Oh, yeah, the cologne. She misted a little on Alexi’s arm, bent forward, and breathed in—heaven. She reached for a second bottle and sprayed it. Nice. Her hand trembled reaching for the third bottle. She was enjoying this far too much. Stop. Mia gestured to the worker, indicating she’d take the first two. Shower gel came packaged with the cologne, which was good, because there was no way Alexi would use the flowery stuff she’d left in his room.
Alexi held up his arm for her to fix his sleeve. Mia lifted her hands, then quickly dropped them, knowing she needed to keep her hands off him. Hope and Niko were going to be together a long time, and she needed to stay friends with Alexi, keep to the plan. Shaking her head in refusal, she turned to pay the sales clerk. Knowing she couldn’t talk him into more shopping, she headed toward the exit.
Cheerful windows called to her, but his firm stride left her no doubt he was ready to go.
“Mia!” The yell came from across the mall.
Lauren?
Lauren waved and two big shopping bags slid down her arm. She was there with Willow.
Willow stood one step in front of the much taller Lauren, and she had at least four shopping bags. Despite Willow’s burden, her hands cupped her hips in her best cheer captain pose. The two of them could be taken for sisters from this distance given that they both had dark red hair, but up close their coloring and dissimilar features proved that to be unlikely.
Lauren’s wave froze midair, and then she elbowed Willow. Willow darted forward.
They’d spotted Alexi.
She’d just entered the tiger pit with a yummy, fluffy, baby duckling.
Chapter 8
Lauren and Willow barely got along, but they squealed in harmony and greeted her as if they’d been apart for months rather than a two-day weekend. Willow was the first to turn to Alexi. “Well, hello. I’m Willow.” Willow eyed Alexi up and down then arched her back. She smiled her competitive cheer smile, showing all her teeth.
Not her coolest move.
“Alexi, meet Lauren and Willow,” Mia said. “This is Alexander Ariastassios.”
“Oh?” Lauren caught Mia’s eyes and raised her eyebrows. The faint scar over the left one showed the piercing she had to remove during the school year to comply with the dress code.
Mia nodded. She’d sent a few texts about him last night.
Lauren tapped her ring finger. “He’s Hope’s future brother-in-law, right?”
Alexi ignored Lauren’s question about Hope with a frown. “Hello.”
“Is that an accent?” Willow flipped her long hair off her shoulder, sending out a wave of sultry perfume. She had a fondness for heavy nighttime perfume, even in the daytime. “I love accents.” She pumped her fist in the air. “Cheerleaders love accents.”
“You have the accent,” Alexi said with a heavier accent.
Willow giggled.
Alexi looked over at Mia to judge her response. She recognized his too innocent expression.
Mia rolled her eyes. He’d just imitated her dressing room Swedish accent. If Alexi said the line about shoes, she’d kill him. No. He’s family, he’s family. Well, not really, but he will be. He can flirt if he wants to.
“Hey.” Jake, her ex, walked over. He wore his football jersey and a pair of jeans.
Typical weekend. Everyone at the mall. “Jake. This is Alexi. Alexi. This is Jake.” Take that, Jake. You’re no longer the hottest guy at the mall. The hottest guy is Alexi and was there with her. Jake shook Alexi’s hand then moved to Mia’s side. “I’m here with Joseph. Joseph’s exchanging a shirt he picked out. He jumped on it and then regretted his choice. Regrets suck.” He moved closer.
No way, buddy. She stepped back.
Alexi took Mia’s arm, edging her in his direction. “We should leave now. Mia and I have plans.”
What plans? “We’ll see ya’ll tomorrow.” She waved to her friends as Alexi led her toward the parking lot via the food court. The smell of fried food circled the area. Alexi peered at the menus with interest but didn’t stop until they reached the door.
He texted the driver, asking him to pull the car around then said, “You shouldn’t encourage that boy. He’ll get the wrong idea about you.” He sounded like Dad.
