It was the girl from under the light, the girl who fell out the back door of the KA house, then ran to her car without telling him her name—the girl who made him talk like some stupid wimp from Gone with the Wind. He knew he’d made a fool of himself and now he had a second chance.

“Well, now, tomorrow is another day, isn’t it?” he said. Well, there went his second chance.

A blush spread across the freckles on her cheeks. He felt the heat of it in the curve of his own neck. She reached for the cross that hung on a thin silver chain and looked like it would break under the strain of her finger.

“Carol Anne, my roommate . . . she sent me down to tell you that she’s running a little late. A curling-iron catastrophe.”

“Hmm, what exactly is a curling-iron catastrophe?”

“You know, when you’re curling your hair and you touch your neck by accident and it looks like you have a hickey and you really don’t. She’s trying to borrow a turtleneck to wear.” She blushed deeper, pulled harder on her chain.

“Well, thank you for the information. But I don’t believe I can properly thank you until I know your name.”

“Amy . . . Amy Malone.”

“Beloved.”

“Excuse me?” She backed a few steps from him; he reached across the space between them.

“Amy. It means ‘beloved.’ I learned that in French class.”

“Oh.”

“It should mean ‘beautiful.’ ”

Amy turned around, moved toward the door he couldn’t go through. “I’ll go check on Carol Anne for you.”

“I’d prefer if you just waited with me.” He moved toward her and touched her hair, just the back of it.

She turned and smiled, but her smile shook—so beautiful, the way it shook. “I believe it would be better if I checked on your date.”

He saw his time was running out. “I’ve been looking for you. You know, around the school. I even looked in the sorority composites, but I couldn’t find you.”

“Looking for me?”

“Yes. Well, now I found you.”

“Yes, on your way to a date with my roommate. My best friend, coincidentally.”

“She asked me.”

“Yes, she did. You said yes.”

“It’s a Kappa Alpha rule.”

“Nice rule. Very . . . gentlemanly and all that.” He knew, right then, that he would quit Kappa Alpha.

The metal door banged, but neither of them turned. Every detail appeared magnified: her eyelashes were lighter on the top than the bottom, tendrils of hair had pulled from the ponytail high on her head. He’d never had trouble with girls. Teachers maybe, parents always . . . girls never. But this one seemed immune to his charm, staunch against his now witless comments.