Page 103 of Tempt

I take a seat in the chair next to his bed.

“You want to tell me what happened?”

“I was chasing bunnies,” Andy informs me. “I followed them all the way down into this hole, except I tripped and my arm hurt so bad. They gave me a cast.”

“And a Popsicle for breakfast,” I comment.

“The Popsicle is from Kat. She stayed with me the whole night. Every time I woke up, she was there. She gave me this.”

He holds up a stuffed bunny.

“She said it was to keep me company until I got one of my own.”

Guilt edges in at the way I spoke to her.

“Kat said I get a whole arm of tattoos now. She gave me this one.” Andy points to a rabbit drawn on the white material in pink ink.

“They’re waiting for some scans to return,” Mary says. “Then he’s free to go.”

I nod.

There’s nothing I want more than to get out of here.

30

KAT

“Room for two more?”

I glance up to see Jules and Liv. “It’s a party.”

I gesture to the grass and they sit down, setting their bags next to them.

I’m on the hill at the heart of campus, my dark glasses perched on my nose as I watch the students running past.

Liv’s eyes go immediately to my accessories. “There a reason you have a suitcase with you?”

“I need a vacation. Or at least a few days at the Holiday Inn. I hear the bar makes a decent margarita.”

Jules frowns. “What happened?”

Emotion threatens to spill over as I take in my friends’ earnest expressions.

“Daniel left town for a conference and Andy broke his arm on my watch. I took him to the hospital and notified his grandparents, and he’s going to be okay. But it was my fault.”

Liv wraps me in a hug. Jules piles on top.

I fight the hot tears burning the backs of my eyes.

Because I’m ashamed and hurt.

I didn’t know it was possible to see Daniel so angry and cold at once.

He made me want him, rely on him, fall for him.

Then he rejected me.

“He’s obviously wrong,” Jules says.

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