Wait for You

Chapter 3

Sitting through a three-hour-long sociology class Tuesday night hadn’t been as bad as I thought it would be, but by the time class let out, I was starving. Before I headed back to my apartment, I stopped by Sheetz—a convenience store/gas station we didn’t have in Texas—and got an MTO. A made-to-order salad, heavy on the fried chicken strips and ranch dressing.

Mmm. Healthy.

My apartment building parking lot was packed with cars, some even in the nearby field that butted up to West Campus. It hadn’t been like this when I’d left for my evening class and I wondered what was going on. I managed to find a parking spot all the way near the main road and as I turned off the ignition, my cell rattled in the cup holder.

I grinned when I saw it was a text from Jacob. We’d exchanged numbers earlier in class since he lived in one of the dorms.

Art sucks was all his text said.

Laughing, I sent him a quick text back about our homework, which was to identify what painting belonged to what era. Thank God for Google, because that was how I was completing the assignment.

Gathering up my bag and food, I climbed out of my car. The air was sticky and I lifted my hair off my neck, wishing I had pulled it up into a ponytail. The scent of autumn was in the air, though, and I was eager to see cooler weather. Maybe even snow in the winter. I headed across the brightly lit parking lot, toward the center cluster of apartments. I was on the top floor—the fifth. It seemed like a lot of students lived here and most hadn’t really started to arrive until today, but as soon as I stepped up on the sidewalk, I knew where all the cars were coming from.

Music thumped from somewhere inside my apartment building. A lot of lights were on, and I could pick up pieces of conversation as I headed up the stairs. On the fifth floor, I found the culprit. The apartment across the hall, two doors down, was throwing a party. The door was cracked open, and light and music spilled into the open hallway.

A little bit of jealousy wiggled inside my chest as I unlocked my door. All the laughter, the noise, and the music sounded fun. It all seemed so normal, like something I should be doing, but parties …

Parties didn’t end well for me.

Closing my door behind me, I kicked off my shoes and dropped my bag on the couch. Furnishing this apartment had put a dent in my account, but I’d be here for four years and I figured I could sell everything when I left or take it with me.

And it was all my stuff. That meant a lot to me.

The party raged on across the hall, long after I finished my not-so-healthy salad, changed into sleep shorts and a long-sleeve shirt, and finished my art homework. It was just after midnight when I gave up on reading my English assignment and started back toward my bedroom.

But I stopped in the hallway, my toes curling into the carpet.

A burst of muffled laughter rang out and I knew the door of the party apartment must’ve been open, because it sounded louder than before. I was frozen, worrying my lower lip. What if I opened the door and recognized someone from class? It was obviously a college kid throwing the party. Maybe I would know the person? So what if I did? Wasn’t like I was going to join in when I was braless, wearing my jammies, and rocking the messiest ponytail known to man.

I turned and flipped on the bathroom light, staring at my reflection. Scrubbed of all makeup, the freckles on the bridge of my nose stood way out and my face seemed more flushed than normal. I leaned against the sink my mom would’ve laughed at and pressed my face closer to the mirror.

With the exception of my reddish-brown hair, which came from my father, I was the spitting image of my mom—straight nose, rounded chin, and high cheekbones; with all the cosmetic help she’d had over the years to stay looking fresh, we looked more like sisters than mother and daughter.

Footsteps echoed out in the hall. More laughter.

I made a face at my reflection and pushed away from the mirror. Back in the hall, I told myself to go to sleep, but I found myself walking toward my front door. I had no idea what I was doing or why I was being so nosy, but everything sounded … warm and fun out there and everything in here was cold and boring.

Warm and fun?

I rolled my eyes. God, I sounded lame. It was cold in here because I had the central air cranked like a mother.

But I was at the door and there was nothing stopping me. Yanking it open, I peered out into the stairwell, seeing two heads disappear down the steps. The door to the party was still open, and I stood there, torn. This wasn’t home. No one was going to send me a scathing look or yell obscenities at me. If anything, they’d probably think I was some kind of freak just standing there, half out my door, all bug-eyed, and letting all the cold air out.

‘Bring Raphael back!’ exclaimed a familiar voice and a deep laugh that had my stomach dropping in stunned disbelief. ‘You fucktard!’

