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  The reporter laughed. I thought if the camera wasn’t on her, she might have pinched his cheek.

  “How did it feel to get rescued this morning?”

  “Bloody marvelous.”

  She shoved the microphone into my face. “Did you have any doubts that you would be rescued?”

  “No,” psycho-girl trilled.

  Then the reporter moved back to speak into the camera, but she didn’t have anything to say that I wanted to hear.

  “I don’t even remember her asking me a question.”

  “You could have used a little makeup,” Mel said.

  I glared at her.

  She held up her hands. “Sorry, I’m just saying.”

  “And what was that, how did you feel about getting rescued? How did she think we felt?”

  “I think they’re just looking for questions with simple answers for their sound bites,” Jude said.

  “How did you manage to look so good, and I looked like…crap?”

  “You did not. You looked like a survivor.”

  A survivor who wanted to weep. I really needed some political scandal to come up that would reduce my air time.

  “While we’re here at the lodge, are we going to ski?” Mel asked.

  Just the thought of more activity wore me out.

  “You’re nuts, you know that?” Boomer said fondly. “I’m ready to get home.”

  At the same time, Jude and I both said, “Me too.”

  When we got back to the dorm, Jude crashed on Sheli’s bed.

  I had some major catching up to do on schoolwork. Paul had given us the night off to recover from “the ordeal”—thank you thank you thank you. So I had an unexpected block of time to study, and did I ever need it.

  I’d emailed a couple of students I knew and gotten notes from the classes I’d missed.

  I was sitting at my desk reading some of the material the professor had posted for my human genetics course—the one with a midterm waiting for me in less than twenty-four hours.

  The problem was that my gaze kept drifting over to Jude stretched out, facedown on the bed with the pillow over his head. He was still in the lodge sweats, but I found him irresistible.

  What baffled me was that I was never distracted when I’d been studying with Rick. Never.

  And all Jude was doing was sleeping. He didn’t even snore. He didn’t twitch. He wasn’t restless. He was dead to the world, but so not dead to me. I just couldn’t stop looking at him, couldn’t stop wanting to walk over there and curl around him. Hold him, let him hold me.

  What was this madness?

  Was it survivor’s infatuation? Was it some sort of mental disorder?

  I don’t know how long I studied him instead of my notes. But I noticed a subtle shifting in his body, like a long, lazy stretch. A hand came up and tossed the pillow aside. Slowly he rolled into a sitting position and yawned. He grinned at me. “G’day.”

  “More like g’night.”

  “Really?”

  He looked at the window. It was dark outside. Almost dark in here. Only the lamp at my desk was casting out light.

  “I can’t believe I slept that long.”

  He got up and sauntered over to the desk. “So, how ’bout I ring up Boomer and see if he and Mel want to meet us at that club? We could get a bite to eat—”

  “I can’t.”

  He raised a brow. “You can’t eat?”

  “I can’t go out.”

  “Well, then we could call in a pizza, right?”

  “No, I can’t do anything with you. I’ve got a midterm to study for and”—I picked up a paper and tossed it down—“a research paper to write.”

  Jude turned the paper around. “‘Sexuality in the Victorian Age.’ I thought they were all repressed back then.”

  “I guess I’ll find out if I can ever get to the library to research those sources the professor listed.”

  “We could—”

  I cut him off before he could make any other suggestions. “No, my number one priority is studying for the exam. Do you know how much time I’ve lost this week?” I picked up my time schedule, the dry-erase board that gave me two weeks at a glance. “I’m hours behind.”

  “But if you took a break, came back refreshed—”

  “No, Jude. I can’t.” I pressed my hands to my head. “What was Rick thinking when he sent you that email? He knew I was going to be studying and wouldn’t have time to take care of problems.” I knew I sounded a little mean, but I was so stressed out I couldn’t help it. I sighed, gave Jude a wry smile. “Go have fun.”

  I wrote down my cell phone number. “Call me when you need to get back in.”

  “Yeah, all right. I didn’t mean to be a bother.”

  Oh, it hurt my heart when he said that.

  “You’re not. It’s me, not you.” I groaned. “I can’t believe I just said that.”

  I got up, went around the desk, and hugged him. “Tonight I need to do this. So just have a good time.”

  “Right. What time are you going to bed? I don’t want to wake you.”

  “Don’t even worry about it. I’ll be up all night.”

  When he left, I felt this strange urge to cry. Maybe it was an accumulation of the past few days, getting lost in the woods, knowing that my perfect G.P.A. was on the line. I couldn’t goof off at all if I wanted to go to med school.

  Jude had made me forget, and as lovely as it had been, now reality was about to bite me on the butt.

  Jude didn’t stay gone long. Maybe an hour tops. He brought back a bucket of chicken and insisted that I eat.

  “No one can study with an empty stomach,” he’d said.

  He had a point. I’d decided that I could allot twenty minutes to wolfing down chicken that would probably clog my arteries.

  But the twenty turned into an hour as I listened to him telling me stories about his mates back home. I thought maybe he was feeling a little homesick. Or maybe I was.

  “I’ve gotta get back in there,” I said finally, unfolding myself off the couch.

  “Is there something I can do to help?”

  “Nope. No one can study for me except me. I’ll get it done.” I took a step toward the bedroom and stopped. “I won’t be able to do this next week. Play with you, I mean.”

  “All study and no play will make Lys a dull girl,” he teased.

  I wanted to tease back. Instead I said somberly, “Then I’ll have to be a dull girl.”

  Chapter 15

  I walked out of the classroom with an immense sense of relief. It only intensified when I saw Jude leaning against the wall.

  Grinning, he shoved himself away from the tile. It was then that I noticed the bouquet of flowers. If hearts could weep with joy, mine would have.

  I quickened my pace and met him halfway. Students were making their way around us, some staring as they went by, but I didn’t care.

  “How do you think you did?” he asked.

  Almost giddy, I smiled brightly and nodded. “All right. I think I aced it. My four-point-oh is safe.”

  “That’s great. Absolutely great.” He held out the flowers. “These are for you.”

  I took them from him, smelled the roses. You shouldn’t have.”

  “It was the least I could do after all you’ve done for me when you had all this on your mind. I’m really sorry.”

  “No, it’s all right.”

  “No, it’s not. I wanted to tell you in person.”

  Someone knocked my shoulder in passing. Jude scowled, took my arm, and led me over to the windows that overlooked the campus.

  “Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I’m not going to be in your way anymore. I found another place to crash.”

  I fought to hang on to my smile, not to reveal the devastation I was feeling with those few words. “Oh.”

  “With a bed actually. At Boomer’s. Don’t know why I didn’t think to ask him sooner. It makes sense. He’s got an apartment. Look.” He reached into