Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Danielle was furious with Austin for cancelling on her, so she dumped him,” Sarah said, eyeing me from across the table. “Then he showed up to her math class. He sang her a song that he’d written for her. She forgave him, and they’re a couple again.”
I chuckled, glad that Sarah and I finally had time to catch up.
The two of us had been missing each other due to our crazy schedules, so we’d decided to have breakfast today in the dining hall.
In front of me, I had a large plate of eggs, bacon, and a sesame bagel with butter.
Now that I knew I didn’t have diabetes, I wasn’t being as careful with what I ate.
“I really hope someone got that on video.”
“I’ll ask Danielle,” she said. “I’m sure someone did.” She finished her pancakes. “So…”
I glanced up at her as I took a bite of my bacon. “Yeah?”
“You didn’t come home last night.” She raised her brows in question.
My face warmed just thinking about the time I’d spent with Rowan.
After studying, we’d fooled around, and he ended up giving me a killer orgasm.
Then we slept in each other’s arms. The entire thing had been perfect.
However, I didn’t know how much I wanted to share with Sarah. It seemed kind of personal.
“You texted me that you were at the rugby house,” she prodded. “Were you with Adan?” While she knew Adan and I were just friends and there was nothing romantic between us, I felt like she wanted us to get together, though I had no idea why.
“Actually, I was with Rowan,” I admitted, a smile spreading across my face.
“Shut up!” She slapped the table, garnering a few glances from people sitting nearby. “I want all the details. Don’t hold out on me.” Her eyes widened, and a grin spread across her face.
“Do I ever ask you questions about your alone time with George?” I countered, not wanting to share too much about my night with Rowan, since it was private.
“No. And you should.” She took a sip of her coffee. “And it’s not alone time. It’s sex. I don’t know why you need to use euphemisms. Just say it. Sex.”
I rolled my eyes. “Rowan and I are just dating.” Technically, that made us boyfriend and girlfriend.
“We were up late studying, so I spent the night. Nothing happened.” I mean, stuff happened, just not actual sex.
I sighed. He sure knew what he was doing in that department.
If he was that good with his fingers, I couldn’t imagine how good he’d be with other parts of his body.
“Uh huh,” Sarah said, not believing me. “Where’d you sleep?”
“Um, in his bed.” It sounded more like a question than an answer.
“Exactly. There’s no way you can tell me you slept with Rowan in his fucking bed, and nothing happened.” She looked at me point blank, challenging me to tell her otherwise.
“Okay,” I said, taking a bite of my bacon. “We fooled around. But that’s all.”
“I knew it.” She finished off her coffee. “There’s no way anyone shares a bed with that man without sampling the goods.”
I barked out a laugh, almost choking on my bacon in the process. I had to take a gulp of my water.
“To tell you the truth, I’m actually surprised he’s dating,” Sarah said. “Nothing against you, I love you, but he’s not known for being the dating type. Or monogamous, for that matter.”
“He dated Emily,” I pointed out, wondering if the two of them had slept together.
“Yeah, but she’s the only girl he’s dated since being here at SU. And they were really good friends before they started dating. Plus, at parties and stuff, they never really seemed like a couple.”
I shrugged. “It’s new, so we’ll see.” Rowan could get bored with me and move on. Or I might end up not liking him as much as I thought I did, in which case I’d break up with him.
“Just…be careful with him,” Sarah said, her voice softer than before.
“Why do you say that?” I checked my phone and realized I needed to get to class.
“He’s always the life of the party. I’ve seen him fool around with a lot of girls. I’ve even seen him go off with girls. Plural.”
At the one frat party I’d gone to, I saw him go upstairs with those two girls. He’d told me nothing happened, and I’d believed him because he’d seemed sincere. Just the thought of him being with someone else made my skin sweat and my stomach twist with nausea.
“Don’t worry,” I assured her as I stood. “I’m not in a rush, and I’ll be careful. I don’t even need a boyfriend.”
Thick, solid arms slid around my torso. “Did someone say boyfriend?” Rowan growled in my ear, making me hot all over.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, twisting to look at his gorgeous face. His hair was still damp as if he’d just stepped out of the shower. He kept his arms locked around me, like he didn’t want to let me go. I hadn’t expected to see him again today.
