“Going to the mall.” She pushed the brim of the cap up a little as she stepped to the side, reaching out with her hand. “We have some special shopping to do.”
“Hmm.” I threaded my fingers through hers. “What kind of special shopping?”
“It’s a secret.”
I grinned and then inhaled deeply. There was dampness in the air. “Does it have something to do with a day that’s not Presidents’ Day?”
She laughed, and my grin spread. Shortcake had been laughing a lot lately. “I’m not going to tell you.”
“I see how it is.” We stopped near the covered entrance of the social-sciences building, and I pulled her toward me. She came willingly, stretching up on the tips of her toes. Sliding the cap around so it was backward on her head, I rested my forehead against hers. “Can you smell it?”
She laughed as she placed a hand on my chest. “My breath?”
Rolling my eyes, I wrapped an arm around her waist. “No, you little dork. There’s snow in the air.”
“Oh.” She giggled.
I kissed her softly. “Well, be careful on your special, secret shopping trip.”
“I will.” She reached up, taking off the cap and then fitting it on me. “You coming by tonight?”
“That’s a stupid question.” I didn’t want to let her go.
She made a face at me. “Thought there were no such things as stupid questions.”
“That’s a lie.” Dipping my head, I kissed her once more and then let go. When she turned to leave, I tapped her ass, causing her to jump and shoot me a dirty look. I laughed. “You liked it.”
Her flushed cheeks told me I was right.
The snow fell outside, coming down pretty fast. I was glad I was able to convince Shortcake to skip with me tomorrow. Classes would still be happening, but the campus would be an ice-pit death trap.
I glanced down at her and smiled. After eating pizza and hanging out with Ollie, she was tuckered out. Deeply asleep, she was curled on her side, her head resting on my leg. I scooped a strand of her hair off her cheek, tucking it back.
“She’s cute, you know?” Ollie bent forward and picked up the last slice of pizza and stood. “Only she could pass out in the presence of our awesomeness.”
I laughed softly. “It was too much for her. She was overwhelmed.”
He grinned as he stepped over my legs. “I’ll let myself out.”
In the following silence, I traced the elegant curves of her face with my gaze, committing the sweeps and angles to memory. Earlier in the day, as I’d walked over to West Campus with Ollie, he’d made some kind of comment about me being whipped. Funny thing was, it hadn’t ticked me off. I’d laughed. Maybe I was a little whipped. Maybe I was a little obsessed. Maybe I was—
On the coffee table, Avery’s phone beeped and the screen lit up, and I looked before I realized what I was doing.
You’re a lying whore. How can you live with yourself?
I leaned forward, reading the message three times before the light faded from the screen and the text disappeared.
Shock made me stupid. I had to have read it wrong. Three times? Not likely. Muscles in my back and neck locked up. I don’t know how long I sat there in stunned silence, but beyond the shock, anger simmered in my veins like a slow-burning brushfire. Who in the fuck would’ve sent that to her? Lying whore? I wanted to find the person responsible and rip their spine right out.
But why would someone send that to her? If Avery was a whore, so was a nun, but why? A muscle began to thrum in my jaw and didn’t stop when Avery stirred.
Yawning, she sat up and pushed long strands of hair out of her face. A sleepy smile formed on her lush lips. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you.”
I looked at her, unsure if I should say something.
She straightened as her gaze flickered over my face. “Is everything okay?”
Fuck it. There was no way I could let this pass. I glanced at the table. “You got a message while you were sleeping.”
Her brows knitted as she followed my gaze and then she lurched forward, snapping up her cell. She inhaled sharply when she tapped on the screen.
I watched the blood seep out of her face and felt the knots of unease grow. “It flashed across your screen when it came through.”
Slowly, she sat the phone down with trembling hands. She didn’t look at me, but kept staring at it. “You looked at the text?”
“It’s not like I did it on purpose.” Tense, I leaned forward. “It was right there, sitting on your screen.”
“But you didn’t have to look!” She stood, hands curling at her sides.
Whoa. Hold up. “Avery, I wasn’t sneaking through your stuff. The damn text came through. I looked before I could stop myself. Maybe that was wrong.”
“It was wrong!”
I took a deep breath. “Okay. It was wrong. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t change the fact that I saw that text.”
She stopped in the middle of the room and there was no mistaking the look of panic darkening her eyes.
“Avery,” I said carefully. Her gaze darted to me. “Why would you get a text like that?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t know.”
I didn’t believe her.
“I don’t know,” she said again, and then rushed on. “Every so often I get a text like this, but I don’t know why. I think it’s a wrong-number kind of thing.”
I still didn’t believe her. “You don’t know who that’s from?”
“No. It says unknown caller. You saw that.” She continued on before I could speak. “I’m sorry for freaking out on you. It just surprised me. I was asleep and I wake up and I could tell something was wrong. Then I thought . . . I don’t know what I thought, but I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing, Avery.” I hated it when she did that. “I don’t need to hear that you’re sorry. I want you to be honest with me, sweetheart. That’s all I want. If you’re getting messages like that, I need to know about that.”
She took a step back. “Why?”
Sometimes I wondered if we spoke the same language. “Because I’m your boyfriend and I care if someone is calling you a whore!”
Avery flinched.
Taking another deep breath, I looked away. “Honestly? It pisses me off, even if it’s an accidental text. No one should be sending you shit like that.” I paused, finding her gaze and holding it. “You know you can tell me anything, right? I’m not going to judge you or get mad.”
The moment those words left my mouth, I realized how absolutely fucking fake I was. Here I was telling Avery she could tell me anything, getting pissed off because I knew she wasn’t, and I was keeping secrets.
“I know,” she whispered, and then louder, “I know.”
My heart kicked in my chest as I stared into her eyes. “And you trust me, right?”
“Yes. Of course I do.”
“Shit,” I growled, and my muscles tensed even further. A ball of ice formed in my chest. Telling her was a risk. She could think I was a violent person and walk away, but I needed to be honest, especially if I expected her to be.
I was scared shitless.
Closing my eyes, I said, “I haven’t been entirely honest with you.”
“What?”
I scrubbed my hand along my jaw. In for a penny, in for a pound or some shit, right? “I tell you that you should trust me and that you can tell me anything, but I’m not doing the same thing. And eventually you’re going to find out.”
Avery hurried around the coffee table and sat on the edge of the couch.
“What are you talking about, Cam?”
I could lose her, I realized, but I had to tell her the truth. “You know how I told you we all have done shit in our past we aren’t proud of?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“I can say that from firsthand experience. Only a few people know about this.” I paused. “And it’s the last thing I want to tell you.”
“You can tell me,” she said, scooting closer. “Seriously, you can talk to me. Please.”
I didn’t know where to start. It took me a few moments. “I should be graduating this year, along with Ollie, but I’m not.”