The mall carousel revolved in time to a show tune, and Mia turned her gaze away from the seahorse rising on a golden pole to follow Alexi outside into the sunlight. “What encouragement?”
He didn’t answer, but moved toward the street. The car stood ready at the edge of the curb, the engine giving off only a quiet hum. Alexi stopped in front of the door and waited for the driver to open it. Mia rolled her eyes and reached for the door handle herself. Alexi’s hand stilled her arm. He nodded his thanks to Vincent, who opened it, and he passed the shopping bags to him.
“Thanks.” Mia climbed in. Inside, she bounced on the cushy leather seat. “I can’t get used to this car. You’re so spoiled.”
Alexi slid in right beside her, even though there was room for ten in the car. “You stand too close to him. Do you wear the short skirts for him?”
Was he going on about Jake? She was not into Jake. She was so over Jake. “What do you mean stand too close?” Mia shot a pointed look at his proximity. “You Dutch have no sense of space, and what did you mean by short skirt? I’m wearing shorts.”
“I’m not Dutch. Number 8a. It’s a subset on the poster you made me. The shorter the skirt, the better.”
Mia’s eyes widened. She stared hard at him. The poster.
“Some American girls have loose reputations. You should guard yours better. Especially while you’re living with my family.”
Mia covered her mouth with her hand. She wanted to address the smear against her gender and her fellow Americans, but she couldn’t escape the more horrible realization that if he could quote the poster, then he’d read the poster.
Chapter 9
The horror. Mia wanted to throw herself to the other end of the limo. She held onto the edge of the seat so she wouldn’t. “What do you know about the poster?”
Alexi raised his chin. “It is a plan for me, so I took a photo of it. It was mine to do.”
“It wasn’t your poster. It was Sacha’s. You read it?”
“I’m Sacha, so the poster is mine. You can explain it to me.” He tilted his head and his gray-blue eyes met hers. “I do have questions.”
Ugh. That poster—she hadn’t destroyed it soon enough. Mia squirmed, looking out the window. There’s no way out of this. How could she put an innocent spin on it? She pressed her sweaty palms into her thighs, and half-lied, “Hope worried you wouldn’t fit in, so I made the plan, mostly for a laugh.”
“Why would Hope worry?”
“She wants you to be happy, so Niko will be happy. That’s why the new clothes. It’ll be better if you blend in.” Was he going to stay? Did he want to blend in?
“You mean Niko’s credit card bought the clothes.” Alexi corrected her as if she didn’t know what kind of credit card she carried.
She needed to clear this up for him. Mia shook her head. “I don’t have a credit card from Niko. He doesn’t pay for us.”
“Just your food, housing, utilities, driver and gasoline.”
He was kind of right when he put it that way. She just hadn’t thought of the household stuff before now. The limo delivered them to the front door. Mia reached for the doorknob. “Time to choose an outfit for your first day, pretty boy.” She went around to the trunk.
“Have them sent up.” Alexi walked into the house.
No resisting the plan. Mia followed him to his room, where she went directly to his closet. She opened the door without asking and assessed his wardrobe. It was if a banker had needed a more conservative wardrobe, so he’d asked his grandma to shop for him. Then, if he thought the garment was too uptight, he’d gifted it to Alexi.
Alexi grabbed a book and threw himself across his chaise lounge by his window. He occasionally looked up and shook his head at her intent scavenging, bu
t he didn’t protest aloud.
***
Tap, Tap, Tap. The sound against her door pulled Mia from a dream, and she groaned. The alarm clock read 5 a.m. She didn’t have to get up until six. “What?”
“Come run with me, lazy American,” Alexi said through the closed white door.
Groaning again, she rolled back over, but it was no use, just the sound of his voice made her adrenaline soar. “Give me a second.” Mia threw on tennis shoes, shorts and a T-shirt. Grabbing a ponytail holder, she shoved it into her hair as she trudged into the recreation room.
Alexi reached a hand toward her hair. “It’s so gold in the morning light.”
Mia slapped his hand away.
