1
Claire
Ahh, I can finally have some peace. I just have to survive this whirlwind referred to lovingly by others as Thanksgiving. It wouldn’t be as bad if I was at my apartment back in Texas, not staying with my mother, sister, and stepfather. Pulling the book closer to me, I relax as the silence of the library encompasses me.
I start my last finals not long after I get back to school, so I need to get in some extra time studying. After this, I just have my thesis to write. I’ll only have one more semester to receive my master’s degree in social work. Hopefully, I can use it to land a job at a nonprofit somewhere helping kids. I’m not sure what yet, but something has to come along.
Reaching down, I dig through my backpack to retrieve my notes. When I sit back up, there’s a man standing at my table.
“May I sit here?” he whispers in a strange accent that I can’t place. I shrug, pointing to the chair he’s holding. He sits down, pulling out a book.
Opening my notes, I reference them to compare information to my textbook. I usually keep them on my iPad, but it seemed better to print them out before coming here.
“Whit are ye studying?” he asks, interrupting my thoughts.
With an irritated glance I answer, “It’s a child psychology course for my graduate degree.” Returning to my work, I try to ignore him. It works until a hand is suddenly thrust in front of what I’m studying.
“Alex,” he whispers. With a deep sigh, I look up to find a beautiful smile greeting me.
“Claire,” I say, shaking his proffered hand. His eyes are such a beautiful blue, it takes me a second to return to my work. He has on a pair of reading glasses he keeps pushing up his nose and his hair is covered by a blue beanie. Looking back down, I try to refocus on my studying.
“I’m sorry, Claire, I’ll stop bothering ye so ye can study.” Really? Of all the tables in this library, I had to attract the talker. Next time, I’ll spread my stuff everywhere, so there’s no temptation to join me. Even if he is really cute. I smile at him before returning to my book. After a few minutes, curiosity gets the better of me.
“What are you reading?” I whisper to him, trying to look at the pictures upside down. It doesn’t really look like anything that would require sitting at a table in the library to read. When I look up at his face, I find him watching me, the smile still in place.
“I dinnae know. I just picked it up on the way over tae sit at yer table.” He looks at the spine of his book. “Apparently I’m trying tae learn aboot poisonous snakes in North America.” I laugh out loud, receiving an onslaught of shushing. Is it a British accent? It’s hard to tell when he’s whispering.
“Why did you want to sit at this table?” I ask when everyone returns to their books. I feel my head tilt to the side. His smile turns into a grin complete with dimples when he catches me staring at him like a curious puppy. Quickly I snap my head back into place, feeling the pink creep up my face. It’s a stupid habit I keep trying to correct, to no avail.
“I saw ye sitting over here in yer beanie, so I thought we might be kindred spirits.” I look at his beanie. It’s blue with Scotland written in Gaelic around it. It’s the only word I know in Gaelic, but I can’t help but use it. So can I assume the accent is Scottish? That’s just a whole other level of sexy.
“So where did you get the Scottish beanie?” His eyebrows raise in surprise. “You can be impressed but it’s seriously the only word I know. I took a British history course as an undergrad.”
“I am impressed! Most people dinnae even bother tae learn that much,” he says with amusement in his eyes.
“It seems like a hard language to learn.” I shrug, looking back down at my notes when he doesn’t respond. He flips a couple of pages before taking a deep breath.
“I suppose any new language can be hard tae learn at first. I was raised with it so I had tae learn English.” I tilt my head, studying him again. My former teammates used to laugh every time I tilted my head. They said it meant I was about to throw down or ask a ridiculous question, they never knew which.
I was a goalie from the time I could run until I graduated from college. It made me tougher than most of the girls I grew up with. Now I coach a junior girls’ team while being a graduate assistant coach for my old college team.
“Ye dinnae believe me?” It’s more of a statement than a question. But, to my credit, how many Gaelic speaking Scotsmen do you run into in the university library in Oregon?
“Here, I’ll prove it tae ye.” He sits for a few minutes before speaking aloud, “Cha do thachair mi a-riamh ri duine cho bréagha roimhe seo.” He grins at me when he finishes. Looking around, I notice everyone watching us.
“You could be speaking Klingon for all I know.” I roll my eyes at him. He laughs quietly before returning to his book. We sit quietly for a few minutes until the library returns to normal.
As much as I would like to pretend not to be at least a little fascinated by him, I can’t help it. “So what did you say?” I ask. His smile drops as he stares across the table at me.
“I said I’ve never met anyone so beautiful before.” I feel heat spread up my neck to my cheeks for the second time since he’s been sitting across from me. I forgot that, on top of the weird head tilt thing, I also turn flaming red when embarrassed. His smile reappears. “How aboot this one?Dé a dh’fheumas mi a dhéanamh airson póg?”
I study him for a few minutes. Could this gorgeous man actually be flirting with me? Looking around the library, I conclude there are pretty coeds spread around the room that look more like his type. So what could he possibly want with me?
When I turn back to him, I find him still watching me, only this time he has an adorable smirk on his face.
“Okay, I’ll bite. I caught the word dragon. What does the rest of it mean?”
“I asked whit I have tae do for a kiss.” My mouth drops open as I stare at him. He shrugs, “It was worth a shot.” I start to laugh until I’m shushed again. Really? He can be as loud as he wants, but I’m shushed? Alex turns a couple more pages in his book before looking up. “Ye have a lot of snakes in this country.”
