All My Books

There's No Going Back (Book 2 of The Triad Series)

Prologue 

"Do you have everything? Socks? Warm underthings?" Callie's brows crinkled with concern as she watched her two oldest sons packing up their SUV prior to their journey down the winding roads of Interstate 50 in California.

"Mom, we don't need warm underthings yet," Alex said with a smile.

"Yeah, unless you want us to sweat our balls off," his twin Jamison snickered.

"If you had any balls to speak of," their sister Emily muttered as she helped with the last of the bags that were going into the already-packed tight trunk of the Highlander. She had had to postpone a trip to the mall to see her two older siblings off to college and was exceedingly grumpy because of it.

"Shut it, Emmy-poo" Alex snapped at her.

"Don't call me that, you wanker," she spat out. Yes, there would be no love lost between her older brothers and herself. They had always fought like cats and dogs, mainly because they were so similar personality wise.

"I'll call you anything I like you little—" Alex started, only to be interrupted by one of his fathers.

"Shut it both of you. Christ!" Emmett came out of the front door of the house when he heard the melodious sounds of his children bickering. Since they had been old enough to talk, his oldest sons fought like cats and dogs with his only daughter.

"Ahhhhh, do you feel the love, Stef?" Caysen asked his 13-year-old twin brother.

"It's literally wafting over me like a cool summer breeze," Stefan replied with a smirk.

"Dear sweet Jesus," Callie said with a shake of her head. All of her offspring had inherited their fathers' sarcasm until the house was practically exploding in snarky comments.

Ethan came out from the two-car garage, which they had recently added to the home.

"What's all the noise out here?" he asked with a frown. "Last day you'll see each other before University and you all can't get along?" He shook his head at his children.

Callie looked over her family unit. Alex and Jamison had been her first born twin sons. They were named in honor or their Aunt Alexandra, one of her closest friends who now lived in Las Vegas, and Jamie who was best friends with her husbands.

Yes—husbands. Though not on paper, of course.

On paper, she was Mrs. Ethan Reznick, though she considered his twin Emmett just as much a spouse to her as his brother. She wore two wedding rings and two engagement rings, though on different hands. It didn't matter to her though. What mattered was a healthy, loving home and her five wonderful—albeit bratty at this moment—children.

Her oldest sons favored her in almost every way. They had her brownish-red hair and purplish-blue eye color, though their build was definitely more on their father's side. They were tall at six foot two inches each, give or take a few millimeters difference between them.

Emily was her only girl, whom she had named after her long-deceased mother. Though she donned the same brownish-red hair as her older siblings, her eyes were a deep blue like her fathers, and she had a more petite stature at only five foot three inches. If it weren't for the eyes, she would have looked like Callie at the age of sixteen.

Her troublesome youngest pair of twins were Stefan and Caysen. Stefan she had named in honor of her father, who was now retired and still living next door to her odd family unit. Caysen's namesake was Ethan and Emmett's deceased father, and the two were the spitting image of Emmett and Ethan at thirteen years of age—blonde and blue eyed.

The squabbling between the three older siblings was cut off as they grumbled from their places on the front lawn. Jamison, who preferred to go by Jay most of the time, closed the hatch of the car after the last box was snugged in and taking up the last of the available space in the vehicle.

"Kiss your mother goodbye before she makes good on her promise to lock you in your rooms until you're thirty," Emmett told his children.

"I was kidding!" Callie called out, but her face looking dubious.

"Sure you were, baby," Ethan walked up to his wife and gave her a long, comforting kiss.

"Christ, my eyes!" Emily cried, putting her hands over her face.

"Keep your nastiness in the house, you old farts!" Alex called, looking horrified. He hated when his parents got intimate, though he had never spied them doing anything other than kissing, thank the Lord.

"Isn't Jenna going to come see you off?" Callie asked Alex.

"We broke up, Mom." he said in a bored tone.

"When?"

"Like a month ago," Alex said. "She's too far away. I want to focus on school, not wondering whether or not she's getting hit on at a frat party while at Arizona State. It's a party school."

"That's a shame," Callie said. "I rather liked that girl."

