Page 49 of My Last Dance

My texts went completely unanswered, so then I tried to call him—multiple times. I left dozens of messages, but still no word.

Mer thought he was depressed, but that was no excuse to just cut me out.

After a while, I stopped trying because he was making me feel pathetic.

Piper Wyndell-Hamilton didn’t beg for anyone’s attention, I told myself. But…deep down, I really wanted to jump on a plane to Vancouver and demand to know why he was ignoring me. That wasn’t an option, so I picked myself and my heart up off the floor and moved on.

Well, I tried to move on. I studied, I spent time with friends, I went out and drank, danced, and kissed other boys. But every time I kissed someone new, a little part of my heart would pathetically plummet, because it just wasn’t the same.

But maybe tonight would be different.

It was the beginning of a brand new semester, a chance to be brand new again, and we were starting it off with a lock-in party with Sigma Chi.

“Ooh, those guys are cute,” Ria said, pointing to a group of guys standing in a circle on the frat house lawn.

I bit my lip as I studied them. Yeah, they were cute, wearing their button downs, dockers, and boat shoes, but they just weren’t my type.

Why did I have to go and fall in love with a hockey guy before I even knew there were other types of guys in the world? It’s like Richard Charles Kappers the Third had imprinted on me or something, and I hated it. How the hell would I ever fix it? Maybe I needed therapy?

“So, that’s a no,” Ria said with a laugh. “Okay, let’s get something to drink before we get our flirt on.”

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After an hour of sipping on a drink and standing in a circle with some girlfriends, I realized things were not about to be any different this school year, and what I really wanted was to head home and get a full night’s rest before my early morning practice.

“Oh my God, wait, he’s so cute,” Tara, a girl in my sorority, said.

“Which one?” Ria asked.

“The one with the earring!” she whispered. “He’s gotta be a new student. You see him?”

“Ugh, I hope he’s not a freshman,” Paige said.

“Earring?” I snorted in amusement. “Isn’t that a little try-hard?”

Paige grabbed my shoulders in a surprisingly strong grip for such a tiny person and turned me to face said guy. “That man can tryanythingwith me.”

I stood there, completely shocked, gaping at chocolate brown eyes, a choppy mullet, and a lazy panty-dropping grin.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think Richard Charles Kappers the Third would be atmyuniversity, casually leaning against a frat house wall, tipping back a bottle of beer.

And he did, in fact, have an earring. A tiny silver hoop through his left ear.

What the actual fuck?

My first thought was that I was hallucinating, putting Kappy’s face on this random, new guy. But the longer I stared, the more I was sure. It was him. His strong jaw, his Adam’s apple, his nose with the slight notch in it. He was here. After practicallya yearof radio silence, he was standing just a few feet away from me atmycollege.

Without a second thought, I marched straight up to him, ignoring my friends calling after me.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded.

“Piper the Viper,” he drawled, like he’d been expecting to see me. His blood-shot eyes trailed up and down my body, making goosebumps involuntarily break out on my skin. He took a long pull of his beer. “I like this look.” He grinned and reached out to touch the bottom of my crop top.

With a frown, I slapped his hand away. “I hate yours. You look like a long-lost member of a boy band. And you lost the right totouch me when you ignored me for months, Richard.” My unwavering stare had him flinching away.

Biting the inside of his cheek, he kept his gaze on the floor.

“Why are you here?” I demanded.

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