Healed (6 page)

“Hi.” He smiled and brushed a piece of hair away from my face.

Pulling myself into a sitting position, I looked around for a clock. Then I remembered that Andrew used his phone for everything. There was no clock in his room. “What time is it?”

“A little after four.”

“Wow. I slept that long.”

His hand came up to caress my cheek. “I think you needed the rest.”

“I guess I did. How did I get up here? I don’t remember waking up to walk up the stairs.”

He laughed. “You didn’t. You were dead to the world, so I carried you up.”

The muscles in my shoulders and back were so tense. Reaching above my head with both arms, I did the best I could to stretch them out. When my arms dropped, Andrew’s hands landed on my shoulders, rubbing relaxing the muscles.

“Mmm . . .” I sighed. It felt wonderful.

Leaning down, he pressed a small kiss to my cheek. “Just so you know, a few people stopped over to hang out.”

This was news. “Who?”

“Caleb, Angie, and Josh. Morgan and Nick went to go grab pizzas.”

“Josh is here?”

“Yeah, apparently Lauren is with her mom for the next two days. Caleb and Angie thought he needed to get out of the apartment.”

“We can hang out with them if you like, or we can hide in here for the rest of the night? It’s up to you.”

Did I really want to hang out with everyone tonight? I was still pretty tired, but it would be good for me to spend some time with my friends. It would be fun and a chance to relax, just like brunch .

“Let me just change real fast. I think it will do Josh good to be out and about for a few hours."

“Okay, I’ll be in the living room.”

Placing a soft, sweet kiss on my mouth, he turned and left the room. The feeling of peace always surrounded me when Andrew was nearby.

I didn’t let many people in. Andrew was one of the few exceptions. It wasn’t like I had issues at home that made me pull into myself—quite the opposite. My family and I were close and, next to Angie, my sister was my best friend. As for my parents, there were no secrets between us. In high school, I was completely insecure, always worried about what people would think of me, so when I left for college I promised myself I wasn’t going to be that way. I wasn’t like that at home with my parents. In fact, most of the time my temper was out of control. There was no reason that I couldn’t be like that in college . . . perhaps with just a little less bitchiness.

The idea partly worked. I was no longer the girl who avoided things out of fear, and I earned a reputation for speaking my mind. It was an okay trade. My friends knew me well enough to understand that when I flipped my lid, it was just my temper talking.

Then there was Andrew. He was the one person I let in, and the person who saw all of me. For the first time in a long time it didn’t matter that I had a temper or that I got in trouble for speaking my mind, because Andrew loved me for me.

Sighing, I sat down on the edge of the bed, trying to regroup my thoughts quickly, knowing if I wasn’t out there soon, Andrew would get worried and come looking for me.

It didn’t take me long to change into a pair of jeans and a long sleeve top. The days were getting warmer the further we got into spring, but the nights were still very cool. The minute I opened the door, the smell greeted my nose. Chinese food—one of my favorites. When I walked into the living room, everyone was sitting around, white containers and chopsticks in their hands.

“That smells so good,” I said when I reached the end of the hallway.

“Hey, sweetie. Did you have a good nap?” Angie asked from her seat across the room, a big smile on her face.

“Yeah. Not enough sleep lately. Too much studying,” I answered, knowing Angie was probably just as tired as I was, since Lauren was staying with them.

“Yeah. Me too. School sucks sometimes.”

Because my attention had been on Angie, I was surprised when a white container and a pair of chopsticks appeared in front of me. At the same time, a set of lips touched right behind my ear, sending shivers through my body.

“I got your favorite,” Andrew whispered in my ear, lifting his mouth from me. Cool air kissed the skin on my neck where his lips had been, and I was disappointed he’d moved. He could have left his lips on me all night.

I leaned back against him. “Thank you.”

Andrew didn’t let me stay standing for long. Soon enough, he led me over to the couch to sit between him and Angie. Still smiling, I dug into my food. I was absolutely starving. It didn’t help that I hadn’t eaten since brunch.

Andrew looked over at me and laughed. “Hungry?”

