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“Bastard.” Jonathan shakes his head. “Well, you won’t have to worry about that happening again at a new place. What company did you end up hiring to move your stuff?”
I bite my lip to hide my smile as we pass the information desk. We wave at Megan and Dora before moving toward the front stairwell.
“I just found a couple of students who needed a few bucks,” I tell him once I can keep from chuckling. It’s not exactly a lie. Grant and Jasonarestudents.
Most of the morning, my guys have been moving the stuff I’d salvaged from my old apartment, which I’d been keeping in a storage unit, to my new apartment. I wish I could say this whole process had been easy. From justlookingat other places, to putting my pen to paper on a new lease, the guys have been giving me a hard time.
“You should just move in with us,” Jason whined when he’d stopped by my hotel room the night I was reading over the new lease.
“I can’t move in with you guys.”
I considered it. I’d gone back a few days after the four of us solidified what we had. Being back in that condo hadn’t been as awful as I thought it would be. Maybe because they’d removed the carpeting in the bedroom and repainted the walls a completely different color and even replaced the bed. It wasn’t until I woke up screaming bloody murder that I realized how deep that trauma went.
“Anyway, when I get tired of your shit, or you with mine, I have a place to run away,” I teased.
Jason had flopped down onto the bed and pulled me close to nuzzle his face into my neck. “First, you know we’ll just make a key for this new place too. You’ll never be able to run and hide from us. Two, this is only temporary. Once Grant and I are not longer students at Groveton at the end of this Spring semester, you don’t have an excuse not to be seen driving around with us or living with us. You’ll be ours to play with whenever, wherever we want.Indefinitely. That’s non-negotiable.”
To drown out my protests, Jason had dicked me senseless before we both fell asleep. Just thinking about it has me pressing my thighs together.
“Damn, that was smart, asking around here,” Jonathan whistles. “I should’ve done that when we moved into our current house.”
“Well, you put an offer down on a house, right? You can use this little trick for that move when it comes,” I point out.
As we walk through the two sets of glass doors out onto campus, Jonathan scoffs.
“We’restillwaiting to hear back from the agent. This is the fourth house that we’ll have missed if they reject our offer.”
I open my mouth to give my opinion on the matter, but an older gentleman steps in front of us as we start to descend the stairs in front of the Atwater Library. As my gaze lands on his face, my breath leaves me in a whoosh, my heart skips a beat, and my step falters.
The man in front of us has brown hair with silver streaks on either side of his temple, and his goatee is showing some signs of graying. But despite the signs of aging, his resemblance to his son is uncanny. With fair, flawless skin, a well-built frame, and dressed in a simple yet expensive sports jacket, Garry Gipson is an attractive man.
An attractive man who is rumored to be a verydangerousindividual.
“Miss Wilson?” he asks, his smile wide and friendly.
With a great deal of difficulty, I force myself to smile back. “Yes?”
Grant’s dad offers his hand, his smile widening, “Garry Gipson. It’s nice to finally meet the woman my son is dating.”
Beside me, Jonathan sucks in a sharp breath. Both Garry and I ignore him as we stare each other down. His eyes, a rich reddish-brown, similar to Grant’s yet much colder, drill into my face. While his smile still clings to his face, I feel like he’s trying to read me. Or maybe he’s trying to scare me. He did show up at my place of work, unannounced and at the end of my shift. That tells me he’s been watching me.
But for what purpose? And why approach me now? To disarm me? To make things uncomfortable? Well, if he’s waiting for a flustered woman, he clearly hasn’t done enough research on me. As his son learned over the past semester, I’m not a woman that will back down, nor do I intimidate easily.
Straightening my spine and holding his gaze, I ask, “Mr. Gipson, this is an unexpected surprise. Do you make it a habit to accost all the women that your son sees or am I just unlucky?”
Grant’s dad chuckles, clearly unperturbed by my cool tone.
“You’ll have to forgive me. I only go to these measures when curiosity gets the best of me.” He tilts his head to one side. “I wanted to see if we could grab some coffee and talk sometime? I’d love to get to know the woman Grant’s been hiding from me. I had to find out from an old friend that you were in his life.” He shakes his head with fatherly exasperation and gives Jonathan a sheepish look before I regain his attention. “You must be pretty important to him that he’s being so tight-lipped about your relationship.”
He wants to grab coffee and talk? Unease unravels in my gut as small warning bells chime in my head. There’s a reason Grant, Jason, and Trip hate this man. I know some of their reasons, but I’m sure they haven’t even told me half of them. Not if their extensive plan of revenge is anything to go by. So, if he’s their enemy, he’s mine too.
“I’m sorry, but I’m a private person, and if Grant hasn’t divulged information about us, you won’t get it from me either. Now, if you don’t mind…”
Garry’s brows raise at the same time Jonathan lets out a nervous laugh.
“Bri, this istheGarry Gipson. He’s kind of a big deal around Groveton, and practically all the surrounding cities.” He hooks his arm through mine and nudges me with his shoulder.
Garry flashes him a grin. “A big deal? No, I’m just a small town man that likes to get involved in the community from time to time.” He looks back at me. “Are you sure I can’t talk you into coffee?”
