Page 54 of Wild Card 13

I stepped through the doorway.And there he was.Sitting sideways in one of the desks near the window. One arm hooked over the back of the chair. Long legs stretched into the aisle. The sunlight caught in the messy blond ends of his hair, turning them almost gold around the edges.

His head was bent slightly as he looked down at something on the desk.

For one completely ridiculous second, I forgot how to walk like a normal person.

Then my eyes dropped to the desk.And I stopped.A stack of note cards sat neatly in front of him.

I blinked.

Not hockey magazines.Not doodles.Not a worksheet he'd forgotten existed until ten minutes ago.

Prepared note cards.The kind that showed he'd spent time on this when nobody was making him.

Before I could fully process that, his head lifted.The second he saw me, his entire face changed.That smile appeared instantly.The one that still made me feel slightly lightheaded."Hey, Shortcake."

I rolled my eyes mostly because smiling back happened automatically."You're early."

His grin widened."I know."

"You sound proud of that."

"I am."

I dropped my bag onto the desk beside his and pulled out my folder. "You ready?"

"As ready as I have ever been for class in my entire life." The confidence in his voice made me suspicious.

I narrowed my eyes again.

Ty immediately pointed toward the note cards. "I studied."

"You say that every time."

"I actually did this time."

"You also say that every time."

"Lucy."

"Ty."

He groaned dramatically as I sat down across from him and tried to focus on homework.

The faint smell of old textbooks. The way he automatically slid a bottle of water toward me because he'd noticed I always forgot one. The way he knew exactly where I liked to sit. The way his foot bumped mine beneath the table and stayed there.

Somewhere along the way, these afternoons had stopped being obligations. Now they belonged to us.

"Okay." I opened the assignment sheet. "Let's hear it."

Ty straightened immediately.

The debate topic had been assigned nearly two weeks earlier:Should high schools start later in the morning?Simple enough.

Except public speaking wasn't exactly Ty's favorite thing. He could skate in front of twenty thousand people someday without blinking. Put him in front of a classroom and suddenly he acted like he was facing execution.

"Whenever you're ready," I said.

He cleared his throat. Looked down at his cards. Then looked back up. And started talking.