Spellbound - Cara Lynn Shultz [73]
“And then I noticed your necklace,” he continued. “I mean, it’s a pretty big pendant, Emma. But, I didn’t get a really good look at the actual design of it. I just thought it was cool that you would wear something so different.”
Color touched Brendan’s cheeks, and he put his head down, stealing a glance at me. “All I could think about was you. I felt like I had been missing you all this time. It didn’t make any sense to me,” he said, reaching out and touching the pendant. He was half-affectionately stroking the charm, and half resenting it.
“I couldn’t understand why I was so drawn to you. I knew nothing about you, other than, well, you weren’t a pushover, and you were kind of a liar.” Brendan saw my insulted expression and was instantly contrite. “I’m sorry, Emma, but you kind of are. Congress Academy? I’m sure you have your reasons, but still.”
The words continued pouring out of him. “Anyway, I sort of prided myself on my disinterest in girls at school. Really, one’s worse than the next, so the last thing I wanted was to fall for some snob. And one with something to hide. For all I knew you were kicked out of your last school for setting the damn place on fire.
“That first day at lunch, Anthony made some comments about you. You were new. He had already cornered you before English class, I saw it. He thought you were an easy target.”
I remembered that first day—Brendan had slammed his chair into the table and stormed out of the lunchroom.
“You guys got into a fight in the cafeteria,” I said, awestruck.
“You noticed me,” he said, sounding slightly smug.
“You practically threw a chair,” I pointed out. “Everyone noticed you.”
He smiled at me and squeezed my hand. “The thing is, Emma, I shouldn’t have cared what Anthony said. I didn’t understand why it made me crazy. I told him to stay away from you. And let’s just say when I walked into the quad that afternoon, and found out you were involved in all the commotion—I just had to get to you, to make sure you were okay. I pushed my way through the crowd, and saw him towering over you— I thought I was going to kill him. If I got there a second later, I might have.” Brendan shook his head as if he were remembering the sight of Anthony terrorizing me. “I restrained myself as much as I did because I didn’t want to scare you. After that night at the Met, I thought you’d be freaked out by violence. So I didn’t do what I would have liked to do to Anthony. And afterward, when we spoke—”
“You noticed what I was wearing,” I interrupted, remembering how he’d held my charm.
“I hadn’t gotten a good look at your necklace before that. When I went back to my locker, I compared the two designs and started putting things together. I hadn’t even thought about the Salinger family curse until that moment.”
“Then what about before?” I asked. “Why did you ask Cisco about me and come out with us that night to see Gabe’s band?” I was surprised, but Brendan looked a little embarrassed.
“Well, I thought I was doing a pretty good job of pretending I wasn’t so into you—”
“You were,” I interjected, thinking of how many times I’d pined for him to even sneeze my way.
“But then you read that sonnet.” He scratched his hair again, nervously. “I felt like you were speaking to me.”
I remembered how I stood up, speaking those words of love. “I kind of was,” I admitted shyly.
“I hoped that was the case,” Brendan mumbled. “I was so stupid to hope so, but it felt like it. And I was so… I guess the word is intrigued by you. You are so different from anyone I’ve ever met. So I asked Cisco about you, because you two were becoming best friends pretty quickly. And I knew I could trust him to not run around and tell everyone that I was asking about you.”
I tried to tell myself that he wasn’t embarrassed to be attracted to me, but the blush that colored my cheeks gave me away.
“Oh, Emma, it’s not that—it’s not what you think.” Brendan’s voice was soothing as he tucked my hair behind my ear. “Why do you keep thinking I would be ashamed? I didn’t want everyone