Page 11 of Eight Years Gone

She was still gorgeous. The roundness of youth had left her face, creating stunning results with slightly sharper cheekbones. Her creamy, flawless skin, Cupid’s bow lips, and small dainty nose had always been a pleasure to stare at. But her eyes—the shocking crystal blue accentuated by darker rings—had been his ultimate fascination.

Grace had had his attention from the beginning—from the first second she’d walked into her big-ass house to introduce herself after her summer away at her aunt’s.

But when her dad had insisted that they start studying together, he’d been forced to fight his attraction to her for months.

Jagger rolled his Stingray to a stop behind Grace’s brand-new Audi A6. Her hazard lights flashed in the dark, alerting any vehicles passing by on the quiet backroad that she’d pulled off to the side.

Grace got out of her driver’s seat as he stepped out of his. She looked as pretty as always in her white cashmere hat and bulky pale-blue jacket as she tossed him a quick wave. “Thanks for coming. I tried Logan first, but he didn’t pick up.”

He shrugged as he adjusted his coat collar in defense of the winter wind. “I was heading home anyway.”

She moved toward the hood. “Something’s wrong with the engine. It started doing this shaky thing before it died on me.”

He frowned because she’d just gotten the thing a couple of months ago. She’d turned sixteen in July, but her dad had made her wait until Christmas to surprise her with the car.

He’d had his license for over a year—long before he moved into the Evans’ mansion. He missed taking Grace places now that she had wheels of her own. “A shaky thing?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know how else to describe it.”

“Did you run out of gas?”

She glared at him. “No, I didn’t run out of gas. It has nothing to do with the gas.”

Opening her door, he got in behind the wheel, breathing in Grace’s subtly sexy shampoo, giving the key a turn. Nothing happened—just a clicking sound.

Grace got in the passenger seat. “It’s freezing out here.”

“I think it’s your alternator. We’re going to need a tow truck.”

She sighed as she let her head fall back against her seat. “Great.”

“They’ll get you a loaner for a couple of days, or you can catch a ride with Logan or me.”

Grace closed her eyes. “Lucky me.”

He stared at her in the glow of his headlights. “It’s not a crisis.”

She opened her eyes, sitting up again. “It is to me. Not everyone has the luxury of shrugging their shoulders at the world.”

He raised his brow in surprise. Grace was usually fun and easygoing. “What’s crawled up your ass?”

She shrugged. “Just a long day.” She looked at him again. “You don’t have to stick around. I can wait for the tow truck.”

He tried the key again. Nothing. “I’m not leaving you here by yourself.”

She jerked her shoulders a second time. “I’m sure if I try Logan, I’ll get him this time. I bet you have a date or something.”

“Nope. No date.”

She fiddled with her nails. “That’s something new.”

He restlessly scratched at his head because he had no idea what to do or say.

“This is probably a good time for me to tell you that I can’t tutor you anymore.”

Now he frowned. He looked forward to studying with Grace. It was the best part of his day. “Why?”

“Because we both know you don’t need a tutor. Plus, I have too much yearbook stuff going on, and you’re busy doing whatever it is that you do.”

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