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

I took a defiant stance and shrugged off his concern. “That was not flirting. I was merely stating a fact.” I waved a hand at the guy behind the counter. “Did you
see
his smile? It was so pretty it was practically a weapon of mass destruction.”

Avery’s bad-boy manager reared back, shocked by the compliment. “Seriously,” I said to him. “Smile more often. I guarantee your tip jar will triple, Coffee Man.”

“It’s Adam,” the guy blurted suddenly.

I did another double take. He met my gaze, as if determined to make me take real notice of him. Something about his stare intrigued me. Something that made me want to keep talking to him. After a pointed glance at his name tag, I smirked. “So I see, Coffee Man.”

Owen’s hand clenched into a fist at his side, the cords of muscles in his arms pulled so tight it looked painful. I liked that he was jealous, but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so I placed my hand on his arm and said to Adam, “Would you add a large cup of regular coffee for this glorious specimen of male perfection next to me? And a couple of those low-fat bran muffins?”

A little of the light left Adam’s eyes, but Owen relaxed. “Decaf,” Owen said, wrinkling his nose. “And make one of those muffins a walnut brownie. She might have to stomach that healthy crap, but I don’t need to be on a diet with her.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. It was no secret that I had a weight issue—anyone with eyes could see that—but Owen had never actually spoken of it before. Until now we’d left that elephant under the bed, both doing our best to ignore the fact that my body would never be in the kind of shape his was. He hadn’t called me fat just now. Not technically, anyway. But it hurt all the same.

Feeling an intense stare, I looked up and blushed beneath Adam’s keen gaze. There was judgment in his eyes. I glanced away out the front window.

“Anything else?” Adam asked. His voice was strained, and he was punching the buttons on his register so hard he was likely to break the machine.

I wasn’t sure what to make of his anger, but it embarrassed me. My lungs were tight, and something inside me felt as if it were about to crack. I needed a minute to compose myself. “I’ll be right back.” I escaped to the women’s room without looking at either of them.

. . . . .

As I splashed cold water on my face, trying to relieve the stinging in my eyes, the door to the women’s room opened, and someone much too tall and too masculine for a ladies’ room slid inside, locking the door behind him. When Owen stepped up behind me, I glared at him in the mirror, then patted my face with a paper towel.

Owen wrapped his arms around my waist and dragged me back against his chest. “Babe, I’m sorry,” he whispered, pressing his mouth to my neck.

His lips were magical against my skin. They warmed and tingled everywhere they touched, and had the ability to turn my brain to mush. It was why Owen got away with a lot of the stuff he did. But I was really upset this time. Fighting a shudder, I frowned at his reflection again. “You can’t just act like a giant sphincter and then expect to make everything better with kisses.”

He dragged his mouth across my neck, trailing his warm breath along my skin, and kissed the sensitive spot just behind my ear. “Libs, I didn’t mean it. I was mad. That skinny little prick was hitting on you while I was standing right there. When you started flirting back, I lost my head. I’m sorry, babe. You know I don’t really think like that.”

I wanted to believe him, but I’d never been stupid. My cursed brilliant brain wouldn’t let me swallow the lie. Twisting in his arms so that I could face him, I looked up into his eyes. He was so tall he felt a million miles away. “Don’t you?” I asked.

His face fell into a pout. “Kitten…”

I bit the inside of my cheek as a reminder to myself that I was mad at him. But when he gave me that look…and called me his kitten…

Despite my weight, Owen picked me up and set me on the counter as if it were the easiest thing in the world, barely straining the muscles in his arms. He nudged my legs apart and stepped between them as his hands slid around my waist. “You know how much I appreciate this body, Libby. I think I’ve more than proven that to you over the last year.”

He ducked his head and started kissing my neck again. It was heaven. And it was hell. “If you like my body so much, and you don’t want me flirting with other guys, then why won’t you be my boyfriend?”

As it generally did, that question killed the moment. Owen pulled back with a sigh and looked down at me, his expression careful. “Babe, we’ve talked about that. It’s not a good idea right now. With you still in high school and me up at UVU, a steady relationship would complicate things. We have a good thing going here. Do you really want to screw it up with a crappy long-distance label?”

Long distance?
UVU was barely twenty minutes away. Avery and Grayson managed just fine. But I knew it was pointless to argue with him, so I lied and told him what he wanted to hear. “No.”

The lie worked. His smile became sincere again, and he started running his hands up and down my thighs. I shivered in spite of my disappointment.

“Let’s just get through the rest of the year,” Owen said. “Then we can see what happens when you and Avery come up to school in the fall.”

I knew full well the offer was a brush-off. He wasn’t going to go exclusive with me. Not even once I was attending the same college as him, living in a dorm just a few minutes’ walk from his. But what could I do? If I didn’t play by his rules, he’d stop seeing me. “Okay, but you could still stay home tonight and come over tomorrow when my parents get home. You don’t have to be my boyfriend, but you could at least meet them.”

He sighed again. “You know I can’t. I told you, I have a thing tomorrow.”

My traitorous brain wondered if his “thing” was a date with another girl.

“But I don’t have to leave right this minute. In fact…” Owen brought his mouth down to mine. After a deep kiss that spiked my heartbeat, he grinned against my lips and said, “Leaving is the last thing I want to do right now.”

His hands gripped my hips and he pulled me tight against him, leaning into me to push his kisses deeper. It was getting really hot in that women’s room, really fast.

