Beautiful Brute (Court University 3)

Hotter than hell…

Check. Check.

Official ruiner of my entire existence?

Ultra check.

The sickness brewed to epic proportions, this guy holding my, erm, um, reinforcements. Bagging them, he looked at me with a soft smile, and I probably would have died right there had I thought it wouldn’t raise a commotion. The last thing I needed was an

ambulance whisking through here and announcing to the entire block that a girl passed out in the drugstore trying to buy the morning after pill in front of her childhood crush. Lawson had been a senior when I’d been a sophomore, and honestly, he shouldn’t even know who the hell I was.

But he did, that grin widening at me. He placed hands on the counter. “That is you. How the hell are you? How was your summer?”

I had to admit it’d been better. Tugging on my purse, I shrugged. “It was fun, I guess.” Though not as exciting as his from what I’d heard. He’d graduated at this point, but I knew he’d gone overseas as well. Our parents were friends, my mom and his pretty active in our school when we’d both been going, and since she kept up with Lawson’s mom, I knew he’d not only gone backpacking through Europe after he graduated from college but also stopped for a beat to build schools somewhere in the Southern hemisphere. This guy was a legend with his volunteer work and definitely shouldn’t be at this drugstore holding my morning after pill.

Good freaking gravy.

With a nervous chuckle, I asked how his summer was, but he passed it off, another smile at me.

“Good, good,” he’d said, still holding my pill. “But I’m sure yours was real fun. You went to Haiti, right?”

My brow twitched up, a chuckle on his end.

“Mom,” he said. “She keeps up with yours. Heard all about your work down there. Super cool.”

Really? My face flushing, I attempted to pass it off. I rubbed my arm. “It was exciting. Fulfilling.”

“No doubt. How long were you down there?”

“Just the beginning of summer. Feels like a lifetime ago.” I honestly hadn’t wanted to leave. I really loved helping people and coming back home to Netflix all summer on the couch hadn’t been nearly as eventful. I put a hand out. “But what I did was nothing like you. I heard you were building schools. Backpacking?”

A neck rub before he cuffed his arms, like huge arms. The guy was nearly as big as my stepbrother.

Quit thinking about him…

Hard not to considering what I came here for and what Lawson had on the counter just south of his chin. He smiled. “Yeah, it was a good time. Wish I was there now. Didn’t want to come home.”

“Me either.”

“Yeah.” A twinkle in his eyes as he fell back. “Think you’ll do it again next year?”

“I’ll try. Not sure. I want to teach so I’ll probably be looking for jobs, I can imagine.” Teaching was what I was going to school for, elementary education my track. “What are you doing here anyway?”

“Killing time and I guess getting experience.” He pushed the bag my way. “I’m actually going back to Bay Cove to get my pharmaceutical degree. This past summer was just as much about self-exploration as it was about helping people. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, and while I was there I decided graduate school was for me. You go there too, right? Bay Cove-U?”

The fact that this guy knew anything about me at all blew me away. After all, he was literally everything when I’d been in school and not just to me. I knew our moms knew each other, but he maybe said a word or two to me, and that’d been because I was in the way of his group while they’d been walking down the hallway. He’d never been mean about it, just passive.

That didn’t seem to be the case now as he looked at me and smiled. My face immediately heated and I played with my hair. “I do. Maybe I’ll see you.”

“Maybe.” Another dashing smile before he went to ring me up. “This all for you or…”

I literally forgot about what I came in here for.

I chewed my lip, letting Lawson know that was all I needed. He finished bagging me up, then handed it off.

“Thanks.”

“No problem,” he said. “I’ll see you around then?”