She smiles as she places her hand in mine. I woke up this morning determined to move on with my life, and now I have what I’ve wanted the whole time. There are still some things we need to work out, but I’m content to just be with her like this for now. It’s surreal, really.

“Are you going to tell me about your roommates before we go in?” she asks as we climb the steps to my floor.

“Cory’s a cool guy. I think his dad’s the mayor or something back in his hometown. You’d never know it, though; the guy parties every day like it’s his last.”

“What about Rachel?” she asks.

“Rachel isn’t technically my roommate.”

“I know, but what’s she like?”

“She’s outspoken. I guess you could say she’s the female version of Cory, but she doesn’t enjoy the party as much. She spends a lot of time taking care of him.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the quizzical look on Kate’s face. “They’ve known each other since they were kids and dated all through high school. Kind of like us, less the dating part.”

“Oh,” she says, her lips parted.

“Look, I didn’t mean anything by that. It’s just that they’ve known each other for a long time. And don’t worry, I already know Rachel’s going to love you.”

Kate takes a deep breath as I open the door to my apartment. It doesn’t surprise me that Rachel’s sitting on the couch with a celebrity magazine on her lap. “Hey,” she says, throwing the magazine down on the old coffee table. “You found her.”

I wrap my arm around Kate’s shoulders. “I could find this girl anywhere.”

“I’m sorry about earlier. I thought you were someone else,” Kate says, stepping out of my hold to walk to where Rachel stands. “I’m Kate.”

Rachel extends her hand, a genuine smile appearing on her face. “I’m Rachel. And I’m sorry. If a strange girl answered the door when I went to see Cory, I’d probably react the same way.”

“Some girls can get a little crazy.”

“Yes, but it’s not nearly as crazy as the guys get. I remember one day in high school, my friend, Zander, gave me a ride home after class, and Cory happened to be sitting in my driveway. He completely freaked out and put a dent in Zander’s hood.”

They both start laughing, and all I can do is stand back with my arms crossed over my chest and shake my head. Not like there’s much for me to say. If I didn’t have lots of self-control, I would have pummeled Asher’s ass when I saw him with Kate.

“Kate, can we go talk for a little bit?” I ask, ending their bonding moment.

“You guys don’t have to do that. I can go. I don’t know when Cory will be back anyway,” Rachel says, grabbing her purse off the chair.

“You don’t have to leave.”

“It’s not a big deal. I have a few things I need to do. Kate, it was nice meeting you. We should get together soon and talk,” she says, grinning over at me.

“I’d like that.” Kate waves as Rachel makes her way out. We both wait for the door to close, and then I wrap my arms around her thin waist and pull her lips to mine. She’s my addiction, and I’ve been deprived of her for way too long. It’s like I’m f**king dreaming, and when she moans, I know I’ve gone to heaven. It’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard.

I’m completely lost in the moment when she pulls back and says, “I thought we were going to talk.”

“Are you planning on leaving any time soon?”

“No,” she says, looking at my lips.

“Then we can talk later.” I dip my head to her neck and run my tongue along her sensitive skin. I can hear her breathing harder as I make small, deliberate circles. “That is, unless you want me to stop,” I say, pulling back to get a better look at her facial expression.

“Later is fine.”

“Good. Where was I?” She tilts her head and points to the spot below her ear.

Chapter 2

One Week Later – September 2012

I’VE BEEN IN COLLEGE for exactly one week now, and it’s been better than I expected. I’m adjusting to being around people my own age again, and I’ve made more friends this week than I have the last few years. Rachel has been great, hanging out with me a couple times when the guys are still in class. I struggled a bit at first; I honestly couldn’t remember what I used to talk about when I had girlfriends—it had been too long. Beau and Cory ended up being our favorite subjects.

I met my roommate that first night when I got back from Beau’s. Her name is Emery, and she comes from a small town like Carrington. We get along just fine, but she isn’t the easiest person to get to know. So far I know she’s a perfectionist who loves to study.

“Do you want to walk to class with me?” Emery asks as she walks back into our room from the bathroom.

“Yeah, give me just a second,” I say, throwing my books into my bag.

