Page 23 of Not Fooling Anyone

“Maybe he didn’t know any other kind of life.”

“Maybe.”

Chapman Hall is just ahead, but I slow the car a little, not wanting our alone time to end yet. “Have you told him?”

“What?”

“That you missed him as a kid. That you wished he was around more.”

She shrugs. “What’s the point? It’s in the past.”

“He still might want to know.”

Shaking her head, she says, “Things have been okay between us since he settled down here and got this job. I’m not ruining that by whining about things we can’t change.”

Well, if Lawrence wasn’t around much until recently and she won’t even talk about her mom, what kind of support system does she have? She seems too guarded to have a lot of friends. “Where do you live? Other than off campus.”

She shifts in her seat as we turn into the dorm’s parking lot. “I moved into a new apartment last month.”

“And before that?”

“We’re here,” she says, unbuckling her seatbelt.

Good timing for her.

CHAPTERFIVE

ETHAN

“Letme run to the bathroom real quick,” Lexie says after we sign in downstairs. “I’ll meet you up there.”

“I can wait—”

She makes a shooing motion at me. “Go ahead.”

Okay, fine. I take the stairs up to the third floor, spotting Christian and Amber surrounded by two other girls and a guy at a table in the corner of the common room area.

Christian waves me over. “Hey everyone, this is Ethan.”

I hold up a hand and give a short wave, taking the only free seat in between Amber and a brunette I don’t recognize.

The girl turns my way, flashing me a smile. “I’m Savannah. Are you in Clark’s Monday-Wednesday class?”

“Tuesday-Thursday.”

She pouts. “That’s a shame. I definitely would have remembered seeing you.”

I glance around the table, but everyone else is in their own conversations. “And why’s that?”

“You’re cute,” she says bluntly, twirling a lock of hair around a manicured finger.

Wow. What would Lexie say if she heard this?

I twist in my seat and search for her, only to discover her about ten feet away, face pale and stricken.

I’m up before I know it, jogging over to her and settling my hands on her shoulders. “What is it? You all right?”

“What’s she doing here?” she whispers.

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