Page 43 of Late Nights

But as open as he was about his attraction to me, he was equally as open about how he wasn’t going to do anything about it. He had made it clear, multiple times, that he felt like there were obstacles in our way. He didn’t want to rock the boat with West or my dad. And he also wasn’t ready—or maybe wasn’t willing—to let himself be cared about, to let anyone into his life enough to show him he was worthy of love.

Outside, a black suburban sat idling, waiting for Cannon and me, the rest of our group already inside.

Gavin stood next to the front passenger seat, holding the door open. “Here you go.”

“Thanks, man,” Cannon said, walking toward the open door.

Gavin’s eyes narrowed slightly, clearly not amused by Cannon’s wrong assumption. “I was talking to Demi.”

“Oh, my mistake,” Cannon said, feigning innocence. “Here I thought you wanted to do some manly bonding.”

I bit my lip, attempting not to laugh.

I climbed into the SUV, thanking Gavin before he shut my door and rounded the front to head to the driver’s side.

“Nice one,” Jax said to Cannon before Gavin got in the car, both of them chuckling.

I didn’t have any interest in Gavin, and that had been true even before the last three weeks of living with Cannon. Now my thoughts were solely focused on the sexy, dark-haired man in the back seat, even if he wasn’t emotionally available. The chances of anything happening between Cannon and me were slim to none, but my heart and my body didn’t seem to care about those nonexistent chances. So as smart as it would have been to push Cannon out of my thoughts and possibly distract myself with Gavin, I couldn’t find it in me to want to. The idea of spending the day with Gavin sounded like the longest day of my life. I could always fake a headache or some other excuse to get out of skiing, but I had been really looking forward to flying down the mountain today.

We all chatted on the drive to the resort, but Cannon remained mostly quiet. It took effort for me to not turn around during the drive to see if I could read whatever expression was on his face.

Once we had parked and picked up our rental gear, we made a plan to split up and meet at the lodge for lunch.

West, Halle, Kate, and Jax headed for the bunny hill, while Gavin, Cannon, and I headed for the ski lift. Yeah, spending the morning with Gavin and Cannon wasn’t exactly what I’d been hoping for, but I didn’t know how to tell Gavin I didn’t need or want him to come. If anything, he should be staying with the others to help teach Halle, Kate, and Jax. He was being a little too forward about wanting to spend time with me, and I wasn’t sure the best way to let him know I wasn’t interested.

I sat in between the two guys on the lift.

“How is Stanford going?” Gavin asked.

My stomach dipped, and it had nothing to do with the increasing height as we made our way up the mountain. This was the first person outside of family and Cannon who I’d talked to about dropping out of Stanford, and there was part of me that was embarrassed. How many people dropped out one semester before graduating? Although I didn’t regret my decision, I knew that there might be some people who would think I was an idiot for having done something so rash.

“I, uh, actually decided to stop working toward my MBA,” I told him. “It just wasn’t for me.”

“Oh, wow,” he said. I couldn’t read his expression since he already had his skiing goggles on, but he sounded surprised.

“Yeah, I decided to enroll at the San Francisco Institute of Esthetics and Cosmetology, and I’m working toward becoming a hairdresser.” I tried to infuse my voice with confidence. “The dream is to run my own salon one day.”

“That’s amazing,” he said, and he sounded genuine. “I think it’s admirable to go after your dreams.”

“Thanks.”

“How did your dad take the news?” he asked.

I let out a heavy sigh. “About as well as you’d think.”

Although half of his face was covered, I didn’t miss his wince. “I’m sorry. That must be hard.”

I only nodded, not wanting to talk about my dad and how much of a disappointment I was to him. Especially not with Gavin.

We reached the top, and Cannon shot out of the seat like it was on fire. “I’ll meet you guys for lunch at the lodge,” he threw over his shoulder as he quickly made his way to the start of the trail.

I scrambled off the lift, startled by his quick exit, wanting to catch up to him to see what was wrong. He pushed off and down the mountain as I worked to follow him.

Without even looking back to see if Gavin was still behind me, I set off down the steep hill. Cannon was already a black blob ahead of me, so I pushed faster, wanting to close the gap between us.

My muscles burned, but I ignored them as I chased after Cannon. Something was wrong. Or maybe he was happy Gavin was with me so he didn’t have to be stuck going at my usual speed. Here I thought that we were well matched when it came to skill level, but he had clearly been holding back. I kept my gaze on the black and teal dot but had to work to find it again every time we went around a turn.

Thoughts swirled around in my mind as I pushed my skiing ability to the max. I replayed our flirtatious interaction this morning, then how he’d gotten quiet once Gavin arrived, and then how he’d practically ran away from me at the top of the lift. This either had to do with him wanting to put space between us or him being annoyed about Gavin tagging along. Possibly both.

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