She let out a sigh of relief. "Then why the question?"

"No reason. Just wondering about your college experience. You never talk about it."

"There's not much to tell," she said.

I persisted. "So? Frat boys?"

"No."

I should have been satisfied. Totally relieved. Except that...she had hesitated before answering. And her voice had been soft and unsure. Like she was lying and felt guilty about it.

On Valentine's Day, Seth sent me a red rose in cla.s.s. One of the clubs on campus sold and delivered them as a fundraiser. It came complete with a chocolate heart. If that had been the only rose he sent me, I would have been happy. But that night, he showed up with another dozen.

"That makes thirteen," I teased him. "Isn't that unlucky?"

I was feeling superst.i.tious. Things had been going too well.

"A baker's dozen unlucky? In what universe?" He pulled me into his arms and kissed me.

He was confident that way. He liked to laugh in the face of fate. But he didn't know what I knew. If he had known, would he have been so glib?

I didn't like to think about it. Was I keeping a secret from him? Or just keeping my unfounded suspicions to myself? I liked to think the latter.

He took me to a little Mexican restaurant for dinner. Then out for red drinks at a local bar. He seemed nervous, like there was something on his mind. Half a dozen times he started to ask me something, then stopped himself short.

He had something important on his mind. A surprise, maybe? The evening had already been perfect. But I was greedy, and more was always better.

Midway through my second cherry martini, he took my hand and looked into my eyes.

I saw myself mirrored there, holding my breath as if I was waiting for a proposal. But it was way too soon for that. Even so, I couldn't breathe.

"What are you doing for spring break?" His eyes were serious, and he seemed more nervous than I'd ever seen him.

I spoke without thinking, or paying attention to the signals he'd been giving me all night. "Going to a bridal fair with my mom. This is one of the big bridal shows. One of the best. It's held, like, twice a year, and she's dying for me to go with her. Doing some wedding dress shopping. She absolutely insisted I come home for it. She has this romantic notion of picking out her dress with her daughter. And I'm probably checking in on my internship-"

His face fell. His grip loosened on my hand.

Which is when I realized this was the big question. The surprise. And I'd just trampled all over it.

"But that won't take the whole week?" He looked hopeful again.

I tilted my head. "No. Why?"

He broke into the most adorable, wobbly, hopeful grin. "Come home with me. For as many days as you can spare. I want you to meet my dad."

I swore his voice shook.

My hands certainly did. And my mouth went dry. "I...I..."

I didn't know what to say. We'd just cruised past the one-month mark. Zach's warnings about Seth rang in my ears. How he bailed on relationships at the one or two-month mark. This was Seth's statement of commitment.

I wanted to go. And at the same time, I wasn't ready to meet his dad. Not for the usual reasons. I wasn't ready for what I might find out.

Seth stared at me, waiting expectantly for an answer. My hesitation was hurting his feelings. I was trapped and I knew it.

I forced a smile and put a falsely bright note in my voice. "Yes!"

He pulled me into a kiss. "You had me worried for a minute. Zach warned you that I'm not the committed type. But he should have warned me about you. I've met my match." He squeezed my hand.

"Meeting your dad is a big step." My voice trembled.

"Yeah." His eyes sparkled. "It is." He paused. "I've never taken a girl home to meet Dad before." He grinned. "I'm scaring you! Don't worry. Dad will love you." He swept a lock of hair out of my face and touched my cheek. "Just like I do. I love you, Maddie."

He'd never said I love you before. Some people were casual about it, throwing the phrase around lightly. But not me. Not us.

My eyes filled with tears of joy. "I love you, too."

I'd been trying to fight it. But sometimes you can't fight destiny. What were we going to do?

The Friday night a week before spring break, the food science club sponsored a pub crawl. Complete with T-shirts. Of course, I invited Seth. Zach came along. Alexis wasn't twenty-one yet, and the club was strict about that, no fake IDs allowed, so Zach came solo.