I recognized that voice! Oh my God …

It couldn’t be. I hadn’t seen the big-ass silver truck outside, but then again, there were so many cars and it wasn’t like I was searching for his truck.

The door swung all the way open, and I froze as a guy stumbled out, laughing as he set a tortoise—what the fuck?—on the floor. The thing stuck its head out, looked around, and then disappeared into its shell.

A second later, the guy who’d put the tortoise outside was pulled back into the apartment and Cam appeared in the doorway in all his shirtless glory. He reached down and scooped up the little green guy. ‘Sorry, Raphael. My friends are complete, fucking …’ He looked up.

I tried to jerk back inside, but it was too late.

Cam saw me.

‘Assholes …’ He did a double take. ‘What the … ?’

Would dive-bombing into my apartment seem weird? Yes—yes it would. So I went with a very lame, ‘Hey …’

Cam blinked several times, as if he sought to clear his vision. ‘Avery Morgansten? This is becoming a habit.’

‘Yeah.’ I forced myself to swallow. ‘It is.’

‘Do you live here or are you visiting?’

I cleared my throat as the tortoise’s legs started moving like it was trying to wiggle away. ‘I … I live here.’

‘No shit?’ Those baby blues widened and he swaggered around the railing. I couldn’t help but notice how his gym shorts hung way low on his narrow hips. Or his stomach. It was ripped, taking six-pack into eight-pack territory. ‘You really live here?’

I forced my gaze up and got stuck on the sun tattoo. ‘Yes. I really live here.’

‘This is … I don’t even know.’ He laughed again, and I met his stare. ‘Really crazy.’

‘Why?’ Besides the fact he was standing in my apartment hallway, shirtless and barefoot, holding a tortoise named Raphael?

‘I live here.’

I gaped at him. The whole half-naked thing sort of made sense now and I guess so did the tortoise, but it couldn’t be true. Way too many coincidences. ‘You’re joking, right?’

‘No. I’ve been living here for a while—like a couple of years with my roommate. You know, the fucktard who put poor Raphael outside.’

‘Hey!’ the guy yelled from inside their apartment. ‘I have a name. It’s Señor Fucktard!’

Cam laughed. ‘Anyway, did you move in over the weekend?’

I found myself nodding.

‘Makes sense. I was back home, visiting the fam.’ He shifted Raphael to his other hand, cradling the squirming thing to his chest. ‘Well, hell …’

I was gripping the door so hard my knuckles ached. ‘That’s … um, your tortoise?’

‘Yeah.’ A half grin appeared as he lifted the little guy. ‘Raphael, meet Avery.’

I gave the tortoise a little wave, feeling stupid afterward for doing so. It just stuck its head back in its green-and-brown shell. ‘That’s a very interesting pet.’

‘And those are very interesting shorts.’ His gaze dropped. ‘What are they?’ He leaned forward, his eyes narrowing, and I stiffened. ‘Pizza slices?’

Heat swamped my cheeks. ‘They’re ice cream cones.’

‘Huh. I like them.’ Straightening, his gaze drifted up me slowly, leaving an unfamiliar wake of heat behind. ‘A lot.’

I immediately let go of the door and crossed my arms over my chest. One corner of his lips tipped up. My eyes narrowed. ‘Thanks. That means a lot to me.’

‘It should. They have my seal of approval.’ He bit down on his lower lip as his lashes lifted. Those eyes pierced mine. ‘I need to get Raphael back in his little habitat before he pees on my hand, which he’s bound to do, and that sucks.’

My lips twitched into a small grin. ‘I can imagine.’

‘So, you should come over. The guys are about to leave, but I’m sure they’ll be around for a little longer. You can meet them.’ He inched closer and lowered his voice. ‘They’re no way as interesting as I am, but they’re not bad.’

I glanced over his shoulder, part of me wanting one thing and the other part wanting nothing to do with any of this. That part won out. ‘Thanks, but I was heading to bed.’

‘This early?’

‘It has to be after midnight.’

His grin was spreading. ‘That’s still early.’

‘Maybe to you.’

‘Are you sure?’ he asked. ‘I have cookies.’

‘Cookies?’ My brows rose.

‘Yeah, and I made them. I’m quite the baker.’

For some reason, I couldn’t picture that. ‘You baked cookies?’

