The Heart That's Meant to Love You

Chapter 16: Interaction

The squeally girls finally calmed down. Kieran glanced at his watch. It only took two hours. A new record for giggly college women. Even when he had been their age, Kieran had no tolerance for that kind of girl. Why they thought that he'd give them a second look now, Kieran had no idea.

The students actually enrolled in his class took their jobs seriously, at least. It appeared that Kieran had stumbled across a rare, studious group. Their professor must be proud.

Kieran raised his hands above his head and clapped them twice. The sound resonated through the gardens and caught all the students' attention. One by one, they turned to look at the source of the sound.

"Class time is over," Kieran announced with another glance at his watch. "What you do from now on is on your own time. Send me your best shot by tomorrow evening. This will be graded."

A collective groan went up, but Kieran didn't care. He should do his job well, if he was going to do it. Professor McNally had entrusted this to him.

"I'll see you next class," Kieran finished.

He didn't wait for answers or agreement. Being in charge meant he didn't need either. If they wanted good grades, they would do their homework. He had gone easy on them, only assigning one project.

Despite their obvious objections, the students dispersed. Some in pairs, some alone. All dependent on their personalities and upcoming schedules.

Kieran, never one to stick around to be attacked by fangirls, took his leave as quickly as he could manage. They had their pictures of the day, they would get used to his presence gradually. Experience told him so.

His timing slipping out of the gardens couldn't have provided a more perfect opportunity.

Kieran hadn't planned to exit as Naomi passed by alongside her quirky friend, but that's how it happened.

"What about debate?" the quirky friend asked.

Naomi shook her head, hair fluttering in the breeze. "I didn't attend the interview. Mother can't always have her way in everything."

Interesting. Kieran hadn't pegged Naomi as the rebellious type. Quite the opposite. How could he have known that she nursed her own seed of discontent?

Being pushy wouldn't get Kieran anywhere, but seizing opportunities would.

Kieran fished his phone from his pocket, stared down at the screen as though deep in conversation, and marched after Naomi and her friend. Of course his long legs ate up the distance between them. That's how Kieran planned it.

He also planned the forceful meeting of his arm and Naomi's shoulder, a bump hard enough to knock the cellphone out of his hand. His loosened grip helped, too.

Naomi's feet stuttered to a stop and she bent, perhaps out of habit, to retrieve the device.

Kieran bent too, making sure their hands reached for the phone at the same time.

Naomi pulled her fingers away before they could touch.

Kieran looked up, catching her staring right back at him. He grinned. "Naomi, right? We met the other day."

Naomi gave a single nod. "You're Kieran. Colburn."

"I'm honored that you remember." Kieran snatched his phone off the ground and rose to his full height. "Sorry about running into you." He gave the device a wave through the air. "I was distracted. I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"I'm fine."

The quirky friend tossed a glance between them. "You sure about that?"

Kieran held back his smile. Turned out that Naomi's friend might be more of a help than Kieran originally anticipated. She would be useful to convince Naomi of his sincerity. She had to trust him to fall for anything.

"Let me buy you lunch to make up for it." A better offer than dinner, which might make Naomi run away screaming. She seemed the timid type.

Naomi's tongue peeked out to wet her lips. "I shouldn't."

But she hadn't said no. Kieran opened his mouth to convince her.

The friend moved faster. "Hey, it's a free meal. Bring me along. We were going to go eat, anyway."

"But I shouldn't."

The friend waved a hand through the air. "No one's going to find out. It's okay. Let him pay for our food. It's the least he can do."

"It's not like he tried to run into me."

Kieran arched his brows. If only she knew. Naomi must be naive, to not realize that Kieran had planned the whole thing. Fine. He liked naive girls. They were easier to handle.

The friend rolled her eyes. "Naomi. Learn how to be gracious in situations like this. You're not all alone in the world, you know."

"It would be my pleasure to treat the two of you to lunch," Kieran threw in, hoping it would apply enough pressure to convince Naomi to give in. He had to start somewhere and to do that he needed Naomi to give him an inch.

Naomi hesitated, her eyes flitting downto the ground and the back up again. Her shoulders stiffened, then relaxed. "Fine. You can pay for lunch."

The friend shot Kieran a knowing wink.

Though he questioned why she seemed to be on his side, Kieran wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. There would be time later to discover her true intentions.

"Shall we?" Kieran denoted the path toward the cafeteria, figuring that would be the best place to go in order to keep Naomi's guard lowered.

Naomi sized him up, but she stopped her arguing in favor of leading the way.

Kieran inclined his head toward the friend in silent thanks.

She merely shrugged.

The phone in Kieran's hand vibrated, over and over again, denoting a phone call. What lousy timing.

Kieran glanced at the caller ID, sighed, and shut the screen. He would return the call later, when he could deal with the dramatics. Until then, Donovan could handle any emergencies. The caller should know that Kieran did everything for their good. They should understand that Kieran couldn't always answer at the drop of a pin.

Right now, he had more important foundations to lay in order to offer the caller a better life.