Secrets & Surrender 2 (7 page)

“I’m sorry, Kristie. I didn’t mean to yell at you. Don’t worry about the barfing. It’ll wash out.”

“I didn’t mean to get you into a fight. It’s all my fault.”

“It’s not your fault. The guy was a jerk.”

“Are you sure I can’t do anything? Oh, I know. I’ll put your clothes in the washer with mine. Okay?”

“Yeah, sure.” For once I was glad that Mother was a control freak. She had insisted on buying me one of those compact all in one-washer and dryer machines.

The bathroom door squeaked open. “I promise not to look. Where are your clothes?”

I opened the shower curtain. Kristie stood in the middle of the bathroom; eyes squeezed shut. Damp wavy red hair lay on her shoulders. She looked tiny in my white oxford shirt.

“Hurry and tell me where they are, Nic. I’m getting dizzy.”

I chuckled. “You can open your eyes, Kristie. They’re at your feet.”

One lid slowly opened with the other still squeezed shut. She looked at me and sighed, opening the other lid when she saw I was safely behind the shower curtain. After scooping up my muddied clothes, she gazed at me for a moment, her face turning serious.

“Thank you, Nic. For what you did.”

“It was nothing.”

“It was everything,” she breathed, blue eyes filling with hope. I gulped.

Don’t go there, Kristie.

“Nic, I...”

Shit! Don’t say it.

“Uh, you know what? I could really use something to eat. Think you can whip me up some pancakes or something.” I grinned.

She stared at me for a moment, the wheels in her brain slowly churning. I knew what she was thinking. She thought what I’d yelled at Mullet-head was about her. I held my breath, hoping she’d think that I was hungry.

Slowly, her face fell as realization hit. I clenched the shower curtain, fighting the urge to tell her something that would wipe the heartbreak from her eyes. I knew exactly how she was feeling at that moment because that was how I was feeling—about Mandi.

“Yeah, okay.” She hurried out of the room.

Sighing, I placed my head back under hot water, trying to wash away the guilt I was feeling. Maybe I should explain things to her.

Just as I turned off the water, I heard doors slamming and yelling coming from the direction of my bedroom.

“Let me explain, Mandi!”

No!

Quickly, I wrapped a towel around my waist. When I opened the door, a blur of dark hair followed by a blur of red rushed by me. I ran down the hall after them.

“Mandi.”

Stopping, she whirled around, chest heaving as if trying to catch her breath. Wild eyes widened with disbelief as she took in the towel around my waist and then looked at Kristie in my white shirt, the way-too-thin-you-can-see-everything-underneath-it shirt. I groaned.

Why didn’t Kristie wear anything under my shirt?

Mandi stood fixated, nostrils flaring. She bounced on her feet as if she couldn’t make up her mind which way to go.

Then, without a word, she spun around and flew out of the room.

“Mandi!” Kristie rushed out the door after her.

Shit!

I flew into my bedroom. It looked like a tornado had hit it. The closet and drawers were all open and empty. Where the hell were my clothes?

I picked up a lone pair of boxers from the windowsill. Leaning out, I watched as Mandi ran across the parking lot, stomping over what appeared to be my entire wardrobe.

“Mandi!”

Darting out of the room, I stopped by the washer and grabbed the first thing I laid my hands on.

I wasn’t going to lose her. I don’t care what it took or who I had to fight to keep her. No one was getting in my way, not Julian, not Kristie.

No one.

“M
andi! Stop! Let me explain!”

Ignoring Kristie’s cries, I flew out of the building. I ran down the front stairs, tears threatening to spill down my face.

There was nothing to explain. There was no doubt in my mind what I saw. She had on his shirt, the one shirt I’d bought Nic for Christmas. I’d special ordered it just for him. And she was wearing it and nothing else!

As I ran across the lot, a gleam of red flashed in the corner of my eye.

The Porsche. The car he said he’d give up for me—if I wanted him to.

Yeah right, I snorted. Just like he said there was nothing between him and Kristie.

Mother Dearest bought him a car and a skank on a silver platter. Stupid me, believing him when he said all he ever wanted was me.

I looked around the parking lot, anger burning within me. I spotted a pickup truck.

“Yes!” I smiled when I spotted a tire iron lying in the truck bed.

With a determined march, I headed toward Nic’s car.

