Page 54 of Only for Love

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Emma

Hardened and haunted? Even with that admission, I’m melting for Grayson.

“Emma, are you there?”

I nod, still burrowed in my covers. “Yeah. I’m here.”

“Nothing to say to that?”

“Too much to say.” I don’t know where to start. “I’m not in the dorms.”

The tension on the phone crackles between us. I laugh quietly as if I’m nervous, not as if I’m about to lay something heavy on him.

“Okay. No dorms. So how’s Trydan?” He clears his throat. “Are you dating anyone?”

“Ha.” I’m going to blame the vodka for not keeping that scoff silent.

“No dorms and no boyfriend.” Even through the richness in his voice, I hear the curl of a smile. “Not going to complain.”

“I didn’t go to Trydan.” My stomach twists into a pretzel, and the birthday cocktails may come back up.

“Wait, what?” he growls. “Why?”

This isn’t a phone kind of conversation. Why did I bring it up? “Just couldn’t.”

“You didn’t go to college because ofme?”

I strangle my pillow and press my eyes closed. “No. I mean, yes. Kinda. No. Not really.”

“Ems… I…”

“It’s not what you think.”

“Then what is it?”

He’d make a good daddy. Goose bumps roll through me. I’ve thought that a thousand times. Cally’s my world, the epicenter of my existence. I want to shout that I didn’t go to Trydan and I don’t care. I push through life, making choices I’d never have made without her, doing things most people wouldn’t approve of because I’m going to survive and be better off in the end. My daughter—our daughter—is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. But I bite my lip and simplify those thoughts. “It was just… life.”

“Fuck me, Emma, you’rehere?”

My stomach drops, and I freeze under the safety of my comforter. “Here? Where are you?”

“You’re in Summerland?” he asks, deeper, darker, more demanding than I’ve ever heard come from a man.

Panic pulses in my veins. “Grayson, where areyou?”

“Five minutes from the Summerland County line.”

“No, you’re not!” I can’t breathe. He’s close. Too close. I’m dying to see him, scared to death at the same time. I don’t know how to handle this. Shit, shoot, shit. “Ah—um, I’m around.”

“Hang on. Give me a minute, okay? Do not hang up.”

“Okay.” I grab my knees and hide farther under the covers.

My proximity to him is a problem. If I had a hard time not calling him, I’m going to have a sudden urge to find him. When I’m ready. Which I’m not. My head is seriously going to explode. I need to calm down. While I’m waiting for him to come back on the line, I drop Cherry a text.

Emma:Miss you guys. Take care of my girl.

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