A Safe Place To Fall (The Fall Book 1) (6 page)

Lana pressed her head into Drew’s
chest, groaning. “He went clubbing tonight.”

At least that explained the song.

Ricky leaned over the couch. “Hey,
sexy.”

“
He better be talking to you,”
Drew said, tickling Lana causing her to squirm.

Drew felt Ricky’s nose go into his
hair. “You smell good.”

Drew was all about gay rights. Who
others fall are attracted to didn't concern him. His coolness
stopped once he was hit on.

“
Lana,” Drew said with
warning in his voice.

“
Ricky,” Lana laughed, “down
boy. He’s not that into you.”

“
I love that movie,” Ricky
said, tugging on Drew’s pony tail. “Watch it with me.”

“
Are you blind?” Drew asked
him. “Lana is in my lap. What makes you think I'd want
anything to do with you?”

Ricky pouted. “But I dance so much
better.”

Lana shrugged, helplessly, through
another onset of giggles. “It’s true. I kind of look
like a clown when I dance.”

“
Don’t encourage him,”
Drew said. “Call Jerome, Ricky.”

“
He’s boring,” Ricky
complained. “He doesn’t dance.”

“
Neither do I,” Drew told
him, “especially with you.”

Drew held Lana closer to him hoping to
send signals to her friend. He sent signals to another part of his
body instead. She felt right in his arms. Now, if he could just get
rid of Ricky.

Lana reached up and flicked Ricky on the
nose. “Go to bed.” When he looked at Drew she added,
“Alone.”

Ricky sighed dramatically, “OK.
Who wants to tuck me in?”

Lana laughed, shoving his head away.
“Go!”

He laughed and staggered to his bedroom.
There was a loud thump as Ricky ran into something. “I'm OK!”

Lana laughed, relaxing her head back
against his shoulder. “I’m sorry about that.”

Drew ran his hand down her arm to get to
her hand. “He always try to steal your boyfriends?”

“
You’re not my boyfriend,”
she said. “Technically, it wouldn’t be stealing.”

He brought her hand up to his mouth and
dropped a kiss there. “I thought I would be at least half way
to that status by now.”

She arched a brow. “How do you
figure?”

Drew began to count off on his free hand.
“Breakfast, that’s date number one. Tonight would be
our second. Then Saturday night is Chris’ football kick-off
party, that’s number three.”

“
First,” she said, “I
didn’t know these were dates. Second, I thought you were
playing Lux on Saturday?”

He shook his head, “That's Friday
night. Saturday night I am completely yours.”

“
I’m not sure about going to
a party.”

“
It’s just a few people
sitting around eating some food, drinking some beers, and watching
the game,” he said. “We're too lazy to go down to the
field.”

“
OK,” she relented, “if
you’re sure.”

A look at the clock told him it was time
for him to head out. Morning came early.

“
Honey, I gotta get out of here,”
he told her. “And you need to get your cute little butt to
bed.”

Lana pulled away from him. “Thanks
for tonight. I’m sorry about Ricky. He can get weird
sometimes.”

Drew dropped a kiss on her forehead.
“See you in class tomorrow.” He made his way out the
door before he changed his mind about giving her a real kiss.

*****************

The next morning, Lana eyed the different
options in the vending machine. Once again she had rushed out of the
apartment without eating breakfast. Since one could not live on
coffee alone, her stomach had started its protest. She chose the
honey cinnamon bun. Maybe if she squinted really hard she could
trick herself into believing it was a glazed doughnut.

She was too focused on opening her snack,
as she headed towards class, to notice Drew sneak up behind her.
When his arm dropped over her shoulders she about cleared her skin.
His familiar scent kept her anchored to the ground.

“
That is not a proper breakfast,”
Drew informed her.

She rolled her eyes and spoke around a
bite of the goodness. “This coming from the guy who thinks
tacos make every day a good day?”

“
Hey, now,” he stated,
steering her around a couple who seemed more concerned with each
other' tongues than getting to class, “no smack talking the
taco.”

“
Then, back off of my honey bun,”
she said sweetly.

“
Nothing wrong with a honey bun,”
he told her, just as he bent his head to steal a bite of the treat
before she knew what he planned.

“
I cannot believe you just did
that,” she said, as they walked into their Legal Terminology
Class. He guided her to a set of seats in the back.

The professor launched into a lecture on
land contracts and deeds before Drew could make a comment. Lana did
her best to concentrate on taking notes. Drew was once again playing
that stupid game on his phone. Every once in a while he would elbow
her and cause her pen to dance across her notebook. She would glare
at him. He would give her that teasing grin of his. Just like that
all would be forgiven. It was a vicious cycle.

Would he still be here if he knew she
were damaged goods? It was a question that had run through her mind
since the night he had driven her home from the party. Could she
really afford to let him get too close? Was she setting herself up
for heartbreak?

“
I won’t be at the gym
tonight,” his whisper tickled her ear. “I have band
practice.”

She shrugged. “Until last night I
had no clue that you even worked out.”

Big lie. Big fat lie. She had found
herself staring at his arms a million times while he played at the
party the other night. It was an even bigger lie that his missing
tonight was no big deal to her. No time to examine what that even
meant.

“
You know, you could always skip
the gym and crash rehearsals,” he suggested, sounding almost
hopeful.

