Page 45 of For Emery

Jordan stood there with a ball cap on backward. Just looking at him sent goosebumps scrambling up my arms. “Ready?” he asked.

I glanced down at my skinny jeans and Alabama T-shirt. “I overslept and am kind of a mess.”

“You’re beautiful,” he said.

My eyes flew up at the same time Raquel sighed.

“Can I have you?” she asked him, her head suddenly out from under her blankets. “Unless you’re already taken, of course.”

He gazed at me. The look in his eyes held questions—lots of unspoken questions. “Nope. It’d take a special girl to handle this much man.”

I grabbed a sweatshirt from my closet before glancing to Raquel. “Still want him?”

“I don’t mind a little cheese with my muscles,” she said.

I pegged her with my eyes. “Take good notes.”

She rolled her eyes.

Jordan and I walked outside and toward the cars parked in front of my dorm.

I looked for his old red truck, so the souped-up black one that beeped when he pushed the button caught me off guard. “New truck?” I asked, reaching for the handle.

Jordan bumped me out of the way and opened the door for me. “My parents got it for me. They thought it’d be a lot safer than the old one. I think they thought it would get me to come home more often, too.”

“You don’t visit them?”

“Usually just holidays.” He rounded the front of the truck and jumped inside.

“Why just holidays?” I asked as I closed my door and buckled in.

He shrugged. “I talk to them all the time.”

“Have you told them about me?”

“Was I supposed to?” he asked, as he switched his truck on, the loud engine roaring to life.

I shrugged, though disappointment twisted my insides.

He laughed. “Of course I told them.”

I looked to him, the twisting ceasing. “You did?”

He nodded as he pulled away from the curb.

“And?”

“They were happy to know you and your mom were all right.”

I lowered my head and nodded, feeling uncomfortable with the fear I instilled in them by disappearing.

“They were happy for me too,” he added as he pulled out onto the main road.

My eyes cut to his. “For you?”

“Yeah. That I got my favorite girl back.”

My belly rippled at the sweet words he uttered.

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