Love Struck (6 page)

She rests her back against the chair, assessing me for a moment. I can hear my heart hammering in my ears. My palms moisten
, but I don't dare release her hands. In fact, I squeeze even harder. Finally a slow smile spreads across her face. "I've never been one to step down from a challenge. You're on."

I smile.

"Don't disappoint me," she answers sternly.

"Hey, I'm the one with the most to lose here. If I screw up, who's going to feed my addiction?"

This causes a laugh to bubble from her throat, and my heart soars. I will never tire from making her laugh. I have a feeling I'll never tire from anything about her. In my entire life, I've never wanted anyone like I want Lola Vega. Proving to her that she can trust me with her heart is something I have to do, because losing her just isn't an option.

9

Lola

"How are things going with you and Ryker?" Star tosses her clothes into the hamper near her bed. Of course, she misses, and her jeans land on the ground a few feet away. Without bothering to pick it up, she thrusts her pajama clad body onto her bed, the springs creaking beneath her weight.

My gaze stays glued to the offending jeans, my fingers itching to pick them up. Agitated, I look away. I'm too tired to get out of my bed anyway. It's late and I have class early in the morning. "It's going well.
How about you and Beckett?"

"There's nothing going on with me and Beckett." Star props her pillow up behind her head.

"Yeah, right," I snort. "It's clear that you like him. I mean, you haven't even looked at another guy since you met him. Hell, Ryker even set you up with one of his friends and you weren't interested at all." Wind howls outside the window.

Star gives me a dumbfounded look. "Forrest? He was seriously not my type."

"Not your type?" I sit up, bunching the covers near my waist. My gaze once again flickers to the jeans.

"It's really bothering you, isn't it?" Star follows my eyes.

"Oh, hell. Just pick them up," I say, exasperated.

Giggling, Star shoves o
ff her covers, and slides off the bed.

While she collects the jeans, I plow on. "Forrest is exactly the kind of guy you usually go for. So, what gives?"
I think back to the disastrous double date with Star and Forrest. He was such a nice guy, but she didn’t even give him a chance.

Star tosses the jeans inside the hamper and then jumps back up on
to her bed. The light in the room is dim, the blinds closed. Voices ring out in the hall.

"Maybe my taste in boys has changed
since we came here. Yours certainly has."

"Meaning?"

"Oh, come on. Ryker is not like the guys you usually date. I doubt he has a country club membership, and I don't think he can afford to shop at a fancy boutique. He's not exactly the kind of guy you can bring home and introduce to Dr. Vega."

Her words ring true and cause my stomach to ache.
As much as I hate to admit it, Ryker is the first guy I've actually been able to envision myself staying with long term. Only I know it'll never work out with him. My parents will never accept my relationship with a struggling musician. Then again, maybe he has more going for him than just that. I make a mental note to ask him what his major is and what plans he has for after graduation.

"Not to mention the fact that he seems to be falling for you
, and you haven't pushed him away yet," Star points out.

I groan, my fingers finding the edge of my comforter. Slipping my fingers beneath it,
I fiddle with the soft fabric nervously. "I tried. I talked to him about it the other night."

"Don't tell me you shared your whole phil
osophy on never falling in love."

I squirm beneath her knowing gaze.

"Lola, you didn't."

Nodding, I flash
her a wry smile.

"How did he take it?" Star stretches her legs out under her comforter and rests her head against the wall.

"He sort of took it like a challenge." My whole body warms, thinking of our conversation in the coffee shop.

"Lola Vega," Star says with a smile. "I think you may have finally met your match."

Met my match indeed.
In the late afternoon, I emerge from my final class to find Ryker leaning against the wall. Elbowing my way through the other students all filing out of the classroom at the same time, I make my way toward him. He pushes off the wall when I approach. He presses a kiss to my temple and snakes his arm around my waist, fitting perfectly under my backpack.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, leaning my head against his shoulder.

"I missed you," he says simply, and I'm stunned by the brazen response. Most guys do not admit when they miss a girl. At least not in my experience.

"I thought you had class tonight?"

A couple of days a week Ryker had class in the evening, so he could stay up late the night before for gigs or rehearsal or whatever.

"I do, but that still leaves me with a couple of hours with you." His arm tightens around me.
"Think you can spare a couple of hours for me?"

"I guess I can fit you into my schedule," I tease. The truth is that I am a stickler for my schedule. I hate doing things spontaneously. I like things well planned out. But right now there's nowhere I'd rather be than here with
Ryker.

"
Hungry?" he asks.

"A little," I
say coyly.

"Then I think it's my turn to have
your
remedy." He allows his arm to slide out from around my waist. Then he grabs my hand and yanks me forward. We step out of the hallway, away from the crowd of students. "C'mon."

Curious as to what he's up to, I follow behind him.
He leads me out to the parking lot, and together we weave our way in and out of cars until we get to his Honda. Cars skid past us, and students race by.

"So, where are you going to take me in your
rockstar mobile?" I tease.

Ryker
circles his arms around my waist and kisses me swiftly on the mouth. "Sorry. I needed a little hit."

"You know that's never going to satisfy your craving." I grab him by the collar of his thin t-shirt and draw his lips to mine again. Chattering and footsteps sound behind us, and I pull back.
When I glance around I realize that the other students barely give us a second glance.

Ryker
exhales, a long stream of air pushing past his lips. "We're not going anywhere in my rockstar mobile, as you called it."

"We're not?" I lean against the side of the car. The door handle sticks into my butt
, and I readjust my position.

"Nope."
He pops the trunk and dips his hand inside.

