AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t know.”
“Come on, invite your friend, Lily, too! It’s a freshman rite of passage. Unless you just can’t wait to get home to the Hellions’ dorm and see all those hotties?”
Ugh. Isabelle made a valid point. Reducing the amount of time I spent around Beckett seemed like a good idea. Every run-in with him sent my blood simmering, my body curious, and cracked my mind a little more.
“Okay, fuck it. Let’s go.”
“Yay! You want to get ready at my dorm? We can go together.”
“Sounds great.”
A frat party sounded like exactly the kind of thing I should be doing in college. That was belonging, right? Maybe I’d start to finally fit in.
What about Beckett’s rules?
He’d just have to get over them. He couldn’t really be serious, anyway. He was just messing with me. I wasn’t going to let him control me. No way.
Eve
The next night,Lily was washing potatoes in the kitchen sink when I got in after classes. One thing I loved about apartment seven was seeing her all the time. The thing I hated was my roommate and the way he made my skin feel two sizes too small. When I’d gotten home last night from work, I’d passed out early, while Beckett had been at a late practice, and then gone this morning.
Tyler was sitting at the table, helping out by peeling carrots. “So, what was The Dunes like yesterday?”
“Exactly like you’d imagine. I made a hundred bucks just in tips.”
Tyler raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? That’s amazing. I wonder if they need anyone else.”
“You aren’t a lifeguard, are you? They’ve been advertising for someone since my brother left.”
“I mean, I can swim, but qualifications? No.”
“I think at The Dunes, the most important qualification is a pretty face,” I pointed out.
“So…do I pass?” Tyler gave me a grin.
Before summer, that grin might have made my heart race. Now, it left me cold. He was a nice guy, but I was beginning to suspect that nice guy wasn’t my taste in men, as worrying as that was.
“I am pretty sure you’d get double my tips,” I joked lamely.
He chuckled. I turned away from his probing look.
“Tell me again why we’re not just ordering pizza,” Marcus asked, lounging on the couch and scrolling on his phone.
“Because my girl wants to cook,” Cayden said. He was sitting in the kitchen next to Tyler, snapping the ends off green beans as Lily pottered around behind him. He fixed Marcus with a stare. “So, you’ll eat it.”
“Put to me work, Chef.” I stopped beside Lily and searched for a job to do. “Though I heard only the people who helped get to eat, Marcus.”
“I’m the dishwasher. I’ll take care of it after,” he said with a cheeky grin that made me doubt him.
I cut the buns and put the burgers in the oven and then set the table. I counted heads in the room. Five. An extra two placemats were set out.
“Don’t we have too many place settings?”
“Beckett’s on his way,” Cayden supplied.
Something weird clenched in my gut at the sound of his name.
“Are you blushing?” Marcus sat up, his gaze fixed on my face.