Not that I’m not down for a little Harlequin romance action—especially when it’s starring Owen Jackson, Sexy Beast—but a public bathroom? That’s gross. “Owen, wait.”

“I don’t want to wait.” Owen’s hands found their way beneath my shirt and threatened to take it off, while his mouth moved down my neck, heading for my cleavage.

Granted, the restroom in Jo’s was pretty fancy—one of those single ones with nice tiled floors and counters and a fake plant in the corner—but it was still a bathroom. “Not here, Owen. I watch Discovery Health regularly. I know what kinds of nastiness call a public restroom home—even a clean one like Jo’s.”

Owen’s response was a growl. He wrapped my legs around his hips. “I need you
now
, wildcat.”

His intensity was mind-numbing. After a few more kisses, his hands set me on fire and I gave in. “There’s a break room,” I gasped. “In the back. Avery’s brought me back there before. No one ever uses it. It has a couch.”

Owen needed no further explanation. With one more deep kiss, he threaded my hand in his and peeked out the door. When the coast was clear, we slipped into the back of the coffee shop.

Adam

Why do girls always want douchebags?
It doesn’t matter what type of girl—gorgeous, plain, nice, mean, insecure, confident, smart, dumb—they’re all the same. Stick a girl in a room full of guys, ask her to choose one, and she will inevitably fall for the cockiest, rudest, most selfish, arrogant jerk present. There are entire websites dedicated to this baffling phenomenon, but no one can figure out the answer. I sure as hell can’t. There probably is no answer. “I seriously don’t get it,” I grumbled to myself.

Looking up from the espresso machine, Imani watched me slide my manager’s key into the register to void out Libby and Owen’s abandoned order. When she realized what I was talking about, she smirked. “You mean the couple that was just in here? I thought that about them, too. How did a girl like her ever land
him?
I wish I knew her secret.”

Imani sighed dreamily, proving my point about chicks and pricks. I hadn’t been wondering how his girlfriend
got
him. I was wondering what she was doing
with
him. I couldn’t blame Imani for her confusion, though. Libby Garrett isn’t exactly what you’d consider beautiful in the conventional sense.

Most of what makes Libby so attractive comes from inside. Oh, she’s got great physical qualities, too—beautiful skin, big bright hazel eyes, lips that make your mouth go dry at the thought of tasting them, and a knockout smile. But more than that, she’s got the fieriest personality of anyone I’ve ever met. She’s got a wicked tongue and a crazy sense of humor. She’s smart, funny, and confident. Or, at least, she
was
confident before Owen Jackson came along. Since Libby started dating Owen, she’s not the same person she used to be.

I was still festering over the encounter when Libby’s best friend, Avery, came in with her boyfriend and a bunch of her friends from school. All of them looked grim-faced, and the quiet one—Tara—was in tears. “Tough loss?” I asked Avery when she and Grayson came up to the counter.

I’d hired Avery to work at Jo’s about seven months ago. She was my most reliable employee and my favorite person to work with, because she was the only employee younger than me. Sometimes it was hard being a manager over people who were a lot older than me. Imani was tolerable because she liked me, but she was still a mother hen. Avery, on the other hand, had become a real friend, and I didn’t have very many of those.

I scheduled Avery to work with me as often as I could. We almost always worked the Saturday and Sunday morning shifts together, but she’d asked for the day off since her school science team had their big state competition today.

“I wish it were that simple,” Avery said with a sigh. “Brandon and Levi took the third place trophy, and Aiden and I managed an honorable mention.”

I was confused. “That’s good, isn’t it?”

“It’s really good,” Avery agreed. “Which only made it worse for Tara when Libby didn’t show up today and left her on her own. Tara’s so shy that when she had to run her table by herself she freaked out and couldn’t get through her presentation for the judges.”

Harsh. The poor girl. “That sucks.”

Avery nodded. “It was bad. I don’t understand what happened. Libby would never just flake. We’ve been trying to call her all day, and she hasn’t answered. I’m really worried.”

“I’m sure she’s fine, Aves,” Grayson reassured her, tucking her tightly against him. “Her car probably just broke down or something.”

I felt sick to my stomach. I knew Libby was on the science team with Avery, but I hadn’t put the pieces together when I’d seen her before. Avery caught the shift in my mood. “What is it?”

I couldn’t think of a nice way to break it to her. “Libby was just in here, about ten minutes ago with Owen. It sounded like they were, um, pretty busy all day.”

“Oh, no.” All the blood drained from Avery’s cheeks. She pinched her eyes shut and took a couple of deep breaths.

When Avery looked at me again, there was a shiny layer of moisture coating her eyes. This time, instead of wanting to kill Owen, I wanted to shake some sense into Libby. I felt awful for Tara but even worse for Avery, because I knew what it was like to watch someone you love hurt herself. Avery must have seen all the same changes in Libby that I had. Avery was so caring and selfless; she was tearing herself up with worry over her best friend, and Libby didn’t have any idea that she was hurting her.

“Would you do me a favor and not mention that to any of my friends?” Avery asked, once she’d composed herself. “Tara’s been hurt enough for one day.”

“Of course.” I pulled out a plate and pushed a warm scone, fresh from the oven, across the counter to Avery. Then I poured a mug of hot chocolate and piled it high with whipped cream. “For Tara. There’s something about the combination of hot chocolate and deep-fried pastry that makes any situation better.”

Avery took another deep breath, as if attempting to hold back tears, but she managed to smile at me. “You’re the best, Adam.”