Page 81 of Cheater and the Saint
“Mom, of course, I’ll be there.” It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving break at school. So only two more days of classes before we had a week off.
“Maybe you can bring that Leo with you,” she suggested. “I’d love to meet him, pumpkin.”
“I’m sure he has his own family to visit for the holiday, but I’ll ask him.”
It wasn’t until then that itreallyhit me how tightlipped Leo had been about his family. He’d told me plenty about his older brother, Heath, but not about his parents or any other family members. Heath was supposed to drive down the coming weekend with his girlfriend to hang out with us, but there’d been no mention of what Leo planned to do for Thanksgiving.
After getting off the phone with Mom, I drove to campus, parked, and walked to our building. When I walked into our dorm, Leo wasn’t in the living room, but I heard music coming from down the hall. I grinned as I heard the pop artist sing about love as a catchy beat played in the background.
His door was open, and I poked my head inside.
Leo sat at his computer, his back to me, and bobbed his head to the song. He was wearing my favorite hoodie—my favorite because it made him so freaking cuddly—and his dark hair swooped to the side. The broadness of his shoulders made him look like a beast, and I loved clinging onto him.
“Hey, sexy,” I said.
He jumped and flung around to look at me. “Jesus, fuck. You almost killed me.” His wide, brown eyes made me laugh. “Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, asshole.”
“What are you working on?” I asked after approaching his desk and sitting in his lap. His arms came around my abdomen, and he rested his head on the side of my arm so he could still see his screen around me.
“I’m taking a career quiz,” he answered. “I’m so fucking lost on what to do with my life, Frosty. I don’t have just one interest. I like a little bit of everything, but there’s nothing that jumps out at me. Not like you and psychology, Tayte and his sports, or Jacob with theater.”
“I’m sure you’ll find something,” I reassured him, looking at the screen as he clicked answers.
The questions were like: Do you like working with numbers? Leo checkedno.
Do you like being around people?Yes.
Are you a motivator and want others to succeed?Yes.
Do you like animals?Yes.
Do you like research?Sometimes.
I felt bad for him. Some people had no idea what they wanted to do, and they settled with a passionless job just for the money and ended up miserable because of it. I didn’t want Leo to be miserable.
Once he finished the quiz, it took a minute or so to get his results. It was a graph with categories like social service, artistic, mechanical, et cetera all broken down and displaying his interest level on each one. The highest ones for him were in outdoor, mechanical—like putting stuff together—advertising, and human resources.
“An outdoor job would be cool,” he said as he studied the chart. “Maybe like a park ranger or something. Leo… the protector of nature and wildlife.”
I cracked a smile and kissed the top of his head. “You’d be one sexy ranger.”
Leo gnawed at my arm before peering up at me with his big, brown eyes. “How was the gym?”
“Great,” I answered, deciding not to tell him about the hateful girl. She didn’t matter anyway. If anything, she showed me even more how proud I was to be me. “Maybe you can come with me next time.”
“Is that your subtle way of saying I’m fat?” Leo asked in such a pitiful voice that I snorted a laugh. He raised his hoodie and the shirt underneath to reveal a set of mouthwatering abs. “You hurt their feelings.”
Sliding off his lap, I then got on my knees in front of him and bent to kiss those sexy ridges of muscle. “Better?”
Leo smirked. “I think they need more convincing.”
“You’re such an arrogant ass,” I said, shaking my head.
“Yeah, but you love me,” Leo retorted with that same lopsided grin.
I knew he didn’t mean the words in a literal sense… but I realized Ididlove him.
It was hard to remember my life before that sweltering hot August day when he came barging into the dorm room. He’d made me see things clearer; he made me see how beautiful change could be, how amazing living could be.
