don’t care much for the principal’s office, I’ve quite the high opinion of the hallway just outside it. Wonderful place for a crossword, isn’t it?”
“The wonderful... est.”
God, I sound like a moron! I thought.
Stone smiled brightly, an amused chuckle on his lips. My mortification evaporated into the warmth of the sound. And another of my papers floated down from the pile I was currently holding in my hands. I went for it.
Stone extended his hand toward me to help me off the ground again. I placed my hand in his and his large fingers enclosed mine in the warmth of his palm. He pulled me up in one swift motion, like I weighed nothing at all.
“The teachers here tend to hold onto their first impressions for a long time,” I said, looking up into his face. I hadn’t realized how tall he was the other day—six-four at least, six-five if you included the swoop of his hair. “I just don’t want to give my professor any more reasons to make my life as miserable as possible.”
I thought of Professor Tarkington’s angry, wrinkled face. He’d had it out for me ever since the first day when I’d arrived ten seconds after the bell.
“I’m sure you don’t have anything to worry about.” Stone glanced down at our joined hands. He uncurled my fingers and carefully examined my exposed palm. “With a luck line like that, I’d say you won’t have to worry about much of anything.”
Stone traced a line from my wrist to the mount of Saturn where my palm met my finger. A little jolt of electricity shot through me, crackling through my veins from the point where the tip of his finger touched my skin.
He had worker’s hands, strong and calloused. I stared down at the luck line, not quite ready for him to let go.
“Luck line?” I whispered. “Is that what it’s called in palmistry?”
“It has many names,” he said, looking down at the line, his finger still resting at its tip. “Most call it the fate line. Some, more pragmatic folks, call it the career line, but that feels a bit limiting. I prefer to call it luck.”
“Limiting?” I asked.
His dreamy blue eyes traced the line again.
“This line represents a person’s path through life,” he said softly. “It tells you what destiny’s got in store for you. For some people, I guess that might be a job, but for others, it can mean something else entirely.”
“Something else?” I shook my head, looking up at him in confusion.
“It can represent whatever it is that defines your life: an adventure, a purpose, a great love.” He closed my open hand and met my eyes. “To call it something as trivial as a career line, seems like a disservice of sorts. Don’t you think?”
“Yes.”
The corner of his mouth twitched up. It seemed always on the verge of a ravishing smile.
“Your line, career, fate, adventure, it’s just about as long as they come, Emma,” he said. “And it’s nearly unbroken. I’d say that makes you a very lucky woman.”
“When is that luck supposed to kick in,” I asked with a smile, keeping my eyes on our hands.
“It already has. From the moment you were born,” he answered. Then he looked up at the door in front of us. “We should probably find our seats; I’d hate to make a bad first impression.”
He folded my hand closed and lowered it gently to my side.
I nodded. “Course.”
That sounded casual, right?
He smiled down at me and opened the door leading into the lecture hall. I thanked him with a quick nod and walked in. Kevin and Jupiter were sitting in the back, as usual. Kevin was in the middle of operating a paper fortune teller, and Jupiter leaned toward him for a better view.
“You can sit back here with us if you want,” I told Stone, successfully hiding any trace of hope from my voice.
“Ordinarily, I’d love to,” he said, flashing a smile that warmed me to my toes. “But I tend to be more comfortable in front of a class.”
“Oh,” I said and nodded.
“It was a pleasure seeing you again, Emma.”
He nodded in farewell and strode to the front of the classroom while I started for the back. I plopped my books and papers down next to Jupiter and then sat down, a bit confused.
“Who is that?” Jupiter asked as she turned her wide-eyed gaze from Stone to me.
“Yeah, who is that… dreamboat?” Kevin added. Both of their eyes were wide and Kevin’s mouth