"So will half of Arizona State," Jay mumbled. Alex smacked his head. "Ow, you turd."

Ethan looked at both his sons, thinking.

"Maybe it was a bad idea to have you two share a dorm room at State," he said, looking between the two as they scowled at each other.

"We'll be fine," Jay replied. "The big skid mark loves me too much to kill me."

"Bite me," his twin replied.

"Don't include me in your weird fetishes," Jay retorted with a smirk.

"I'm so not going to miss the charming rapport you two have," Emily said sardonically. "Can I have Alex's old room? Once it's been fumigated that is?"

"Why would you want my old room? I still legally reside here, ya know," Alex stated.

"It has a better view of the mountains," she replied.

"You mean a better view of neighbor's son, you pervert!" Jay cracked.

Emily flushed crimson at his statement. "Ew! His son is way too old for me. He's practically ancient."

"He's only twenty-four, Emmy," stated Caysen.

"Yeah, if that's ancient to you, what are Mom and Dad? Fossils?" Stefan joked.

"I hate you all," Emily muttered as she shook her head.

"Enough!" Emmett stated, calling off World War III, South Lake Tahoe-style. "Say goodbye to your brothers so they can get down the mountain before dark."

After a long goodbye—made even longer when Callie started to weep—the twins hopped into the black Highlander and started down the mountain towards the west.

They had decided to split the journey between the two of them. When they made it down the hill to Sacramento, they would switch places after a late lunch/early dinner.

###

Pulling into the dormitories at the University of San Francisco, the boys shut down the car and headed into the building. Many students and parents were busy moving into the dorms, so the twins went relatively unnoticed by the other people scuttling boxes and bags into the building. They were used to gawking as people took in the tall mirror images.

Upon entry into the building, the two of them saw a queue to the main desk where they would retrieve their keys and room assignments. It took them a full twenty minutes to make it up to the front of the line and grab the necessities. Once that was done, they headed back out to the car in order to grab several boxes to take up to the dorm with them.

The boys had opted for a one bedroom that had two twin-sized beds and a full living room and kitchen. They weren't great chefs, but both knew the basics. It was something their mother had taught them a little about over the summer. If their fathers had tried to teach kitchen wizardry, they would most likely be left without a place to lay their heads at the end of the day. Ethan and Emmett were still helpless fools with a frying pan and spatula, and Callie had never allowed them to cook anything more involved than toast or tea, for fear of a fire or explosion.

They brought their belongings up slowly, nodding to some of the other residents and parents as they went. Alex decided to take the car to its allotted parking space in the USF parking garage a block away, and they planned to unpack afterwards.

The building was more of an apartment set-up, which had felt a little homier than the antiseptic dorm lay out at some of the other universities they had toured. It was a little more expensive, but the boys had gotten several grants that would cover most of their tuition and boarding expenses.

Though their parents ran a successful business, they weren't yet shitting out money by the fistful, and they were always careful with their finances. They had five children to put through college, after all.

When Alex made it back to their dorm apartment—room 1406—he was surprised to hear talking coming through the walls of the apartment into the living area.

"Hello?" he called out to his brother while poking his head through the door to their bedroom.

Inside, his twin was standing, chatting with a tall boy with short, dirty blond hair. He looked athletic, and exuded confidence even from behind.

"Hey, Alex. This is Erik," Jay told him as he opened another box of his belongings. "He's in the room over from us in 1405. He has a one bedroom as well."

"Nice to meetcha," the boy told him with a firm handshake. "My roommate should be along soon. He's just finishing unpacking his s**t. His name's Kenneth."

"It'll be a sausage fest in here pretty soon," Alex pondered.

"Don't I know it," Erik said with a grin. "Kenneth will be in seventh heaven. He's gay, so don't wig on him if he tries to flirt with you."

"We're a pretty open-minded duo," stated Jay with a lopsided grin. Open-minded was an understatement. How many people could claim that they had two fathers?

"Good to know," Erik said with a shrug. "As long as his swooning over Channing Tatum doesn't get you freaked out, you'll do just fine. Bad enough he already had posters of the dude all over his side of the bedroom. It was the first things he set up aside from his laptop."

