Now Elowen’s eyes widened with hope and no small amount of lust. I’d set the bait, and now she wriggled on my hook. I almost felt bad.
Almost.
“I am.” Her smile turned coy. “I mean, I’d love to go…”
I opened my mouth to speak and then acted as if something dire had occurred to me.
“Shit, I forgot I have to get to the Hall. We’ll talk more later, yeah?”
I gave her a light touch on the arm and walked away. I would never ask her to the festival or anywhere else, and leaving Elowen in purgatory wasn’t very gentlemanly, but I wasn’t about to intimidate her or threaten her with bodily harm, either.
Purgatory was punishment enough. Torture. I knew, because that’s where Harper had left me.
But her time at CHA so far had been hell, and they’d made her believe getting close to me would only make it worse. If I pushed her now or tried to drag her back into whatever we almost had, I’d just be adding to her stress. She didn’t need more tension; I refused to be just another rich bastard who made her life harder.
If what she wanted from me was space, then I’d give it to her. It was the least I could do. I had my own shit to sort anyway.
For instance, what I was supposed to do with the rest of my life.
Chapter 11Harper
End Of October
“That’s it,” I murmured. I sat back in my chair and hitsaveon my proposal.
It had taken me hours of brainstorming and many sleepless nights, but I’d come up with my Novus Prize for Scientific Innovation entry: an environmentally friendly, low-cost, portable water-purification system that could be used in underserved or disaster-struck areas. It wasn’t sexy but seemed like it met the moment.IfI could pull it off, given everything else I was trying to balance. Namely, taking care of my little brother while maintaining a 4.0 GPA.
And submitting the proposal was only round one. Langford said only 20 percent of entries made it to round two, where hopefuls had to put their ideas into action.
Let’s hope the gods of chemistry are watching, I thought and shut my battered old laptop.
It was a Monday morning, and I could hear Dash and my mother moving around downstairs. I quickly finished getting ready for school, then packed up my supplies and headed down.
“Oh, Harper, there you are,” Mom said, working over pans of eggs and bacon at the stove.
I froze, instantly on high alert. “Don’t you have work at the dentist’s office?”
Mom made a sour face. “I haven’t lost my job already, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Jesus, Mom, I wasn’t thinking that.” Except that’s exactly what I was thinking. “It’s just that you’re usually at the office early.”
“Dr. Hensley is very happy with me but doesn’t need me until a little bit later today, so I thought I would make breakfast for the two of you and drive Dash to school.”
Wow. Mom doing Mom Things. Hell hath frozen over.
I brushed the unfair thoughts away—she was doing her best, after all—and took a seat beside Dash on a stool at the kitchen counter. “So, things are going well over there?”
“They’re goinggreat,” Mom said, setting a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon in front of me. “Dr. Hensley says he’s never had an assistant who’s as on top of things as I am. I may even be getting a raise soon.”
“Awesome.” I toyed with my fork. “Does that mean you’ll be able to cut back on some of the cleaning?”
“I don’t know about that,” she said, sipping coffee from her favorite Pittsburgh Steelers mug. “But a gal can dream.”
“The reason I ask is there’s this big contest at school. It comes with a hefty leg up to my preferred universities and a cash prize. Twenty-five grand.”
“What’s twenty-five grand?” Dash asked. “Like the candy bar?”
“No, buddy. Twenty-five thousand dollars.”
