Page 35 of Thick & Thin

He paused with his hands on his hips and sighed. “You’re leaving me, too, remember?”

There.

He said it.

The fire in my chest flamed, sucking the oxygen from my lungs with its growth. I couldn’t let him see how badly I burned.

I waved away his question. “Yeah, but that’s in two months. It doesn’t count. Stop making this about you,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood. “What am I supposed to do around here without you for two whole fucking months?”

“I don’t know. Hang out with friends. Maybe a few of the girls? It’ll do you some good to hang around with a few chicks every now and again. Maybe then the town will start to realize you’re a girl.”

The look in his eyes didn’t match his playful grin. While his smile said he was teasing me, his eyes were saying he knew I was all female beneath my baggie clothes. His eyes were saying he’d felt my curves and tasted my flesh.

I looked away, searching for something I could throw back at him to keep the teasing mood going. I picked up a lighter sitting on his dresser and threw it at his head. “Screw you.”

The wrong words since I had been thinking about being with him since our last push over the edge.

He dodged the lighter and laughed. “I don’t know. It could be fun. Maybe go the beach and do all those girlie things they do.”

“Oh, yes. A day filled with nails and girl talk. Sounds like a blast.”

He shivered with disgust. “Yeah, that sounds like hell.”

“Yep.”

“We can talk on the phone some during my personal time,” he reminded me.

“Yeah, I know, but—”

“It’s not enough. I know,” he cut me off. “We’re used to being together all the time. I’m not going to lie; it’s going to suck. Who’ll protect you from all the college dicks who are going to be chasing you around A&M?”

I picked up a pillow from his bed and threw it at his head, making him laugh again.

“First of all,” I said, holding up my hand. “I’ll protect my damn self.”

“This is true,” he agreed. “They don’t stand a chance with your right hook.”

He wasn’t wrong.

Devin had taught me well. Especially after that terrible night during my sophomore year, which I now referred to as “that night.” I had fought back, making it difficult for two grown men to hold me down. I had gotten in a few hits of my own, and even then, I had some pack behind my punch, but now, I fought like a man. Never again would some asshole get the best of me.

“And secondly, there’ll be no chasing. No one chases after me now. I doubt that’ll change much in college.”

Setting his pillow back in its place, he absently said, “They don’t chase after you around here because I threatened to kill any guy who did.”

My mouth fell open at his confession. Surely, he was joking. He had to be.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“Nothing. Forget I said anything.”

“No. I’m serious. What are you talking about?”

He looked up sheepishly and shrugged. “It’s really nothing. It’s stupid.”

“I don’t care. Tell me.”

He ran his long, slender fingers through his dark hair and bit into his bottom lip.

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