Out of Her League (19 page)

“Yes, that’s very important,” she said
meekly.

“I’m glad you agree,” he said, perfectly
aware he’d just railroaded an answer from her. He couldn’t even pretend it
would actually make a difference, but it felt good that he’d made her say it,
at least.

His heart ached to see Robby watching his
parents with an unbearably sad look on his face.

“Perhaps,” Michaela said softly to the fairly
stunned Wigglesworths, “I could call you this week and arrange a time for us to
meet. If you’re not interested in working with the Price Foundation, I might be
able to suggest other organizations that align with your family focus.”

Lachlan almost smiled at Michaela’s clever
and diplomatic phrasing.

“Yes,” Mr. Wigglesworth said, startling
Lachlan by speaking for the first time since Lachlan’s heavy-handed lecture had
begun. He was answering Michaela, but his eyes were on his son. “I’d like
that.”

Mrs. Wigglesworth frowned, her brows drawn
in severely, and looked at her husband.

Mr. Wigglesworth glared back. “Come along, Priscilla.
I think I see the Lidens looking for us.”

He drew his wife away before she could
speak, leaving the three of them in the center of a silenced crowd.

Suddenly, conversation burst to life around
them. Before Lachlan could think what he should do now, Robby was dragging him,
and therefore Michaela, away from the party and up the spiral ramp around the
main fish tank, weaving through a few sparsely scattered guests who had also
escaped the crush below, until they reached a quiet spot out of sight from
everyone.

Then Robby hugged him, fiercely, and
started to laugh, though it sounded a little damp against Lachlan’s lapel.

Lachlan hugged him back. “Sorry,” he
muttered, the weight of what he’d done and its possible repercussions sinking
in.

“Shut up,” Robby said, still clinging to
him.

Michaela smiled up at Lachlan. “You are
such a fucking troublemaker.”

Robby stepped back. “You really are. I
cannot believe you just schooled my mother in front of me.”

“And about half the party, I think,” Lachlan
added regretfully. He looked at Michaela. “I broke the rules, didn’t I?”

“You did,” she said, though her smile
didn’t match the chastising tone. “I can’t say it wasn’t worth it, though.”

“It was totally worth it,” Robby declared.
“I was one of those kids. If it hadn’t been for my friends, I would have been a
statistic. But my family was at boarding school, not at home. Friends like the princess
here, and even Blake-the-epic-asshat, were my support network.”

Michaela threaded her fingers through
Robby’s and squeezed.

“Now,” Robby said, “let’s get the fuck out
of here. I think we’ve given enough of a show for tonight, and I need a real
drink and less company.”

That sounded like an outstanding idea to
Lachlan.

They started back down the ramp toward the
main floor, and Lachlan smiled as he’d been taught and ignored the number of
eyes on them. He gazed at the exit covetously—so focused on it, in fact, that he
didn’t realize Robby and Michaela had stopped short until he was jerked to a halt
between them.

“Mickey!” cried a man charging toward them
from the midst of the crowd, who parted eagerly, clearing a path directly to
them.

Mickey?
Lachlan turned, arrested by the horrified look on Michaela’s face before she
quickly pasted on a wan smile.

“Blake,” she said, her voice monotone.

Lachlan’s heart stopped.

“So much for not putting on another show,”
Robby muttered, dropping Lachlan’s arm and taking a step forward.

Blake practically jogged up the ramp toward
them, but before he could say another word, Robby punched him in the face.

The next day, Michaela snuck through the
door of the massive Starbucks in the heart of Harvard Square, the same one
she’d come to with Lachlan countless times. This time, though, she bypassed the
line in favor of zipping up the stairs to the large seating space above.

She immediately spotted her study group
sitting in the corner by the big windows looking out over the Square and
sighed.

This was going to be another disaster.

They’d met three times this week already, but
it had always been in a study room in the campus library. This morning, Sadie
had declared via text message she couldn’t spend another minute in that room,
let alone on a Sunday, and suggested that they meet here so they could enjoy
some coffee and just relax.

Michaela was decidedly
not
relaxed.

“Hi,” she said when she reached them,
smiling tentatively.

“Hey,” Sadie returned, looking at Michaela’s
empty hands curiously. “Do you want to go get a coffee?”

“Uh, no. I’m fine.” She hovered by the
group, not moving.

Tanner, who had long recovered from his
embarrassment over his roommates’ stunt, craned his neck to look at her over
his shoulder. “You gonna stand there all day?”

“Yeah. I mean, no. But, um…Do you mind if I
take this seat?” she asked, gesturing at the one Tanner was currently slouched
into, looking extremely comfortable and not at all like he had any plans to
move.

He frowned at her. Michaela fought back the
urge to just turn around and leave.

Sadie, though, was quicker on the uptake.
She leaned over to look beyond Michaela and rolled her eyes at whatever she saw.

“Get up, Tanner. Let her sit there.”

“Why?” he said, clearly irritated.

Sadie glared at him. “How about you not be
an asshole and try paying attention to the world around you?”

He stood. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“I can just go,” Michaela said quietly,
taking a small step back.

Tanner turned to look at her, following her
hand as she gestured toward the exit. His eyes widened as they scanned the room.

