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Chapter 1
2007
Livvie
"Oh my god,Livvie, don’t look now, but Ryder Jamison just sat down in your section.” Rachel, my coworker, clutched my arm in a death grip. Heat crawled across my cheeks, and not just because the kitchen of Joe’s Diner was sweltering, especially on this unusually warm October day.
“Well, I’m going to have to look at some point, since I need to go take his order,” I said pragmatically, trying to stay calm.
Every girl on campus knew Ryder Jamison. He was the pitcher for the Tar Heels baseball team and had taken us all the way to The College World Series last year.
“Holy shit, he’s gorgeous. You better get over there.”
I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t supposed to look, but I needed to get over there. Taking a deep breath, I headed over to table three, smoothing my sweat-dampened hair back off my face.
“What can I get you to drink?” I asked with more calmness than I felt. I didn’t meet the eyes of anyone at the table.
"I’ll take a coke. Gareth, what do you want?"
"Give me a raspberry lemonade, please.”
My pen froze at the request coming from someone with that deep of a voice. One that sent a shiver down my spine. I finally glanced up, and my eyes collided with ones the color of warm toffee. My breath caught in my chest. I stared for an extra heartbeat. A throat cleared at my right, and I jerked my gaze away.
“A—A coke and raspberry lemonade coming right up.”
I hustled back to the kitchen like my tail end was on fire. Rachel stood just inside the door. I burst past her, and she clapped her hands together.
“Did he talk to you? What did he say? Is he as gorgeous up close as he is far away? What did he smell like? Oh, I bet he smelled divine!” She sighed.
It hit me that she was talking about Ryder, and I couldn’t answer a single one of her questions. My entire focus had been on his friend.
“Um, he’s cute I guess, and I didn’t smell him.”
“Cute? You guess?” Rachel screeched.
“Shh,” I hushed her. My eyes darted wildly out the open window of the kitchen, hoping her words didn’t carry across the room to the table where the two men sat. “Keep your voice down.”
“The hottest guy on the entire campus is hanging out inthisdiner, and you guess he’s just cute?” She stage-whispered the question through gritted teeth.
I shrugged. “Sorry.’’
She threw her hands up in disgust and stormed off. In the meantime, I needed to get drinks out to that table without spilling them. Considering how sweaty my palms suddenly were, I hoped I didn’t make a fool of myself. Carefully, I carried the two glasses across the room, set them down in front of each guy, and pulled out my order pad.
“Are you guys ready to order?" I asked, my eyes glued firmly on the paper in front of me.
“What do you recommend….Olivia?"
The way my name was spoken in that drawl once again had my eyes colliding with the darkly intense ones of the unknown man. My entire face heated at the way his gaze took me in. He didn’t take his eyes off mine to suggestively travel down my body, yet I felt his stare deep down in my belly. Butterflies fluttered inside me. I blinked away the sensation.Oh, he’s waiting on my response. Then I blinked again in confusion.
“How did you know my name?”
His lips turned up in a half smile and a dimple appeared in his cheek. He gestured toward my chest with his finger.
“Your name tag.”
I wanted to crawl in a hole, but I maintained my composure. Barely. I giggled vapidly, something I don’t think I’d ever done in my life, and waved a stupid and silly little wave.
“Oh, yeah.”
