Page 20 of Bookworm
He shook his head. “That won’t happen. She’s a good kid. One of my grad students and here on scholarship. She’s worked so hard to get here despite a shitty upbringing and terribly abusive parents. If she loses that scholarship…”
His voice broke as his words faded off. He didn’t need to finish the thought.
“Did you tellanyone?” I asked.
“I told Dr. O’Macklin. Since we all had something to lose—him included since it was his coffee cup that I was coming to retrieve—he agreed to let me take the fall for her. Just this once.”
I glanced again at the camera in the corner. “And no one checked the footage?”
Adam shook his head.
I snorted. “This school should also hire me to fix up their security here.”
Adam’s mouth twitched. “But only after you’re done breaking the rules yourself.”
“Obviously.”
“Okay,” Adam said. “Your turn. I was promised embarrassment. I was promised humiliation. I was promised some juicy secret that will make your cheeks flush like that time your bathing suit loop got caught on the edge of the hottub and untied.”
My laugh surprised me, bubbling up like an overflowing drain pipe. “Now that’s a throwback.” We’d only been dating a few months at that point when I invited Adam over to use the hottub with me, under my dad’s supervision, of course. And sure enough, it happened just as he described. The loops at my hips got caught on one of the hooks that latched the lid onto the hot tub and untied my suit, revealing my bare butt for Adam’s viewing pleasure.
And my Dad’s.
It was horrifying.
Especially when my dad’s only comment was that it wasn’t a tushie he hadn’t seen andwipedbefore.
Freaking dads, man. They live to embarrass their kids. Cole, Cohen, and Lacey will find that out for themselves soon enough.
“I don’t remember promising all that,” I said. “But… Okay. There’s a reason I needed you to repeat all this to me today.”
Curiosity gleamed in his eyes. “Why’s that…?”
“That night when I called you about the Pride and Prejudice book… I was blackout drunk. I don’t remember calling Dartmouth, let alone talking to you, specifically. Hell, I didn’teven know I had this job here until the next morning when my best friend told me what had happened.”
Adam’s eyes went wide. “That’swhy you were so surprised to see me at the airport,” he whispered, more to himself than to me.
I winced. “Unfortunately, yes. Drunkenly, I stumbled into the store and bought that copy of Pride and Prejudice on a whim, pretty much clearing out the entirety of my savings.”
An emotion I couldn’t quite read washed over Adam’s expression. “We talked for two hours… and you… you don’t remember any of that conversation?”
Biting my lip, I shook my head.
“Because you weredrunk.” His voice hardened, taking on that tone again.
But I couldn’t blame him. I was drunk. Beyond drunk. Irresponsibly drunk. But self-preservation edged its way in and my defenses went up. “I’m twenty-five years old. I’m allowed to get drunk, Adam.”
The muscle in his jaw flexed as he quickly dropped his gaze to the floor. “I didn’t say you weren’t.”
“Are you telling me you never get drunk?”
Blinking he lifted his eyes to mine. “Not often. And never blackout drunk.”
“Well then, I guess Adam Stone is still above us all. Still better than Harper Meyers.”
“I didn’t say that,” he snapped.
“You didn’t have to. The look you’re giving me says it all.”