Too curious not to peek, I lean forward on my tiptoes and look inside just as
Ryker extracts a picnic basket.

"A
picnic? You're really messing up your whole rockstar rep, you know that?"

"I'm not interested in my rep, Lola. I'm interested in you." Holding the picnic basket in one hand, he slams the trunk closed with the other.

I bite my lip, unable to formulate a response. This guy really does know how to render me speechless.

"Let's go. I know the perfect spot." With his f
ree hand, he snatches up mine.

The perfect spot is a lush patch of grass under a large, leafy tree.
Ryker spreads out a blanket and then plops down on top of it, rooting around in his picnic basket. As I sit down next to him, I ask, "So where did you get all these picnic supplies? Is this like what you do with all the girls you date?"

With his arm still half hidden inside the basket, he tosses me a smile. "No, I've never actually taken a girl on a picnic before. But my mom got this basket as a gift years ago. She let me borrow it."

"Oh." I bend my legs, pulling them closer to my body.

Ryker
holds up two foil wrapped burritos. "Chicken or beef?"

"You got us burritos?"

"Not just any burritos. I bought them at the best burrito place in town."

I giggle. "I guess you've gained some of your man card back. I was a little worried that the basket was full of strawberries and champagne."

He peeks inside. "Nope. Sodas, burritos and chips. Is that okay?"

"It's perfect," I answer.
"Chicken."

"Here you go
." He tosses me the foil wrapped monstrosity.

"This is huge," I eye the giant burrito, wondering how I'll ever eat the whole thing.

"Yeah, I get that a lot." He winks.

"And now your man card has been returned in full." I roll my eyes.
"I guess you have kept your rockstar image intact after all." I lean back on my arm. A flurry of students blur past just a few feet away. They all look so stressed and harried. Actually they look the way I normally feel. But not in this moment. In this moment, I feel completely at peace.

"You know you love it."

H
e's right. At first I thought I just liked Ryker because he was different from the guys I normally date, but the more time I spend with him I find myself falling for
who
he is, not
what
he is. He's no longer 'rockstar Ryker' to me. He's just Ryker, and I like him
. A lot
. It's actually a little scary.

I carefully
unwrap the top of the burrito. When I take a bite, salsa dribbles down my chin. "Do you have a napkin?" I wipe some salsa with my hand to keep it from traveling down my neck. Ryker tosses me a napkin, and I wipe my face. "So, what's your major?"

He
chews for a second and then swallows. "Business."

Maybe I'd misjudged him
. "Really? What kind of business do you want to go into?"

He shrugs. "I don't. I just want to play music. I only majored in business because my mom talked me into it. She wants me to have something to fall back on in case music doesn't work out for me."

"So, you have no plans to acquire a high powered corporate job after graduation?" I quip, picking a cube of chicken out of my burrito and popping it into my mouth. The spicy, tender meat melts on my tongue.

"Hell no.
After graduation I plan to continue to play my guitar. Hopefully we'll make it big."

"And if you don't?" I hope he has some kind of backup plan. If he ever meets my parents they will definitely ask him about it.

"Then I have no idea what I'll do. Music is the only thing I'm good at."

"That's not true." I stret
ch out my leg, and nudge him with my foot. "You arrange a mean picnic."

"Yeah, if only that were a career."

"It is," I banter back. "It's called catering."

"Oh yeah, that sounds right up my alley."

I laugh, but when the reality hits me my insides coil. Yeah, I can just see how well this conversation would go with my parents. "When will you graduate?"

"This Spring, actually. I'm in my last year."

"You must be so excited." It's not like he went away to college. He stayed in his home town so school is just school to him. Not an adventure like it is for Star and me.

"Not really. Finishing school means that I'm going to have to pay off my student loans, and I won't get financial aid anymore. So really, once I finish school I'm going to have
to be a grown up. Not exactly looking forward to that." He pauses. "What about you? What are you majoring in?"

I shrug. "Not sure. Right now I'm just focusing on general
-ed. I know I have to pick a major, but it's so hard. I don't know what my thing is. I'm not lucky enough to have found my passion like you did."

"C'mon, there's got to be something you like to do."

"I like to boss people around," I say with a light chuckle under my words. A cool breeze tickles my arms, and I shudder.

"That's a start. It's the makings of a good boss, right?"

Is this guy for real?
Like I can really make a career out of the fact that I'm a control freak? "Yeah, I suppose so."

"What's it like being so far from home, Lola?"
Ryker reaches for the hand in my lap, the one not holding the giant burrito.

His fingers mesh with mine, and I smile. "It's kind of nice actually.
Freeing." I look up at him. "Did you ever think of leaving Seattle?"

"Nah.
I can't leave my mom. She needs me."

His eyes light up whenever he talks about his mom. I seriously f
ound the last good guy left on the planet. I'm sure of it. "But what about if you make it big? Won't you have to leave her then?"

"I'll deal with that when the time comes." He studies my fingers, lazily stroking the inside of my palm with his thumb. "But there's no reason to leave her prematurely."

While I sit under this tree with Ryker's fingers exploring my palm, I think about how Ryker doesn't fit into the carefully constructed plan I have for my life. I may have never been able to figure out what I want to do for a career, but I always knew what kind of guy I'd end up with. A guy with big aspirations and a lot of schooling - a doctor, lawyer, or dentist or something. Someone with a lot of money who could give me the kind of life I'd grown accustomed to. A guy my parents would approve of. However, in this moment I don't care if Ryker doesn't fit into the plan. In fact, I think I'd be okay with changing the plan to make sure he fits in it. Because right now, I can't imagine a plan that doesn't involve him.