"So? Stick a bunch of posters of naked chicks on your side," Alex advised. "Fair's fair."

"Good idea," Erik said as his face widened with a grin. "It'll be sure to turn his stomach. Nice guy, but I just love messing with him already. He's so easily wound up."

"Prankster?" Jay asked.

"Don't you know it," Erik agreed with a nod and wicked gleam to his eye.

"Who's a prankster?" Another voice came filtering in through the door.

"Kenneth," Erik stated, gesturing to the twins. "This is Alex and Jay. Try to figure out which one's which."

"Do I have to?" he asked with a smirk. "I'd love to cuddle up in a nice twin sandwich, and these two pieces of man meat are just the thing—"

"Knock it off before you scare them back home, ya queen," Erik said, though there was no bite behind the remark.

"You wound me, dear roomie." Kenneth put a hand flat against his heart in mock shock. "But honestly, I am not some flaming 'mo looking to get into every man's jockeys. Just Channing Tatum's," he added with a reverent sigh.

Erik rolled his eyes at his friend, but kept his lips tilted in a smile. "We should all order out together," he stated as he moved onto a new box. "Have a nice chat and get to know each other. That way when all the chicks are in my room getting owned, Kenneth here can come over and keep you company for a bit—well, several hours."

"No exceptions here," Kenneth said looking over at the twins with a devilish grin.

"Christ, I'm never gonna get laid this semester," Erik groaned as he threw his hands up in the air.

Chapter 1 

The twins had stayed up much later than they should have the previous night. The next several days were slated for various freshmen orientations, and they were both silent as they got up the next morning. Both were groggy and a little bit hungover as Erik had absconded from his home in Sacramento with a few bottles of his father's best whiskey.

Sipping on black coffee from the cafeteria, both boys picked at their food.

"Not even the first day of class and you two look like you've been partying the whole weekend." Erik's voice came out loud and clear as both the twins clutched their heads at his deep timbre.

"Shut the f**k up, dude," Jay pleaded.

"Yeah. This is all your fault," Alex decreed.

"I never forced you to drink the whiskey," Erik pointed out.

"You didn't even offer a mixer," Jay scolded him. "I was thirsty, and didn't exactly get to the grocery store yesterday."

"Whiny p*****s, the both of you," Erik grumbled as he started to shovel eggs and bacon into his mouth.

They were finally able to eat the remainder of their breakfast, though it lay heavy and unsettled in their stomachs. They saw that their first orientation was for the business school. Great. It was something the both of them were majoring in, so they wouldn't be alone, at least, for the first of their orientation meetings.

An extremely dull man that resembled Ben Stein a little—both in voice and demeanor—was head of the business department. He bored the twins to tears as they sat in the back of the lecture hall, trying to keep their eyes peeled and failing miserably.

Wiping the drool from his mouth, Jay patted his brother on the shoulder before they went their separate ways. He had to head to the English department to attend the orientation there. He had opted on taking a creative writing course as one of his electives. He’d always dabbled a bit in writing as a teen, and once thought he would be the next Truman Capote until he realized he was only a mediocre writer.

 Still, it was something he enjoyed, and with all the other coursework, he wanted to have at least one class he truly looked forward to going to.

Alex had a break and decided to go sit beneath a tree on the quad and take a short nap. He could have walked back to his dorm a block away if he hadn't felt so utterly drained of energy.

Stuffing his backpack beneath his head, Alex laid back under the shade of the tree and closed his eyes. Various conversations floated in the air around him, and he let them serve as a lullaby instead of the disruption they would normally be. He had a couple of hours before his next orientation, and that was plenty of time to sleep away some of the dull throbbing in his head.

He had been snoozing peacefully looking like a beach bum for about ninety minutes before he felt a jolting pain in his left foot. It startled him almost as much as the cry he heard afterwards, and the slight oomph of a body falling across his legs.

"Oh, my gosh—" a sweet voice exclaimed. "I didn't see you there. I hope I didn't hurt your foot."

