Major Renovations (Ritter University #1) (12 page)

“Is that Ski? Samantha, let him in,” her father yelled from his polyester throne.

Ski walked past Samantha and put his gift on the coffee table. “Sir.”

“So, I hear I’m sitting here because of you.”

“I wouldn’t go that far…” Ski sat on the couch next to her father’s chair.

“Nonsense. You’re being modest.” Her father reached across the arm rest and grabbed Ski’s hand. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. You’re looking good. How are you feeling?”

“Fine. The heart-police won’t let me do anything, but I’m feeling fine.”

“Good. I’m sure the heart-police is just worried about you.” Ski aimed a smile at Samantha, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

She couldn’t stand being this close to him. But running out of the room was not an option, was it?

Her father cleared his throat. “Nice basket, Ski. Those oranges look good.”

“I’ll open this and bring you one, Dad.” She grabbed the basket and walked past the men, nearly running for the safety of the deserted kitchen. She dropped the gift on the counter, pulling the ribbon at the top.
Rrriipp
. The plastic tore, and she snatched an orange from its confetti cocoon.

“Hey.” Ski leaned against the counter, across from where she stood. Sneaky, wasn’t he?

“Hey.”

“Can we talk?”

No. Hell. No. She didn’t want to talk. Like a bad cold, she wanted this thing between them to just fade away.

“I wanted to see how you’re doing.” Apparently her silence meant
go ahead, let’s talk
.

“Fine.”

“Good.” He played with his keys, staring at them like they were the most interesting things ever. “Would you like to go out tonight? Get some dinner, maybe talk?”

“I need to be here for my dad.” She peeled the orange and laid it in a clean bowl. “He isn’t well enough to be left alone, not yet.”

“Yeah, of course. I could stop by and bring dinner.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She washed her hands in the sink and dried them on a towel. When she caught herself trying to fold it in perfect thirds she grabbed her tablet instead, playing with the screen. She loved her tablet. She felt safe behind her tablet.

Her skin pricked, nervous energy jolting her body. She didn’t want to do this here. She didn’t want to do this anywhere. Why did he want to prolong the torture?

His sigh had an edge to it. “Can you please put that down? I’m so tired of you hiding behind that tablet.”

She slammed it on the counter. “Ski, we had a good time, but it was a summer fling. You need to get back to school and I’ve got to get back to work.”

“We could still see each other.” His voice wasn’t giving her any hints, and for some reason that just made things worse. As if that was possible.

She dared to glance up. “Aren’t those pre-med classes intense? You won’t have time.”

“I’ll make time.” His eyes narrowed.

“Ski…”

“Are you breaking up with me?” There— there was the hurt she expected.

Samantha straightened up, chin lifting. “There’s nothing to break up. We weren’t dating. We were having a good time.” She swore she could see the exact moment his heart broke inside his chest. It was the exact moment a lump lodged in her throat, making it impossible to breathe.

“So, I meant nothing.” Ski stepped back. “Wow.”

“No. It wasn’t nothing...”

“I was a fuck buddy.” He tensed, and for a moment, she thought he was going to slam his hands on the counter. Instead, he just took a deep breath. “I’m done.”

Ski turned and headed toward the door, leaving her to stare at the stupid fruit. She wanted to follow him. Say something. But what could she say—
Y
ou’ll thank me someday? It’s better we cut ties before we got in too deep?
She jumped when Ski slapped one hand on the counter.

“You know what, I’m not done.” He ran his other hand over his hair. “I get your mom left and it was fucked up. But pushing everyone away is not the answer. All I did was love you, and you’re too damn scared to love me back. I never thought you were a coward.”

Samantha’s head jerked up, her eyes meeting his. He blinked at her, and his next words sounded thick. “Now I’m done.”

She watched him walk out the door, breathing around the rock in her chest.

“Those are some nice oranges.” Her father appeared at the counter.

“Yeah.” She pushed the bowl across the counter toward him.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Nope.” She moved the basket to the other counter and stared at it. Not far enough. Not far enough away from her. It came from Ski. She didn’t need reminders. She needed to forget. Some memory potion to help her move on, move forward, without him.