“Girls should have long hair.”
That made her want to cut off her hair. But she liked her long hair, and it was one of Willow’s mandates; they couldn’t cut their hair short during football season. Uniformity added to their style points. She gave him a look, too tired to correct him or explain about style points.
Alexi bent and grabbed an ankle, pulled it up to stretch out his thigh, then did the other one. Mia breathed deeper and watched.
Nice legs. With her foggy morning brain, she wasn’t too sure how well she’d hold up on the run. Especially after staying up several hours last night worrying about what Alexi had said. Were they mooching off Niko? She hated that. Mia rubbed her fingertips against her temple. Was that how Niko saw them? He’d seemed very insistent that Hope move in. Maybe Hope had pushed her into the picture? No. Niko was stricter than Hope. He’d never let her stay at Hope’s loft alone.
One hand under his elbow, Alexi stretched his arm across his chest.
“Let’s go, I know a good trail.” She’d never taken it alone, just on walks with Hope. It’d be handy having him around for company.
They jogged out the front and went down the long drive. “There are hike and bike trails all through this neighborhood.” Mia swung her arms out. “We’re lucky it’s only 75 degrees.” She paused and did a quick conversion in her head. “Twenty-four degrees. It’s going to heat up today like it’s still the middle of summer. What’s England like right now?”
“Fifties.”
“Nice.” Her shoes pounded on the sidewalk until they fell into an easy rhythm. They left the manicured lawns and turned onto a dirt path canopied by tall pine trees and covered with fallen pine needles that crunched under her feet. She concentrated on her breaths and stopped the chatter, until they reached the small lake with benches. “I know you’re a runner. If you want to go all out. I’ll do some stretches here.” She pointed to the nearest bench.
Alexi nodded and took off.
He was fast. She did standing pushups against the edge of the wooden table and watched him. A brown pine needle landed on her hand, and she brushed it off, pushing back up.
Alexi came back to her, his hair sweaty, his expression free. He gave her a grin, an honest, open, isn’t-this-moment-great grin, and her heart cracked open a little, just enough that she wasn’t sure she could close it back up.
***
Vincent held open the door to the limo and they got out at the front of the school. Every kid being dropped off by their mom, mostly lower classmen, turned to stare. Every one of them. And it wasn’t just at the limo. They were checking out the new guy, Alexi. The school was large, but not so large that the new guy didn’t shine like a new toy on a commercial. Alexi was the new toy. He wore an off-white linen shirt with dark slacks. Mia had laid out jeans with that shirt, but Alexi ignored them. “My first school without a uniform,” he’d said. He’d looked so proud, and he looked so great, she hadn’t insisted he change. She wore a dark orange dress, very fall in color, but with short sleeves so she wasn’t dying in the heat.
They walked up the path to the school. Yellow dandelions had been planted alongside the blooming purple sage bushes. Yellow and purple.
“What?”
Mia pointed. “The new principal changed our school colors. The landscaper’s driving it home. Go Dragons.”
Alexi tilted his head at the large dragon statue in the front.
“What’d your old school look like?”
“Not like this.”
“Descriptive.”
He held out his palms. “Like a proper school. Wood paneling. Dark colors. This is very…yellow and purple.”
He so got it. “I know.”
They picked up his schedule at the office, and he stared down at it with a frown.
Mia leaned into him, blatantly checking out his schedule. He didn’t share any of her morning classes, but he did share her lunch. “I won’t see you again until C lunch.” She pointed down the hallway, showing him the lockers. His was at the end, hers in an entirely different corridor. “If you’d have started at the beginning of school our lockers would be near each other, what with us both having A names.”
“A names are the best.” Alexi shook his schedule at her. “There are so many classes.”
“How many classes did you think you’d have?”
“Three, not seven, and school starts at nine o’clock, not eight.”
“Three classes? Geez. You learn nothing.”
“We start with twelve classes and then by our age narrow down to focus on a few of our choosing. Intensive study. These classes are less than an hour.”
