“I’ve decided that Harloe Rose will live with me. Do the paperwork.”
Ah, shit.
Lugging the last box through the door, I drop it unceremoniously to the floor. My nerves are tied in knots and have been ever since Jerricka allowed this to go down. Seeing each other around campus every once in a while and living together in the same apartment are two vastly different scenarios.
Hunter goes to this school, and there’s no way that Jenna will be able to keep a secret. Especially one who has the mouth exactly like his father.
Dammit, how am I supposed to tell Jenna that in a few months, it won’t be just the two of us living here?
Jenna’s unknowingly saddled herself with me and the mini version of Hunter Prince for the next four years, and the crazy bitch doesn’t even know it. Lord, give me strength because she’s going to flip when she finds out.
Again, for the hundredth time, I ask, “Jenna, are you sure about this?”
Flicking a look over her shoulder, she deadpans, “Again, yes!” She walks over toward the window, stretching her arms out wide. “What do you think about having some of those, kind of, like, mosquito netting curtains to hang right here?”
I nod, taking in the area. My stomach may be churning with unease, but the longer I look around, the more relief I feel.
Actually, this apartment is bigger than the one I was originally assigned. The bedrooms sit on opposite sides of the living room, which is a plus because Maverick pisses like a sailor during the night. This apartment was created with roommates in mind, not some family with a crazy girl like Jenna.
“I think that’d be perfect.”
The place is already furnished by the school, but, even now, I can see little tidbits here and there already from Jenna. How the world did she get so much already set up in the time it took to lug all my boxes up here?
She’s always been a firecracker but being fast isn’t necessarily her default setting. At least, it wasn’t in high school.
“We can get some pillows for the couch, too,” I put the idea out there as I run my hand along the back of the soft, worn, dove gray piece of furniture.
A small, carefree sigh releases from Jenna’s mouth. My eyes automatically drift to her as I return to my boxes and pick up the one labeled kitchen. She’s looking out the window, lost in thought, with a serene smile resting on her lips.
Lord have mercy, I wouldn’t even want to be stuck in her head right now, let alone subjected to it. But I also can’t deny that her peace is addictive. I want some of it for myself.
Instead of saying anything, I take my things to the kitchen and start unloading the box. I’m grabbing my Gammy’s cast iron when her voice reverberates off the walls and hits my ears, freezing me in place as my eyes widen in my skull.
“Why did you leave, Lo?”
Swallowing hard, I pretend not to understand her question, asking around a forced laugh, “What do you mean?”
She turns around to face me, a crestfallen expression lingering in her eyes. If I were a stranger, I’d want to console her, with her looking like someone ran over her best friend. I suppose they had—Hunter did a number on me in high school, and instead of staying, I ran away with my tail tucked between my legs.
So, high school must have been what she was thinking about when staring out the window. Now it makes sense. And, with everything in me, I wish I had an answer that I could give her. An answer that wouldn’t rat me out and risk getting tossed out onto my ass.
Of course, blaming it on Hunter would be an easy out, but something tells me Jenna would see right through that. We may not have been as close as when we were younger, but she still knows me. She was my best friend for a reason.
I lick my lips nervously. “I just needed new scenery, I guess.”
“Don’t bullshit me, Lo.” She stomps toward me, her tiny five-foot-nothing body coming to stand on the other side of the counter. Hands grasp the edge of the counter, fingers digging into the faux marble. “I know you, remember? I can tell when you’re diverting my line of questioning by pretending not to understand.”
Fuck. I forgot how forward she could be. “Damn, going to law school or something?”
She cocks a brow. “Yes.” Double fuck. “Now, answer the question.”
What do you say to someone in a situation like this? Especially to one of the only people who made your high school years bearable. There’s no way I can tell her about Maverick. At least, not right now. Some people just aren’t as welcoming of small children as I am.
Hell, for all I know, Jenna may loathe the very thought of children and hiss like a diseased cat when they come too close to her. With everything I know about her, this is something I’m unsure of.
So, Maverick will be my little secret until I can find the right time to tell her. Not that I don’t trust her or anything, because Jenna has never done me wrong—I just can’t take the chance she’ll want to leave.
Not that it’d be so terrible in the grand scheme of things. However, now that I’ve gotten a chance to be near her again, I know I want her here with me. And that also means hoping, when the time comes, that she will handle a little person tripping her up and asking a million questions.
Being near Jenna will make these months pass faster until I can have Maverick here. I need someone I can trust and that I actually enjoy being around to keep me company. I’ve never been by myself.
Thankfully, I didn’t pack any of his things on this first trip. Explaining that to Jenna would have been, undoubtedly, the worst thing I’d have to do. I’m thoroughly glad I decided to wait until I picked him up after winter break. We can assemble his bed and nightstand together, like Mommy and son fun time with pizza and milk, while I try to explain myself out of this hole with Jenna.
So, until then, I need to skirt around the subject. And in order to do that, I need to bring up that bona fide piece of horse’s ass, Hunter.
Without looking at her, I say, “Hunter forced me out of town.”
“Hunter?” She gawks, and her tone piques my interest, so I look, instantly regretting it when I see an expression of abject horror. “He was your boyfriend, best friend—hell, you were going to marry the guy! What happened? How come no one knew this? Everyone thought your parents were drug dealers and had to move really fast one night to keep from being arrested. Wasn’t until people saw your daddy still at the Prince’s company that those rumors died down.”
“Drug dealers?” I deadpan, cocking a brow. “Mr. and Mrs. Do-Right-By-the-Lord?”
She nods. “Not even joking, Lo. Everyone thought that because it happened so fast.”
Nodding, I resume my unpacking. “I guess that makes sense. We did leave in the middle of the night like criminals.” I force out a laugh, but it’s dead and bored. “But no, it was that bastard.”
“Harloe—” I can tell by her tone of voice that she’s going to get all ooey-gooey on me, and I decide to stop her right there.
Shaking my head, I give her a half-smile, not really meaning it but just a front to get her to stop. “Don’t even worry about it, Jenna. He’s not worth another thought.”
She gives me a hard look. “You do realize that Hunter isn’t in California, right? He’s here.”