I don’t find Max until mid-morning on Monday. I’ve got a free period, so rather than studying, I hover near Max’s locker, refusing to give up until I catch myself a break.

Providence hands me a freebie five minutes later when Max ambles around the corner with a hall pass, her mind obviously far away as she stares into the distance.

She doesn’t see me until I’m right beside her, leaning my shoulder against a closed locker.

“Hey.” I smile.

After a double take, she frowns and swings open her locker. “Aren’t you supposed to be in class?”

“Free period,” I murmur.

“Oh. I just, uh…can’t find my assignment.”

She clears her throat and rakes her fingers through her hair. It spills over her shoulders in these blonde waves. I have to resist the urge to pick up one of those big, wide curls and loop it around my thumb.

Like that wouldn’t freak her out.

I bite my lips together and stifle my grin as she hunts through the messy stack of books and paperwork in her locker.

I’m kind of not sure how to start, so figure I’ll ease in with a compliment. “So, nice batting on Saturday.”

“Oh. Yeah, thanks. I’ve been getting that a lot today.” The books thump as she lets them go and shoots me a quick frown.

Huh, her eyes are greener than I remember. They’re this cool aqua kind of mix. It makes me think of an oasis.

“You don’t look too happy about it.”

She pastes on a cheesy smile. “Is that better?”

“No.” I shake my head.

She snickers and then pokes her tongue into her cheek, making it stick out to the side. “Uh, what do you want, Cairo?”

“I want to walk you back to your class.”

“Why?” She grunts, pulling out some crumpled pages and smoothing them out on her thigh.

My lips pull into a smile before I can stop them. “Because I want to ask you something.”

She blinks, her cheeks flushing for a second before she clears her throat again and mutters, “You don’t need to walk me to class to ask me a question. Just…” She points at me. “Go for Cairo.”

I grin. She’s cute when she’s nervous. I glance at the floor before looking her right in the eye. “Why do you play baseball if you don’t want to?”

The flush on her cheeks disappears, showing me just how milky white her complexion is. I want to touch her face, just so I can see the contrast of my brown fingers on her white skin.

Tucking my thumb under my bag strap, I resist the urge and give her a pointed look instead.

She opens her mouth but no sounds come out.

“I’m right, aren’t I? You don’t love baseball.”

“I’m—I’m…good at it. It’s all I’ve ever done.”

I don’t miss the fact that she’s not denying my claim. If she really did love baseball, surely she’d be telling me I was full of it.

Inching my shoulder forward on the locker, I get a little closer to her face and whisper, “Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you have to do it for the rest of your life.”

A soft breath whistles out of her before she clamps her lips together.

“You want to learn guitar. I know you do. I saw that look in your eye.”

“I, um… I have responsibilities and it’s not just about me. It’s about…”

“Come on,” I chide. “You’re eighteen, right? Don’t give me a responsibilities speech. We’re young. Now’s the time for us to explore our passions, and figure out what the hell we want to do with our lives.”

“I know what I want to do with my life.” She flicks her locker closed, the sharp sound echoing down the hallway.

I narrow my eyes at her. “Do you? Or have you just been told?”

She goes still, her eyes warning me that I’m getting too close.

“Look, I know I might be crossing a line right now, but…music is magic, all right? And not everybody understands that. But I think you do.” I point at her chest and then tap my finger over my heart. “Music’s my escape. It’s what makes my blood hum and my heart pump. There’s nothing better than getting lost in a song. I want you to experience that. Please, let me teach you.”

She’s so still, I wonder for a second if she’s stopped breathing.

I lean a little closer, listening for an intake of breath. Then she softly whispers, “Okay.”

It catches me off guard. “Okay?”

Her head starts bobbing. “Okay.”

“Wow.” My eyebrows jump high. “I thought I was going to have to fight so much harder for that.”

Her lips twitch before breaking into a genuine smile that hits me right in the chest. This warm buzz spreads through me like an electric current until her nose wrinkles with a grimace.

“Thing is, it has to be a secret, okay?”

Aw, shit.

“Why?” I frown, scrambling for how I can change her mind. I’m not big on secrets.

She sighs. “It’ll make my life a whole lot easier.”

“Lying will make your life easier?” My forehead wrinkles. “I think you and I must have very different definitions of that concept.”

She rolls her eyes. “Look, do you want to teach me or not?”

“Yes! So badly. I mean, I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I first saw you looking at my guitar. You need to learn how to play. The cosmos wants you to learn.”

She snickers. “The cosmos?”

“Trust me, I know what I’m talking about. And I swear, if you were looking at a baseball bat the same way you were eyeing up the guitar, I’d be telling you to go to a batting cage.”

She cringes and looks to the floor. For a second, I wonder if I’ve just lost her again.

Tipping her chin with my finger, I force her head back up. “Follow your heart on this one, and I promise you won’t regret it.”

“I know,” she whispers, easing away from my touch. “But I won’t say yes unless you swear you’ll keep this under wraps.”

I clench my teeth to hold back a sigh. “Why? Why does it have to be a secret?”

She swallows. “I… There are certain expectations in my home, you know? And I don’t think anyone will appreciate me wasting my time on guitar lessons. At least until I know I won’t entirely suck at it. Maybe once I can play, I’ll have a shot of pleading my case, but until then, I just…I don’t want anyone to know.”

I purse my lips, kind of hating it. Lies cause trouble.

I’ve never lied to my parents about anything.

But I’m allowed to be whatever I want, so I guess I’ve never had to lie to them.

I just hope this doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.

Bobbing my head, I stick out my hand and reluctantly agree. “Okay. We’ll keep this quiet…for now.”

She takes my hand, giving it a firm shake and squeezing until I look her in the eye. “You don’t say anything until I’m ready, all right?”

“All right.”

Her face rises with a swift smile that vanishes as quickly as it appears.

It’s like she’s just realized what she’s done. I tip my head, my eyes narrowing as I wait for her to suddenly back out.

Instead she clamps her teeth together, swallows, and then mumbles, “See ya later.” She walks off before we’ve even had a chance to arrange a meet-up.

I snicker and give chase, catching her before she reaches her classroom to arrange a time and place for the first lesson.

“I’ll, um, see you then.” She gives me another jittery smile as she bobs her head and slips through the door.

I saunter down the corridor with a triumphant grin. Looks like the last half of my senior year is going to be pretty interesting.