Next Man Up (Making the Score #2) - Tawdra Kandle Page 0,41
that position again. I’m going to stay on campus the next couple of summers. I’ll get a job or take summer classes—but I’m not going to live with either of my parents.”
“Probably a good idea,” Quinn agreed. She shifted a little to glance my way. “How was life in Lancaster, Zelda? Did you enjoy your family?”
“I did.” I finished my slice. “I worked hard, helping out on the farm, but mostly I did a lot of reading and a little research. Oh, and I cooked, too. My grandmother had a little bit of a health scare, and I was glad to be there to help out.”
“Is she okay?” Gia frowned, her eyes searching my face.
I nodded. “Yeah. It wasn’t life-threatening . . . she said it’s a wake-up call to eat less pie and more broccoli.”
“That would be threatening to my life.” Gia raised her beer to me and took a long drink. “But I’m glad she’s going to be all right. She sounds like a great lady.”
Quinn’s phone buzzed, and she tugged it out of her pocket, glancing down at the screen. “Oh, it’s Nate. He and Tuck want to know if we all want to come down to their room and watch something tonight.”
Immediately, my stomach clenched and my heart went into overdrive. I took a long pull of my beer—technically illegal in both the state and our dormitory, but procured for us tonight courtesy of Gia’s fake ID—hoping that my hand didn’t shake.
I would have loved to have claimed that Eli Tucker never crossed my mind all summer. I would have been happy to convince myself that my first few hook-ups back in Lancaster—which weren’t easy to pull off, with my family so eager to spend time with me—had erased the memory of that last Saturday night of our freshman year. But neither were true.
The sex I’d had with a whole parade of locals in Lancaster hadn’t made me forget the expression on Eli’s face when I’d taken him into my mouth. All the time that had passed since that evening hadn’t kept the memory of his voice, his biting self-flagellation or his gentle kindness to me from haunting my daydreams.
I’d wanted to forget Eli Tucker. Hell, if I was honest, I’d been trying to forget him for years now, and no amount of fucking around had done the trick. I wasn’t sure why I’d thought sucking his cock and having a heart-to-heart was going to make that any easier.
But I wasn’t an idiot. I was resolved to continue my avoidance policy from last year. None of our friends had any clue that we’d spent that evening together. At least, I hadn’t said anything to Quinn or Gia, and since they hadn’t pounced on me about it, I assumed Eli had stayed mum with Nate, too. I could just keep things the way they’d been. Eventually, the sense memory of Eli’s hand on my head, the rasp of his voice crying out as he’d erupted into my mouth . . . all of that would vanish. Or at least dim.
A girl could hope, right?
“I’m in,” Gia announced. “I’m going to enjoy this last night without any homework or reading or shit. My course load is heavy this semester. There’s not going to be much time for fun.”
“Okay.” Quinn slid her eyes my way. “Zelda? You coming?”
I pretended to think about it before I shook my head. “Nah. I’m not quite finished unpacking, and I need to get things settled before classes start tomorrow.” It was a total fib, and Quinn knew it, because she knew me—I had unpacked and put everything away as soon as I’d arrived at the dorm this morning. Letting things linger and go undone was not my style at all.
Still, good friend that she was, she didn’t call me on the lie. She only nodded, her eyes resting thoughtfully on me.
After they left, I wandered around the suite, making small adjustments here and there. I loved that we each had our own bedroom and then we all enjoyed the small common space and tiny kitchen area. That had been one of my criteria for sharing this suite with Gia this year; we needed to have separate rooms, because I knew that Gia was a pig. I loved her sweet and kind heart, but the girl couldn’t pick up her shit to save her life, and I wasn’t entirely convinced she knew how to make a bed. Passing her open door, I gave a