The Libby Garrett Intervention (Science Squad #2) (12 page)

Libby stood, too flustered to speak for a moment, then squared her shoulders as she marched across the small room to me. I rose from my stool and met her in the middle. There was a spark in her eyes, a fire I hadn’t seen in months. I was grateful to see that hint of the old Libby present, even if it was only there because she was pissed off at me.

“Trust
me
on
this
, Coffee Man,” she spat as she glared up into my eyes. “You want to play Owen Anonymous? I can handle any steps your skinny little derrière can dish out.”

She poked me in the chest with her finger, and my thoughts drifted again. She was standing too close. I could smell her perfume. I could feel the heat rising off her body, and it was causing my own temperature to spike.

“I think it’s
you
who’s scared to take on the Libbmeister.”

I blinked. What did she say? Did she just ask me to
take
her? Her mouth was right there. Those lips…and those hips…I could just…

Shit!

I seized on my moment of clarity and quickly took a step back. I’d almost kissed her. The girl had been here for five minutes, and I’d already almost lost control several times. This was never going to work.

Libby’s face was no longer an angry red. Her brow was now pulled low over wide, disbelieving eyes. I couldn’t meet her gaze so I turned my attention to Avery, but my eyes wouldn’t look much higher than her feet, either. I cleared my throat and mumbled, “I don’t think I’m the right person for this.”

“Oh, yes, you are,” Kate blurted. She jumped off her stool and pushed me toward Avery. “He’ll do it.”

I knew what she was doing, and as much as I loved her for the effort, I was still going to kill her. “You know Avery can’t be her sponsor,” she argued when she saw the look on my face. “
Avery
knows she can’t do it. That’s why she’s here. This kind of thing takes a tough love approach. Avery’s too soft. You’re not. You’re exactly the right guy for this, and you
know
why.”

Kate gave me a look that promised a slow, painful death if I refused, and Avery’s face was already full of so much hope. “Wait,” I said, feeling my panic rise. “What you’re talking about doing is…it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to take time and a serious commitment.”

Avery’s face fell a little. She chewed on her bottom lip as she looked at her best friend one more time. “I know it’s a lot,” she said quietly. “I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t so important. And if there were ever any way I could return the favor.”

“Actually, there is,” Kate said. “I’m having trouble in math, and we can’t afford a tutor.”

Avery’s face brightened. “Done,” she promised. “Libby’s the real math genius, but she’s going to be busy, and I know my way around equations well enough. I’d be happy to tutor you.”

“Perfect.”

My head was spinning, telling me to run. It was shouting at me that this was a huge mistake. You can’t help someone who doesn’t really want to be helped. Libby’s heart wasn’t all the way in. I knew it wasn’t, and she didn’t even like me. This wasn’t going to work. It was going to be a disaster.

I’d made a promise to myself years ago that I wouldn’t do this again. I wasn’t sure I could survive another failure, especially not if it was Libby I ended up failing. I was too close to this for too many reasons, but there was absolutely no way I could say no to them. Not when Avery was offering to tutor Kate for me, and definitely not when both of them were staring up at me with big, hopeful eyes. They may as well have been a couple of pound puppies shouting, “Please take me home and love me!”

When I looked at Libby, she shrugged as though she was as helpless in this situation as I was. “Help me, Coffee-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”

It was so Libby.

“Okay. I’ll be her sponsor.” I prayed I wasn’t making a huge mistake.

Kate and Avery both squealed and pounced on me, giving me hugs. I was still wary, but their energy was contagious, causing me to crack a smile.

“Thank you, Adam,” Avery said. “You really, really
are
the best. Is there any chance you could get started tomorrow? Libby managed to say no to Owen tonight, but if we don’t help keep her distracted, she’s going to end up in his very expensive hotel suite tomorrow night.”

And just like that, all my reservations about this disappeared. I was all in, and failure was not an option. Libby was never going to end up in that jerk’s bed ever again, if I could help it. “Tomorrow’s as good a day as any. I’m off work at two.”

Libby was already at the door trying to escape, but she stopped before turning the knob. “Actually, I need you ready to go at seven thirty in the morning. Avery already cleared it with your boss. He was more than happy to take your shift. He said he’s been trying to get you to take a vacation day for months.”

My head reared back. “You cleared my schedule tomorrow?”

Libby looked me right in the eyes and grinned wickedly. The smile did something to my insides. “You’re
mine
tomorrow, Coffee Man,” she purred jokingly.

I stopped breathing.
Hers
. Yes. Yes, I was. Heaven help me, but I was hers. This was so bad. If I wasn’t careful, Libby Garrett was going to break me. I had to take control of this situation fast. I don’t know what kind of look I had on my face when I stalked across the room toward her, but her eyes widened and she backed up until she bumped into the door. “You’ve got that all wrong,” I said, placing my hand on the door beside her head, trapping her in front of me.

I’d meant to intimidate her a little, but when she sucked in a breath and shivered, I lost control again. Leaning in a little too close, my next words accidentally came out in a possessive growl. “Starting tomorrow, Cider Chick, you are
mine
.”