“Mandi...what...are you...doing?” I spun around at the sound of Kristie’s gasping voice, the tire iron high above my head. She backed up, her hands in the air, those innocent baby blue eyes of hers wide with fright.

Ha! Innocent my ass.

“Back off, bitch!”

Her pink lips quivered. “I though you were my friend.”

Was she kidding me?

“Screw you and Nic! Oh, wait. You already did.”

In one swift movement, I slammed the tire iron down on the windshield, shattering the glass into a million pieces.

Immediately, I felt a rush of relief. It felt so good that I walked to the back of the car with a smile and smashed the other window. Yeah, busting his car’s windows was a juvenile thing to do, but I didn’t give a shit. He deserved it. That bastard made me fall in love with him. I actually felt guilty about Julian, and I didn’t even do anything. And he...and Kristie...they...

I slammed the tire iron on the hood of the car. It crumpled with a satisfying crunch.

“Hey, Kristie. Is the party over already? Sorry I ditched you and Nic, but this cute guy—Whoa!” Steve snatched the tire iron out of my hands. “What are you doing to Nic’s car?”

“Mind your own business,” I spat. “Give it back to me.”

“Are you drunk?”

“I’m perfectly sober. Now give me back the tire iron.”

“No way! You and Kristie are coming inside with me and telling me what happened.”

“You go inside. Take that skank with you before I rip her head off.”

He took a step toward me, but stopped when he saw that I was in no mood to be messed with. I turned my attention back to the Porsche’s shattered windows, barely noticing Steve dragging away a sobbing Kristie.

It wasn’t enough. The pain was still there. The image of Kristie naked in Nic’s arms went through my mind. His kisses, his touches...Shit! They had probably been carrying on behind my back all year, and I was the one who had invited her back into his life!

I barked out a laugh as I pulled my key across the red paint. The key scraped across the driver’s side of the car, its high-pitched squeal piercing my ears.

I wrote the only Spanish cussword I could think of. It didn’t help. My chest wanted to explode. My cheeks were wet. I couldn’t stop crying. Why was I still crying?

“Mandi!” Nic stormed out of the building.

I turned and ran as fast as I could. Stupid flip-flops were slowing me down. I didn’t want to see him or hear any of his lame excuses. My legs pumped as I dashed across campus, tears blinding me. The darkness swallowed me as ran away from him, not knowing where I was going and not caring. I had trusted him! I thought he was the one for me. And for one moment, I’d even considered telling him about my family’s secret.

I stumbled and almost fell when one of one of my flip-flops broke apart.

“Mandi, will you please stop?”

“Stay away from me!” Picking up my shoes, I threw them at him. He swatted one away and then dodged the other.

Darting barefoot across the street to Sewell Park, a couple of cars blared their horns. I took the path that ran along the San Marcos River, hoping to lose Nic in the thick brush. I pushed forward, my side aching from the exertion.

I cursed with each step I took. The rocks were biting into my feet. To make it worse, I didn’t see a tree root jutting out from the ground, and I fell face down into the dirt. Scrambling to get up, Nic’s arms were suddenly around me.

“Let go of me!” I squirmed against him.

“Not until you hear me out.”

“I don’t want to hear your lies. Go tell them to that skank, Kristie. It’s obvious you get off on busty airheads. ”

“Stop it, Mandi! You’re acting crazy. You know I love you.”

I froze, my eyes blazing. “Love me? Love me!”

“Yes, I love
you
.”

“Well, fucking Kristie sure is strange way to show it.”

“Knock it off, Mandi,” he growled, shaking me. “You know she’s just a friend.”

“Yeah, right. A friend. More like a fuck buddy.”

His hands tightened before dropping them to his side. “Look, Mandi, I know you’re mad, but I’m not going to let you talk about Kristie that way. She’s been nothing but a good friend to me and to you.”

“Now you’re defending her?”
Incredible.

“Do you even want to hear what happened?” His voice was angry now.

“Hmm, do I want to listen to your lies? Gee, Nic, I don’t know.”

He scowled. “What is wrong with you? This is not the Mandi I fell in love with.”

“Oh really.” I placed my hands on my hips. “I don’t know which Mandi you think you were dating because I’m the same person. I fight back when someone steps on my turf. If you hurt my family or friends, then you have to deal with me. I’m not some silly preppie bow-head you can run all over.”

“The Mandi
I
know is loving and passionate. And most of all, fair. She gives the people she loves the benefit of the doubt.”

