Page 9 of The Casualty of Us
His eyes snag mine again, lighting up further at my appraisal like he already knows what the verdict will be, and it has another curse slipping past my lips. “Shit.”
“Ophelia!” My mother’s voice crashes in again, seeming farther away than before. “Language!”
“Sorry,” I finally manage, jerking my gaze away from him to see that my phone is no longer on the bed and immediately ducking down to spy the lit-up screen under it. “One of what I’m guessing is a roommate got here and surprised me.”
I lower myself down to grab it and she hums, “Ooh,” continuing excitedly just as I’m about to close my hand around the phone. “Tell me, is he cute, darling?”
“Gotta go, Mom.” I pull it back, hurriedly rushing out, “Talk later—love you—bye.” Quickly ending the call before she can get another word out.
A quiet laugh fills the air, and I barely stifle a groan before looking back over my shoulder to scowl at the guy whose name I don’t know. Catching the way his eyes seem to be lingering on my ass that’s still up in the air before quickly lifting to mine as the dimples cutting into his cheeks twitch.
Kill me now.
“Don’t look so smug about it,” I mutter, backing away from the bed with another laugh filling my ears and turning over to see him striding toward me. He holds out a hand as he comes toa stop in front of me, making my scowl deepen as our gazes settle against each other. Hazel and blue holding with silence hanging around us for a moment before he lifts a brow.
“Unless you like it down there?” His voice comes out a little gravelly, totally contradicting the pretty boy thing he has going on.
I narrow my eyes at him but reluctantly reach up, barely making contact with his fingers before he wraps his hand around mine and pulls me up. Still grinning as he stares down at me from a height somewhere around Ollie’s six feet, if the way I have to tilt my head back to keep him in sight is any indication.
I frown up at him. “Stop that.”
“Stop what?”
His dimples twitch again, and I wave my free hand up at his face. “That.”
“Not sure I know what you mean.” He shrugs far too innocently, head tilting to the side. “You never did answer my question, though.”
“What question?” My frown deepens as I run through—
“I asked if I was lucky enough for someone to have messed up the room assignments and put me with you for the next four years, but you felt the need to curse about the situation.”
I have to stop the way my lips start to lift at the teasing but must not be completely successful because there’s a spark of victory in his gaze. “So?”
And it’s that little spark that pushes me out of my head enough to quip back, “It’s cute.” I finally free the grin wanting to come out to play, cocking my head at him. “That you think you could handle me.”
His pupils flare, lips parting with a surprised sound and he leans in—
“O!” A door slams in the other room, and I jump with it, the pull on my hand bringing with it the realization that it’s stillbeing held captive by the guy in front of me. “Found snacks and one of my roommates!”
“You’re not a girlfriend, are you?” The low question has me darting my eyes back to him and finding his own narrowed now.
“No, gross.” I pull my hand free with a soft laugh and wipe it against my jeans nervously. Not sure why I’m dragging out the guessing game when he’ll be able to tell Ollie and I are related as soon as we’re in the same room, but I’m having too much fun to stop.
The narrowing of his eyes eases regardless, though, and he leans in a little closer. “And is it O or Ophelia?”
“O.” I blink up at him. “Just O.”
“Hayes.” His dimples return in full force with the name. “Just Hayes.”
“Whoa.” Ollie’s voice has me jerking my gaze to where he stands in the doorway and seeing the way his brows immediately fall at the sight of me in his room with a random guy. “Uh?”
The sound comes out like a question and makes me take a step back while giving him a small smile. “Found your other roommate.”
Hayes’s gaze lingers on me for a second before he follows my lead, taking a step back as well and turning his head to look at my brother. Probably noting some of the near-identical features like the wavy hair and button nose and big eyes. Ollie’s just hold a more masculine edge to them these days in comparison to mine. He looks back to shoot me an amused glance with another puff of laughter, and Ollie’s brows fall further before Hayes turns to him with a jerk of his chin.
“Hey, man.” He closes the couple of steps to him before holding out a hand much the same way he did to me. “Hayes Flynn.”
Ollie quickly looks from his hand to me and then meets his gaze again. “Oliver Fitzroy.” He takes his hand, giving it someloose kind of guy shake before nodding my way. “See you met my baby sister.”
