Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,241

was then that Greg came to two horrible realizations. This was Paige, his ex and Nelson’s not-ex, and this was about Paige’s sister. He closed his eyes to get the world to stop and let him off. How could this get any worse? Why had he come home? What was he thinking?

“Greg,” Paige said again, and he felt and heard the knob turn. It was like knowing your world was about to crash even further and being only able to sit there and watch the collision happen.

This is not happening. This is not happening. This is not…

The door came open an inch at a time, and she poked her head in carefully. Her gaze slipped over the room until it came to where he sat slumped on the bed.

“Hey? Are you okay?”

“I’m sorry,” Taylor said, slipping her hand up to her elbow. “I didn’t know… Is… Is Paige here?”

“Paige?” Lauren asked like she’d never heard the name, and she even glanced back into the room as if looking for this strange Paige person. “No. Paige isn’t here. I think she’s over at Nelson’s. Why?”

Nelson. The name cut right through Taylor. Oh, no. No wonder Greg had gotten so upset. Why had she said that? What was she thinking?

“Do you want to come in?” Lauren asked with some hesitation. She looked at Taylor and waited for an answer that never came.

It wasn’t that she said yes. In fact, she didn’t say anything at all because her mind had spiraled so far away from her, back to that horrible day on those steps at the student union. What had she said about feeling invisible to the person that loved her? How could she have said something so callous and reprehensible to him? He must hate her now.

Her hand came up to her mouth as her mind replayed that conversation with perfect clarity. No wonder. No wonder. How could I be so stupid?

“Taylor?” Lauren asked gently. “Do you want to come in?”

Tears stung Taylor’s eyes. How many times had she made him feel invisible? How many times had she treated him like he was expendable in her life? Like he didn’t matter to her one way or the other?

He loved her?

How could she never have seen that?

Lauren took hold of Taylor’s arm and pulled her inside. “Come on.”

Carefully, Paige came over and sat on the bed next to him. She put her hand on the back of his shoulder gently, and although he knew he should be strong, her touch unleashed the flood of tears he’d been cramming down inside him for an eternity. He crumpled with the breaking of the dam.

“Oh, man, I messed up. I messed up so bad,” he said, buckling into her and collapsing onto her shoulder. “What did I do? She’s never going to speak to me again.”

“Shhh,” Paige said, holding him as his tears flowed out, weakness following misery following pain. “Okay. First of all, who is she?”

With a hard flash, he saw Taylor’s stunned face the moment the kiss had ended. In all his dreams and fantasies about kissing her, it had never been like that. Never.

That was rough. Taken not given. Stolen even...

Wrong. It was all so, so wrong.

How could he have done that to her? How? What was he thinking?

“Taylor?” Paige asked when he said nothing, and Greg nodded, the misery once again overflowing its banks. “You were out with Taylor?”

Greg nodded again, sniffing and forcing his head up from her shoulder even though he only made it as far as bent over his knees. He rubbed his hand across his forehead like he could erase all of it if he just pressed hard enough. “It was the Alpha Chi Valentine’s Day thing. It was just a stupid dance. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”

He stood and made it to the wall where he bent and knocked his head against the thing. “I feel so stupid.” Turning, he leaned on the wall and looked up at the ceiling as Paige sat on the bed and Nelson stood right there looking on. “Why did I say that? Why did I tell her that? Why?”

“Okay, well,” Nelson said, his face awash in concern as he stood there with his arms crossed. He sounded like there was still a little hope that whatever it was, it wasn’t too bad. “What exactly did you say?”

Letting out a hard sigh, Greg dropped his head, shook it, closed his eyes, and put his fingers over them, fighting off the torrent of tears and