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“He won’t, and Preston will tell him before then. But for now, it’s just easier this way.”
“Easier for who?”
“Both of us.”
“And what’s the long-term plan here? To cover for each other the rest of your lives?”
She scrunched her nose up. “No, of course not. Neither of us has met anyone we’d like to pursue more with, and until that happens, why rock the boat?”
So this was what Preston wanted me to know. That there were no romantic feelings between him and Serena, just friendship. What the hell was I supposed to do with that? Hewas twenty-one and deep in the closet, and I was his girlfriend’s father to the rest of the world. Even with this information, there was no way anything more could happen between us. It had already gone too far.
“Dad?” Serena said softly. “Do you want to go get a drink, maybe? Talk a little more about?—”
“No. Thank you for telling me, but I think I’m done talking for now.” I wasn’t sure I could take any more confessions from her today. Not if they were along these lines. As it was, my brain was still trying to catch up.
“Okay. Did you just want to go home, then?”
My eyes caught on a small sign over the grouping of Douglas fir trees, and I shook my head before walking in that direction. “Not yet. We’ve got a tree to pick out.”
FOUR
preston
“AN ICED AMERICANO for Preston, and an Irish cream cold brew for Travis.”
I didn’t recognize the freshman Travis had solicited to grab our drinks for us from the Astor coffee bar while we lounged in a commandeered spot nearby, but I gave him a quick smile and a thanks before he scurried off.
Travis stretched out along the couch, making himself right at home between classes, then reached into his bag, pulled out a silver flask, and added a bit of whatever was inside to his coffee. When I raised a brow, he shrugged.
“What? You can’t have an Irish coffee without whiskey.”
I shook my head and punched my straw into the lid of my own drink—no spiking necessary. “Who was that?”
“Does it matter?” He took a long swallow of his doctored cold brew before scrolling through his phone. “I swear, this school is such a fucking bore. Even the gossip pages are lame. Not a damn thing happened over the weekend.”
“Are you really basing your time here on posts in the Astor Chronicles?” I didn’t bother glancing up at him as I scribbled down a few more notes from my last class.
“The big story for today, are you ready? ‘Kaia Zaffino denies plastic surgery rumors, insists obvious nose job is stress-related weight loss.’ Are you fucking kidding me?Thisis news? God, we need to fuck shit up.”
Rolling his eyes, Travis dropped his phone onto his lap as I bit back a grin. “Why do I feel like tomorrow’s headline will have something to do with you?”
“Because you know me. You interested?”
“I thought we were lying low after the Atticus payback?”
“We were, but it’s been weeks.” He picked his phone back up and began to type. “Now where the hell is East…?”
As Travis began to concoct whatever crazy plan he had for more attention—not like we needed it—I cracked my neck from side to side and reached for my drink—only to almost drop it when I caught sight of the man standing by the coffee bar across the room.
Like it always did when I saw him, my heartbeat went wild, speeding up and skipping at the same time. Sweat broke out on the back of my neck, and I had to tighten my grip on my coffee so it didn’t splatter all over the damn floor.
My eyes locked on Archer Carrington and refused to let go.
Why did he have to look so good? The black pinstripe suit he wore, tailored flawlessly to his leanly muscled frame, was entirely out of place at Astor but perfect for his job. Which made me wonder what he was doing here in the middle of the day. It couldn’t have anything to do with Serena—I’d just seen her before her last class started—and he didn’t look upset or panicked about anything.
No, he was giving a charming smile to the barista as he took his coffee, then he took a sip and slid a bill into the tip jar on the counter.
As he turned around, our eyes clashed across the room and he came to a stop. His fingers tightened on the cup in his handas a smile tugged at the corner of my lips. Any shock I’d felt from seconds ago vanished as my dick stood up like it wanted to say hi too.