Alex blinked several times to clear his vision, and saw a slight form in a white sundress sprawled on the ground and across his legs. The sundress had hiked up to about her midthigh, though it looked like the material was long and flowing when the person wearing them was upright.

"No worries," he stated, a little taken aback at the situation. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she told him. "Just embarrassed. It isn't every day you fall literally at a boy's feet."

Alex laughed and stood up from his position, dislodging her legs from his before stepping over towards the girl and offering her a helping hand. She took it and stood upright, immediately brushing some leaves and dirt off the light-colored material.

Alex watched as she tried to fix her disheveled appearance. She was pretty and quite young, so it was more than likely she was a student like he. If she wasn't, she was sure to be the sexiest—and youngest—professor ever. She had wavy, light brown hair and a heart shaped face. She was not particularly slender, but had a nice shape to her anyways. Hers was more of an hourglass figure with wide thighs and hips and a generous bust. He hadn't seen her eyes yet, but he was sure they were dazzling, and he suddenly felt himself wondering what she would look like in his bed naked.

At that sudden errant thought, she looked up at him, and he found he had been right. Her eyes were a startling green color and her lips were full and painted a light, glossy pink. Besides the pink of her lips, she wore a little bit of mascara and eyeliner, but it gave her a youthful look instead of making her seem older than her age, as most makeup did on women.

Her cheeks were pink, but Alex was fairly certain that that was due to her embarrassment at falling more than any makeup she wore. She had creamy light-colored skin without a hint of foundation ,and her scent was a light flowery one, like jasmine or freesia.

He blinked back at her and she smiled shyly.

"I'm Alex," he stated, sticking his hand out for her to shake. Looking down at his hand, she noticed the watch and quickly glanced at the time on her cell phone before swearing.

"s**t! I'm going to be late!" she cried with a horrified yet conciliatory look on her face. "I've got to go! It was nice meeting you, Alex. Bye!"

She shuffled off at a hurried pace, trying to keep hold of the too- large hobo bag in bright colors she had been carrying. It had become dislodged from its place on her shoulder when she fell.

Alex looked down on the ground next to his feet to see a small notebook with a matching elastic band to keep the book from opening. It hadn't been there when he had fallen asleep, and he was almost positive it belonged to the nameless girl in white. The book itself almost looked like a diary, and Alex hesitated to open it.

He went to call out for the girl and realized too late that he didn't even know her name. It was no matter, as she was already too far away for her to hear, even if he had a bullhorn on hand.

Looking down at the notebook, he saw it said Aloha on it, and he wondered if she was from Hawaii or simply liked the color scheme.

He hesitantly opened the little book and looked inside to see if he could get a name or at least an address so that it could be returned.

Inside, it gave him all the information he needed.

Piper Minkov

Fromm Hall

2497 Golden Gate Ave. Room 207

San Francisco, CA 94118

Absently, Alex closed the book and replaced the elastic strap over it before placing it inside the empty front pouch of his Jansport backpack. If he didn't see her within a week, at least he would know where he could drop the book off at.

And know where that dangerous creature lived.

###

Jay could barely keep his eyes open as he sat in the English orientation. Most of the people here were English Lit. majors, and he was only present because he had decided to do a creative writing course as his elective.

For the most part, there was an inordinate amount of—for lack of a better word—book nerds. Future librarians or people who might live well into their 50s with eight cats and a pasta maker as their only companions. These were the same people that never went to the book clubs that were popular nowadays because they didn't want to be forced to think about the book too much. It was their escape and their solace, and Jay thought that this probably for the best. It was an uncharitable thought, but he never really had time to mince words.

The woman who was the head of the English department was a stout, older lady dressed in a tweed jacket and frizzy white hair that sat around her head in a nebulous halo. She looked like a modern-day American version of Miss Marple, and the idea of this little lady going out and solving crimes in her twilight years made Jay smile. If only people were as interesting as he could think them up to be.

There was a disproportionate number of females in the room. Most of the males that were there were scrawny young men, barely over five foot eight and gangly-looking. Many had spectacles sliding down their noses.

