Page 10 of The Grumpy Roommate Gamble

Surprised, I blinked at him. “Yeah. Cancer.” How did Gabe know that? Then again, Huckleberry Creek was a small town. So long as he didn’t plug his ears, he was bound to have heard from someone.

“Man, fuck cancer. It’s rough losing your parents, whether it’s by degrees or in one fell swoop.” Gaze firmly on his plate, he lifted his glass. “I lost both of mine in a car accident. That’s why I came to live with Nana here back in high school.”

I’d known he was hurting back then, but he hadn’t ever talked about how he’d ended up in Huckleberry Creek, and I’d never pressed.

Fingers flexing, he lifted his gaze to me. “I never said it back then, but you made it easier when I was new here.”

Surprised again, I wasn’t sure what to say. This felt like some sort of admission.

“I was messed up back then. Angry. Grieving. Didn’t know which way was up and forgot my shit for school half the time. You always made sure I was covered with pens or paper or whatever. I appreciated that.”

“You’re welcome.” What else was there to say?

Of courseIremembered, because I’d had a massive crush on the new guy, but I hadn’t thought he’d even known who I was back then, when I was a class below him. We’d had Spanishtogether in first period, and I’d wanted to do something to help him settle in, because I knew what it was to be new in school.

What did it mean that he was bringing this up now?

Maybe nothing. Maybe it was just casual conversation. Or maybe he’d been noticing me all these years more than I’d thought.

SEVEN

GABE

“Are you sure Felicity actually wants to keep this stuff?” Clint levered the end table he’d carried into a hole beside the sofa where it had been wedged in the kitchen. “It’s all so water damaged.”

“I don’t know. But I need the last of this out of the way so I can finish the tear out of the flooring in the living room and find out whether the damage stops with the subfloor or if I’ll need to deal with joists.”

“I mean… you could just ask her, given y’all are roommates and all.”

“Thought about it. But she hasn’t been over here once since I started work. I think seeing it all upsets her. Reminds her of what she’s lost.” I hadn’t forgotten how she’d looked when she’d tried to shrug off those losses. She’d put on a brave face about it, but I could tell it still hurt. I wasn’t about to poke at that wound if I didn’t have to.

“Fair enough. How’s that going, anyway? Had to be a hell of a surprise to come home to somebody in your house.”

My brain helpfully flashed back to the image of Felicityin that barely there towel that had become permanently imprinted on the backs of my eyelids. “It was a damned sight better than being surprised by insurgents.”

“Truth. Gotta be putting a bit of a crimp in your fulfilling the pact, though.”

I grabbed the coffee table from the middle and played dumb as I hefted it up. “Pact?”

Clint just leveled a gaze at me. “You know, the one we made when we all thought we were gonna die? About getting off our asses to woo the women we were interested in? You said you were in.”

“I’d have said anything to get out of that conversation.”

“Nuh-uh. You made the pact. So who is it?”

When facing confrontation, always take offense over defense. “I’m not like the rest of you. Kellan is obviously going to do something about his feelings for Tate. Rhett clearly wants to win Pepper back. You’ve got a thing for his sister. I don’t have some woman I’m secretly pining for.”

“Uh-huh.”

Don’t react. Don’t react.I adopted what I hoped was a bored expression. “What?”

Clint folded his arms. “You forget I’ve known you since high school.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Nothing. Except I remember you happen to have a bit of a soft spot for your current roommate.”

To buy myself time, I took a swig from my bottle of water. “She was a sweet girl, and she’s a nice woman. I say again, what does that have to do with anything?”

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