At First Hate (Coastal Chronicles)

“I got into Harvard Law,” Derek told them.

“Whoa,” Lora said.

“Like it’s hard?” Brinley joked. “That’s amazing.”

Then, he looked down at me, and I brightened for him, even as a slight panic formed in my chest.

“Congrats. Going to be just like your dad?”

He frowned. “Yeah. I guess so. Always thought I’d take over the law firm one day.”

And for a second, a chasm split between us. It had always been there, but it was another reminder of how different we were. I had big dreams, but I always worried about how to afford them and what was going to happen. He, on the other hand, was a legacy at Harvard Law. He would work for his dad right after graduation. Things were always so easy for Derek.

“Your dad’s an attorney too?” Brin asked.

He nodded, looking away from me. “Yeah. He owns his own practice in downtown Savannah.”

“Best in town,” Ash said.

I fell silent as everyone discussed their own hopeful plans for when they graduated. Lora would be off to DC, working for a lobbying firm. Ash wanted to move back home and help run the family business, which was essentially owning the entire town. Brin wanted to travel for a year and maybe look into international business. When it got to me, I told them what I’d been saying for years.

“I want to find a cure for dementia. So, probably a PhD in neuroscience and decide from there. Become a professor or work in the private sector.”

Everyone stared at me long enough that I flushed.

“That’s ambitious,” Ash said.

“Our girl is going to save the world,” Lora crowed.

I laughed just as the game got started, and the focus was pulled from me. Everyone zeroed in on the TV, but Derek was still looking at me.

He touched my leg and leaned in close. “Is this about your grandpa?”

I gulped and nodded. I’d told him over one of our chats about my Gramps’ declining health. It ran in his family, and his memory had been getting progressively worse. It was only a matter of time before it took him too. I hated thinking about it.

“They’re lucky to have you,” he said gently.

I looked up into his gaze and found him sincere. “Thank you.”

He nodded and went back to the game, but he didn’t move his hand from my leg. He stroked slow, methodical circles into my exposed skin. My breath hitched at the feel of him touching me and the heat spreading up my legs. It made concentrating on the game difficult.

At halftime, he got up to get a drink for us both, and I thought that might be the end. But he settled right back to where he’d been sitting. He passed me my drink, and then his hand returned right to where it had been before. Maybe an inch higher. I shifted my legs together, trying to reduce the growing heat in my core, and he glanced over at me with a knowing look on his face. I could barely meet that gaze. Damn him. I was turned on… and he knew.

But he didn’t say anything about it. Just left his hand on my leg throughout the rest of the game. Thankfully, no one else said anything about him touching me either. This was all new, and I didn’t know how he’d react to it. I didn’t know how I’d react to someone pointing it out. Because I didn’t want him to stop touching me… and I didn’t know how I felt about that either.

Duke won at the last second, and everyone in the room jumped up to cheer. Even Derek got into it, though when I looked at him, he just shook his head at me.

The party swelled and swelled. I lost Brin and Lora in the mass of people. Suddenly, it was just me and Derek in a sea of unfamiliar faces. I was tipsy from alcohol and drunk on the adrenaline of our win.

So, when Derek tipped my face up to his and pressed his mouth to mine, I didn’t pull back. I didn’t even consider it. I kissed him back. My fingers dug into the material of his stupid Butler shirt, and my body arched into him. His hands came around my back, holding me tight. I’d known he was tall and big. He was a college basketball player after all. But I’d never felt so small as when I was in his arms. As if I had been made to fit right into him.

He pulled back slightly. My eyes were still closed, and I slowly, lazily opened them to look up at him.

“I believe this means you won.”

“I guess it does,” I said, dazed.

He moved a stray curl from my face, and I leaned into him again.

He bent down and brushed his mouth against the shell of my ear. “It’s kind of loud in here.”