Except her thudding heart had other ideas, excitement sizzling through her veins like lit gasoline. Of course, being this close to Levon in a confined space wasn’t helping either. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t seem to stop noticing his long, strong fingers wrapped around his coffee cup, and flushed thinking how he’d used them on her, in her, her last night...
“What are your plans for the future?” Levon asked out of the blue, jarring her out of her erotic thoughts and making her choke on a swallow of tea.
“Uh, what?” she asked once she recovered, swiping her mouth with the sleeve of her sweater, then pushing her glasses up her nose. Seriously, she hadn’t expected him to go so deep so quickly... hearing herself think that, she blushed. “Why do I suddenly feel like I’m the one being staked out?”
“We haven’t really talked about it, Olive. And I think I have a right to know.” He turned to her, blue eyes piercing. Searching. For what? “You’re going to be a mom soon. Clearly you love teaching. But I can’t help thinking—you never left the town where we grew up. Hell, you never even left the high school.”
Her face burned hot beneath his stare and she fought to maintain eye contact with him. But she had nothing to be embarrassed about, damn it. “I did leave—I went to college. Then I came back. So what? Lots of people stay in their hometowns.” She couldn’t keep the challenge out of her voice. Was Levon really intimating she should be ashamed of her choices? Ashamed of her life? Well, screw him, if that was the case. “We can’t all run around the world like superheroes.”
He scowled, then snorted and turned away, staring back out at the arcade. “I didn’t mean it as an insult, Olive. I just…” He shrugged and shook his head. “I just always thought you were destined for more.”
“More? Like what?” She did her best to keep the sharpness from her tone and failed miserably, if the pointed look he gave her was any indication. Olive swallowed hard against the lump of hurt in her throat over his disappointment in her. She shouldn’t have been surprised. People were usually disappointed in her when it came to things outside of her smarts. She should be used to it by now. Except coming from Levon, the rejection hurt. Badly. Maybe she wasn’t a rocket scientist. Maybe she hadn’t moved out of Harper’s Forge. But she had nothing to be ashamed of. She had made a good life for herself and would make a good life for their baby when it came, with or without him. She took a deep breath to ease the pressure constricting her ribcage, then said quietly, “It’s not my fault you had your lab partner built up in your head, Levon. What, did you expect me to go off and win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry? I bet you certainly didn’t expect me to wind up single and pregnant in the town where I grew up.”
Guilt flickered through his blue eyes, and she felt an odd sense of satisfaction at that. Good. Let him know he really stepped in it with that one.
Levon didn’t reply right away. He always liked to think things through, she remembered.
“Take your time.” She settled back into her seat. “I’m not going anywhere. Just make sure the next thing you say is exactly what you mean.”
He cursed under his breath and scratched at the bristle coming in on one cheek, staring out the window again. “I did a deep dive after running into you seven months back.” His dark brows knit, as if he were searching hard for the right words, his expression defeated. “Look, Olive. I know about all those papers you’ve had published... all that side research... you’re obviously way overqualified for your job. I know you love your students and you’re a hell of a teacher to these kids, but you could be doing so much more than teach high school. You could be helping so many more people.”
Olive’s mouth dried and she focused on the tea in her hand. He’d researched her?
“I may not be smart, but even I recognize genius when I see it. Not just genius either, Olive. Greatness. And you have it.” The truth in his tone rocked her harder than anything else he’d said thus far. He said it with the certainty of a man who had just glanced out the window and proclaimed the sky blue.
Her eyes prickled and tears welled, blurring her vision. Damn it. She wanted to cry, especially now. Pregnancy seemed to amplify all her emotions anyway, but this... this was something different. “Levon...”
She wanted to tell him he wasn’t stupid. The dumbest things she had heard from him were the doubts he continued to express about his own intelligence. But before she could get that far, she noticed something awful out the front windshield. Something that took her breath away.
She wasn’t sure she would ever be able to breathe again.
“That’s Franklin.” Her voice broke on her favorite student’s name as the lanky youth exited the door of one of the supposedly vacant storefronts... flanked by some really rough-looking individuals. “What’s he doing with Colin Wilson?”
“Colin Wilson?” Levon pulled out his phone to scroll through an email from his team, but Olive already knew what he would find. After their meeting with Principal James, she’d been given a list of names from the local PD, local youth confirmed as suspects running with the gang. She’d memorized them all.
“Wilson’s with the Reapers.” Levon said,
