Out of Her League (9 page)

“Sure. Yes, of course. What’s up?”

Dick walked up to him sedately, and Lachlan
wondered if he was trying to make a point. “Let’s speak in your office.”

Lachlan’s stomach went heavy with dread. He
led the way into his office and turned to close the door, surprised to find
Anna still hovering in the hallway. He couldn’t imagine what she thought she
could do to help, but he smiled gratefully before closing the door and facing
Dick.

“How are you, Lachlan?”

“I’m well, thank you,” he said
automatically, distracted by thoughts of how to get out of this meeting. Then
he remembered his manners. “How are you?”

“Fine. Just fine, thank you.”

Lachlan gestured Dick toward one of his
guest chairs, somewhat alarmed when Dick chose to remain standing. Lachlan
hovered, uncertain, then took a seat behind his desk. “What can I help you
with, Dick?”

His boss looked as uncomfortable as Lachlan
felt. Which might have been reassuring, in some circumstances, but was mostly
alarming at this point. Maybe Dick was here to talk about something other than
Lachlan’s social life and a certain student blogger’s observations. He
sincerely hoped so.

“It’s come to my attention,” Dick began,
“that you’ve been spending time in the company of Michaela Price.”

So much for that hope. Lachlan tried to
keep his expression neutral and meet Dick’s gaze steadily. “Yes?”

Dick shifted on his feet. “She’s garnered
quite a bit of attention since her arrival.”

“Yes?” Lachlan said again. Where the hell
was Dick going to go with this? “Through no fault of her own,” Lachlan added,
because while he was trying to give his boss the benefit of the doubt, he
definitely did not like the sour look on Dick’s face.

“How do you mean?”

“I mean, she’s here to learn, just as any
other student is. She doesn’t seek out the attention she receives. It just
seems to…follow her,” he finished lamely. He had plenty more specific things to
say on the subject, but he didn’t think Dick wanted to hear it.

With every passing second of this
conversation, Lachlan was more convinced that what Dick
needed
to hear
was that he should mind his own fucking business.

“The Philosophy Department prides itself on
being one of the least controversial or politic departments in the entire
university,” Dick announced.

Lachlan frowned in confusion. “Yes. I like
it that way, too.”

“So, I’m concerned about what this will
mean. Ms. Price, should she manage to complete her degree, will be here for
three years, possibly longer.”

Lachlan ground his teeth together, his
discomfort rapidly losing ground to anger. Dick never questioned whether any
other students would make it to graduation. “I assure you, she
will
graduate. I would not be surprised if it were with honors.”

“Oh,” Dick said, surprised. Lachlan was
insulted on Michaela’s behalf. “Then she’s a good student?”

Lachlan had no idea, actually, but he knew
Michaela. “She works hard and is very serious about her studies. She feels her
degree will help her protect the Price Foundation, and allow her to expand its
reach and the number of people it can help.”

“Yes, well, that is admirable,” Dick said,
though Lachlan got the distinct impression Dick wasn’t entirely convinced.

“Isn’t it,” Lachlan said firmly, rising to
his feet. “I intend to do whatever I can to help in that effort, of course.
When my brother asked if I would show Michaela around and help her get settled,
I jumped at the opportunity.”

Which, okay, was pretty much the opposite
of the truth, but Lachlan didn’t feel even a little bit guilty.

“That was very kind of you,” Dick said
awkwardly, perhaps having realized he was losing control of the conversation.

“Yes,” Lachlan agreed. “It’s been
rewarding. Michaela is a bright and driven student. I believe you’d enjoy
speaking with her as well, Dick. Perhaps if she comes by to see me here
sometime, you might pop in and introduce yourself. I’m sure you’ll see her now
and then going forward.”

He wondered what Michaela would think if he
invited her to have lunch in his office. With the door open, so his boss would
be sure to see her.

“That would be…lovely.”

And Lachlan had thought
he
had a
shitty poker face?

“I’ll be sure to mention it to Michaela
when I see her.”

Dick opened his mouth to say god only knew
what, but was interrupted by a sharp rap on the door.

