Until Then (Cape Harbor #2) - Heidi McLaughlin Page 0,33

the night. Most of the time, she’d forgotten what time it was because of her all-night study sessions and would call him when she couldn’t fall asleep.

“Hey, Ren,” he said quietly, so as to not wake his roommate. Graham kicked his blankets straight and lay back down, bringing the comforter over his head to give himself some privacy, of which his dorm room offered none.

“Graham Cracker, I need you.”

Graham’s heart stopped. Was this the moment he had waited for after all these years? Did Rennie feel the same way? Or was this another booty call, to which he would give Rennie Wallace anything she asked?

Graham was a fool’s fool. While he was smart—top of his class—when it came to Rennie, he was as stupid as they came. She could tell him to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, and he would ask her to name the date and time. Graham was in love with her. Rennie wasn’t in love with him. Not the way it mattered, at least.

“What’s wrong?” He closed his eyes and imagined her with him under the covers with only a flashlight illuminating the space. They had done that once or twice, back when they were in Cape Harbor and Rennie visited for the summer after their junior year of high school ended. The group had gone camping along the river. The guys were going to fish all day while the girls sunbathed and swam in the river. According to everyone’s parents, the boys needed to stay in their own tents. The same went for the girls. Of course, everyone agreed until they arrived at the campsite and paired off.

“I think I’m in trouble.”

“What happened?” Those five words woke Graham up. The grogginess he felt dissipated quickly.

“I don’t want to say over the phone. Can you come here?”

“I’m on my way.” He hung up and sprang out of bed. He dressed in the dark, thankfully remembering where he had left his sweatpants from the previous day. He found a T-shirt hanging out of his drawer, sniffed, and determined it was clean before slipping it on. He spun around his room, trying to recall where he kicked his sneakers off. Graham got down on his hands and knees and felt around in the darkness until he found them.

When it came to clothes, disorderly was the word used to describe Graham. However, he always seemed to know where everything was. He kept his wallet and keys in a dish on top of his dresser, which made them easy to find in the darkness.

Outside his dorm room, he slipped his shoes on and walked down the hall as quietly and quickly as he could. If his resident advisor saw him leave, he would ask questions. The dorms had curfews, and his RA was a stickler for the rules. With the recent spike in gang-related activity, San Jose State University wanted their students to be safe. Leaving at three in the morning to drive to Santa Clara University wouldn’t fall under the safety category.

The motion-sensor lights on campus forced Graham to stay in the shadows until he reached the parking lot. He had an excuse ready if campus security stopped him: he needed antacids. Graham was a pro at faking a stomachache.

Graham’s four-door silver Honda came to life on the second try. He slipped it into reverse and pulled out of the parking spot, purposely keeping his lights off until he faced away from the dorms. When he came to the intersection to leave campus, he turned his lights on and signaled to merge onto the road and drove the little over seven miles down the road to Rennie’s school. He parked near the student center, a place where he was unlikely to get a ticket, and walked through campus to her dorm. He hoped Rennie would be in the vestibule waiting for him. Otherwise, he had no chance of getting into her dorm.

As he grew closer, he saw her sitting on a bench. He sat down beside her and placed his arm behind her. She burrowed into him and clutched his T-shirt with her fist.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she told him. “I just needed to see you.”

Graham sighed. He suspected the guy she had been seeing dumped her, broke her heart because, according to her, he was the one. Graham hated every guy she dated. None of them were ever good enough, not when he was the one who wanted to be with her. Someday, Graham would take a chance on telling