‘I bake a lot of things, and I’m sure you’re dying to know all about those things. But tonight, it was chocolate and walnut cookies. They are the shit, if I do say so myself.’

‘As great as that sounds, I’m going to have to pass.’

‘Maybe later then?’

‘Maybe.’ Not likely. I stepped back, reaching for the door. ‘Well, it’s good seeing you again, Cameron.’

‘Cam,’ he corrected. ‘And hey, we didn’t almost run each other over. Look at us, changing up the pattern.’

‘That’s a good thing.’ I was back in my apartment and he was still in front of my door. ‘You should get back before Raphael pees on your hand.’

‘Would be worth it,’ he replied.

My brows knitted. ‘Why?’

He didn’t answer that, but he did start backing up. ‘If you change your mind, I’ll be up for a while.’

‘I’m not going to. Good night, Cam.’

His eyes widened only a fraction of inch, but his grin slipped into a full smile, and my stomach sort of flopped, because his smile was wow. ‘See you tomorrow.’

‘Tomorrow?’

‘Astronomy class? Or are you skipping again?’

My cheeks heated all over again. God, I had almost forgotten about running away in front of him like a total idiot. ‘No.’ I sighed. ‘I’ll be there.’

‘Great.’ He started backing up again. ‘Good night, Avery.’

Ducking behind the door, I closed it and then locked it. I swore I heard him chuckle, but I had to be crazy.

I stood there a few moments and then I whipped around and raced back to my bedroom. Diving under the covers, I rolled onto my stomach and shoved my face into a pillow.

Sleep. Just go to sleep.

Cam lived across the hall?

You need to get up early. Go to sleep.

How in the world was that possible? He was everywhere I went.

Go to sleep.

And why did he have a pet tortoise? And did he seriously name it after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Because that was kind of funny.

Morning’s going to come soon.

Does he only wear a shirt during class? Oh my God, he seriously lived across the hall. Jacob was going to flip … and probably move in. That would be fun. I really liked Jacob, but I had a feeling he’d borrow my clothes.

Go the fuck to sleep.

I couldn’t believe the hot dude I ran into and then ran away from lived across the hall. I don’t even know why I cared. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t interested in guys, or girls, but he was extraordinarily hot … and kind of funny … and kind of charming.

No. No. No. Stop thinking about him, because it’s pointless and hopeless, so go to sleep.

Did I eat all that salad? Man, those cookies sound good right about now.

‘Ugh!’ I groaned into the pillow.

This crap went on for about an hour before I gave up and threw myself out of bed. Out in the living room, I didn’t hear any music or noise coming from Cam’s apartment. He was probably sleeping soundly while I was up obsessing over cookies and chicken tenders and ripped stomachs.

Stomping into the extra bedroom that had become more of a library/office, I powered on my laptop and brought up my e-mail. There was one unread e-mail in my in-box, from my cousin. I deleted that without even opening it. On the left toolbar, I saw I had a few unread e-mails in my junk folder. Bored out of my mind, I clicked on the link and scanned the prescription drug offers, the ‘I have money in a foreign account’ e-mails, and the notice that Bath & Body Works was having a sale. My eyes narrowed on the subject line of the one e-mail, which had come in at around eleven the previous night.

It read AVERY MORGANSTEN and was from an e-mail address I didn’t recognize.

Well, that was strange, because my e-mail wasn’t set up under my real name, so it would be unlikely that it was a phishing scam. Only my parents and cousin had my e-mail address because, even though they had my telephone number, I’d rather have them contact me that way instead of calling. No one else had it.

My finger hovered over the mouse pad. Unease rose as knots formed in my stomach. Tucking my legs against my chest, I told myself not to open it, to just delete it—but I clicked because I had to. It was like looking at a bad car accident alongside the road. You knew you shouldn’t, but you did.

I immediately wished I hadn’t. The knots in my stomach tightened and a lump formed in the back of my throat. Nauseous, I pushed away from the desk and slammed the laptop shut. Standing in the middle of the room, I sucked in a deep breath and curled my hands into fists.

It was just two lines.

That was all.

Two lines erased thousands of miles.

Two lines ruined my entire night.

Two lines found me all the way in a little college town in West Virginia.

You’re nothing but a liar, Avery Morgansten. You’ll get yours in the end.

