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That could be the only reason for this call. They rarely checked in with her lately, since she’d proven herself to be such an unfit daughter. She’d hoped getting back into school might begin to heal their fractured relationship. In fact, that had been her goal for the better part of six months. And here she was with a sterling chance to write the best, most well-researched paper of her life, and what was she doing?
Getting involved feet over head. Or ass over heart, since those were the two parts of her hurting the most.
She sneaked a glance at West. He’d rolled back on the bed and had propped his arms behind his head. His body was ridiculous. Ink and muscles and miles of tanned skin. But it was what was in his head and heart that really lured her. How considerate he was. The way he made her laugh. How he looked at her and s
aw who she truly was and never wanted her to change. If anything, he kept doing everything he could to show her he didn’t want her to move too fast or take on too much too soon.
Too late there. Because she’d already fallen overboard and was sinking fast.
Her mother was talking and she wasn’t even listening. She was brooding about West. Shocker.
“What did you say? Sorry, bad connection.”
“It sounds perfectly clear to me, Lauren.” Her mother sighed. “I’m choosing to believe you went on this—this tour to make sure your paper was perfectly sourced the second time around. Not to chase rockstars for drugs and sex.”
“Right about one of those things,” Lauren muttered, clearing her throat. “You know I don’t take drugs, Mother. I don’t even drink. Ever.”
West opened his eyes and lifted his head and she shrugged. She was a wild woman in many ways, what could she say?
“But sexual intercourse with rockstars, that’s now part of your life?”
She could lie, or she could change the subject, or she could tell the truth. “Make it singular and now we’re talking.”
“Lauren Marie.” Her mother sounded simply aghast.
“Mother, I’m three months away from twenty-four. Fucking is not something to be ashamed of.”
Clearly, she’d lost her mind, as proven by the way West was now leaning up on one elbow and grinning. As if he was proud she was swearing at her mother and making sexual confessions.
Well, hell, she was proud of herself, so he should be too.
“And you know what else, Mother? It wasn’t just garden variety—”
“No. You are not going to raise my blood pressure before I’ve even told you the reason for this call. Though I have to wonder if we’re too late.”
She couldn’t deal with this today of all days. She’d been apologizing for who she was her entire life. Now she was happy and she was supposed to apologize for that too.
Bad enough she missed Ethan something fierce in her quieter moments and felt so guilty for unintentionally hurting him that she wanted nothing more than to call him and apologize over and over again.
But if she called, he’d tell her to come home. To leave West and go back to her regular daily existence. And that thought made her physically sick.
She knew she would have to soon. She couldn’t become a professional groupie.
Did such things exist? See, if she’d done her research properly the first time, she would know these things. Instead she’d cheated and done something immoral and it had led her to certain ruin, which had then led her to the very best thing in her life.
Better than she’d ever dreamed.
Hard to imagine that was the best commercial against doing bad things, but there it was.
“That bad connection again,” Lauren said, voice clipped. “You should talk fast.”
“Your father and I pulled some strings. If you present your research so far—in whatever format you’ve compiled to this date—and vow to abide by all college policies and procedures, along with keeping your nose clean in your personal life,” her mother cleared her throat, “the university would accept you into your degree program once again. Pending board review and an acceptable personal interview, but I assume you can be on your best behavior for that long at least.”
Her breath tripped and she reached out to steady herself on the dresser. Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed West sitting up, and she could guess his grin was gone.
He was concerned about her. Knew just from her silence and her body language that she’d been told something bad.
Except it wasn’t supposed to be bad. This was what she’d been working for since the fall. Ineffectually, true. She’d gotten caught up on the low wage treadmill, trying to put together enough money to get her own place along with paying some rent to her best friend. It wasn’t right for her to sponge off Ethan.