“Yes?” Lachlan called, grateful to whoever
was saving him from this fiasco of a conversation.

The door opened to reveal Michaela and
Anna.

Lachlan smiled grimly and watched all the
color drain from Dick’s face. Served him fucking right. Lachlan then turned to
his visitors.

“Splendid timing! Come in, come in,” he said
cheerfully, coming around his desk and waving them into the room. “Michaela,
allow me to introduce you to Dean Richard Chomelsky. Dick was just saying how
much he admires the work you do with the Price Foundation. Dick, this is, as
I’m sure you’ve surmised, my
dear friend,
Michaela Price.”

Michaela’s smile was warm and completely
genuine looking. She shook Dick’s limp hand firmly. “It’s a pleasure to meet
you, Dr. Chomelsky. Lachlan speaks highly of the work you do here.”

Lachlan’s smile grew. He was pretty sure
he’d never mentioned Dick once.

“Yes, well, thank you. It’s nice to meet
you, too,” Dick practically stammered. For all that he liked to emphasize his
desire to avoid the politics on campus, Dick was generally far more adept at
handling these sorts of situations.

Michaela’s smile widened, which shouldn’t
have been possible. She looked at Lachlan, and he swore her eyes were full of
laughter. No one else would be able to guess, though.

A sudden and wholly alien feeling grew in
Lachlan’s chest as they held each other’s gazes. For a moment, it was nothing
but wonderful. Then he realized what was happening, what he was feeling, and
froze up.
Shit.
Shitshitshitshit.
What should he say? What should
he
do?

Michaela’s eyes narrowed on his face, as if
she could see his panic before he could even react to it, and turned her
attention back to Dick. “I was just stopping by to see if Lachlan had a free moment
to talk about something he’s been helping me with. I hope I’m not interrupting
anything.”

“No, no, not at all,” Dick said quickly, “I
was just on my way out.”

Thank god,
Lachlan thought silently, still trying to recover from whatever that moment had
been with Michaela. Anna saved him from actually having to speak by opening the
door wider and stepping out of the way.

Which was…not subtle.

Dick either didn’t notice or didn’t care as
he fled Lachlan’s office, wishing everyone a good evening.

The moment he was out of sight, Anna shut
the door firmly and grinned. “So, how did that meeting go?”

Lachlan rolled his eyes, a smile tugging at
his lips. “
Delightful
.”

Anna laughed. “Sorry I couldn’t save you
this time.”

He cast a furtive glance at Michaela,
hoping Anna would understand that he didn’t want her aware of whatever Dick’s
issues were with their friendship. “I sincerely hope that’s the last I’m going
to hear anything about it,” he said. “But thank you for your help. I would have
been much worse off if I’d been blindsided.”

Anna shrugged, but her smile said she was
pleased by his gratitude. Michaela stood to the side, watching their
conversation with what Lachlan thought was undue interest.

“Well, I should go,” Anna said, waving at
the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning for office hours.”

“See you then.” He waited until the door
was closed before turning to Michaela, worried he was going to start having
grossly inappropriate feelings again, but was distracted by her expression.

She look amused, and possibly confused.
“Can I ask you something?”

“Uh…sure?” he said, fairly certain he was
going to regret it.

“Are you aware that your TA is drop-dead
gorgeous?”

Lachlan felt his lip curl. “
Eeeww
.”

Michaela burst into laughter.

“What?” he asked, exasperated. He hadn’t
been trying to be funny.

She choked back more laughter, looking up
at him like he was a very amusing puzzle to be worked out. “You have no idea
that Anna is beautiful, do you?”

“No! She’s a student. She’s
my
student.”

Michaela planted her hands on her hips.
“And that makes her…unattractive?”

“Well, yes. Of a sort. I mean, I guess
objectively all her features are arranged nicely and she’s fit and—ugh, this
conversation is starting to give me the creeps.” He shot Michaela a dirty look.
“I am
not
attracted to Anna. She’s a student.”

“So, you’ve never had a hard time speaking
to her? Working with her?”

“Of course not.”

Michaela nodded, as if storing a
fascinating new data point. “And me?”

“What about you?”