I gulped, gazing into his hazel eyes, reading between the lines. “Well, maybe there is doubt.”

“You’ve never had it before. At least, I don’t think you have.” His face twisted, and his voice turned soft as he approached me. “That is, until Julian.”

I sucked in a breath, my heart pounding in my chest. “He has nothing to do with this.”

“I think he does. Remember the Psych 101 class we took in the summer? Projection?”

Somewhere in the depths of my memories, I recalled the professor saying something about psychological projection.

Crap! Was I putting my guilt over Julian onto Nic?

“Puhleeze, psychology is full of crap. Beside, that has nothing to do with it.” Who was the liar now? “He didn’t tell you to sleep with Kristie.”

He paused for a moment, studying me. It was as if he was wondering whether he should press me on the Julian issue or not. I braced myself.

“I didn’t sleep with her. We were at the frat party, and some guy was manhandling her and she fell in the mud. I took care of the guy and got muddy in the process.”

I let out a breath. A part of me was relived he wasn’t going to go there; the other part wondered why he didn’t. His eyes were so sincere. There wasn’t a hint of deception behind them. I knew he was telling me the truth. I felt it.

“Uh-huh.”

“And then she barfed all over me.”

I blinked. “She what?”

His lips curled into a grin. “You know, puked, upchucked, hurled—”

“Okay, I get it.”

“Spewed, tossed her cookies, tangoed with the toilet—”

“I get it, Nic.”

“Burped to the ninth power—”

“Nic!” My lip twitched.

“Okay. Okay. I was about to drive her home when she turned green. I didn’t want her to ruin the upholstery so I helped her out of the car and she hurled all over me. I brought her to my dorm room so she could clean up. And she hurled again in the living room.”

“That’s why it smelled so funky in there.”

“Yep, that was all her. The only thing clean that would fit her was the shirt you gave me for Christmas. And well, I have no more clothes now that they’re scattered all over the parking lot.” He held out his arms so that I could take a good look at him.

There he was, standing in the middle of Sewell Park wearing wet blue jeans and a pink polka dot midriff with spaghetti straps.

I choked back a laugh. I didn’t want to laugh. That would mean I was happy. And I didn’t want to be happy. I wanted to be mad.

He chuckled. His laugh was contagious. I couldn’t help myself and I started laughing too.

“It’s only a few hours until my eight o’clock class. Do you think I’ll be dry by then?”

“That’s the least of your worries. I’m pretty sure sexy midriffs like that are against the dress code.” I plucked the strap, snapping it against his muscular chest.

He chuckled, taking the blouse off and tossing it aside. “Maybe I can find a shirt in the parking lot.”

“I just saw Steve. He probably has a handful of them hidden in his closet by now.”

He clutched his stomach, laughing even harder. “At least I never have to worry about air conditioning in my car. I have permanent air conditioning in the winter and heat for the summer.”

I laughed so hard, tears streamed down my face. “Nic, I’m so sorry.”

He pulled me into his arms as we laughed. He nuzzled his nose into my hair, sighing. His relief was so touching my laughter turned into sobs. “I’m sorry about your car. I’ll figure out a way to get the money to fix it.”

“Shh, don’t worry about it.” He rubbed my back in calming circles. “You’re more important than a stupid car. And about Kristie.”

“I don’t want to talk about her right now. I know you’re just friends with her.” He might only be friends with her, but there was definitely something more on Kristie’s side. I would deal with her later.

Brushing thoughts of her aside, I snuggled into his chest and listened to the beat of his heart.

“Mandi, there’s something I need to ask you.”

His unspoken question lingered. We were back to where we had started.

“Julian...”

“Nic.” I popped up, grabbing hold of his neck and pulled his lips to mine. He hesitated, his lips stiff. I kissed harder, putting everything I had into the kiss. He had to know that I loved him. It was him I wanted to be with...only him.

“Mandi.” His voice was raw with emotion. His ducked his head, keeping his face hidden.

“Nic. I want you. I need you.” I ran my hands down his chest, tracing each line of his muscled abs with the tip of my finger, and then, finally, reached down to caress the growing bulge in his jeans. His hand latched onto mine before I could touch him. In one swift move, he grabbed a handful of my hair and tugged gently, lifting my head up to him. I sucked in a breath at the heat in his eyes. There was something different. It was raw, carnal.