“Yeah. I’m not much of a talker either. But you know he’s right. I’m not going to be here forever.”

“So I should hook up with the first guy that comes along?” She yanked the basket off the counter and took it into the pantry. She’d only have to be reminded when she opened the pantry door. Like she was ever going to go in there again.

“No, but you should let people in. Maybe it’s my fault. I watched you push everyone away and I let you do it. I should have stopped you, but I knew how you felt. When your mom left—”

She did not want to hear the rest of that sentence. “Dad, it’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. Not
everyone
leaves. Your mom wasn’t ready for everything included in marriage. She’d never had a relationship at that point. She was scared.”

“But—” An embarrassing hiccup escaped. “My own mom didn’t love me enough to stick around. Why would anyone else?”

“Well, I did.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “And your mom’s leaving had nothing to do with love. She loved you. She just didn’t know how to deal with her life. And… it’s sad. She missed out on you. Your life and your accomplishments. She didn’t get to know the wonderful woman you’ve become. She shut us out. Just like you’re doing to Ski.”

“He’ll leave.”

“Maybe. But maybe not. The man adores you, and from what I could see, you love him too. With your mom, I was scared, too. But I don’t regret one minute of it. I wouldn’t change it at all. It would be tragic to miss out on great love because you’re afraid he’ll leave.” He took the bowl and headed to the family room.

Great love
.

Was this her great love? She liked talking to him. She felt safe with him. Her body couldn’t get enough of him. When he was around, her life, her heart felt complete.

Crap.

She loved him. Why couldn’t she have figured that out ten seconds ago?

~»ΨΡ«~

Chapter
Nineteen

Ski

SKI STEPPED over a crate as he carried a case of beer up the stairs. Moving day at Psi Rho. The hustle. The noise. It all kept his mind off of Samantha.

He’d been an idiot. He’d actually thought they had a future. It was a good thing he had a box in his hands because he had an overwhelming urge to knock himself in the head.

“Ski, you can just set it down over here.” Ryan pointed to the one empty space left on the table in their room. “Thanks for helping me today.”

Ski felt Ryan’s stare as he dropped the case onto the table. “What?”

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing?”

Ryan said, “Okay”, but he kept staring.

Ski walked to the window. Cars lined the street and parking lot. Trunks were open. Everyone excited to start the new year. And all Ski wanted to do was go home to his family. Maybe even head to Poland. Pretend the summer didn’t happen.

Dammit. He didn’t want to forget the summer happened, he just wanted it to end differently. Or not at all. If it meant he’d be with Samantha, he wanted the summer to last forever.

“Is it Samantha?”

Good thing he’d put the beer down or he would have dropped the entire case. “What?” He turned around to glare at Ryan, who tilted his head, studying Ski.

“Did something happen with her? Is that why you’re acting weird?”

He never should have told Ryan anything. He didn’t want to talk about it. Now or ever. “I just stayed up too late last night.” That sounded lame even to him.

Ryan made a rude noise, and Ski sighed. Maybe he should just confess and get this over with. “Fuck. Yeah. It just didn’t work out.” Ski figured that was the best story. Ryan didn’t need the gory details. Like how they were fuck buddies and he fell in love and she broke his heart. According to her, they weren’t even dating, for cripes sake. That was one dagger Ski didn’t need slid back into his heart, thanks.

“Shit. That sucks.”

“Yeah.”

The frat president walked in the door. “Hello, ladies. How was the summer?” Ski clenched his teeth. He had no patience for Brent’s bullshit today.

Brent opened the empty mini-fridge. “No cold beer?”

“No. Check your own. I’m still moving in.” Ryan slammed the fridge shut. Brent saw the case Ski had carried in and opened the box. Ryan almost growled. “Sure you can have one. Thanks for asking.” Ryan’s tone said he wasn’t in the mood for Brent’s bullshit, either.

