Baited by Love novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Chain

It rained again on Thursday, and my bike chain chose that night to fall off.

I was halfway across the quad at eleven o'clock, in the dark, with nobody for forty yards.

My backpack was full of drafts of the Founders' Day toast.

The dean's notice said it was by request of Preston's father.

I had written four openings, and every one of them ended with me losing my scholarship.

I had also written one that said "Ladies and gentlemen, I quit," and I was keeping that one for emergencies.

I got off and stared at the chain.

It lay in the wet grass, shining.

"Great," I said to the sky, because I had two sentences left that hour and I wanted to waste one.

"Don't touch it."

Lars was standing behind me with a black umbrella.

I had not heard him come up, and I had not heard the rest of the library empty out either.

"I wasn't going to," I said. "I was going to look at it with feeling."

"That's the same thing."

He crouched down beside the back wheel and held the umbrella over my shoulder instead of his own.

I told him he was getting wet.

He told me I was getting wetter.

Neither of us could argue with that.

"Hold this," he said.

He handed me his phone with the flashlight on, and I pointed it at the chain.

My hand shook a little, from the cold.

He worked the chain back over the gear with his fingers, and the first thing I noticed was his hands.

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