugged. “It’s still teaching you something.”
“Fair enough. Okay. What are we playing?”
“You’ll have to wait and see.”
He sat back behind me and then scooted closer. Now his arms came around both sides of my body. I resisted the urge to squirm as people walked through town and glanced in our direction. But their glances weren’t nearly as nervous making as the fact that Wyatt hadn’t been this close to me since our kiss, and yet, it felt like that day had never happened and still did all at once.
My thoughts weren’t even making sense.
He settled his hand over mine and rested them both on the side to strum the chords. His other hand sat on the neck of the guitar, at least that’s what I thought he called it. My second hand rested under the guitar to help hold it off my leg.
As Wyatt took a breath, his chest grazed my back, sending warmth through my thin shirt. If it weren’t for the jargon of musical instruments twisting my thoughts, this contact was certainly doing an even better job.
Without warning, Wyatt moved our hands to strum the guitar, while his other hand moved with speed and accuracy across the strings. The results were a beautiful sound emanating from his guitar. I felt mesmerized by the movements and then when he began to sing Iris from the Goo Goo Dolls, my heart felt like it was melting.
Damn him for picking this after what I had confessed.
Being a part of him making music was better than watching him on stage. I didn’t even have to see his face to know how at peace he was and how moving his music made me feel. But this song? Was it on purpose? Or had he picked it because he knew it?
Either way, I couldn’t help noticing that with each chord, my heart was dancing and swelling, and the feelings I had for Wyatt weren’t going anywhere. If I thought I could deny them before, now there was no way that would work.
His body moved with every breath and even though his voice wasn’t for everyone, in this moment he was singing only for me to hear, it felt like he was singing in the loudest microphone on a grand stage.
When the final note of the song rang out on the guitar and from his lips, I resisted the groan ready to explode. I didn’t want this to end. I didn’t want him to create space between us. I wanted it to start over and to feel this moment again for the first time.
Instead, he shifted to my right and helped lift the guitar over my head, then placed it between us.
“That was amazing, Wyatt.”
His gaze searched my own, but I had no idea what he was looking for. “Well, I had a good helper.”
“Oh, please. That had nothing to do with me and everything to do with you.”
“I don’t think so.”
“How come you don’t play that song in one of your sets? The girls would go crazy over that.”
He snorted. “I don’t think that would be true and I don’t exactly want that attention either.”
“Why not?”
“Not why I sing. I’m not trying to have girls fawning over me because of what I sing. I’d rather help someone through something or make them feel like a different person from my song.”
“Well, couldn’t that difference also be about romance? I mean if they’re moved to stalk you, then wouldn’t that still be moving them?”
“I’ll admit, you almost had me.” He adjusted his beanie. “Stalking, really?”
I giggled. “Okay, stalking may be a bridge too far, but Wyatt, you’re so talented. You have to know you’d have groupies. And groupies love those kinds of songs.”
“Maybe, so.”
I focused on the sky before us. The sun had dipped even lower, mixing more oranges and purples into the sky than before, although still quite warm.
“Now it’s your turn.”
“What? I can’t play by myself.”
“No. I meant it’s your turn to teach me something, but first we have to take our picture.”
I nodded and scooted closer to him.
He settled his arm around me and pulled me even closer until my head fell on his shoulder. Then he snapped the photo.
The glimpse of it that I caught, before he pulled it back into his lap, enticed me.
What would I do with all these photos after next week? I would literally have a book full of photos with someone I fake dated. How crazy was that? And what was worse was that I secretly wished they were real.
He hopped down from the tail gate, then helped me down as well. He put his guitar back in its case, then placed it and the comforter in his truck before putting up the tail gate.
We walked back toward the bookstore to reclaim our seats.
“So, what am I to learn today?”
“I have no idea. What could I honestly teach you?”
“There has to be something.”
“Um.” I wracked my brain for something, until it wouldn’t budge past one idea. “Okay, this is probably beyond ridiculous, but what about how to read fast?”
Wyatt laughed. Not even like a little chuckle, full on-no-holding-back-tears-spill-down-your-cheeks-kind of laugh.
“Why is that so funny?”
“Wait. You’re serious?”
I crossed my arms. “Yes. I only know academic bookish things. So, I can teach you how to read faster.”
“Aside from the fact that I never expected you to say that, I’m quite curious.”
I plopped in the seat across from him at our table. Then I turned his economics notes so they would face me and him, perpendicularly to our sitting positions. “So, the trick is you have to focus on more than one word at a time. Like you focus on phrases or small simple sentences instead of word by word.”
He squinted at the page. “On a whole sentence? That’s a lot.”
“Start only a little larger. Like instead of one word at a time, you focus on three words.”
“Okay …” His squint lessened slightly, but he still looked pained. “That’s hard.”
“It can be at first. It takes time. But just read this page and try to focus on three words at once as you read down the page.”
He nodded and I grabbed my phone and opened the timer. I started the stopwatch and then waited for him to stop reading and look up, then stopped it.
“I think I know what I read. I’m not really sure.”
I laugh. “Okay, now try to do it again, but do five words.”
“Uh, I’ll try.”
Once again, I used the stopwatch to time him. This time when I stopped, I compared the speeds. “You were faster this time.”
“Yeah, but I think I’m getting a headache.” He lifted his chin to meet my gaze. “Is this what you do? Do you read like this?”
“Sometimes. Depends.”
“What do you mean?”
“Reading new things that I really need to focus on, makes it almost impossible to read that fast, but I use it for novels or notes that I’ve written or am familiar with.”
“That makes sense. I had no idea someone could even do that. I regret laughing.”
“See? You can keep practicing it and eventually it gets even easier.”
“Definitely would have come in handy earlier this year with all the reading Mr. Andrews gave us.”
“Well, now you have it for the future.”
I sipped my now mostly cold chai tea, then shuffled my index cards. It was time to get back to studying, no matter how much I didn’t want to.