Page 91 of Always Knew It Was You

“Oh my gosh, why didn’t you wake me up? I’m going to be late. Oh, God, and it just had to be Kennedy’s class that I’m going to be late for. I know he’s just dying to mark me absent and destroy my perfect attendance. Seriously, Micah, you should have woken me up.”

“I didn’t know what time your class was.” I shrug. “Plus, you looked so beautiful when you were sleeping, I was entranced by your spell.”

That earns me an oh-so-delightful eye roll as she runs around getting ready, gathering her hair in a bun at the top of her head, brushing her teeth, washing her face, pulling on clothes.

Meanwhile, I head over to the kitchen area and make her some coffee (lots of cream like she likes it), and also order a breakfast sandwich over the phone to be quickly wrapped and brought up.

“Hey.” She pokes her head out of the bathroom and holds up my shirt. “Can I borrow this? I don’t want to wear my shirt. It smells like fish.”

“Knock yourself out,” I say and she goes back in. It only takes her a few minutes to get ready and by that time, the sandwich has arrived and I also have her coffee in a monogrammed hotel mug ready to go for her. I would have put it in a Stanley cup or a thermos if I had one, but alas, I have to make do.

I hand it to her when we finally get into the car, and that’s when she realizes what I’m holding in my hand.

“You ordered that for me?”

“Yup,” I say. “And made the coffee too. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day as my grandmother used to say. Of course, she also lived on a steady diet of coffee and cigars. She was more of a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do kind of woman.”

Her eyes soften as she takes it and says a tad shyly. “Thank you.”

“No problem.”

Throughout the drive, Carly keeps sipping her coffee and eating her sandwich, throwing me grateful looks as though I gave her a kidney rather than overpriced hotel breakfast food. I mean I don’t mind her gratitude, but the fact she’s gushing so much over so little means that she’s very much not used to people doing stuff like that for her, at least not the men she dates.

“None of your former boyfriends ever got you food?” I inquire as I overtake a jeep on the highway.

She snorts so hard she nearly spills her coffee. “What boyfriend?”

“You’ve never had a boyfriend?”

“Nah.” She shakes her head. “I was always too busy to date, and then there was my family to think about. Everyone in town knew who they were, and parents warned their little boys to stay away from me.”

“And they all did?” In my experience, teenage boys weren’t so good at taking their parents’ advice.

“Not all of them. But the ones who didn’t were only interested in hookups so that was all we did.

I gape at her. “Seriously?”

She nods.

I turn back to the wheel, indignant. I feel a violent surge of anger toward all those boys who used her like that. I mean, yeah, I know teenage boys can be stupid but... still.

“Relax,” she giggles. “It wasn’t like that. I was also just interested in hooking up. Most of them were either dumb jocks or they were out-of-towners who I’d never see again, which is good because I didn’t want to get a reputation.

Ah, yes. Small towns and the ever-important reputation.

I’m still mad at them though, and at their parents and everyone else in this damn town who made her bear scorn for things that weren’t her fault. Jeez, no wonder she had low self-esteem.

And all those jackasses took advantage of it. “Assholes.”

She gives me an amused look. “Really? You’re that bothered by it?”

“Of course.”

“Isn’t that exactly what you used to do to the women you dated?”

“No,” I deny instantly. “I never rejected them for their background.”

Carly sent me an amused, yet disbelieving look.

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