“I appreciate your love and dedication. I’m so happy you all get together for family dinners once a week. But you can move on and have your own life now. They don’t live with you or rely on you any longer. You still work and you’re still busy, I get that, but you have time to focus on yourself and happiness. And you should.”
She stops talking, letting the words sink in. After a minute, she asks. “What ever happened to Jenn?”
“She moved away. She found someone else—another college student. I think their relationship started while she was still with me. But they moved away together and started a life.”
“But she left the dog?”
“Whatever her reason was, I’m glad she did.”
“Hmm.”
After another long pause, I say, “Barbara, I think I found someone I want to spend time with. She’s on my mind a lot.”
She shifts her position so she can get a good look at me, and I meet her excited gaze. “That’s wonderful!”
I shake my head. “Not really.”
Her shoulders droop. “Why?”
I take a deep breath and finally tell someone the truth. “She’s a student.”
22
“What are you doing?” Gia asks as soon as I pick up the phone. “You didn’t call me back last night and I know you saw my texts.”
“I’m sorry.” My voice is scratchy with sleep.
“Did you just wake up? It’s like twelve-thirty.”
“I had a late night last night,” I tell her, rolling over to my side.
“Well, shit, you had me over here worried.”
“I’m sorry, G. What’s up?”
“Mario came by.”
I jolt up, my heart threatening to burst through my chest. “What? What happened? What did he say?”
“I didn’t see him. He left a note.”
“What did it say?”
“He said he knows I’m hiding you and that he isn’t going to give up trying to find you. He swears he only wants to apologize. The note was erratic, scribbled quickly with sentences marked out. From what I could make out, the stuff he tried to hide was threatening. I saw an or else and warning you in there. He’s got some issues. He really needs to be in a hospital or something.”
“Dammit. Should I go back? Should we set up a meeting? Maybe if he can talk to me he’ll move on.”
“No fucking way. Do not come back here. He doesn’t want to apologize, Nova. I’m not sure what he’ll do, but nothing good.”
“I don’t want him bothering you. Maybe you should come stay with me for a while.”
“You know I can’t,” she says on a sigh. “I have to work. But I have Greg. He’ll stay with me.”
“Y’all together again?”
Her and Greg have been off and on for a few years, usually breaking up over stupid stuff, but they really love each other.
“For now,” she says with a short laugh. “Be careful, though. I don’t think Mario knows where you are, but you can never be too careful.”
“I need you to be careful! I can’t believe he left you a note.”
“I’m gonna have a camera installed soon, so that’ll put me a little more at ease. And I told the cops about this letter.”
“Okay, good.”
“How’s everything? You all right?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine.” I hear her say something to someone else. “Are you busy?”
“Taking a break at lunch, but I gotta get back. I’ll call you tonight and you better answer.”
I laugh. “Yeah, yeah. Get to work. Love you.”
“Love you more.”
Once we get off the phone, I lie back down and think of all the ways Mario could find me, but I don’t come up with any. There shouldn’t be a way for him to track me down out here. I don’t even use my social media anymore. I mean, I get on Twitter from time to time, but I never tweet, I just read all the drama and news articles and whatever’s trending. I should be fine, but I worry about my sister.
I live with a ton of guilt for bringing him into our lives. I thought he was a good guy, but he really had me fooled.
I scroll through the other messages that came through when I was asleep and find one from Ayanna telling me there’s another party tonight. She says I owe her a better night since I dipped out on them last night. I can’t really argue with that, because I do feel bad for leaving the way I did, but I can’t turn down time with Elijah.
God, Elijah.
Memories from last night make me blush. I can’t believe what I did in the passenger seat of his car! No doubt the alcohol in my system ignited my courage, but Elijah fanned the flames. His filthy mouth, sexy voice, and sinful gaze on my body. He turned me on without even touching me, and then licked the arousal from my fingers when I was done. Good lord, I’m getting tingly just thinking about it.
We definitely crossed a line and I’m sure he’s beating himself over it this very second, but it’s not like we slept together. Besides my fingers in his mouth for a brief second, we didn’t come into contact. We can still deny anything going on between us.
But God do I want more to go on between us!
However, if I know anything about Elijah, it’s that he’s coming up with a plan to push me away. He’ll hold me after class on Monday and tell me it was a mistake. He’ll say we can’t be alone together anymore. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted me to transfer classes.
With a huff, I shove the covers down and climb out of bed. I text Ayanna that I’ll meet up with her later tonight, then I jump in the shower and plan my day. I have grocery shopping to do, and maybe I’ll take some time to explore
