Page 3 of Trust Again

“Nothing’s broken.”

His certainty made me wonder. “How do you know?”

He brought his hand back to my hip as if it simply belonged there. Familiar. Confident. I didn’t move.

“I’ve broken my nose before,” Spencer explained, turning his head so I could see his face in profile. “See?”

Lo and behold! There it was: a slight bump on the upper bridge. My gaze now traveled the strong line of his chin to his mouth, and back up again. Something stirred in my chest, and I finally broke out of my stupor.

“Sorry.” Gingerly, I pressed against the floor and pushed myself up. “I didn’t mean to knock you down.”

He stood up, too, still wearing that half-smile. “It was an honor, Dawn.” He looked down at me.

Spencer was tall—much taller than me, which wasn’t saying much, given my lowly five two.

“If you ever need your own private wall to run into again, just call. You have my number.” Now he was really flashing one of his brilliant, toothy grins.

Again something shifted inside me; this time it was a dangerous flutter in the tummy.

That damn Spencer Cosgrove.

The first time we’d met, I’d mistaken Spencer with Kaden, who hadn’t been treating Allie very well back then. I wanted to stand up for Allie and let Kaden know he was being an asshole. Problem was, I’d gone off on Spencer instead. A crooked grin had spread over his face before I realized the mix-up. Shit.

Allie cleared up the misunderstanding immediately. Actually, I would’ve liked to have stayed mad at Spencer a bit longer. It was a great excuse to avoid the obvious: Spencer was hot.

Too hot for his own good. Not that I wanted to think about him that way. But even my jaded self couldn’t deny, let alone ignore it. Hard as I tried.

“Dawn?” Spencer suddenly turned serious, bringing me back to the moment. “Everything okay? You didn’t crack your head too hard against my steely chest, did you?”

Of course he was kidding, as usual. Spencer wasn’t particularly broad-shouldered. But that didn’t make him any less attractive. Quite the opposite. He had a perfect build, with the slim, sinewy frame of a runner. Not chunky, not skinny. Just in between. Just… mmmm.

“I’m glad it was your strong body I ran into and not the wall,” I answered a bit too breathlessly, and looked around for my bag.

“Were you just at Allie’s?” Spencer asked. He’d picked up Watson and was brushing some dirt off the bag before handing them over to me.

Oh yeah: I’d nearly forgotten. My eyes widened in panic.

“Don’t go up there!”

Spencer frowned again. “Kaden and I were supposed to work on something.”

“Kaden was naked when I barged in. I think the two of them are busy right now.”

Spencer threw back his head and laughed loudly—a rough and resonant laugh. It filled the whole stairwell and sent a pleasant shiver down my spine.

Why’d he have to go and do that?

Frustrated, I sighed and set the heavy bag on the floor. “Today’s not my day.”

“What do you mean?” Spencer asked, after his laughter had faded.

“I have to get some work done, but I have no idea where to go,” I replied.

“Why not just go back to the dorm?”

“Sawyer is… busy.” I looked away. “So I went to a coffee shop, but I couldn’t concentrate there because this weird guy kept talking to me, so I came over here thinking Allie and Kaden weren’t home.”

Spencer chuckled. “Don’t tell me you also walked in on Sawyer in the middle of…”

---