Free I'll Be Waiting (San Juan Island Stories Book 6) by Wendy Lynn Clark Page B

enthralling quiet settled over them.
    Honestly, she had barely paid attention in English class today. According to twenty-two very reliable witnesses, the teacher had apparently called her name for practically a minute, making the entire rest of the class hold their breaths. Luke, his cheeks red, had finally glanced in her direction, leaned over, and told her that the teacher was calling her . Which caused her to jerk forward and the class to explode with laughter like a burst balloon. But it was Luke’s fault. The only reason she’d kept staring at him was because of what he himself had done.
    The day before, she had been walking back to the gym office freezer to get a new icepack for Renee, who had turned her ankle doing a dive for a bad off-side. On the way she’d seen Ellie, one of the bubbly JV opposites, peering into the weight room from behind a Bowflex like a creeper. Since the JVs were all supposed to be out running laps around the crisp-cool track, Skylar snuck up behind her, tickling fingers poised for punishment, but Ellie turned and stopped her with a low desperate shush, and inside the weight room Skylar heard the conversation that would change her life.
    “I’d say Ellie’s hot,” a track guy said, leaning on an elliptical. “What about Audrina?”
    “Pretty hot,” a wrestler said, resting between sets.
    Luke silently curled weights. His chiseled profile had made Skylar feel strange in the pit of her stomach, like she wanted to throw something at him, or better yet, throw herself at him. He was one of the gorgeous, uninterested guys in her class that had never so much as smiled at her. And he probably never would, either.
    “I like blondes,” the track guy said. “What about Renee? I say no.”
    The other guys shook their heads, mirroring his gesture. “No, no. Too serious. I wouldn’t do her.”
    Ooh, well, what jerks. Skylar started forward to give them heck, but Ellie manacled her arm against the Bowflex, pressing her into one of the tension lines on the machine.
    Luke suddenly spoke. “I like Skylar.”
    Her whole body popped in surprise, like she’d been hit in the chest with a Taser. Everything felt kind of hot and tingly.
    The other guys nodded and said sure, whatever, they would do her.
    One wrestler said, “She’s kind of an airhead.”
    Luke shrugged, like he didn’t think so. “She’s easygoing and nice to everyone.”
    The jolt came again, harder this time, and tingled like stardust all the way down to Skylar’s toes. Ellie let go of her arm and released the pressure on the line, and the Bowflex threw them both forward into the weight room.
    Skylar toppled, flat on the ground, and Ellie landed on her with an, “Oof.”
    The boys stared at them, eyes wide.
    Caught! Skylar burst out laughing. What else could she do?
    The boys reddened.
    Ellie giggled and waved. “Hi there! We heard everything .”
    The track guy threw down his towel and lunged at them, roaring. The girls scrambled to their feet and shrieked down the hall to the girls’ changing room, but for the rest of practice and the rest of the day, Skylar could not get Luke’s confession out of her head. Had he ever really looked at her before? They shared English, but he sat across the room, a singular “normal guy” amidst a nerd herd, his plain T-shirt and jeans swimming in a sea of camo, trench coats, arrogance and acne.
    She’d noticed him long ago, on the weight bench as his pectorals flexed and his nostrils flared and his jaw gritted with every endurance-straining rep. Why had they never talked? He was truly a fine specimen of a human boy.
    And he was still a fine specimen, locked in the gym storage closet with her.
    She tucked her legs up under her. “Are you really friends with those camo guys you sit next to?”
    He paused. A swift, dark glance. Unreadable.
    Her heart thumped. She twisted a long strand of brown hair around her finger. “I’m just asking. They’re always talking, but you only