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Kaleb gives a careless shrug as he steps out of the tree line and onto the gas station parking lot. “Go ahead. He’ll tell Judy, and she’ll probably give me an extra burger.”
I don’t bother saying anything else because who can argue with that? Instead, I pick up speed as I round the back of the building, desperate to catch up and get another glimpse of Lara.
It takes a few minutes, but when I do, all worry melts away, and I let my mind go, just breathing in the fresh, crisp winter air.
My girl and I enjoy the end of our run together, even if she doesn’t know it.
CHAPTER THREE
Michael
If the building isn’t on fire, I’m going to kill someone.
Yawning, I crack the passenger window. The cold air rushes in, and I fight the urge to roll it back up and crank the heat.
Freezing my balls off beats getting into a car wreck.
I blink away the tiredness as the cold air wakes my body. A glance at the dashboard tells me it’s three-fifty-five a.m.
“Fuck me,” I huff, rolling my neck.
The flashing lights of the responding emergency vehicles slash through the darkness as I get closer to the college campus. Red light reflects off theWelcome to Hampstock College Student Villagesign. My family’screst stands out against the stone the sign is set in, showing anyone who looks who owns this building.
Huddles of students line the parking lot as I turn in. They look almost as pissed off as I feel at having been forced out of bed at this ungodly hour.
Almost.
My heart had practically stopped when the fire alert came through. It’s not her floor, but it is her section of the building, so she’ll be evacuated, too.
Nearing the students, I try not to glance over them too closely, knowing my girl should be in there somewhere.
This is her block, so she’s here somewhere.
What if she’s not?That little voice in the back of my head chimes, and my stomach takes a dive. Because if she’s not here, then she wasn’t in her own bed tonight.
I’ve fought with myself about how close I can be to Lara. Running with her to keep her safe? That’s okay. Knowing her school schedule and occasionally following the bus she takes so I know she got there safely? That’s okay. Putting a camera in her dorm to keep her safe? Not okay.
Yet.
I roll my eyes because at this point, I’m just lying to myself. It’s not crossing some kind of invisible moral line that’s stopped me. It’s the lack of control I’ll have if I know without a doubt that she’s doing something with someone else.
Despite my best efforts, I do catch sight of ahandful of students, and a few of the kids look like they have yet to even go to bed.
Ideas of what they would have been doing flash through my mind along with the thought that my brother and I might have missed out. We never went to college. Mom and Dad offered to pay for it in full, but the desire just wasn’t there.
Daniel hated the idea of extending his education, preferring to jump straight into a job, anything not to be in a room full of people.
At the time, my thoughts had been similar. But even if they hadn’t, I have never lived more than five minutes away from Daniel, and the idea of moving to another town or state, even now, makes my stomach churn.
No, I like to live as close to my brother as I can.
If Hampstock had been open back then, I’d have a degree now, but if our upbringing taught us anything, it’s that some things don’t need dwelling on. Besides, things turned out okay.
I throw the car into park, and a genuine smile takes over my face as memories of the last fourteen months flood me. Charlie had been a saint to put up with both Daniel and me. Even before the birth, she was at her wits’ end with our hovering.
The situation was only made worse when Daniel nearly gutted a man in a café when we had all traveled to see Charlie’s family one last time before the baby came.
My insistence that I move in for the last month ofher pregnancy had almost been the final straw. I don’t hold back the chuckle as I recall how her face had flushed with anger, ready to murder one of us, but after a minute, she’d scrubbed her cheeks and threw up her hands.
