THE NEXT MORNING I woke to the smell of coffee. Espresso, to be precise. Wafting deliciously close to my nose. I crept one eyelid open to find Pepper standing in front of me, holding a large-size cup from the Java Hut.
Georgia sat propped in her bed across the way, already cupping her drink in both palms. I barely remembered her coming in the night before. It must have been late though because I had stared into the dark long after Shaw left me.
Georgia smiled at me. She had one of the sweetest smiles. Natural and unaffected. She really was the modern southern woman. Sophisticated but still clinging to a certain gentility and wholesomeness that eluded the rest of the female population of Dartford. I could well imagine her waltzing at all those high school cotillions her mother made her attend. “Pepper brought us coffee.”
“Hmm.” Pushing myself up on one elbow, I accepted the proffered cup. “You’re an angel.”
“Not really.” Pepper settled in the beanbag chair in the corner, plunking her own drink down on the floor, near her feet. With her free hand, she rattled a brown paper bag. “Scones?”
I nodded and she tossed me one, which I managed to catch without crumbs flying all over me.
Pepper continued.“I’m just dying to know what’s going on between you and Shaw.”
Georgia turned interested eyes on me. “Shaw? Who’s Shaw?”
“No one,” I mumbled. The chocolate chip scone was still warm as I bit into it. “Yum. This is delicious.” I chased the flaky goodness with a drink. Heaven.
“Who’s Shaw?” Georgia repeated.
“Shaw is a guy that Reece went to high school with. Just back from the Marines.”
“Oh.” Georgia’s eyebrows, several shades darker than her blond hair, winged high over her expressive eyes.
I wagged my scone at her. “ ‘Oh’ nothing. It’s not like that.”
“Is he hot?” she asked, looking back and forth from me to Pepper.
I squared my shoulders. “What difference—”
“He’s smoking,” Pepper interjected.
I glared at her. “You have a boyfriend.”
“What? I can’t look? It’s hard not to notice something like that. He either is or isn’t. And yeah, he definitely is.”
Georgia nodded, absorbing this as she rose to investigate the bag of scones. She selected a scone and sat back, crossing her legs Indian style. She was still wearing her pajamas with little red Santas even though Christmas was over. She probably grabbed them because they were her warmest pair.
“So this Shaw, Reece’s old high school buddy . . . is hot.”
I nodded once, reluctantly.
“And you left with him last night,” Pepper chimed in, as if I needed reminding. If I inhaled I could still catch a lingering whiff of him on my bed.
“Where’d ya’ll go?” Georgia asked, her soft Alabama accent rolling through me like warm honey.
“Here,” I said, my voice so low even I had a hard time hearing myself.
Georgia lowered her cup and leaned forward. “I’m sorry. What was that? It sounded like you said ‘here.’ ”
“I did. I brought him here.”
Pepper and Georgia both stared at me in stunned silence.
“What?” I snapped. Taking another bite of my scone, I took turns staring at each of them.
“Well, you hardly ever bring anyone here.”
“Like never,” Pepper agreed, nodding, her wild mane of hair moving around her like some fiery nimbus.
“Well, I did.” I wasn’t about to explain that he gave me little choice in the matter. “Not that it’s going to become a habit or anything.”
“Tell me more about this Shaw.” Georgia got that narrow-eyed, considering look. I thought of it as her “parent” look. Which was okay considering my parents didn’t really care one way or another about the company I kept. It was nice knowing she had my back. Even when I didn’t want her there.
A business major, she was the pragmatist among us. Steady as the tide, she never flip-flopped her majors. It was like she knew who she was, where she was going, and with whom. As much as I didn’t like Harris, I couldn’t help thinking how comforting it must be to be with the same boyfriend since you were sixteen. To have that kind of familiarity. To know that you can drop your guard around him and be yourself. To have that trust.
I shrugged. “He enlisted after high school. Served two tours. What else do you want to know? He lives in a lake cabin his grandfather left him. His mother remarried and is living in Boston.”
“So what’s he do now?”
“Reece said he works in a garage,” Pepper answered. That he’s an awesome mechanic and he’s saving up to start his own custom shop.”
I looked at her, unable to hold back the question even if it revealed my interest—and how little I still didn’t know about him. “He is?”
“Apparently he’s really into bikes.”
Maybe that’s what he was doing at Maisie’s then? Rubbing elbows with a potential clientele?
“So he sounds interesting . . . ambitious,” Georgia said, nodding again.
I couldn’t stop annoyance from pricking at me. I didn’t need Georgia’s approval of a prospective boyfriend. Not that he was a prospective boyfriend. He wasn’t a prospective anything as far as I was concerned despite his confidence that he and I weren’t finished.
“Why does this feel like an intervention?” I asked before taking another sip.
Pepper blinked and pressed a hand to her chest. “When did best friends talking get reduced to being labeled an intervention?”
“Yeah. We just want to hear about your new—”
“He’s not my new anything,” I cut Georgia off quickly. Setting my half-eaten scone down, I scooted off the bed. Holding my cup in one hand, I approached my closet and pulled my robe off the hook.
“What are you doing?” Georgia asked.
“I need a shower.”
I felt their eyes on me as I gathered up the rest of my things. When I turned to face them, I sighed. “Oh, c’mon. Why are you guys looking at me like that?”
“Wow.” Georgia shook her head. “You’re actually running away rather than talk about a guy with us. I’ve got to meet this Shaw.”
“I knew it.” Pepper grinned like she had just won some prize. “You like him.”
“Wrong. I just need a shower. I still smell like a bar.”
“We’ll just be waiting here when you get back.” Pepper snuggled down into the beanbag chair like she was settling in for a good long stay.
“When I get back I’m going to the library to study.”
Georgia made a sound that was halfway snort and halfway laugh. “Oh. I know you’ve got it bad now. You’re running to the library.”
Pepper’s eyes rounded. “Do you even know where the building is?”
“Oh, now you’re just being shits.” I grabbed my shower caddy and yanked open the bedroom door. Their laughter followed me, but so did the knowledge that they weren’t entirely wrong.
I was running. Not just from them though. I was running from myself. From the echo of Shaw’s voice in my room. The only problem was that even away from my room, I could still hear his voice.