Jay stopped listening to the lecturer and decided to scope out the crowd from his seat near the back of the room. For the most part, he was unimpressed. That was until he saw a blur of brown and white sitting near the front right of the room, her profile a novel in itself.

She was pretty, even beautiful. Soft brown waves fell tousled over light-skinned shoulders. She was wearing a light sundress, either white or light blue. It was hard to tell under the fluorescents housed in the rafters of the cavernous lecture hall. Her lips were light pink and pouty, though that could have been due to the look of concentration on her face.

Jay almost kicked himself for sitting so far away from the exit doors on the right side of the room. He wanted to get closer to her, and all the seats nearby were full of other students, as well as several other English  teachers and aides.

Jay was disrupted from his staring when the rest of the group all started to get up and file out the door. The orientation had been completed while he had sat gazing at the girl. He picked up the bag he had set under his feet and stood to try to wrestle his way through the crowd to get to her.

By the time he had reached the door, the hallway was swamped, and he couldn't tell which way she had gone.

He settled on leaving the building since his orientations were done for the day. He was coming around the bend of the open quad when a familiar form standing under a tree captured his attention.

"Alex!" he called out, but got no initial response. He seemed to be gazing off into the distance at another building where a large cluster of students were heading off to. From studying the USF literature, he knew it was the building that encompassed the majority of the arts and science classes.

"Hey, Alex!" he roared at his twin, and Alex finally turned around with a puzzled glance at him.

Walking up to his twin, Jay scoffed. "Spacing out already?" he asked. "There's plenty of time to do that in class. It's too nice out here to have your mind wandering off like that."

Alex didn't answer him, and Jay looked closer to see he was indeed very preoccupied. "What's wrong?" he asked his brother.

"Hmm? No one—er, nothing that is." Alex replied.

"When is your next orientation?"

"Oh s**t—f**k me!" he cried looking at his watch. "It already started."

"Well, it's not like it's a class," Jay told him. "No one's taking attendance or anything."

"True, and it's only for my art class," Alex replied, shrugging off the fact that he would miss it, but thankful that art wasn't his major.

"Art… You're such a girl," Jay joked.

"Okay, Walt Whitman. How were the English majors?" Alex asked him with a bite in his tone.

"Boring as hell," he replied. "No hot chicks at all—well, except for one."

"What would you expect? It's English, not a modeling class. At least with an art class I may get to paint nude bodies."

"Probably some dude's naked body. Hey—let's get something to eat in the caf. I'm f*****g starving." Jay shook his head as he started towards the cafeteria.

"Alright. I could do with another coffee at any rate," his brother told him.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Jay asked. "You're acting f*****g weird. I mean, weirder than usual, that is."

"I'm fine, Mom," Alex replied sarcastically. "Let's get going before you I knock out flat on your ass for whining about food."

"f**k off, bro."

"Love you too, turd."

Chapter 2 

Alex walked onto the University's grounds and headed towards the Arts and Sciences building. It was his second class of the day, and the one subject he looked forward to the most. Painting I.

Living where he did in the Sierra Nevada region of Northern California, most of the painting Alex had done was scenery. He had done a few stills on occasion when the weather was inclement, but the majority of the time, he painted the mountains, the forests, and Lake Tahoe itself. He had decided to take the class to broaden his horizons, as it were.

Alex had brought his personal art supplies to the classroom with him, not knowing how much he was expected to bring or what would be supplied to hm in class. He had them in a large canvas bag that was slung over his shoulder as he walked into the building housing his first-ever painting class.

When he walked into the classroom, he saw that most of the seats had been taken already. The room was large enough so that about 25 students could set up behind easels, with enough room for the teacher to walk between them to confer her infinite artistic wisdom onto her pupils.

He took one of the few available seats left in the room and set his stuff down next to him. It seemed that he hadn't needed everything that he held in the bag, but he had been eager to make sure he had had what was necessary if the class was less than gracious with its supplies. It seemed his fears had been unwarranted. Each set up easel came with a number of different colors of oil paint, brushes, and a fresh cup of water to douse the soiled brushes in. The pallets were old but clean, and though some of the colors had stained the wood of the pallets, Alex knew that it wasn't enough to discolor any of his paints when he mixed them.

