CHAPTER 6
REID RATHE
I can’t believeshe lied about her name. Ten minutes later, in a silent car with Dustin, it’s literally all I can think about. Avery was insistent about driving herself. She refused to get into the car.
When Dustin said we were picking up his sister from across the hall, I figured she was just visiting Ivy. Giddy and excited, I had stayed in the hallway with him instead of going to his car, hoping ‘Sarah’ would answer so I could get another look, so I could see if she remembered me.
Yep. Wouldn’t you know it? She remembered me.
Sarah is his sister. His freaking blood. And she lied.
Why did she lie about her name though? It doesn’t make sense unless she was just looking for a hookup and nothing serious. She didn’t want me to know who she really was even if she didn’t know who I really was. It doesn’t add up, but I’m not going to pretend that I understand what’s going on in her head.
All I know is that it hurts.
Amazingly, however, it doesn’t deter me. I want her now more than ever, and knowing she’s Dustin’s sibling does nothing to stop those feelings. But I have one problem. She says she’s not interested in me. I know that’s another lie, but she has to haveher reasons for saying it, for being so determined to get away from me.
Maybe the name thing andthisthing are connected. I’m not sure how, but I have her brother sitting next to me. He’s an open book to all things Avery, right?
Hiding my grin, I slowly swivel in my seat to look at the side profile of Dustin.
He catches my look from the corner of his eyes. “What?”
I cross my arms over my chest. “So, your sister…”
He glances over at me with a frown. “What about her?”
Deciding to start out easy, I ask, “What’s she majoring in?”
He looks back at the road. “I don’t know the technical term. She tells me all the time, but I can never remember it. A surgical nurse of some kind. Or something like that. She has two more years left, like us. Why?”
My shoulders rise and fall dramatically as I shrug and look out the front window. “Just wondering.”
“She’s minoring in Spanish, just like you.”
I whip my head back to face him, and then casually roll my neck, trying to hide the fact that he just dropped a bomb on me. If she’s minoring in Spanish, we’ll likely share the same classes. Hell, she’s going into the medical field just like me, so we may share more than just Spanish.
“Is that so?” I say casually.
He nods. “I’m surprised you guys haven’t run into each other yet with you going for anesthesiology. You guys travel through the same buildings.”
Blowing out a breath, I hide the hammering of my heart. We may not share the same medical classes, at least none that I know of yet, but we do share the same hallways. I hadn’t been searching for her going through some of those hallways, but I definitely will now. Even if she made it clear that she wants nothing to do with me, I don’t plan on listening because I knowshe’s lying. She wants me, and I want her, so there’s no point in fighting the attraction.
Which brings me to my next question. “Is she dating anyone?” Because that could be the reason she’s so uptight and standoffish. It could be a guilty soul. God, I hope not, because if she is, I’ll be forced to walk away, and I don’t know if I can do that.
He shakes his head. “No, thank freaking God.”
I frown. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Adjusting his hands on the steering wheel, he angles his body toward mine. “She just got done with an asshole. It’s how I got her to move back home. There was nothing left for her at her old college because her last boyfriend destroyed everything for her. And when she finally did agree to come here, she’d sworn off men until she was done with college.”
I rub at my jaw, both relieved and disheartened at this news. “Damn. What happened with this guy?”
He flicks his gaze at me. “Not my story to tell. You’ll get to know my sister, and then you can ask her yourself.”
My eyebrows rise even though getting to know Avery is exactly what I plan on doing. “Must be pretty bad if she wants nothing to do with even dating.”
He chuckles without humor. “Dude, you have no idea. I almost went across the country to kill him.”
