I squeeze her a little. “Dead serious. Are you?”
Her wet hair sticks to my chest as she nods against me again. She circles in my arms and wraps her own around my neck. “I am.”
Grinning mischievously down at her, I ask, “Should I get down on one knee now?”
She slaps my chest playfully. She opens her mouth to say something, but a knock sounds at the door. “Avery?” Dustin’s voice calls through.
We both freeze.
“I thought he was in class, I swear,” I murmur to her.
For a moment, we say and do nothing but hold our breath. The knock sounds again. “Avery, are you in there?”
She clears her throat. “I’m showering!”
“Obviously,” we hear him grumble. “Have you seen Reid?”
She looks up at me, her eyes wide with fear. I give her an encouraging squeeze. “No,” she lies. “Why?”
“His car is parked outside, but he’s not at the apartment.”
“The gym,” I whisper to her.
“Maybe he’s at the gym,” she shouts.
“Yeah, maybe,” he murmurs. “Okay, I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay,” Avery squeaks.
We listen to his footfalls fade down the hall until the apartment door shuts, and we both release the pent-up breath and sag into each other’s arms. “That was close,” I murmur.
She nods. “Should I have not lied?”
I kiss her, a soft and small slide of my lips over hers. “I would have backed you up with whatever you said.”
As she nibbles on her bottom lip, I watch her mind work, watch as the guilt slithers over her features. “I should have told him.”
I shake my head. “Him finding out about us while we’re literally in the shower, naked, together isn’t the way he should find out. He deserves more than that. You did the right thing.” I grab the shampoo, squeeze some into my hand, and start massaging it into her hair. Her eyes close in bliss as I say, “We’ll find a way to tell him.”
“Okay,” she murmurs as I tip her head into the shower’s spray and rinse the suds out, and it’s then I realize that she trusts me to make this okay. It’s a lot to live up to, but we will figure this out. I’ll do anything for this girl. I’ll overturn the world for her, and if that means that I have to tell her brother alone so the wrath isn’t put on her, I will.
CHAPTER 24
REID RATHE
My car roarsas I pull up to my parents’ estate’s circular driveway, the sound bouncing off the house’s brick walls. Dustin likes to call my family’s home a mansion. As I park the car and stare up at it, I suppose that it is. There are eleven bedrooms and thirteen bathrooms, way more room than what’s needed for a family of three, but my parents like to live extravagantly. Always have and always will.
Hell, my mother has joked many times about being buried with her jewelry, but I secretly think she’s being one-hundred percent serious.
My mother called me here for lunch, and since it’s Saturday and there are no classes on the weekend, I had no excuse to get out of it. I know what she wants. She thinks that I’ve had time to think over everything I said to her last time. That I’ve had a moment to reconsider my arranged marriage with Dorothy.
I honestly thought I put an end to this. I was so sure that the subject would be dropped, but I should have never guessed that my mother would let that slide. This marriage means too much to her.
The sun shines brightly in my car, and the autumn leaves swirl around the gardener, who is trying to rake them up on theeast side of the house. Ever since the rainstorm, the temperature has plummeted, bringing a chill to the atmosphere. Autumn will forever remind me of Avery because, just last night, I snuck her out and took her for an evening picnic, laid her in the leaves, and kissed her under the sunset. The way her scent complemented the smell of autumn will forever be etched into my mind.
I sigh and look back at the house, at the towering three stories. Pulling on my college sweater, I step out of my car and make my way up the steps. I almost knock on the door because this house represents a home that is no longermyhome. I am not the same person I was when I left for college two years ago, and I’m certainly not the son they thought they raised.
Heading inside, I call out my mom’s name and shut the door, listening for her response.
