Page 94 of Unforgettable
Lucas tucked his hands into his jeans pockets. “Haven is the reason you’ve been brooding for the last three days.” It was a statement, not a question.
I swallowed thickly. “Remember Ellie? Remember how she stole the breath from my lungs?”
“That bad?”
I got my keys out of my pocket. “Worse.”
“Do you think Haven feels the same way?”
“Ninety percent of me does. But even so, she’s made her decision.”
He clapped a hand on my back. “Then maybe it’s time to tell her how you feel. Maybe then, she can decide what team she wants to bat for.”
“I asked her to move in with us. She said no. So I know how she feels.”
He jerked his head toward me, his light-brown eyes glinting in the late-afternoon sun. “You left that part out.”
I’d told him everything that had gone down in Haven’s dorm room except that. “I didn’t think it was relevant because she said no.”
“Just because she said no to moving in doesn’t mean she doesn’t have feelings for you. Fuck her father. Fight. That’s who you are. Since when do you give up?”
Since my heart was on the line.
30
Haven
Arlene greeted me at the door before I could even open it. I swore she must have been looking out the floor-to-ceiling window in the formal living room in anticipation of my arrival.
“Haven.” Her cold and clinical voice matched the atmosphere in the mansion.
There was nothing warm about the house, especially with her in it.
“Arlene,” I returned in a snarky tone.
She stuck out her fake boobs and wiped the scowl off her face. “Nice to have you home.”
I dropped my suitcase in the foyer and set my purse on top of it. “Not nice to be here.”
“Now. Now. We need to get along. Roya is cooking dinner. We eat at six.”
I trudged up the spiral staircase, stomping my feet like a child. “Not hungry.”
“You will eat with us,” she said at my back, talking to me as though she were my mother.
Rage bristled across my skin as I whirled around, holding on to the shiny mahogany bannister. “You don’t tell me what to do.”
“I beg to differ,” she said in a tone as cool as ice. “You’re living here. So you will followmyrules.”
I snickered, albeit sarcastically. “Your rules? You can’t tell me what to do. Oh, and I’m not staying long.”
One side of her maroon-colored lips turned up as though she knew a secret. “You’re right. After this semester, your father is enrolling you in a small quaint college in Washington.” Her enjoyment in delivering that news was written all over her heavily made-up face.
I marched down the five steps, scuffing the heels of my sandals on the stairs, hoping to bore deep scratches in the waxed wooden steps. “Hide me away so I don’t embarrass him?” I tapped my finger on my lips. “That’s not it. He doesn’t want me going to the same school as Ryker James.”
She flinched ever so slightly.
I’d hit the nail on the head, although that didn’t shock me.