A pub crawl was our version of a frat party. We wore T-shirts made specially for the event and went from bar to bar drinking. Only we called it tasting. Like it was part of our food sensory cla.s.s. Our ale sensory unit. Being food nerds, we also talked about the brewing process and the flavors of the beer and ales. Showing off our knowledge. Half the guys in food science brewed beer in their bathtubs. I was surprised Zach and Seth hadn't tried it yet.

We were a largish group, about thirty of us. The night was pleasant for early March. We walked between bars. When we invaded some of the smaller ones, we practically took them over. By the time we got to The Night Crawler, I was feeling a pleasant buzz.

In the spirit of crawling, I crawled into Seth's lap at the table we commandeered and looped my arms around his neck. I kissed him, fully, tasting the beer on his lips, pressing against him. He was so hot when he was buzzed, too, and his hands roamed all over me. And the bulge in his jeans rubbed against me. I was ready to go back to his place.

"One more round," he whispered directly in my ear. "And we're out of here."

We ordered a sampler platter of regional ales.

As a group, we were loud and laughing. Yelling over the music as we pounded down shots of ales ranging from light to dark and full.

Seth nuzzled my neck. Life seemed perfect until the door opened and let a cold breeze in. An ill wind that blew my brother in. Ian stood at the door with a group of profs and students, looking for a table.

Noooo! No, no, no, no!

I froze. And watched in horror as he scanned the room. My heart stopped while his gaze skimmed over us. Fortunately, Ian had elements of an absentminded professor. When he focused on something, he ignored everything else. He missed us and waved to some guys at a table in the corner. I had to do something. But what?

My skin p.r.i.c.kled. It was like I was in a science fiction movie. The kind where someone travels back in time to an earlier part of their life. But if they run into their younger self something horrible happens in the time/s.p.a.ce continuum and it's death for everyone.

I had that same feeling now. I couldn't let Ian run into Seth. But he was blocking the door and our table was in the path to both the bar and that corner table he was focused on.

Ian started walking our way. I grabbed Seth's face and kissed him. Fiercely, blocking his face with mine, with one eye open, watching my brother and his group as they walked by. Necking, the new way to become invisible.

I released Seth when Ian was comfortably settled at the bar with his back to us.

Seth's eyes were round with desire. "Don't stop now." He tried to find my lips again.

I dodged him, reached into my purse, and threw a twenty on the table. "We have to go." I caressed Seth's cheek and put all the come-on I could manage in my eyes and voice.

"Now?" His eyes sparkled wickedly.

I leaned in and whispered, "Yes, now. I need you. Urgently."

"Urgently?" He got a s.e.xy grin on his face.

This wasn't a slow seduction. This was an emergency situation.

"That's what I said. This is a need emergency."

His coat was slung over the back of his chair. I pulled his beanie from his coat pocket and tucked it on his head, covering that crown of blond hair so like my brother's.

I slid off his lap and grabbed his hand. "Let's go."

A couple of the guys we were with made lewd remarks and whistled.

"If I were you, man, I wouldn't hesitate." One of them winked and punched Seth in the arm.

What I wouldn't put up with!

As Seth stood, I took his hand. He slid it free from mine. "Don't lose the mood. I'll be right back. I have to take a leak."

Stupid, stupid beer! What could I say to that? Like, no, no bathroom for you! Hold it. You absolutely have to dance all the way back to your place?

He brushed my lips with a kiss and sauntered off, pa.s.sing just to Ian's left to the small hallway that led to the men's room as I held my breath.

"Hey, Maddie, chill!" one of our group said. "He'll be right back."

But Zach, who knew me best, stared at me. "Are you okay, Maddie? You look like you've seen a ghost."

More like a shadow. "I'm fine. Drank a little too much too fast."

One of the other guys slid his chair away from mine. "If you're gonna puke, don't do it on my shoes."

I frowned at him and tried to mask the horror and relief I felt.

Before I could fall into my seat and cover my face or use one of the guys as a human shield from my brother, Ian turned around, laughing. A group of girls who had been inadvertently running interference between me and my brother and blocking his line of sight moved toward the bathrooms. Leaving Ian a wide-open view of me. There I was, standing out.

