Page 65 of Loving Lies (Granton University 3)

She wanted to be a physical therapist. And it was all because of Jonah.

Ignoring the slice of pain that thought brought, she finished her online enrollment and declined to apply for a dorm room, since she and Bailey planned to rent some kind of place off campus during the next school year. It’d be nice to get away from this battle-scarred campus every evening after classes.

But the campus wasn’t the only thing that seemed battle-scarred to her. She felt as if she’d lost a chunk of her life source. And it affected Bailey too. Bailey forced her out more as the weather warmed so they could take walks around the university in the evening and scout for a white cowboy hat and blue Wranglers. At least that’s what her friend claimed they were doing. Tess noticed how Bailey had stopped scanning the crowd everywhere they went. She’d given up on her cowboy, just as Tess had given up on everything else.

As they were walking back to Grammar Hall one evening, Bailey chatted along, and Tess blocked most everything she said until Bailey blurted, “This Jonah guy totally messed you up, didn’t he?”

Tess jerked to a halt and lifted her face. Her body responded at the mere mention of his name. “What do you mean?” How in the world had Bailey known she was thinking about him? She hadn’t mentioned him aloud once since they’d rushed to the hospital to save him.

“You still behave like Tess, still smile like Tess, talk like Tess, but I don’t know. It just seems like Tess is gone. You’re this empty shell, going through the motions but not really living them.”

Tess sighed and moved in closer as they walked along, resting her cheek on her friend’s shoulder. “You’re right. Lately, I feel…It just feels like something’s…”

“Missing?” Bailey wrapped her arm around her shoulder and tipped her temple to the side until it pressed against Tess’s.

Tess swallowed dryly. “Yeah.” Something was definitely missing. Like half of her soul.

After a few seconds of silence, they turned a corner. As Grammar Hall came into view at the end of the block, Bailey murmured, “Maybe I messed up.”

Since she never admitted such a thing, Tess glanced at her sharply. “What do you mean?”

“I went to see him.”

When Bailey glanced at her with a please-don’t-hate-me cringe, Tess pulled away abruptly. “Who? Jonah? Oh, my God, when? Why would you do that?”

“Promise not to hate me.”

“Prom—oh, Bailey. What did you do?” Dread sank into Tess’s veins as she covered her mouth with both hands.

“The day after his big reveal, when all the truth came out and he ended up on national television as a complete villain, I went to his hospital room.”

“And?” Tess demanded. She couldn’t believe Bailey had seen him more recently than she had and hadn’t told her about it. She felt betrayed. But, dear God, Bailey had seen him more recently than she had! She grasped her friend’s arm eagerly. Any scrap of news about him was like catnip to her. “What…what’d he say? What’d you say? What happened?”

“Well, I wanted to correct him on his thinking. I’m a hater of all things miscommunication, after all, so I was going to let him know how wrong he was about you, that you’d never had any bad ulterior motives against him and you never willing ousted him to the police, trying to get him into trouble.”

Tess couldn’t believe her friend had gone to so much trouble for her. Bailey had mostly been anti-Jonah in all their conversations. The fact that she’d gone to him to help repair Tess’s relationship with him told her just how much her friend loved her.

But Jonah had only been using her, exacting his own revenge. She kept forgetting that part when good memories of him stole into her heart.

Her shoulders slumped. “Let me guess. He didn’t believe you.”

“Oh, he believed me, all right.”

Shock pierced Tess’s chest. She shook her head, certain she’d just misheard. “Wait. What?”

“The guy thinks you’re a freaking saint and can do no wrong.”

“Huh?” Heart beating madly inside her chest, Tess let the hope swell. “He does?” Wait. Her blooming smile faltered. If he truly thought that, then why hadn’t she seen him since he’d gotten out of the hospital? Why hadn’t—

“Never once did the thought cross his mind that you’d duped him.”

“Then—” She choked on the question. Oh, God. Did this mean he’d cared about her all along? “Why did he accuse me of…of everything? Why did he…?” She shook her head. This didn’t make sense. If he did care, then why hadn’t he corrected her when she’d started assuming and accusing him of the worst? “I don’t understand.”

Bailey shrugged, a little too easily. “What’s to understand? He’s a guy. Does he need any more reason than that to be an idiot?”

“Yes! Dammit.” Tess stomped her foot and glared at her friend with her hands on her hips. “Didn’t you drag some kind of explanation out of him? God, Bay. Isn’t that kind of your specialty?” What good was having a best friend who could be outgoing, rude, demanding, and forthright if she wasn’t going to be outgoing, rude, demanding, and forthright when you needed her to be?

“Okay, if you think about this from his point of view—”

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