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When I’d decided to go to medical school, I’d known it was going to be tough. But it was more than that. It was insane. I’d had a grand total of three hours of sleep last night, couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten something that didn’t come from the hospital vending machine, and if it weren’t for the fact he and I lived together, wouldn’t have seen Hampton at all in the last week.
My social life was dormant, my love life non-existent.
Not that it had ever really been bright and vibrant in the first place. I’d spent years pining after a man I couldn’t have, and although I’d long since come to accept the fact Hampton and I would never be anything more than the closest of friends, I still hadn’t been able to find a man who could compare to him. It was a prison I’d put myself in, but was still suffocating nonetheless.
“Pip!” Hampton shouted from the living room. “We gotta go!”
With a sigh, I decided to forego any makeup and grabbed my hairbrush instead before rushing out of the house behind him.
“Mom! We’re here,” Hampton called as we rushed through the door, officially half an hour late for dinner.
“In here, son!” was the reply from the formal dining room.
Dinner with the Reeds was a common occurrence, although recently I hadn’t been able to attend as often as I would have liked due to my crazy schedule. But we’d made it a point to have dinner with them at least once a month.
We rounded the corner, and Hampton and Smith came to a stop so suddenly I ran into the back of them.
“Lawson!” Hampton shouted, shock lacing his voice. “What the hell are you doing here?”
My heart stopped. I wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly. Lawson was home? I didn’t think he would ever come back. The surprise must have worn off because Hampton strode across the room, wrapping his arms around a man I didn’t recognize.
That is not Lawson.
I wasn’t sure who this man was, but there was no way the person standing before us, hugging Hampton, was the nerdy guy who left for Vegas eight years ago.
He’d come home once during that time, and it was coincidentally when I was out of town. I hadn’t seen or heard a single word from him since that night we’d slow danced in the front yard.
But the longer I studied the man in front of me, the more I could see the same lanky kid who had held me while I cried over the loss of my twin brother.
Sadness washed over me, something I hadn’t experienced in a while, too busy trying to survive medical school to stop and think about how much I wished my brother were there for me to talk to. He would have been so proud of me.
I sometimes wondered what he would be doing right now. Would he have gone off to college? The military? Or would he have preferred to work with his hands? Would he and Hampton have stayed together?
“Piper? You okay, honey?” Mrs. Reed asked, pulling me out of my trance.
I cleared my throat and nodded, my eyes finding Lawson’s. I was sure the disbelief I was feeling was written all over my face, but I couldn’t have concealed it even if I had wanted to.
The Lawson standing before me was…sexy.
His hair was thick and styled, no longer the messy mop of unruly curls it used to be.
His arms were muscular, straining the sleeves of his plain black T-shirt.
His face was covered in a well-trimmed stubble and his brown eyes were behind a pair of stylish black frames.
He wasn’t just sexy…he was fucking drool-worthy and I couldn’t stop staring at him.
“Lawson!” I managed to squeak out. “You’re back.”
His mouth was set in a thin line as he stared at where Smith and I were standing, but he tipped his chin up in my direction and grunted some sort of greeting before turning on his heel and making a beeline for the kitchen. “Ma. Got a minute?” he said over his shoulder, not waiting for her to agree.
She smiled broadly, her eyes twinkling, and then shuffled off after him.
Amid the shock of Lawson’s unexpected appearance, I hadn’t even noticed Georgia sitting at the table next to Mr. Reed. She pushed to her feet and rushed over to me, throwing her arms around my shoulders.
“Piper!” she squealed. “Hampton said he wasn’t sure if you were going to make dinner tonight!” She leaned away from me, her hands resting on my shoulders. “You look so…tired.”
I groaned, louder than I should have, when I realized I looked like the living dead.
