Summer Rainault brushed her hands over her dress again, smoothing nonexistent wrinkles from the fabric. Tonight was the culmination of months of hope, weeks of planning, and days of daring activity. She’d get her freedom back, and win the heart of someone she cared about very much.
Even if they’d never met yet. If he didn’t reject her on sight.
She turned the malachite bracelet on her wrist, fingertips sliding over the heart charms dangling from it. The deep green of the stone set off her pale green dress, and she hoped the signal would be clear enough, between bracelet, earrings, and cabochon choker.
She’d already fought down the nerves once, when she went to his house and he wasn’t home. Had she been mistaken, already been rejected, already lost? It had taken a long minute simply to gather herself enough to search in her own unique way.
But no. He was alone, and wandering, and searching. Probably — hopefully — for her. She pushed away from her car, hanging her keys from the tiny shoulder bag, and set off directly for him. Let people think she was meeting someone. She tossed her red hair over her shoulder, and squared them.
She was.
She reached out, hand trembling slightly, and touched Scott McCall’s shoulder. “Hi,” she said softly, when he whipped around.
The clock was ticking and the minutes until midnight were running away faster than Scott could catch them. There were too many people on the streets and even his werewolf senses couldn’t help him much right now, when he had to find someone he didn’t even know. He still didn’t know for sure if he was looking for a man or a woman, but the long red hair he had found made him assume it was a girl. He only knew one person with red hair.. but there was no way in hell that Lydia was the person behind those letters, right? He didn’t know her that well, but romantic letters didn’t really seem to be her style. She was more the take what you want kind of girl.
Not knowing if he feared or wanted Lydia to be the person who had sent those letters, he slowed down his steps and searched the crowd for redheaded people. “Great..” he mumbled when he realized that most people around him were wearing hats – no wonder, it was winter after all. Just as he was starting to lose all hope, he remembered that the last note had told him to look for the stone that would fit the one on the box. Easier said then done. He didn’t even know how big this stone was – and honestly, anyone could be wearing it.
“Damn.. maybe I should have stayed at home and waited..?” Scott wondered, hoping that whoever did this for him wasn’t standing in front of his door right now, waiting for him to open. He stopped in the middle of the street, watching the people surrounding him, but he only saw groups of people who seemed to know each other and weren’t looking for anyone. Still contemplating to run back home, he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around.
Before him stood a girl he had never seen before, wearing a beautiful green dress that let her flaming red locks shine bright. Matching the color of the dress was a bracelet around her arm – the counterpart to the box on Scott’s window frame. Scott’s face lit up with a bright smile when he realized that he had found her. Not Lydia after all.
“It’s you!” he said excited, before suddenly remembering that this was a reason to be nervous about. Clearing his throat he pushed his hands into his jacket pockets and bit his lower lip. “Uh, hi,” he added a little awkwardly.
“I am.. wow, I don’t know what to say.” He had about a million questions to ask her but all of a sudden none of them were anywhere to be found in his head. “I’m Scott. Uhm, but you know that.. what’s your name?” Great start, Scott, just great.
She couldn’t help laughing a little at the puppy-ish eagerness and excitement. He obviously didn’t know how cute biting his lip was, either. She resisted the fleeting temptation to touch his mouth.
“It /is/ me,” she said, instead of the half a dozen inappropriate things fleeting through her head. “My name is Summer.” She glanced around at the people milling around them, loud and happy, and back to him. “I think we should talk somewhere quieter, don’t you?”
