Page 10 of Too Safe

No sooner does Hunter come to a stop, plant her hands on her hips, and huff, than the soccer ball is airborne and heading right toward us.

The ball whizzes by me, and I squeak in surprise, but Hunter catches it and pulls it into her chest.Wow. She’s got great reflexes.

“Greedy! Get your goons out of the kitchen before they break something!”

Her cheeks are pink with anger as she holds on tight to their toy. When her scowl deepens, I follow her gaze and catch sight of one of the most gorgeous specimens of man I’ve ever seen sauntering into the room.

Good grief. Do they grow them differently here? Is it the lake water?

The guy smiles, biting the side of his lip as he regards Hunter, then he turns toward me. “Hey, sis. Who’s your friend?”

Tension crackles around them, but she doesn’t respond.

The room has gone quiet. The rowdy boys from moments ago are all hushed whispers as they watch Greedy and Hunter square off.

“I’m Joey,” I offer, extending a hand. “I just started at Lake Chapel U with Hunter.”

Greedy is already leaning forward like he’s about to accept my hand, but as the last of my words leave my mouth, he pulls back suddenly, as if he’s been burned. His gaze shifts from me to Hunter, his expression turning from one of curiosity to pure ire.

“The fuck? You met at LCU? Seriously?”

“Come on,” Hunter urges, grabbing me by the hand without acknowledging her stepbrother’s outrage. She tosses him the ball and hightails it out of the kitchen.

“You can’t hide from me forever, Temi,” he calls after us.

The kitchen is so quiet now I swear I can hear each guy breathing as we hurry past them.

Halfway to the second floor, Hunter finally slows, then lets out the biggest sigh. From there, it’s like she’s used up all her energy reserves. Her steps drag at a glacial pace as we climb the last dozen stairs or so. Her shoulders are slumped, and I swear I hear a tiny sniffle. I don’t know what to do or say, so I follow behind her silently.

What just happened?

This isn’t the girl I met on Monday or had lunch with on Tuesday. She’s totally deflated. If possible, she slows even further when we get to a room at the end of the hall. She opens the door, revealing a gorgeous bedroom decorated in sage greens and soft grays.

Plopping on the bed, she huffs out another sigh.

I perch on the end of the mattress, giving her some space, but I turn to her so she knows I’m here for her. “You okay?”

Though I don’t understand it, something significant happened in the kitchen. I don’t want to meddle, yet I feel compelled to ask. Friends talk about things like this, right? I’m rusty with the girl talk.

When Hunter doesn’t respond, I backtrack. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it. I wasn’t trying to pry.”

“It’s nothing,” she says as she takes my hand in hers and squeezes. “At least, it shouldn’t be. I’m almost certain Greedy and his dad assumed I was enrolling at South Chapel University when I moved back this year. Surprise.”

My stomach flip-flops. Shit. I’m the one who gave her away. “Oh god. Hunter… I’m so sorry I said anything—”

“Joey. It’s fine. I didn’t set out to keep it a secret. Although it was fun guessing when they would actually figure it out.” Finally, a small smile graces her lips.

But it’s gone just as quickly as she rolls over on the bed and props her head on her hand. “My parents divorced during my junior year of high school. It was… god, it was awful. Messy. Hateful. All either of them cared about was getting the last word and a bigger piece of the pie. Not even two weeks after the divorce was finalized, we moved in here. My mom and Dr. Ferguson were married two months later.”

Holy. Shit. I school my expression, trying to hold back a reaction and reserve judgment.

“Things were okay at first. I like Doc, and my mom seemed happy. But then…” She trails off and stares at something over my shoulder.

No one would ever call me an open book. Thus, I usually have no problem letting people keep information like this to themselves. But despite my best efforts, my curiosity gets the best of me. “Then?”

“I don’t really know what happened. One morning, I woke up to a note on the kitchen table from my mom. She said she’d be in Europe for two weeks. I haven’t seen her since.”

Confusion clouds my thoughts as I watch her, waiting for clarification. “Your mom just left you? When did this happen?” I’m no stranger to the absentee parent situation. But I was under the assumption that things like this happened to girls like me, not Hunter.

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