“They’ll feel longer.”
The first morning bell rang. Mia gave him an encouraging pat on the arm. “Go cause some trouble.”
His lips twitched and he nodded.
She didn’t see him again, even in the hallways, until lunchtime. The school cafeteria, populated by students and patrolled by teachers, smelled like spilled fruit juice and the deep fried daily special. Mia waved from her usual table the second she spotted him—tall and gorgeous and carrying a full tray.
A dark-haired junior girl waved and motioned for him to join her. The girl giggled loudly to attract attention, but he walked straight over to Mia. She liked that in a guy. Jake would have stopped to chat with the girl and then joined her afterward. Mia patted the seat beside hers. It was hard and backless, one of six at the picnic-style lunch table. “How’s your day?”
Alexi shrugged and slid down, preoccupied with his tray. It contained chicken fried steak, a roll, fried okra, and small fried apple pies. “Everything’s fried.”
“Not the roll.” She defended the indefensible.
He pressed his fingertips into the golden-brown top. The bread didn’t yield. His head tilted, and he pressed again. “May as well be.” Alexi shoved the tray away. “Let’s go out for lunch. I’ll have Vincent bring the car around.”
Alexi stared the whole time. “What do you have?” He raised his eyebrows at her crust-less triangle.
“Chicken salad. Want half?”
“Cook made it?”
“Yeah.” She’d known to bring her lunch.
He grasped her wrist and pulled her sandwich toward his mouth. He took a bite, chewed, clearly considering the offer, then nodded in acceptance.
Wow. Alexi had taken a bite from her sandwich, where she’d eaten. How was he making chicken salad seem hot? Mia passed him the other half of the wrapped sandwich.
They were joined by some of Mia’s friends and she introduced him, startled by the number of girls appearing at her table so they could welcome Alexi. She didn’t blame them. He was worth meeting.
Kristnaldo walked up. “Buongiorno.”
Alexi greeted him bac
k in rapid Italian. They talked for a moment, and Mia noted the moment Kristnaldo stood too close. Alexi stiffened, but his expression didn’t change. Mia tried not to laugh. Holding back laughter, in addition to the stench, caused her eyes to burn.
Kristnaldo moved on to greet the girls at their table.
Alexi narrowed his eyes. He put his mouth to her ear. “There’s a lot of flowery bath stuff in my bathroom.”
Mia giggled and bit her lip.
“It’s nice to speak to someone who knows Italian.” Kristnaldo gestured to the girls on either side of him. “No one else here speaks anything but Spanish or English.”
“Mia speaks—” Alexi said.
Mia gave Alexi a kick under the table, hoping the action was universal for shut up. She may speak a little Italian, but Kristnaldo was the last person she wanted to know that information. Her fondness for languages had its limits.
***
When they got home from school, Alexi tossed his book bag on one of the desks in the recreation room. “I want my welcome present.”
Mia had been hoping he’d forgotten. She tried for a distraction. “The last movie we watched was gory action, and you slept through it. It’s my turn to pick.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”
“No.”
“Then no gift.”
From his expression, wheels were turning in his mind as he tried to find a way to get the present and his pick of a movie.
“No? I don’t get the welcome gift because I’m not welcome?” Alexi asked.
She shifted in her seat.
“It’s mine,” he insisted.
“It was Sacha’s.”
“I’m Sacha.”
“Fine.” Mia walked into her room, went into her closet and returned with the iridescent pink box she’d hidden the day he arrived. Next, she stopped by the media center and grabbed the girly movie disc. Standing before him, she held aloft the girly movie disc in her left hand and the pink welcome box in the palm of her right. She raised her eyebrows then raised the pink welcome gift in the air. After Alexi nodded his acceptance of her terms, she tossed the gift to him and sat down with one leg tucked beneath her. Grinning, Alexi placed the box on the coffee table and untied the large bow. He pulled off the lid, set it aside and lifted out the first item: a black eyeliner pencil. Alexi frowned.