Page 27 of Wreck Me

My hand fell instantly as it sank in that I was falling for this girl. I couldn't stop thinking about her; she was on my mind all the time and had been since I first saw her all those weeks ago.

Dammit.

Raking a hand through my already disheveled hair, I looked down at the ground, hesitating instead of knocking on her door like I should have. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I raised my arm again, and just did it–rapping my knuckles against the wood three times.

I took a step back, moving my hands to the pockets of my jeans as I fought the urge to bounce on the balls of my feet. My heart thundered in my chest as doubt sunk its claws further into my confidence with every passing second she didn’t answer the door.

When she didn’t answer, I stepped forward and knocked again. I could hear a faint shuffling sound from inside her apartment, but the door remained closed. “Isla, please open the door,” I begged, pressing my forehead against it.

I flattened my palm to the door, closing my eyes as I listened for the sound of footsteps approaching, hearing nothing but an eerie silence.

“Isla—,” I began. I was going to tell her the truth, but apologizing didn’t feel right when I wasn’t even sure she was listening. “I’m sorry. Please, just open the door so I can explain what happened. Please, Starlight. Open the door.”

My forehead was still firmly against the wood and slowly I rolled it side to side, although I wasn’t sure why. Exhaling a breath, I forced air between my tightened lips so it made an exasperated raspberry sound. I righted myself and took a backward step from the door when the sound of her voice stopped me in my tracks.

“Why are you here, Caleb?” she asked as she pulled her apartment door open. She looked gorgeous, albeit pissed off, in her baggy black sweatpants and white long-sleeved shirt that showed off a sliver of her stomach. Her dark hair sat piled into a bun on the top of her head, and her storm colored eyes—though narrowed at me in a glare—looked bright contrasted with the white of her shirt. She wrapped her hand around the edge of the door, holding it open just enough for her body to block my entrance and stop me from walking in.

“Because I told you I’d meet you at your apartment—”

“At twelve.”

Reaching up, I massaged the back of my neck. “At twelve,” I confirmed. My gaze traveled up the length of her body until I reached her eyes. “Let me explain.”

She stared back at me, her lips hardening into a thin line. I took a step forward, pushing back the short baby hairs curling in front of her ear, tucking them behind and letting my finger tips linger. To my surprise, she didn’t pull away from my touch.

A good sign.

“I left my anatomy class to go grab everything I needed from my house to take you to the river. When I got in my car, pretty much every single engine light was lit up. The nagging realization that I was about to put you into my deathtrap of a car and drive you forty minutes to the river wasn’t sitting right with me. So I called a shop, and the guy told me to stop in for a free estimate to find out what needed to be fixed. What should have been a quick thirty-minute thing turned into almost six hours.”

“So why didn’t you call? Or text?” Isla asked the second I finished my sentence.

“Because my damn phone died. And look, I really like you, but I haven’t memorized a phone number since I was four and my mom made me memorize hers in case of an emergency.”

Isla tried to hide it, but I caught the way her lips pursed to conceal her smile at the admission. Itwastrue. I barely had my own phone number memorized, but now I made a mental note to recite her phone number repeatedly in my head until I knew it from memory.

Trailing my fingers down her arm, I caught her hand and brought it to my lips to kiss the inside of her palm. “Please, Starlight. Can I come in?”

CHAPTERSIXTEEN

The confidence I had in myself to stand my ground and not let him in wavered with one look of those puppy dog eyes, and he wasn’t even trying to give me puppy dog eyes.

I knew he was trouble. I knew it from the moment I saw him, but I still couldn't stay away. And now I needed to figure out if he was lying to me or not.

His story seemed plausible, but six hours at the mechanic? For an estimate? Come on. I didn’t know a thing about cars and I wouldn’t pretend to, but that amount of time just seemed excessive.

But why would he lie?

Naturally, my mind spiraled into the first thought any woman would have when her boyfr—hookup—completely disappeared after they blew them off for a date. Was there someone else who had drawn his attention?

But as I blocked my doorway and stared at him skeptically, I could practically feel the remorse roll off of him, and I caved. Keeping my mouth shut, I pushed the door open more, releasing it and turning to walk into my living room. The door closed behind me and I heard Caleb flip the lock.

Something about it made me smile and his earlier words about not wanting me to ride in his ‘deathtrap of a car’echoed in my mind. It seemed like he truly cared about my safety, but could I trust him to keep my heart safe?

I still wasn’t fully convinced.

Taking a seat on my couch, I crossed my legs and curled them beneath me, pulling a pillow onto my lap as though it could offer me emotional protection from this conversation. I had no idea which direction it would go and nerves had filled my body on the short walk from the door to the couch. Caleb followed me into the room and stood in front of me, not taking a seat, which only made me more unsettled.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, crouching down, so we were eye level. That’s when I noticed he was soaking wet. He looked chilled to the bone, completely saturated as beads of water rolled down his cheek from his hair and his clothes clung to his body.

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