Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
SUMMER
School went as well as can be expected, especially since I found myself being pulled from lessons to be given online classes in the library. According to our principal, he’d discussed yesterday with my guardian, and they agreed it was best for me to avoid classes until further notice.
When I tried messaging Travis, my texts bounced back, and when I tried to call him, his number came up as unavailable. A niggling feeling in the back of my mind tells me this is Mase’s doing, and coming between my friendships is not something I’m willing to stand for.
Travis and I tell each other everything; he’s been my rock, so Mase has no right to step between us. He needs to learn to trust me, because Travis and I never have, nor ever will have, anything sexual going on between us.
As soon as the bell rings, I pack up my bags and head out to the truck waiting in the same parking spot it dropped me off at this morning.
“Good day?” He smiles, and I scoot into the seat and slam the door shut behind me. Resting one hand on the gear shifter, he places the truck into reverse, and I squirm at the size of his hand. What the hell is it about guys with big hands?
I give my head a shake and focus on the road. “Are you kidding?” I watch him from the corner of my eye.
He rolls his lip into his mouth, a lip I’d love to suck on. Jesus, Summer, get a grip. “Take that as a no. Did you puke again? I told you to call me, and I’d pick you up.”
“No. I didn’t puke again.” I cross my arms over my chest, and his eyes dart to my tits. “You got me moved out of class.”
He pulls out of the parking spot. “Yeah.”
Annoyance rumbles through me. “Yeah? Did you block Travis’s number too?”
He turns his head. “I told you to cut contact with him. I switched your phone out, and now you only have the numbers in there that you need.”
Who the hell does he think he is? He took my phone?
“You’re to cut contact with Travis.” He sneers when he says his name.
“And I told you that wasn’t going to happen.”
“Pretty sure I spanked your ass, and you agreed.”
My nostrils flare, and I shake my head. “That’s not what happened, and you know it.”
“Potatoe, potato.” He shrugs.
Is he serious right now?
“Summer, look at it from my point of view. I come to my father’s home, find the girl of my dreams in bed with a chump, half naked, and you expect me to be okay with your excuse of he’s my best friend. It’s fine, nothing happened.”
I soften beneath his words. When he puts it like that, the man does have a point, and girl of his dreams? Swoon.
“Nothing happened between me and Travis. It never has.”
“And I believe you.” He shifts in his seat.
“But Sum, I’m not going to lie to you, I have trust issues.
” This is new information to me. “That ex-wife I mentioned …” Yeah, the one who sends jealousy coursing through me at the thought of her existence.
She had a part of him I will never have, and I hate her for it.
My hands twist in my school skirt, and I remain silent.
“She cheated on me a lot.” Just hearing the word “cheated” on his lips makes me want to crawl into his lap to comfort him.
I should high-five the bitch for doing me a favor, but with the disappointment in his tone, it makes me want to murder her, painfully.
But his words are also striking because it’s not dissimilar to his mother’s past relationship, where she was the victim just like he is. Only, I’m not sure he realizes it yet, and that’s something he needs to come to terms with himself, so I don’t mention it.
I scan over Mase and his gorgeous self. “She’s insane.”
He chuckles, and his lip lifts at the end. “Well, that may be so, but our divorce left me with a lot of issues.”
Pulling into the parking lot of a diner, he turns the engine off before facing me. His fingers toy with the strands of hair that have broken away from the braid he insisted on me wearing.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Sum. But I can’t have you getting into bed with other guys. You’re either all in or not at all, sweetheart.”
I find myself nodding to his words, but deep inside, I know it’s me who’s going to hurt him with my secrets.