With Every Heartbeat

I wondered when Quinn would come by the house to pick Cora up for a date again. I kind of craved another biology lesson with him...which made me hope he never came by again, and Cora just kept going out to meet him as she claimed she’d been doing the last few nights, because I so very badly needed to nip this crush I had in the bud. The less contact with him, the better. Right?

He and Ten looked up at the same time to catch all three of us girls ogling them.

“What?” Ten demanded with an instantly suspicious frown.

“Nothing,” Reese, Caroline and I answered in unison. When we abruptly became interested in our own things, Ten snorted.

“That was definitely something,” he told Quinn. Falling into his seat next to Caroline, he sighed and stretched. “I bet it was about sex.”

I flushed because that word...yeah, it wasn’t something I’d discussed with anyone. Ever. Especially out in the open in a classroom where just anyone could hear.

Reese wasn’t so scandalized, though. She snorted. “I know it’s shocking, but unlike men, we women can actually think and talk about other topics.”

“Hey, guys can too. Ham and I were just discussing football, thank you very much. How I used my football image to score a chick last night.”

I finally dared to glance over at Quinn for the first time since he’d sat beside me. He looked a little hurt that we hadn’t told him what we’d been discussing. I already felt bad enough that I had to keep Cora’s secret from him, so while Reese and Ten bickered back and forth across Caroline’s desk, I picked up my pen, opened my notebook and wrote, “Caroline just found a drawing in her chair. Someone made a picture of her and left it there for her to find.”

I tipped it his way to get his attention. When he finally noticed, he paused, looking up at my face, then went back to reading. His eyebrows lifted as he opened his own notebook.

“And she doesn’t want Ten to know?” he wrote.

I grinned. “Exactly.”

“Don’t blame her. Do you think it’s a secret admirer?”

“That’s the general consensus.”

Quinn shook his head. “Wow.”

“I know. I wonder who—” My cell phone dinged from my book bag, making me jump.

I didn’t realize class had already started until everyone, including the professor, stopped to stare at me.

“Cell phones off, please.” The teacher sent me an irritated glower before he went right back to lecturing.

Sinking lower in my chair, I cringed. “Sorry.”

Fumbling to retrieve my phone and set it to silent, I checked the message first. It had to be from Cora. She was the only person who even knew I had a phone, much less what my number was.

Meet me in front of the library after this hour, was all she wrote.

I typed in a quick response, only to find Reese wiggling her fingers at me. “Ooh. I want your number,” she whispered, snagging my phone from my hand.

I didn’t get my phone back for the rest of art class. When Reese realized I only had one number in my address book, she and Caroline made it their mission to enter every number they thought I should have. They even confiscated Ten and Quinn’s phones to make sure we all had everyone’s numbers.

When I got it back at the end of the hour, I had a number for Reese, her boyfriend Mason, plus her cousin and cousin’s new fiancé, not to mention Caroline, her brother Noel, his girlfriend Aspen, and Ten and Quinn. They also thought it fitting that I have the number for the bar where every guy in their group worked.

In the span of an hour, I went from having one contact to having eleven. I felt good—accepted and even liked—as I skipped toward the library after class, hoping Cora didn’t make me late to biology with whatever she wanted to discuss.

Cora was already waiting for me, impatiently tapping her foot with her arms crossed over her chest. “What took you so long?”

I slowed my pace, my smile dropping. “Sorry. I just got out of class.”

She let out a disgusted sigh and rubbed the center of her forehead, before thrusting a folder at me. “Whatever. Here, just take this.”

I did, asking, “What is it?”

“It’s a half-assed schedule and checklist of everything you’ll need to do before the...” She paused and glanced around before leaning in closer and muttering, “the operation.”

I nodded and started to open it, but she slapped it back closed. “For God’s sake, don’t open it here.”

Holding in a sigh, I slipped it into my backpack. “Why didn’t you just wait to give it to me at home, then?”