“We had a heavy lift session. Now I need food, but I saw you and got distracted.” He kissed my lips while sliding his hands down to my ass and squeezing it. “Want to go back to my place?”
I put my palms on his chest. “As tempting as that is, I have class.” I couldn’t believe how natural it was to be with Rowan.
He leaned his forehead against mine. “Fine. Go learn things and be smart.”
“You’re not going to walk me to class?”
“I really do need to eat.”
I lifted on my toes and kissed his lips. “I’ll talk to you after your game tonight.”
“You can count on it, Laney Lake.” He finally released me.
I grabbed my bag and waved bye to Sarah. Her eyes were wide like baseballs as she looked from me to Rowan and back again. Ignoring her shocked expression, I headed off to class.
I was in my room studying when my alarm went off, reminding me to call my mother for my evening check-in. I set my laptop aside and picked up my phone.
“It’s nice to see you remembered,” she said when she answered.
I cringed, hating when she acted this way. When she was in one of her moods, it was best to ignore her snide comments. “Hi, Mom,” I said, gushing with sweetness. “How has your day been?”
There was an unnaturally long pause, which was very unlike my mom.
“Are you there?” I asked, sitting on my bed, leaning against the wall.
“I’m here,” she finally answered. “Today has been a long day. A compliance team showed up. I wasn’t anticipating or prepared for that.”
I didn’t think I’d ever heard of my mom dealing with someone coming in to inspect her lab. She was entirely funded by private donors and only worked for those who could afford to pay her. Since there was no federal or state money, I didn’t know who she’d have to comply with.
“Is everything all right?” I asked, scrolling though my college emails to make sure I hadn’t missed anything.
“Yes,” she replied. “Everything is fine.”
“That’s good. How’s Dad?” I didn’t have much to say since I texted and talked to her every single day. It was a bit much.
“Dad is busy. As always. You know him.”
I did. His area of expertise made him in demand. “I forgot to tell you that I got an A on my physics exam.”
“Wonderful,” my mom said. “Did anyone show up to your dorm today asking any strange questions? Or has someone emailed you that you don’t know?”
“No one has shown up, and I get a ton of emails every day. You’re going to have to be more specific.”
“With this compliance thing,” she said, her voice sounding partly irritated, “they were asking about you. Probably since you worked here with me for the past two years. I thought they might try to contact you. You know, about safety procedures or things of that nature.”
Her words sent a spark of fear through me.
The other day, those guys were here watching me.
She couldn’t possibly be referring to them, could she?
Under normal circumstances, I’d say no. But given that she was giving me fake medicine and I wasn’t entirely human, I had to consider that my mom knew exactly what was going on and was choosing to keep it from me.
That being the case, these compliance people she mentioned could be the people who wanted me dead.
I was about to broach the subject when my mom started talking.
“If anyone shows up, you don’t have to speak to them,” she said. It seemed like she was forcing her voice to sound uninterested. Bored almost.
“I’ll let you know if anyone tries talking to me.”
“Good. Well, I need to be going.”
My mom never got off the phone first. She always tried to drag out our conversations as long as possible.
Not only that, but she hadn’t asked me about last night.
I’m sure she tracked me and saw I didn’t return to my room.
Something huge was definitely on her mind if she wasn’t grilling me about that.
“Okay, Mom. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Love you.”
“Love you, too.” She hung up.
When I opened my door Friday morning, I found Rowan standing there with a bunch of wildflowers in hand.
“Morning, gorgeous,” he said, handing them to me.
I hadn’t expected to see him this early in the morning. “You’re going to spoil me,” I said, taking the flowers and smelling them.
“That’s the plan.” He slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I’m slammed all day, and I have a home game tonight. Do you want to come and watch? Then after, we can grab something to eat and hang out at my place.”
I tried to hide the blush that was spreading across my face. If hanging out at his place included fooling around like last time, I was all in. “What time is the game?” I asked.
“Six.”
“I’ll be there.”
“Come on,” he said, tilting his head. “I’ll walk you out.”
I put the flowers in a cup of water before heading out with him.
When we exited the dorm, he told me to hang on. He ran over to his truck in the parking lot and opened the passenger door. He grabbed something, then returned to where I stood on the sidewalk.
“This is for you. In case you want to wear it.” He handed me folded fabric.