"Hello again," a familiar voice called from beside him. "I'm sorry I didn't give you my name yesterday. I'm Piper."

Alex looked over and stared. He couldn't believe his luck. Out of all the classes he could have taken, the girl who had literally fallen at his feet a few days prior was in his art class. He stared unblinking at her until she spoke again.

It was unlike him to be this addle-brained, but he found his vocal cords simple wouldn't comply with his wishes to utter a sound.

"You're Alex, right?" she asked, and the concerned look on her face helped to unlock Alex's throat.

"Yes, Alex. Alex Reznick," he stated, his voice a little throaty-sounding. "You're Piper Minkov, right?"

She raised a single brow at him, seemingly in a quandary over how he knew her full name. "Yes, how did you know?" she asked.

Alex simply went down to his bag and took out the small notebook he had found under the tree that said Aloha on it.

"How—" she began.

"Don't worry, I didn't read anything in it," he told her. "I just opened to see if it had a name or contact information in it, in case I didn't see you again. Your secrets are safe."

"Well...thanks, I guess," she said with a half-smile. She didn't know if she believed him when he said he hadn't read anything in it. Not that she cared. It was mostly a book with thoughts and poems she’d written down, and she carried the notebook around only because sometimes she couldn't remember her ideas at a later time.

"So, are you an art major?" Alex asked, finally reigning in his nerves enough to ask a semi-coherent question.

"Double major, art and English," she told him. She really had wanted to just take art courses, but her grandparents had wanted her to have something to fall back on and they knew of her love of English literature and writing.

"Are you an art major?" she asked him. He didn't seem like the kind that would spend hours behind an easel and paint still-lifes of roses and fruit. He had a more athletic build, while most of the other art majors that she had met with were softer and more pliable in physique. His form was much more solid, like he had played ten years of football or worked out in the gym regularly.

"No, this is an elective for me," he said with a small smile. "Business major. I wish I could say I was any good at art, but I only could afford to do it in my spare time. I spent a lot of time working at my parent's resort in South Lake Tahoe, and I want to be able to take over the business someday."

"Oh," was all the response he got from the girl as she blinked back at him with her large green eyes.

"Do you live in Hawaii?" he asked, not wanting the silence to continue. He felt a need to find out more about the girl.

"Yes," she replied. "I live with my grandparents on the big island. I figure you knew because of the Aloha on my notebook, huh?"

"Yep," he said, lightly. "With your grandparents, huh? No other family? Pardon my asking, it's just I've never met anyone who lived with their grandparents, though my grandfather does live right next door to my parents in the mountains."

"My parents passed away in a car accident when I was little," she told him without blinking. "It's okay, ‘coz I don't really remember them since I was so young when they passed. My grandparents are like my parents to me."

"Did they always live in Hawaii?" Alex asked, curious.

"No. They retired there after my grandfather was hurt in an incident at work," she told him. "There was some problem with the equipment and he was injured. The insurance paid out just enough for him to settle into a modest lifestyle, and he decided to head to Hawaii because he claims Florida was for old farts. He's a bit of a character."

Alex smiled. "Sounds like it."

At that point, their conversation was cut off as the professor decided to start class. Alex looked at the time and saw that it was five minutes past the hour, so apparently this teacher would not be too strict on attendance and tardiness. The thought made him smile. He was certain that the English teacher that taught the creative writing course Jay was to attend the next day would probably not be so lax.

Alex listened to the professor as she went on about the class and the what would be required of them. Along with the landscapes Alex was used to, they would be doing still-lifes, portraits, and figure painting. At that, Alex's stomach dropped a little. He was okay with still-lifes and landscapes, but the last time he tried to paint a portrait or figure, it ended up looking like something Salvador Dali might have painted on purpose. Luckily, the figures and portraits would not come until the end of the year, so he had ample time to try to hone his skills enough so he wasn't the laughing stock of the class.

When the lesson was about half over, the teacher asked them to start an original work so she could get an idea of each separate artist's style and what they needed to work on. Alex immediately looked at the blank canvas in front of him and tried to picture what the mountains across from his home looked like again. He sat there for a few minutes with his eyes closed until he could remember the exact outline and started to work.