Oh, no! He's going to come over here!

I was suddenly stone-cold sober. I had to cut him off at the pa.s.s. All right, this wasn't a Western bar, but terminology aside, the idea was the same. I had to stop him from coming to our table. If my friends and cla.s.smates met him, they'd see the resemblance between Seth and him. How could they not?

And then they'd comment on it. I would never hear the end of it. They would insist on the two of them meeting. And highlight the similarity with way too many drunken jokes. And even if I managed to get him away from the table before Seth got back, Seth would be furious with me if he knew my brother was in the pub and I purposefully didn't introduce him.

I acted on instinct. I was at the bar in as few steps as I could manage. I gave my brother a bear hug that made him go "umphh" with the force of it. I neatly spun him back around to face the bar before any of my companions got a look at him. And took up a spot on his right so I could watch for Seth.

My fellow pub crawlers were drinking their ales now, totally preoccupied and getting hammered by the minute. One tragedy averted.

Ian held me at arm's length. "What are you doing here?"

"Pub crawl."

He glanced at my T-shirt and nodded. "Is that what you foodies call it?" He laughed. "We call it Friday night fluids lab."

He still had his coat on, but it was unzipped so I could see his plain shirt.

"No official T-shirt? You're not as organized and official as we are," I teased, trying to keep the nerves out of my voice.

"Mom says you're only home part of the week of spring break. Something about a food science trip to the Methow Valley wine country for a few days? Do you have an official shirt for that, too?"

Yes, that was the lie I'd fed my mom so I could sneak away to Seth's. The food science club was always taking trips to food companies, dairies, or wineries at the end of vacations. Wineries hired a lot of food scientists, so it was a natural. And not at all unusual or suspicious.

"No, no shirt. But we're designing an ap.r.o.n to sell to raise funds for the club." I gave him a playful punch. "But you, you're going to Hawaii! No fair."

"Life's not fair, sis. That's the way it is." He laughed. "A couple of the guys got here early and saved us a table. Want to join us?"

I caught a glimpse of Seth heading back to the table. "Thanks," I said, thinking on my feet. "But this is one of those Let's not step on each other's toes situations. I have my club and you have your group. I was just about to leave, anyway." I went up on tiptoes and kissed his cheek. "Let's get together before break."

One of the guys Ian was with tapped his arm and said something to him, distracting Ian just long enough.

"Catch you later!" I said to him, and dashed off.

I managed to intercept Seth, grab my coat, and pull him out of the bar before he had a chance to glance back at Ian. I was so relieved, and euphoric, about having avoided a disastrous chance meeting that my knees almost gave out.

Laughing, I caught Seth's arm and pulled him along.

We ran laughing, tipsy, high on love, hand in hand to his apartment complex up the hill from The Night Crawler.

His apartment was dark and empty. He shut the door and locked it as I shed my coat and shoes and pulled him toward his room. Once inside, I had my T-shirt off before he got the door closed.

"Hey! That's my job."

"Then get over here and do it!" I unzipped my jeans and shimmied out of them.

He threw his arms around me and unfastened my bra. I helped him slide it off my shoulders.

"Now this is a sight I like." He pushed my b.r.e.a.s.t.s together until the nipples touched, and he licked them while I moaned softly.

"No teasing." My voice was breathless as I pulled at the hem of his T-shirt, the large twin of mine.

He helped me pull it off and tossed it aside.

I couldn't get him out of his clothes fast enough, kissing him as I disrobed him. Pressing my kisses to his lips, his neck, his chest.

When he was naked and silhouetted in the light that filtered through the thin curtains, I playfully shoved him on his back on the bed. It was crazy, maybe, but the feeling of physically controlling him turned me on. It was only an illusion. He could have overpowered me at any time. But he let me have my way as I climbed on top of him and mounted him.

"No foreplay?" He grabbed my hips as I rode him.