“Why couldn’t you speak to me? The first
ten times we met, you barely said a word, and when you did say anything, I felt
like I should apologize for making you do it.”

Lachlan blinked, then blurted out the
truth. “Because I
am
attracted to you.”

Michaela stared at Lachlan, who stared back
with an expression of such abject horror it should have been insulting, but for
some damn reason, cracked her up again.

“Okay, wow,” she gasped. “I didn’t think
you were going to say that.”

Lachlan looked genuinely upset. “I
apologize.”

“What? No! Don’t apologize. I’m flattered.”
And she was. More than she could remember being in a long time.

“I don’t want to make things weird.”

“They’re not going to be weird. We’ll just
say we’re not going to let it be weird and it won’t be.”

Lachlan gave a disbelieving snort. “Funny,
because that’s
never once
worked for me before.”

“What hasn’t?”

“Telling myself not to be weird. I’m always
weird. I can’t seem to figure out how to be with people, especially women I
find attractive, and not be awkward and ridiculous.”

“You are not ridiculous,” she said sharply.

“But I
am
awkward?” he shot back.

And, well, she couldn’t
lie
. “Yes,
you are.”

Lachlan’s shoulders slumped. “Awesome.”

“But hey, this is good. I get it better,
now. People kept saying you were shy, and you
were
with me, but I
couldn’t figure out why you weren’t with everyone else.”

“I assure you, I’m plenty
shy
—as
you’re so generously calling it—around a lot of people, not just you.”

“Right. But not men, as a rule.”

“No,” Lachlan frowned thoughtfully. “Not
men. Unless they’re really, blatantly, flirting with me. Then sometimes I do my
weird thing again.”

Michaela thought it would be
really
fun to see that someday. “Okay. So, flirting does it?”

“Yeah. I—It’s even worse if someone is
coming on strong. I totally shut down.”

And that she had seen, and she hated it, if
for no other reason than because it was obvious how much Lachlan despised that
about himself. She put that aside for now.

Instead, she pointed out, “But I wasn’t
flirting with you, and you couldn’t talk to me.”

“You’re, uh…” Lachlan swallowed audibly,
his face going red. “You’re remarkably beautiful.”

Michaela smiled and ignored the zing that his
comment sent down her spine. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he croaked. Frankly, she
was surprised he could speak at all.

She brought them back to her point. “So,
it’s people who flirt with you and people who you find attractive. I had begun
to guess as much, but then there was Anna.”

“Who I am
not
attracted to.”

Michaela smiled. “Right. Because she’s a
student.”

“Right,” he said firmly.

“Do you ever get nervous around your
coworkers? Some of them are quite beautiful, I’m sure.”

Lachlan shrugged. “Not really. I meet them
through work, so it’s professional. I’ve never think about them as anything
other than colleagues, with a few exceptions, and that always came about
later.”

Michaela arched an eyebrow. “Exceptions,
huh?”

Lachlan’s cheeks went red again. “Umm…”

“Oh,
really?
We are so going to talk
about that at some point.”

“Do we have to?” Lachlan almost whined.

Michaela laughed. “Yes. But not now,
because I don’t want you to stop speaking to me.”

“It’s tempting already,” he muttered.

“Whatever, buddy. I’m no longer fooled. If
you can talk to Anna without any issues, there is no reason why you can’t speak
to me.”

“It’s really not at all the same,” he said
grimly.

“But it
is
the same. Look, this
social stuff—it’s all a game. You just never needed to practice playing it.”

Lachlan suddenly stood up straight, his
eyes wide. “Shit.
A game
.”

“What?”

“I have a hockey game in an hour. I have to
run home and get my stuff, then get to the rink.”

“You play hockey?” she asked incredulously.

“
Of course
I play hockey,” he said
in the same voice someone else might say, “Of course I breathe oxygen.”

Michaela laughed. He was, after all, a
Morrison.

Lachlan dove behind his desk and started
shoving papers into his bag. “Did you need me for something?” he asked Michaela.
“You told Dick that you wanted to talk to me.”

“Oh, right. Hey, about Dick—is everything
okay? He looked kind of alarmed when I showed up.”

