She’d told him her life was strange, and he’d acted like he understood because his brother Drew had been open with their family about the difficulties of fame. But Sean suddenly realized the kind of spotlight that his brother had been under so far was absolutely nothing compared to this ridiculously intrusive bullshit that Serena had to deal with.
Without another word to Kurt, Sean grabbed his bag and shot out the gym door. If by some miracle she hadn’t yet seen it, he hoped he could figure out some way to help soften the blow.
She hadn’t given him her cell phone number on Friday after they went for pizza, so he ran across campus to her dorm in record time. When no one answered the door, Sean belatedly realized where he should have thought to look for her first.
Green Library was much closer to her dorm than the gym had been and within a handful of minutes he was inside, his slightly labored breathing loud in the otherwise quiet building. Sean stopped in front of the information desk. “Have you seen Serena come in?”
The woman took in his T-shirt and shorts, the sweat dripping from him, and raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry,” she said in a slightly frosty voice, “what is it you would like to know?”
“Serena Britten. I really need to see her and I’m pretty sure she’s here.” When the woman started to shake her head again, he added, “You couldn’t have missed her if she’s been in today. She’s beautiful.”
“There are many beautiful women that come to the library,” she replied in biting tones. “I don’t see what that has to do with you.”
He hated having to reduce Serena to nothing but a supermodel, but he had no choice if he wanted to find her. “This is Serena.” He held out his phone to show the woman the part of the online story where one of Serena’s modeling shots filled the screen. When the woman’s eyes lit with recognition, he asked again, “Have you seen her come in today?”
“Why?” Frost had turned to suspicion as the woman used her finger to quickly scroll through the story and obviously read the headline.
“I just found out about this and need to make sure she’s okay. They took her picture without her knowing about it.”
Finally, the woman nodded. “She’s here. I don’t know exactly where, however.”
“Thank you for letting me know she’s here. And if she comes out before I can find her, I’d really appreciate it if you could let her know I’m looking for her. My name is Sean Morrison and here’s my number.” He wrote his cell number on a piece of paper and handed it to the woman. “Please don’t mention these pictures to her, just in case she hasn’t seen them yet. I really don’t want her to be upset.”
He made a pass of the ground floor, before heading up the stairs. Man, this place was big. He’d been in the campus library before, of course, but it wasn’t his regular stomping ground by any means. Mostly, he’d come to look through the amazing photography archives in the basement. He’d even brought his mother with him once, because she’d wanted to see the Ansel Adams shots he’d raved about.
“Your pictures are this good, honey.” He’d known it was nothing more than a mother thinking her kid was great at everything, but her encouragement had meant a ton to a guy whom everyone else had always thought of as nothing more than a jock, the brawny Morrison twin.Grief had him stumbling on the stairs for a moment. Righting himself, he worked to block out the thoughts of never being able see his mom again, or show her another picture, or have anyone else ever see inside of him the way she always had. Instead, he concentrated on looking for Serena, searching every corner, every desk, every row of tall bookshelves.
Thirty minutes later, he was nearly at the end of his search—and the hope that he’d actually find her in the maze of rooms and shelves and desks—when he saw the top of a baseball cap in the farthest, most remote corner of the third floor.
The books were especially musty smelling up here, and he doubted many people ever made it this far into the building. But, he thought with a smile, Serena had. Without her telling him, he guessed it was her hideout. Her one special place that would be hers and hers alone when it probably felt like everyone was trying to grab on to a piece of her.
He stopped halfway to her, noting the way the light streaming in the window made her glow like the angel he’d thought she was the first night he’d met her. He hadn’t wanted to touch a camera for three months, but the way the light was hitting her suddenly made him wish he hadn’t smashed it to smithereens.
Wait, what was he thinking? He didn’t want to take pictures anymore, had given that up.
It was simply that Serena was so beautiful, how could anyone not want to take her picture, if only to try to hold on to her rare and precious beauty for a little while?
Except now he knew just how invasive those pictures could be. And he hated that he would be the one to bust into her private spot. But he needed to talk with her about the pictures someone had taken of the two of them together, and couldn’t risk waiting any longer.
He moved to where she could see him, but when she didn’t look up, he realized she had her earbuds in and was totally absorbed in the book she was reading. Not wanting to scare her, he knelt by her side and gently touched her shoulder.
She jumped with a little yelp and immediately yanked out her earbuds. Fortunately, within seconds her surprise gave way to a smile that made him feel like he’d just won the World Series. Despite the bullshit they were about to deal with, he couldn’t keep from smiling back. It had only been a couple of days since she’d left him outside this library, but he’d missed her.
“Sorry about scaring you like that. You were pretty into what you were reading.”
She flushed slightly as she looked down at her book then back at him, her eyes bright and—he hoped—happy to see him. “I should be studying for my geology test, but I found this new book on my way in. I just can’t resist biographies about the Brontë sisters.”
“I’m like that with the photography archives downstairs.” The words were out before he realized it.
Her head cocked to one side. “They’ve got photo archives in here?”
Knowing he couldn’t pretend he hadn’t brought it up, he nodded. “In the basement.”
She looked at him a little more closely. “Cool. I’ll have to go check them out.”