Surveying our eclectic room, I search for my flip-flops. As soon as we moved all our stuff in, I noticed our decorating styles couldn’t be more different. My side of the room is decorated in shades of blue and green, meant to calm me when I’m stressing out or when things get too out of control. Emery’s is plastered in pink and black, very bold for a girl who seems to prefer to fly under the radar. The two walls I was able to decorate are covered in Lifehouse posters, while hers have a couple bulletin boards covered in family photos as well as two black and white portraits of New York City. When I’d asked her about it, she said it was part of her dream to live there. Somewhere she could blend in without everyone knowing her business and live life under the rules she’s created for herself. While I have very few pieces of furniture on my side, hers is cluttered with a desk, bookshelf, and large dresser. I kind of get it, though, because she spends all her free time with her nose buried in a book.

The way we dress, though, is so similar that the second day we had to institute a rule not to leave any clothes on the floor or doorknobs; it was too hard to figure out what belonged to whom. We’re both addicted to jeans, cutoff jean shorts, and long maxi skirts, and sadly, I think we hit all the same stores.

“We’re having a Biology study group tonight. Do you want to come?” she asks, sitting on the edge of her bed. Not only do we get along, but we’re also in a lot of the same classes because as it turned out, we’re both majoring in psychology.

“Maybe. I have to check with Beau first to see if he has any plans.” I

slip the bag over my shoulders and step into my flip-flops.

“You two spend way too much time together. Don’t you ever just want to do your own thing? When do you have time to study?” she asks as she chips the finger nail polish from her nails. It’s a habit I noticed the first day we were here.

I shrug. “We’re making up for lost time. It’s hard to explain, but right now I need all the time with him I can get. And don’t worry about my study time. I get plenty of that done when I’m with Beau.”

She looks up from her nails and smiles. “Whatever. I guess if Beau was my boyfriend, I would want to spend every minute I could with him, too.”

“Have you ever had a serious boyfriend, Emery?”

I’ve never seen a smile fall from someone’s face as fast as it fell from hers. “Let’s talk about something else.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry,” I say softly, trying to push away the dark cloud that has suddenly formed over the room. There’s a lot that Emery doesn’t know about me—a lot she’ll probably never know about me. I’m not going to be a hypocrite and force her tell me her secrets.

“It’s okay. Maybe someday we can talk about it, but not today.”

“Are you ready to go?” I ask in an effort to move us away from the subject of our pasts.

“Yeah, let’s get out of here.” She stands up from the bed and tosses her long hair over her shoulders. I wonder if she realizes how pretty she is with her brown eyes, dark hair, and olive-colored skin.

As we make our way across campus, she talks about what she’s doing for her Biology paper that’s due next week. She doesn’t do much outside of class, the library, and various study groups. I almost feel sorry for her, because while she seems content, she doesn’t look all that happy. She reminds me a lot of myself from a year or two ago.

I even invited Emery out for pizza with Rachel and me yesterday; she looked at me like I had idiot written on my forehead. I’ve made it my goal this year to help bring her out of her shell … like Asher did for me. I can tell it’s going to be a struggle, but I’m up for the challenge.

When we get to our classroom, we take our seats right next to each other in the front of the room. This isn’t the most exciting class I have so sitting in the front is necessary for staying awake.

“Are you ladies going to the game tomorrow?” It’s Drake, the quarterback of the football team. Every time we have this class, he sits right behind us. If he wasn’t such a jerk, we might not mind it so much.

“We have better things to do. Like memorizing all the past presidents in order of their presidency,” Emery says, not even bothering to turn around and look at him.

“What about you? Are you memorizing the presidents with the brown-eyed devil over here?” he asks, nodding toward Emery.

“She’s hanging out with her super nice and very sexy boyfriend,” Emery interjects, turning toward me just enough that I can see her eyes roll.

Drake narrows his gaze, focusing them in on the back of her head. “I think she can answer for herself.”

“Stop,” I interrupt. “I don’t know why you two even bother talking to each other.”

“If Professor Monroe hadn’t assigned us to work on a project together, we wouldn’t,” Emery answers, glaring over at me.