“No, you sit here. Sorry,” he muttered,
grabbing his stuff and collapsing into the seat that faced the roughly one
hundred other occupants of the room. His eyes narrowed at something—Michaela
was sure she didn’t want to know what.

She perched on the chair Tanner had
vacated. “No, I’m sorry. Thank you for moving. If it’s easier, I can just leave
my stuff and you guys can meet without me today.”

“No,” Eric said, “you should stay.”

She smiled gratefully. “Okay. Thanks.” She
pulled out copies of the abstracts she’d written for today’s meeting and passed
them around. The others did the same.

The third time Eric flinched, Michaela
sighed in defeat. “Do I want to know?” she asked, still refusing to look behind
her.

He frowned down at the papers in his lap.
“Pictures,” he mumbled.

Sadie and Tanner simultaneously glared at
something or someone over Michaela’s shoulder.

“I’ll go,” Michaela said, gathering her
things as she rose to her feet. “I’m sorry this didn’t work out.”

“Sit.
Down
,” Tanner snapped.

Michaela did. Quickly. Eric looked between
them with wide eyes. Sadie kept glaring at whatever was going on behind Michaela.

“Is there somewhere else we can meet that’s
not the library, and not liable to require crowd control?” Tanner asked
irritably.

“I’d offer my place, but my roommates are
slobs,” Sadie said.

“I’d offer mine, but I live in the ‘burbs
with my parents,” Eric added.

Tanner’s smirk was smirkier than usual.
“I’m not even going to propose we go to my house. I’m pretty sure you don’t
want to meet my roommates again, and now they have your picture on their walls.”

Michaela suppressed shudder, then noticed
they were all looking at
her
.

“I bet
you
don’t have a roommate,”
Tanner said leadingly.

“Oh. Right. Uh, you guys could all come to
my place, if you wanted? It’s not far.”

Had she really just said that out loud?

Sadie stood before Michaela could take it
back. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Everyone hastily packed up their stuff,
grabbed their coffee, and made a beeline for the stairs. Michaela followed them
out of the café in a daze, only pointing them in the direction of her building
when they reached the sidewalk and the others looked at her expectantly.

She’d just invited people she barely knew
to her home. No one but Lachlan had set foot in it. No one but Callum and her
family had ever come to her place in Denver. She hadn’t had people over, an
actual
group of people
, since…

She couldn’t even remember when. She hadn’t
even been old enough to have her own space when the shit hit the fan. So
this—this was definitely a first.

And weird. Holy shit, was she about to
entertain?
Did she even know
how
?

They walked down Mass Ave in a close group,
no one trying to pretend they weren’t with her, and all studiously ignoring any
looks they received. Michaela was impressed with their composure. They were
doing way better with this than she ever would have imagined, though it was
fair to say they weren’t exactly loving it, either.

Which, oddly, was also good.

Unfortunately, she was so focused on her
companions, she didn’t notice the tight cluster of people outside her building
until it was too late.

“
Michaela
!
Can you give us a
statement about the fight last night?
” someone cried from half a block
away.

Michaela jerked to a stop and stared at the
cameras pointed in their direction. She saw Mike hovering by the door and he
looked absolutely furious.

“
Michaela, can you confirm that Lachlan
Morrison is your boyfriend now?
” someone else shouted.

Her stomach dropped to around her knees.
She turned to look at her study group in horror.

“I’m so sorry,” she said sincerely, though
it was totally inadequate.

Eric looked petrified. Sadie grabbed his
arm, steadying him. “What do you want us to do?” Sadie asked.

“
Run
,” Michaela said desperately,
because how was that not obvious to everyone?

“What?” Sadie asked.

“You should run. Now. Before they get
here,” Michaela said urgently, nudging Tanner’s arm to try to get him moving.

“Fuck that,” Tanner said sharply, shaking
off her hand. “We’ll never get this fucking work done if we keep having to move
around. How do we get past them?” Tanner asked.

What the hell was he talking about? They
needed to just leave her. Run in the other direction.

Go.

She could hear the vultures getting closer.
Soon they would circle. “It’s too late to go to the back door, and there are
probably more of them there,” she tried to explain. “I’m going to have go
through them.”

“Do we say anything?” Sadie asked.

“What?” Michaela asked, utterly bewildered.

“Do we say anything? Or do we just, I don’t
know,
plow
through them?”

“But. You can’t. I—”

“Just plow through them,” Tanner announced
decisively, like he had any fucking idea what he was talking about. “None of us
should say a word. Eric, you walk on her right. I’ve got the left. Sadie, you
good with going first?”

Sadie’s smile was wolfish—all teeth and no
humor. “Sure,” she said. Then she turned and marched toward Michaela’s front
door.

And the others
followed.
What was
wrong with all of these people? Had they lost their minds?

Michaela jerked into motion. She had no
choice but to keep up, even if every instinct told her to grab them and run the
other way. Eric was frighteningly pale, and she wanted desperately to take his
hand—for her own comfort as much as to save the coffee that appeared to be
slipping from his fingers—but that would only drag him further into her fucked-up
mess of a life. And into the press.