That seemed way too personal. Something
that only a girlfriend would do. A big step towards relationship
status. A step that Lana was not sure that she was ready to make.
Or, if she should even take that step. A fist slowly squeezed around
her heart as she realized she was not prepared to take this where he
wanted things to go.

“
It’s cool,” she said,
feeling anything but cool at the moment. “I’ll go to the
gym. You do your thing.”

He pouted, teasingly. “Fine. It’s
your loss.”

“
Listening to you guys argue about
this week’s set list is not at the top of my to-do list,”
she informed him, as she began gathering her things into her book
bag.

“
We don’t argue,” Drew
told her, following her out the door. “Not much anyway.”

“
Still, I think, I’ll skip
it.”

“
I’ll call you,” Drew
hollered after her retreating back.

**************************

‘
She’s not here.’

Drew stared down at the text message from
Chris. He had asked his roommate to make sure she had made it to the
gym safely, since he could not be there. Concern filled him. If she
was not with him and she had not shown up at the gym; where the hell
was she?

He cast a look at the entrance of the
rented auditorium. It was empty. The rational side of his brain
told him she had no reason to inform him of any changes in her plan.

Damn it! Lana never missed a night at
the gym. At least not since he had known her. That knowledge sent
him out the door and to his car.

Lana opened her apartment door after the
third knock. Relief washed through him when she appeared to be
unharmed. Slightly annoyed but unharmed.

“
What are you doing here?”
she asked him, propping the door open with her hip.

“
You didn’t go to the gym,”
he informed her.

She nodded slowly. “I ended up
having to write a….” Her eyes narrowed. “Wait.
How do you know I didn’t go to the gym?”

How dangerous would it be if he told her
that he had checked on her via Chris? Judging by the look currently
on her face, he figured his balls would be safer if he played dumb.

“
Practice let out early,” he
lied, moving so that she was forced to open the door wider. “So,
I figured I would take you out for dinner.”

Lana looked over her shoulder at the
clock on the wall. “At nine o’clock?”

He arched a brow. “Are you saying
you already had dinner?”

She sighed. “No, but I have a
paper that I’m working on.”

“
Well, you have to eat.”

“
I’m not going out,”
she refused, “I’m in my Pj's.”

Drew eyed the fuzzy short shorts that
revealed a whole lot of leg and a tight tank. “Definitely
don’t want you changing out of that.”

She blushed.

“
Go ahead and work on your paper,”
he told her, backing out of the door before he could reach out for
her. “I’m going to go grab some Chinese. Whatever you
do, don’t change.”

Drew cast one last long look at her
smooth white legs before he darted down the hall.

***************************

Lana laid in bed that night tossing, and
turning. Drew had managed to get her to talk about her family that
night over Chinese food. They laughed at stories of her childhood
growing up with brothers. It had been a while since she had thought
of those times.

Over the past couple of years her
brothers had all found wives or girlfriends and moved on with their
lives. She was left to suffer alone at her parents' house. With no
one else to distract him, her father had centered his attention on
her. He was only satisfied if she brought home straight A's. There
were times she had hated her brothers for leaving her alone.

Tonight she realized how much she missed
her brothers. Christmas cards, sporadic texts, and visits were the
only communication she had with them these days. Once she was away
from home the texts had all but stopped.

It had been so easy to open up to Drew
about her family. If only it were easy to tell him everything.

She went to sleep knowing he would never
know the truth of what happened to her.

Chapter 4

It was the first game of the Mountaineer
football season and Drew’s apartment was filled to its
capacity. Lana sat tucked against his side holding her bottle of
water. What she was even doing here? She didn't fit in among the
crowd filled with a mix of boxer wannabes and girls who had to be
groupies picked up the night before.

Chris sat down beside her and pulled one
of the girls down on his lap. Lana eyed them out of the corner of
her eye, then darted a glance at the door. Would anybody notice if
she ran out the door?

Drew’s arm tightened around her
shoulders, letting her know he knew what she was planning.“Relax,”
he whispered in her ear. “Nobody is paying attention to you.”

A couple of the guys were arguing over
their predictions of the outcome of the game. Another set was taking
bets. A group of obviously bored girls were discussing plans for a
psychology project.

It was safe to assume that nobody was
paying a bit of attention to her, but that knowledge didn't stop the
steady hammering of her pulse in her ears. Or the sweat making a
slow path down her spine. Was it a million degrees in here?

The crowd at the club, last night,
hadn't made her this nervous.

Lana
remained backstage throughout
the whole show. She only went out among the crowd once the band had
taken their break.

Drew dragged her out onto the dance
floor during a slow song performed by the second band of the evening.
His arms kept her anchored on the crowded dance floor, holding her
close as they swayed.

Now his presence was keeping her from
darting out the door.

“You’re majoring in law
right?” asked the petite blonde, who had been introduced as
Drew's sister.

It took Drew nudging her arm lightly for
Lana to realize the girl was speaking to her. “Paralegal.
There’s less pressure.”

The girl wrinkled her nose. “Wish
I had thought of that.”

“You’re going to go to Law
School?” Lana asked. She hoped she didn't sound as surprised
as she felt. The girl didn't look like a law major.

“That's my plan anyway. I want to
concentrate on helping rape and domestic violence victims get
justice.” She was playing with a hair on Chris' arm.

Lana felt her body go rigid and her
pulse quickened. Had the woman noticed something about her? Is that
why she suddenly started talking to her after an hour? She should
have stayed safely tucked in her apartment with a book.