“Mmhmm,” I agreed around a mouth full of food.

He brushed a piece of hair back from my face. “That’s what you get for sleeping the day away and missing lunch.”

If I hadn’t been so intent on not putting my chopsticks down, I would have smacked him for being an ass, especially with the smirk he was giving me. He was in so much trouble later.

“No witty come back from Em. I think that scares me more than when she yells,” Caleb said, chuckling quietly.

I didn’t want to disappoint but since my mouth was full of food, I had to resort to flipping him off.

“See, there’s the Em we all know and love.” Caleb was full out laughing. I looked over at Angie, who was watching Caleb like he’d lost his mind. Slowly I set my food down, prepared to let him have it when Angie spoke up.

“Umm . . . sweetheart,” she said. “I’m not sure that’s the best idea. Actually, you’re starting to sound like Josh.”

I stood up, taking slow careful steps over to where Caleb was sitting. “If you want to be that way, I’m sure we can arrange a freak-out if you’d like,” I said, smiling sweetly at him. Turning, I gave Angie a quick wink so she would play along. If Caleb wanted to be a smartass he was going to pay for it—not with yelling, but with pure torture. Nick and Morgan sat at the kitchen island, laughing as I stalked Caleb like a lioness would stalk her prey. The smirk on his face quickly disappeared and his eyes widened.

“I’m . . . I’m sorry, Em. I was just joking,” Caleb pleaded, his hands held up in surrender, his eyes darting between Angie and Andrew, looking for help.

Andrew shook his head. “Don’t look at me, man. You’re the one who started with her. You should know better by now.”

Just watching Caleb get all freaked out was worth it. Leaning down—watching his eyes practically bug out of his head—I placed a kiss on his cheek, stood up and walked away. The whole room burst out in laughter as Caleb sat there sputtering.

But there was one laugh missing.

That was when I looked over to where Josh was sitting. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days, the frown lines etched around his eyes and mouth saying it all. Things with Lauren hadn’t gotten any better since I’d seen her a few days ago. She was in a lot of pain and completely miserable.

Walking over I took the seat next to him and rested my hand on his leg. The dark circles under his eyes just about did me in. He was always the one cracking the jokes, or the first one on your side when you did, so it was hard to see him suffering. Josh and I had been friends for the last three years, long before I met Andrew and Caleb, and he looked like he could use a friend more than anything. Living with Caleb and Angie, I knew they would be looking out for him, but I knew from experience that there were just those times that you needed to talk to someone outside of the situation, to see if you could get it to make any sense.

“How’s Lauren?”

Josh’s head rolled across the back of the couch to look at me as he shrugged his shoulders. The emptiness in his eyes said more than words could, but that didn’t mean he needed to keep quiet. At some point you just had to let stuff out.

“Tell me.”

He sighed and closed his eyes. “She hasn’t been eating or sleeping right. I’m just hoping it’s more about the pain and less about her fears about playing again. Pain goes away. I guess we’ll know more after she sees the physical therapist.”

“Oh, honey.” I patted his leg. “She’ll be all right. Just give her time to adjust. It’s not like this happened on the field. She also has to deal with the fact that someone she knew hurt her. That’s a lot to take in.”

“I know, it’s just hard to watch her in so much pain. I’m hoping the next few days with her mom will help.”

With a small smile, I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and squeezed. “It will. You know we’ll keep coming over to help as much as we can.

“Thanks, Em.” His face pulled up into a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“April after graduation,” I heard Andrew saying. That got my attention. Apparently, conversation had turned to our wedding.

“I still can’t believe you guys are engaged.” Josh laughed, showing a little of his former self.

I leaned over to whisper in his ear. “To be honest, neither can I.”

His brows drew together as he watched me. “I don’t understand. I thought you were happy?”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I am. I just never thought he’d get up enough courage to ask!”

That sent Josh into fits of laughter. And just like that, things seemed a little more normal in the room, the tension surrounding Josh easing. That’s when I turned back to the conversation going on in the rest of the room.

“Why wait ’til April?” Caleb asked.