Lachlan waved it off, hoping his face
wasn’t giving anything away. “It’s nothing. Department politics.”

She seemed to accept that, though she was
studying him again. He threw the strap of his bag over his shoulder and ushered
her out of his office, locking the door behind them.

“I can come back another time,” she
offered.

“No, I really want to hear what’s on your
mind. Walk with me?” He tilted his head for her to follow him and started down
the hallway.

Michaela fell into step beside him. When
she didn’t say anything right away, he continued out of the building and across
campus toward his house, mentally ticking off what he’d need to grab once he
got there. He was happy to give her time to collect her thoughts. God knew, he understood
perfectly that sometimes it took a while to figure out what, exactly, to say.

Hell, half the time he never succeeded.

The silence stretched, and Lachlan
appreciated how comfortable it was. He had Michaela to thank for that. She’d
really stuck by him over the past couple weeks. And now she knew
why
he’d been freaking out and seemed okay with it.

Though, he couldn’t help thinking that her
reaction to him declaring that she was beautiful and he was attracted to her
as…odd.

He wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d
waved off what he’d said, or demurred, disbelieving. And he certainly hadn’t
expected her to throw herself at his feet.

But it was almost as if she didn’t think it
was
real.
Not that she thought he was lying, but that somehow it didn’t
make a difference. She’d said he was handsome and smart and he’d lost the
ability to
speak
. But Michaela hadn’t even blinked when he’d blurted out
the truth. Of course, he should be grateful that he hadn’t made things
hideously awkward, but part of him kind of wanted to say,
You do realize
that when I say you’re beautiful and that I’m attracted to you, it means I
harbor a strong desire for us to get naked and freaky, right?

Fortunately, no part of him was actually
able to say those words out loud. Ever.

“I met with my study group,” she said, startling
him out of his wandering thoughts.

“Hey, that’s great,” he said, genuinely
pleased. Then he looked at her face, and thought perhaps his enthusiasm had
been misplaced. “Umm…that’s
not
great?”

She sighed. “No. Not great.”

She fell silent when they stopped on a
corner to wait for the light, and Lachlan wasn’t sure if he should ask her
more, but then he noticed the people staring at her and realized she couldn’t
continue even if she wanted to.

Seriously, her life was a pain in the ass.

As soon as they were on the far side of the
road and away from other people, she told him what had happened at the library
that day. She ended with, “It was a disaster. So incredibly awkward. I’m sure
they agree now that it’s just not worth it.”

“What’s not worth it?”

“Asking me to be part of their group. Sadie
and Eric seem to have the best intentions, at least, but even then, I still
don’t understand why they asked me.”

“Aren’t you doing well in your classes?”

“Sure. I mean, I’ve done well on the first
couple papers and I contribute to discussions. Professor Monroe seems to have a
hard-on for trying to catch me off guard, but he hasn’t succeeded yet. So, I’m
doing okay.”

Lachlan frowned, disturbed by the idea that
one of his colleagues might be singling her out. He wondered if he should find
Professor Monroe and speak to him.

“You look like my brothers when they wanted
to beat up the boy who pulled my pigtails,” she observed with a laugh.

Lachlan forcibly did not allow himself to
picture Michaela in pigtails. That whole “naked and freaky” thing wasn’t going
to go away anytime soon, even without that charged image.

 “Sorry,” he said, shaking his head at
himself. She was more than capable of taking care of herself. He’d bet good
money Professor Monroe would only end up embarrassing himself if he insisted on
continuing his stupid game.

He forced himself to focus on the issue at
hand. “So, you have something more to contribute to the group than just work.
You understand what you’re all learning about.”

“Mostly,” she conceded wryly.

“And the meeting wasn’t all bad, right?” he
ventured carefully. “You at least managed to sit down together and sort out the
division of work.”

“I know. And I feel terrible about that.”

Lachlan was confused. “Why do you feel
bad?”

“Because I have to quit, obviously. And
when I do, they’re going to have to go through that entire exercise again. But that’s
still nicer than subjecting them to another debacle like what happened in the
library today.”