Picking up some green and brown paint, he went to work on applying the colors to his pallet and mixed them together a bit.

Looking over, he saw that Piper was already started on what looked like a green field with flecks of gold, maybe butterflies?

"Where's that?" he asked her, nodding to the canvas.

"It's a place I used to go before my grandparents and I moved to Hawaii. We used to live in the Midwest, and in the summer time there was this lovely little meadow that would bloom all in purple. It was a magnet for butterflies, and I always sat there and watched them for hours. That is when I could."

"Oh," Alex said. "I'm painting home—well, the mountains really. When I close my eyes, I can still see them."

"Already a little bit homesick?" Piper asked with a smirk.

"Nah… Well, maybe a little bit. For my parents and the scenery mostly," he admitted before his lips twisted into a frown. "Not so much for my siblings."

"How many siblings do you have?" she asked. She was an only child and would have loved to have had a large family, though she was content with the small, loving one she was gifted with.

"Four," he told her. "I miss my brothers a bit—sarcastic little shits that they are, but my sister is a real pain in the ass. I think she feels a bit ganged up on since she's the only girl out of five kids."

"I'm an only child," Piper admitted. "I would have loved to have brothers and sisters."

"You wouldn't if you had had mine," Alex said.

"Maybe, maybe not," she said, knowing full well she never would have taken for granted having a large, loving family.

They painted in silence for a while, and Alex found himself constantly looking over at Piper. He wasn't checking out her work, though he thought it was beautiful. He was checking out the expressions on her face while she worked.

A small pucker would form in her brows as she mixed and applied paints, and she constantly looked at her work with heightened concentration. It was quite cute on her and made her look even younger than her years.

"Is this your first year?" he asked, though he figured it was since they were in a first-year class.

"Yes," she replied. "I applied to several colleges in the area and was lucky enough to get a scholarship from USF."

"Why not go to an arts school?" Alex asked.

"My grandparents—while still very supportive—wanted me to have something to fall back on," she told him. "I happen to agree, so we compromised and I came here. While it has a good art school, the English department is quite good as well."

"What kind of books do you prefer?" he asked, eager to know more about her.

"Oh, all kinds," she said with a lovely blush to her face. "I like reading British Lit as well as more recent authors. I really don't have a favorite. I just read what I feel like when I'm in the mood for it."

"What will you do with your degree?"

"Probably teach," she said. "I like sharing my knowledge of literature and inspiring people to learn more and read and write."

"You would probably be a very popular teacher then," Alex told her with a smirk.

"Oh?" she asked, curiously looking over at him. "How so?"

"Well, you're obviously very talented, caring, and passionate about your majors," he told her. "Plus, it's always a bonus when a teacher is as beautiful as you."

Piper blushed, but didn't say anything. She had been told she was hot, or fine from some boys before, but none of these ex-suitors had ever called her beautiful.

After a few minutes, the blush on her face had settled to the normal pink of her cheeks, and she looked over at Alex's canvas.

"Which mountain is that?" she asked him. She was surprised that he was as far along in his painting as he was. He had started near the top and a lone, white capped mountain that came to a point at the top seemed to be the focal point of the work.

"Pyramid peak," he told her as he started on the greenery near the middle of the canvas. "I've painted it from several different angles around the lake, but this one is my favorite."

The class was finally released shortly after that, and all the students hurried to put their canvases away in a safe place until their next class. Alex followed Piper to the back of the classroom where he could store his painting until his second art class that week.

He initialed the back of the canvas with AR, and put a piece of beige material over it to keep it safe before walking back towards his desk.

Piper was heading towards the door where most of the students had already left when Alex called out to her.

"Hey," he said, and watched as her dress lifted a bit when she twirled around. "Can I get your number—you know, just in case I find any more of your notebooks floating around campus?"

Piper smiled at that.

"Sure."

This book is free on w*****d @HereLiesSnoops, Inkitt R.K. Knightly and Dreame R.K. Knightly. It will be published eventually in ebook and paperback format once edited.