When Julia unleashed a wistful sigh, I glanced at her. One side of her mouth curled up.
“Dart.” She said the name, then repeated it twice. Methodically, her long fingers tucked a wisp of hair behind an ear. “That’s an interesting name, don’t you think? I wonder what it means. Sounds familiar, right? Like it’s short for something.” She moved her lips, muttering the name over and over like a tick.
“So, Mel,” I said. “What—”
“D’Artagnan!” Julia exclaimed, making me jump. “I’ll bet anything his real name is D’Artagnan. It’s from
Her use of the present tense did not escape me. She pressed her fingertips against the glass and leaned in. “Dart. He’s very handsome, isn’t he? Almost
“Oh,” Mel interjected in a cautionary tone. “He’s Lilah’s brother.”
Julia whipped around, mouth gaping open, frozen in silent horror.
Mel offered me one somber nod in agreement.
Dart knelt in the driveway, digging through an open box. I’ll give Julia credit, he was pretty cute, but not my type.
Our dark-haired neighbor faced us, sunglasses hanging from the collar of his shirt. He made a deliberate one-eighty turn, stared toward his front door and planted his hands on his hips. His butt—I mean his
Directly on the heels of fascination, my pride flicked at the back of my neck, reminding me that I was not someone who reduced herself to slobbering over a man, at least not publicly. Therefore, I let exactly five seconds lapse before my questions began.
“So, um, the other one?” I rubbed my nose, forcing my voice to sound blase. “What’s his story?”
When Mel turned to me, she displayed a toothy grin, like she’d been waiting for me to ask. “Yeah, Springer. I
I rolled my eyes, not willing to join in on the drool fest just yet. “I take it the poor guy is
“Oh, no. I’ve decided to save
Mel was not about to make this easy for me. She knew how I was about guys. If I showed the slightest interest, she wanted it to be written on the side of the Goodyear Blimp.
I turned my attention to my nails, picking at a spot of polish on a cuticle. If she wanted to share her gossip about the secret identity of our dark-haired neighbor, I wasn’t about to beg for it. Nice butt or no nice butt, the thrill was gone.
“He’s
I turned to Julia for a clue, but she was staring down at their garage where Dart had disappeared a minute earlier.
“You know.” Mel twisted an earring. “
Still no clue.
“Knightly
Hmm. That did ring a bell, but the demonstrations I’d attended were starting to blend together.
“Did he build Knightly Hall?” I asked.
Mel laughed. “No, Einstein. His father donated three million to the university, and they named a building after him.”
My stomach tanked. Oh.
I’d researched the family last year. They owned a bunch of land all over the western United States. If they weren’t chopping down forests, they were damming up rivers, leasing their land to strip miners who bulldozed
“Oh, frack,” I muttered.
My gaze left Mel and moved out the window again. Henry Knightly was buffing the side of that shiny black car with an elbow.
“Precisely what this university does
“What?”
“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s just…Stanford isn’t cheap, Mel. My three jobs are barely keeping me afloat, and my parents have never paid a dime of my school costs. My mom can’t afford it, and I haven’t spoken to my father in years.” I pointed toward the window. “Here comes this guy, probably studying to be a high- flying business mogul while riding Daddy’s coattails. Kind of unfair, don’t you think?”
“He’s in law school, Springer. And no financial aid.”
“Oh,” I said, frowning.
“What’s
My mouth opened, ready to deny this. But as always, Mel was pretty dead-on. I didn’t know this guy, and the loathing in the pit of my stomach wasn’t exactly hard evidence against him. Even though his connection to Lilah Charleston was pretty damning on its own.
“He went to Duke too,” Mel said, fluffing the back of her hair. “That’s where he met Dart when they were freshmen. They were roommates, played ball together. They’ve been best friends for years.”
Julia suddenly unthawed. I’d almost forgotten she was there, as still as Venus de Milo. “Mel,” she said, “how the hell do you know all this?”
I snickered, always loving it when Lady Julia swore.
“I will never reveal my sources,” Mel said.
Dart reappeared in the front yard. He walked over to Henry Knightly, who was on his cell. It was evident that Dart wanted to talk to him, but his roommate held up an index finger in a curt “silence, I am already speaking” fashion.
“Is it going to absolutely kill you?” Mel asked, picking at a nail. “Living across the street from him?”
“Nope,” I answered, my eyes fixed on my dark-haired neighbor as he turned around, pressing buttons on his phone. He slid his sunglasses to the top of his head, giving me another very clear view. I couldn’t help moving a couple inches toward the glass. “His presence isn’t going to affect me in the least—”
My head jerked back when Knightly suddenly looked up at the window, zeroing in on me. When he took a step forward, I drew away from the glass and spun around.
“I…” I cleared my throat. “I’ll probably never speak to him.”
“Not even tonight at the party?” Mel asked, catching the tail end of my reaction, then peering outside. I hoped the guy wasn’t still staring up.
“Especially not tonight,” I said firmly, toying with a handful of braids.
Mel glanced from the window to me, then snickered under her breath. “You keep telling yourself that.”
I didn’t like the way she was grinning.