Fuck, they’d left Starbucks because she’d
wanted to protect them. Shield them from all this. And instead, they were diving
in, head first, and she couldn’t do anything to stop it.

A moment before they were surrounded, she blurted
out, “They can’t touch you. That would be assault. Just keep moving. And no
matter how tempted you are, don’t throw your coffee at them.”

Tanner actually smiled at that last bit.

Eric flinched when a man shouted at them as
if they weren’t a mere three feet away, “Michaela, what started the brawl last
night?”

She barely resisted the urge to roll her
eyes, keeping her face carefully blank instead. Brawl? What brawl? Robby had
punched Blake right on the nose and then they’d left.

Tanner sent her a speaking side-long look, and
she wished, desperately, that she’d had time to train the others on how to
handle this.

Which was totally ridiculous. Why the hell
should they have to handle anything? Studying with her shouldn’t come with
required trainings.

Flashes went off like fireworks all around
them, but Sadie didn’t hesitate, and she didn’t run, just marched on in a
determined line toward Mike, who held the door for them.

He looked remarkably composed now that the
cameras had swung in his direction.

“You okay, Ms. Price?” he asked quietly as
they ducked past him into the building.

“I’m okay, Mike. And it’s
Michaela
.”
She looked helplessly at his grin—he was so
stubborn
—as he closed the
door firmly in the face of the press.

She quickly introduced everyone and assured
Mike that if any of them should come by again, they should be allowed up to her
floor. It was scary to say, but god knew, they’d earned it in the last two
minutes alone. And, hey, maybe next time they wouldn’t be harangued by the
press on their way over.

In her experience, a punch in the nose
wouldn’t hold anyone’s attention for long. Things would die down by Tuesday.
Wednesday at the latest.

She turned to Sadie, Eric, and Tanner. “Thank
you. Really. That was way above and beyond what you should have to deal with.”

Tanner frowned. “I’m not even going to say
you’re welcome, because that shit is just bizarre.”

Michaela winced. “I’m really sorry. I had
no idea the press would pick up on what happened last night.”

“What did happen last night?” Sadie asked
curiously.

Michaela grimaced. “I’ll tell you about it
later. When they” —she tilted her head toward the pack of idiots jammed up
against the lobby windows, which now appeared to include both the press and
curious passersby— “aren’t where they can see me.”

“Fair enough,” Sadie agreed easily, then
let out a deep breath, as if shaking off whatever the hell had just happened.
“Shall we head upstairs? We still have a lot of work to do.”

Eric, glanced over his shoulder at the door
then shook his head. “I think I’m just going to head home,” he said quietly.

Michaela felt miserable. “Okay. Let me get
my car keys. I’ll drive you.”

“What? No. I can get home on my own.”

And now she wanted to cry. “You can’t walk
out of this building. Not for a while. They just saw you with me and they’ll
follow you, asking questions.”

Eric’s already pale complexion went waxy.
“What the fuck,” he muttered.

She turned to Mike. “The back door?”

Mike looked at the screen on his podium and
shook his head sadly. “No dice. They’ve got it covered, too. Your best way out
is in a car through the garage.”

“No, it’s okay,” Eric said, quietly
resigned. “Let’s just go upstairs and work.”

The walk to the elevator, and then down her
hallway, felt more like a death march, but Michaela led them to her door
without breaking the silence.

The moment her key touched the lock, Fang greeted
them with ecstatic barks.

Eric lifted his head for the first time
since the lobby, his eyes getting noticeably brighter. “You have a dog?”

She opened the door and let her little monster
barrel into the hallway. “This is Fang. He’s very friendly, as you will see.”

Eric dropped to his knees and Fang
immediately tried to climb into his lap. Eric smiled and helped him up, letting
the dog plant his feet on his chest and rubbing their faces together.

“
Fang
?” Tanner repeated
incredulously. “What the hell is he, a Tribble?”

Eric shot Tanner a surprised look. “Nerd!”
he accused gleefully. “
Star Trek nerd!”

“Come on inside,” Michaela said, opening
the door wider and leading the way.

Sadie stopped in Michaela’s foyer and
looked around. “Holy crap.”

“Nice digs,” Tanner said with a low
whistle.

Michaela felt like she should apologize, which
was stupid. Then she thought about offering a tour, but that felt even
more
stupid. Instead she hovered awkwardly in the hallway.

At least Eric didn’t seem to care about her
apartment. He’d already crossed into the living room and thrown down his bag so
he could cuddle with Fang on the couch.

At a loss, she tried to remember what her
mother always did when company came over.

“Can I get anyone a drink?” she asked.

All three of them turned to look at her,
their coffee cups still in hand.

“Uh, right. Well, let me know if you want
anything. I’ll just go get myself a water.”

Sadie almost looked sorry for her. “We’ll
get set up. Where do you want us?”

“The living room is good,” she said,
nodding to where Eric was already making himself at home, somehow managing to
unpack his bag while still holding his new best friend, Fang.

When Michaela returned from the kitchen,
she found Fang making the rounds, taking turns wriggling around on everyone’s
laps on the floor and sofa, and spending a few minutes being adored by each
person before moving on to the next victim.