Chapter 4

I dragged myself into astronomy class ten minutes early and picked what I believed to be an inconspicuous seat in the middle of the amphitheater-style classroom. A few other students were already there, sitting up front. Yawning, I scooted down in my seat and rubbed my eyes. The gallon of coffee I drank this morning hadn’t done a thing for me, given that I only got an hour of sleep.

Two little sentences.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I rested my head on my forearm. I didn’t want to think about the e-mail or the fact that I had reopened my laptop and gone into my trash folder to see what my cousin had said. His e-mail had just been one giant bitch fest on how I was letting my parents down and how his were worried sick and afraid I was going to put Mom and Dad through another episode. You need to come home, he had written. It is the right thing to do. It was the right thing for them, and while my cousin sided with my parents and, oh, about ninety-nine percent of the town, I doubted he had been behind the other e-mail.

The e-mail address was unrecognizable to me, and while there were a lot of people that it could’ve come from, I really didn’t know who it was. It couldn’t be him because even he wasn’t stupid enough to try to contact me.

Or was he?

A shudder rolled down my spine. What if it had been Blaine? What if he found out where I’d moved to? My family wouldn’t have told him. Then again, they could’ve told his parents because they were, after all, country club pals. I was going to murder them if they had. Seriously. Catch the next flight to Texas and murder them, because the whole point of coming here was to get away from—

‘Morning, sweetheart,’ came a deep voice.

I jerked my head up and twisted around. Surprised into speechlessness, I watched Cam slide into the empty seat next to me. I must have been a little slow on the uptake, because I knew I should’ve said the seat was taken or tell him to move, but all I could do was stare.

He settled back, looking at me sideways. ‘You look a little rough this morning.’

And he looked remarkably refreshed for someone who had been partying last night. Hair damp and all over the place, eyes bright. ‘Thanks.’

‘You’re welcome. Glad to see you made it to class this time.’ He paused, tilting his head back and kicking his feet up on the seat in front of us, his eyes on me. ‘Though I kind of missed the whole running-into-each-other thing. Provided a lot of excitement.’

‘I don’t miss that,’ I admitted, bending over and rummaging through my bag for my notebook. ‘That was really embarrassing.’

‘It shouldn’t have been.’

‘Easy for you to say. You’re the one who got plowed. I was doing the plowing.’

Cam’s mouth opened. Oh my God, had I really just said that? I had. Flushing to the roots of my hair, I flipped open my notebook.

‘Raphael is doing great, by the way.’

A relieved grin snuck out. ‘That’s good to hear. Did he pee on your hand?’

‘No, but it was a close call. Brought you something.’

‘Turtle pee?’

Cam laughed and shook his head as he reached into his backpack. ‘Sorry to let you down, but no.’ He pulled out papers stapled together. ‘It’s a syllabus. I know. Thrilling shit right here, but figured since you didn’t come to class on Monday, you’d need one, so I got it from the professor.’

‘Thank you.’ I took the papers from him, somewhat shocked by the act. ‘That was really thoughtful.’

‘Well, prepare yourself. I am all kinds of thoughtful this week. I brought you something else.’

As he rooted around in his backpack, I bit down on the edge of my pen and took the moment to openly gawk at him without him knowing. It really had been a long time since I had held a conversation with a member of the opposite sex who wasn’t related to me, but from all the people-watching I’d done over the years, I thought I was handling this well. Besides the plowing comment, I was sort of proud of myself.

Cam pulled out a napkin and unfolded it with long fingers. ‘Cookie for you. Cookie for me.’

Removing the pen from my mouth, I shook my head. ‘You didn’t have to do that.’

‘It’s just a cookie, sweetheart.’

I shook my head again, because it just didn’t make sense to me. Cam didn’t make sense to me. Hell, most people didn’t make sense to me.

He looked up through those impossibly long lashes and sighed. Tearing the napkin in half, he folded up one of the cookies and then dropped it in my lap. ‘I know they say you shouldn’t take candy from strangers, but it’s a cookie and not candy and technically, I’m not a stranger.’

I swallowed.

Cam took a bite of his cookie and closed his eyes. A deep sound emanated from his throat—a growl of pleasure. My heart jumped and my cheeks heated even more as I stared at him. He made the sound again, and my mouth dropped open. A row down, a girl turned in her seat, her eyes clouded over.