“Whatever. So what are the plans tonight?” Brent sat on the couch and rested his feet on the coffee table. The plastic crates lining the surface shifted as he pushed them with his feet.

Ryan grabbed the crates and moved them to the floor. “Unpacking.”

“Come on. Don’t puss out. It’s our first night back— we have to go out. Have a brother night.”

Brent had a point. A brother night could be fun. It could keep his mind off of Samantha. Ski shrugged. “Yeah.”

Ryan pulled out a stash of video games from the closest crate and lined them up on an empty shelf by the TV. “Fine. I could handle a night out at Barnacles.”

Brent shook his head. “Not Barnacles. The freshmen are having a party over at a house on Bilter.”

“So what?” Ryan said. “We’re not crashing the freshman party.”

“Why not? We got to scope out the new talent. As your president, I order you to come with me.” Brent attempted a serious face.

“Order?” Ryan said.

“Don’t make me go alone. That would just be sad.” As if crashing a freshman party wasn’t sad enough. Brent jumped up, taking his beer with him. “We’re leaving at seven.” He walked out the door, his huge mouth making enough noise to be heard in the next state as he welcomed everyone back to school. The drunk Psi Rho greeter.

“He’s a pain in the ass.” Ryan stacked plastic cups on the fridge.

“Yeah. But he’s our pain in the ass. I’m going to head down and lock up your car.”

“Thanks.” Ryan threw him the keys.

Ski nodded as he walked out the door. The once-empty halls were filled with crates and boxes. There was already a pyramid of empty beer bottles stacked at the top of the main staircase. Disgusting. He really needed to look into off-campus housing next year.

“Ski!” his second roommate yelled, giving him a fist bump while they carried their belongings up the stairs. More crap to be shoved in that small space of a room.

“The place looks great,” someone else yelled from downstairs. “How did it go this summer?”

Ski navigated around a pile of boxes and jogged for the front door, pretending not to hear the question. The summer was off limits. If he wasn’t talking to Ryan about it, there was no way he was letting anyone else in on his humiliation.

Stones crunched beneath his sneakers as he made his way to Ryan’s Mercedes, parked in the house parking lot. The door hung open in the space next to Ski’s car. The cars couldn’t have been more different, but the men who gave them the cars were the same. Controlling. Infallible.

Ski’s father had never found out about the almost-change of majors, or at least Ski didn’t think he’d found out. If he had, maybe he would have been happier that Ski stayed in pre-med. Instead his father was “distraught” when Ski told him he wasn’t going to be a surgeon. He was “distraught” his son would “waste his talent” in the ER. But he also made it clear he thought Ski would change his mind after med school.

That was best he was going to get from the old man. He’d never get understanding, never get support. It just wasn’t in his father’s DNA. And who knew? Maybe Ski would change his mind. But either way, it was his mind to change.

He leaned into Ryan’s car, checking the back seat. Nothing left. He closed the doors and pushed the button. The car alarm chimed to life as he turned back toward the house. He caught a glimpse of long black hair out of the corner of his eye. No. It wasn’t— was it?

Anger, pain hardened around his heart. He didn’t want to see her. But there she was talking to one of the brothers. The brother pointed at Ski.

She looked toward the parking lot, her eyes searching and then finding him. He wanted to think it was his imagination that her shoulders were slumped. Hope squirmed loose. Dammit. Hope was not good here.

He waited until she actually walked up to him before he said a word. “Samantha.”

“Hi.” She gave a poor excuse for a smile. Of course, his probably wasn’t much better.

“What are you doing here?”

“Picking up the check for the renovation.”

Ski hated hope. He wanted to bash the little bugger into the ground with a baseball bat. Nothing but a disappointment. But he should have known she wouldn’t be here for him. “Ryan’s inside. He should have your check.”

“Thanks.” She twined her fingers together.

“Yeah. Well. I’ll see you around.” As he walked past her, she reached out and touched his arm. The warmth of her fingers— the softness of her hands— it was enough to twist his gut in two. Why did it have to feel so good, when he knew it would only lead to heartache? His body must not have gotten the email.