Free Stepping Up To Love (Lakeside Porches 1) by Katie O'Boyle

get his breathing under control. He had to get her off campus, out of Kristof’s reach entirely. “Do me a favor,” Joel said to his friend. “I’ll pick her up instead. I will read her the riot act about the cell phone.”
    “Well, okay, but I told her she’s going to pay you back for the phone and whatever else she needs.”
    “I’m with you, buddy,” Joel pacified.
    Joel hung up before Tony could get on another roll. The last thing he worried about was getting paid back.
    He paced his apartment to slow his heart rate. When that failed, he went out on his porch for some serious think time. He came out here any time quiet eluded him, and the answer always came, out here in the fresh air overlooking the beautiful lake. Tonight there was not a ripple of a breeze, and no stars were visible. The lake and sky were so dark nothing caught his eye.
    He searched the lake for some glimmer of serenity. There it was, a faint light flickering on one of the islands. He could not fathom how a light came to be on the island in the frigid lake this time of night, this time of year. No one used the islands in winter. In the summer, campers might set up a primitive campsite or local kids might dare one another to sleep over, but not in the dead of winter.
    He remembered, back in his wild-child days, taking a girl out to one of the islands one warm summer night. He was probably fourteen, and she was sixteen. Drunk and stoned out of their minds, they’d used her father’s boat, and Joel had thrown up all the way out to the island. He never could control his motion sickness when it came to boats.
    The girl left him on the island, if he remembered right. Humiliated, he slept it off, swam back to the closest shore at the crack of dawn—at least half a mile—and walked several miles home.
    He felt just as inept now. Kristof was out of control. Since they could not secure Manda’s safety on campus, he would need to argue for some alternative. He knew he had a solution to her housing problem, and he would talk her into it in the morning. However, to exempt her from being on campus until graduation, he’d need her buy-in and that of many others. He’d call the provost in the morning at a decent hour and set the ball in motion.
    For now, though, he needed the quiet and bracing cold of his porch high above the frigid lake. The light continued to burn on the island, and he stared at it, not questioning it or analyzing it any further. He found himself thinking about his Irish grandmother Bridey, his mother’s mother, the architect of Lakeside Terrace.
    Bridey read tealeaves when she cared to, and he always suspected she worked a little magic from time to time. He wished she were still alive to give him a glimpse of the future or maybe work a little magic on Manda’s behalf. When the cold got to him, he went back inside, took a hot shower, and tumbled into bed.

Chapter 3
    Manda peered through the side panel of the downstairs door and saw that it really was Joel waiting for her. She gave him a big smile, went out to greet him, and explained, “Tony said he’d meet me At My Apartment Door!” She was trying to make light of it, but Joel felt her nervousness. “Are you filling in for him?”
    “We’re double-teaming you on the cell phone issue. I understand you have a list—things you need that will carry you through to the end of the semester.”
    Manda shook her head. “I apologize about the phone thing. And there really isn’t anything else I need.”
    Joel put his hand on her back and steered her to her car. “We’ll talk about it over breakfast, which is going on your tab.” He did his best to sound stern, but he could tell from the way she rolled her eyes that Manda saw through it. “Seriously, I want to hear about this injury.”
    “It just needed a couple of stitches and mostly Steri-Strips, which will fall off in about a week.”
    Joel’s eyes looked gravely into hers. “The way I heard it, you are lucky that’s all