“Because it’ll give us time to get through your wedding and still have time to plan our own,” I answered.

Angie’s head snapped around. “You don’t have to worry about planning your wedding around ours. You guys shouldn’t have to wait so long to get married.”

“Angie’s right,” Caleb chimed in. “Don’t wait ’til after we get married to start planning yours.”

“Thanks, man,” Andrew said, walking over to sit down next to me. His eyes shot a brief glance down at me as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. “I think there’s more to it than that.”

Typical. There wasn’t, not really. Angie’s eyes moved to mine, reading me. We’d been roommates since freshman year, and had hit it off from day one. There wasn’t anything I didn’t know about her, including the fact that her dad was a verbally abusive asshole who was now behind bars. In the same way, there wasn’t anything she didn’t already know about me. She could read me better than Andrew, most of the time. It was no longer a casual gaze, but a piercing look and I knew there was nothing I could say to make her drop it.

“Is your dad still giving you a hard time about wanting to move in with Andrew for senior year?”

She knew exactly what the problem was. We’d been through it before. The first semester of sophomore year I’d wanted to move off campus, but my father was having none of it. His belief was that campus was there for a reason, and as a student, I should take any advantage of any amenities offered by the school. But not living with Andrew was starting to get annoying.

“Yeah.” I let out a sigh. “He’s worried that my grades will drop because I’m spending all of my time with Andrew.”

Looking around the room, I realized that everyone but Morgan already lived on their own. Some had the help of their parents for some things, but my parents still paid for everything, and while that was partly my fault for letting them, it didn’t make me feel any better that they did that for me—or the fact that they got to choose whether or not I lived on campus.

Looking down at my hands, I confessed my fear to my friends. “He makes it so hard. He’s my dad and technically they’re paying for all of this, so I kind of feel bad going against his wishes. On the other hand, I think of how much more studying I could get done if I didn’t have to travel between two different places.

“Oh, sweetie,” Angie said as she came over and sat next to me. ”Why don’t you just talk to him? That was two years ago. Now you’re engaged to be married. It’s not like you want to move in with some random person.”

“I know, I know. Mom pulled me aside at brunch this morning and suggested the same thing.”

“Em,” Andrew said in a soft voice. “You don’t have to move in with me now if it’s going to be a hassle, but if your mom’s right, I would love you to live with me all of senior year.”

My head snapped up to look at him. “You think I should? For the last few months you told me that we’d figure it out when school was done. You said there was no sense in upsetting my dad. What changed your mind?

He shrugged his shoulders, but his eyes never left mine. “What you just said about your conversation with your mom, because she said the same thing to me this morning.”

“Maybe I will try talking to my dad again.”

Andrew wrapped his arm around me and squeezed. “That’s my girl.”

“Now I’m excited.”

“Why?” Andrew’s brow furrowed.

“I thought we wouldn’t live together until we got married.”

He wiggled his eyebrows and I smiled as he said, “I like this plan better.”

“Here’s another question . . . where will we live?”

“Umm . . . here?”

“I thought we’d find a place of our own.”

“We could, but since we haven’t seen anything we’ve liked, I think this is the next best option.”

“Well, you live with Nick. I thought the soonest we might actually live together would be after graduation, not before. So I never really thought of the
where
aspect and worried that much about the apartments we did look at.”

“So you don’t want to move in with me?” Even though he was trying to hide it, I could see the hurt in his eyes.

“No, that’s not what I’m saying. I want to move in with you, but what about Nick?”

“Nick and I already talked about it. If you don’t mind him staying, we can do what Caleb, Angie, and Josh do. If not, he agreed to find another place to live.”

The last thing I wanted was for Nick to be forced to take me on as a roommate. Well, at least until the wedding—then he was on his own.

I turned to Nick. “Is that true?”

He looked at me, excitement in his eyes. “Absolutely. You guys are practically living together already, but if you want me to go, I will. There are always places to stay.” He gave me a quick wink that let me know there would be no hard feelings either way.

“And if I said I didn’t want you to leave, would you mind living with the two of us?”