Libby

I was a little nervous
as I drove to Jo’s, where I was meeting Adam. I wasn’t sure exactly what I’d gotten myself into with him. I couldn’t figure him out at all. I could have sworn he was the most uptight, self-righteous jerk in Spanish Fork, but Avery loved him. And Avery—despite her unwavering fondness for Aiden Kennedy, which, considering their moms, I deem to be wholly not her fault—is the greatest judge of character of anyone I’ve ever met. Not to mention, the guy got sexier every time I saw him. There were several moments in his apartment last night where I thought the sizzling tension between us was going to fry me.

When I pulled up outside the shop, he was leaning against the front of the building with a to-go cup in his hand. I almost didn’t recognize him, because his coat covered up his tattooed arms, and he wore a beanie over his dark hair. If not for the small metal hoop through his eyebrow, I would have thought he was some sexy stranger that had mistaken me for someone else when he peeled himself away from the wall, kicked a skateboard up into his hand, and walked over to my car.

I rolled down my window, and he passed the cup through it. “For you,” he said as the smell of hot cider filled my nose. I could smell the hint of both cinnamon and nutmeg, and decided I didn’t hate the guy after all.

I gave him a smile and sipped the drink. Perfect, as always. “You ready to go? I got a late start this morning, so we’re going to have to book it a little if we want to get there on time.”

Adam nodded and climbed into the car. I watched curiously as he dropped his skateboard into the backseat, wondering how often he used it and if he had any skill with it. I happen to love skateboarding. I’m not very good, but I still like to mess around at the skate park every now and then, and I love watching people skate.

Adam buckled his seat belt like a good boy and gave a low whistle as he admired my dad’s tricked-out Escalade. “Nice ride.”

I petted the steering wheel with longing as I pulled out of the parking lot onto the main road. “Yes. Suzie is truly a beautiful machine. If only she belonged to me. She’s my dad’s, and I don’t get to drive her nearly often enough.”

“What do you normally drive?”

I snorted. “Avery. I drive her absolutely crazy asking for rides all the time.”

Adam laughed, but the subject reminded me of my dad’s offer the night before, and I groaned. “I am
never
going to have a car. I was hoping my parents would take pity on me and get me one for graduation, but do you know what they did when I asked?”

Adam smiled again. “Said no?”

“Worse! They said
yes
.”

“Uh…”

“It wasn’t a real yes. My dad said he’d let me choose between a car or a season lift ticket for every winter that I’m still a full-time college student.”

The smile was back in Adam’s voice when he asked, “You like to ski?”

“Snowboard,” I corrected, “and no. I
like
cats. I
like
caramel apple cider. There are no words profound enough to express how much I love to hit the slopes. My father knows that. He just made the offer because he loves to torment me.”

Adam chuckled again.

“You laugh, Coffee Man, but I’m telling you it was a cruel joke. My father is sick.”

Adam shook his head. “You would seriously give up a free car just so you can go snowboarding a few times a winter?”

“For the next four to eight
years
.” I couldn’t make my voice sound grave enough. “My parents are big on responsibility and paying my own way—which is cool. I can respect that—but I’m going to be a dirt-poor minimum wage college student for
years
. I’ll never be able to afford my snowboarding habit on my own, and there’s no way I could survive that long without hitting the mountain.”

Taking a sharp right, I headed toward the mountains. Seeing them in front of me, so majestic and snowcapped, my whole body itched to get there faster. The mountains called to me. I would definitely give up a free car for all that snowboarding.

Adam glanced between me and the mountains ahead of us. “You know you sound crazy, right?”

I rolled my eyes. Some people just didn’t get it. “Have you ever been snowboarding?”

“No.”

“Well, there’s your problem. You pay attention today and tell me you can’t see the appeal.”

“Pay attention to what?” Adam asked. “Where are we going?”

“Park City. My dad’s a pro snowboarder. He has a competition today. We’re going to be his cheer section.”

“For real?” The excitement in Adam’s voice was adorable, and it softened me to him a little bit more.

“Yes. For real.”

“Awesome. I’ve never seen a live competition before. Just the Winter Olympics on TV.”

I looked back out at the road in front of me and grumbled under my breath. “Well, at least
somebody
appreciates it.”

Adam cut me a curious glance. “Do you want to talk about it?”

I snorted. “Um. No. Definitely not. I never want to talk about Owen again.”

We fell into an awkward silence, and I fidgeted in my seat, playing with the car’s controls while Adam waited. He could keep waiting. I didn’t want to explain myself to Adam, because he already thought Owen was a big enough jerk. It was embarrassing that we were only here today because I couldn’t stop wanting Owen, even though he could be such a douche.

Adam’s face softened. “Libby, the point of this whole twelve-step program that we’re trying to create is to talk about it. You can tell me anything. It’s Owen
Anonymous
. As your sponsor, it’s my job to listen, and I’ll never break your confidence. Anything you say to me is strictly between us, and there’s no judging. I’m here to help you.”

Adam wouldn’t stop looking at me. The stubbornness was so annoyingly attractive that I gave in and explained. “I asked Owen to come with me last night. He said no because his basketball team was having a party, and he thought he’d be too hung over to get up so early in the morning.”

I glued my eyes to the road ahead of me, but I could feel Adam watching me. His disapproval sat heavily in the air between us. “I know, okay? He’s a jerk. That’s why I told him I wouldn’t go with him to Salt Lake tonight.”