Darius slowed as they approached the first pathway leading to the women’s residence hall to their right. She quieted. Other than their footsteps, there were no other sounds.
The one-story building was an eerie setting against the cold silence.
She waited for Darius to make a silent decision. Once he kept moving to the path that led to the men’s residence hall to the left, she followed.
Her stomach started to twist as they got closer. Her nerves sharpened. Eve almost jumped when Darius spoke low again.
“How is your dad doing?” he asked. “I didn’t see him at the wedding.”
Eve had been asked countless times over the last few months why her father wasn’t attending the wedding. Why her family wasn’t there. If she realized how sad that would look in pictures. In the press.
Or how lucky she was to have no one there but Scott Keys and his family and associates.
She had had the same stock responses ready to go until they had become a reflex instead of a response.
It’s why the lie almost came out first.
Eve ran her thumb across the scar on her hand and pulled the truth out instead. At least, the truth about why he wasn’t there.
“He didn’t know about it, actually. The wedding, I mean.” Darius’s wide eyes swung her way at that. “That sounds bad, but it’s not that big of a deal. He’s met Mitchell and knows we’re engaged but never has been a fan of these flashy kinds of events. So I decided not to bother him with it.”
“Not to bother your dad with your wedding?”
Eve winced at the guilt that came from hearing that come right back to her.
“There’s layers to the situation,” she tried.
Darius’s eyebrow went sky-high.
“Layers,” he deadpanned.
She nodded.
“Yeah. You know every relationship is different with their own layers. Their own issues or complications. That’s me and Mitchell. No need to pull in my dad for something like this.”
They walked up the steps of the men’s residence hall, but he stopped at the door. Eve thought he was about to do some nifty law-enforcement move before entering a potential crime scene. Instead, he turned to face her head on.
“Complications like you and Mitchell not actually being a real couple.”
The lie never had a chance to form.
The truth was already in between them before Eve could clock it.
“Yeah.”
Darius didn’t flinch.
She opened her mouth to take it back, to try to cover it up—to do something—but all Eve could do was stare.
A different kind of blush crawled up her neck. Embarrassment.
She wanted to ask how he had figured it out so quickly, and she knew there was no way to convince him otherwise now, when something finally cut through the silence around them.
A car door shut in the distance behind them.
They both turned toward the direction of the gate. From where they were standing they couldn’t see the gate itself, never mind what car had pulled up.
Darius’s hand went to the inside of his jacket.
