Rival Dreams (Rival Love #3) (6 page)

Matt nods. “Oh yeah, signing your release papers soon.”

“Something like that. Catch you two later.”

“Big party at the house next Saturday. Come by. In honor of you, man.” He lifts up his cup as I start to walk away from the table.

I nod and head out the door.

Chapter 9

Skylar

After my test—which I totally nailed, by the way—I go to the grocery store and pick up a few things. Then I drive over to Kayla’s apartment. She’s the only person I know who has a full kitchen and I need an oven.

She greets me at the door with a hug. “Hi! Come on in. Let me get those.” She helps me with my bags and walks them into her kitchen area. I look around and notice a stack of boxes near the door and living room.

“Um … what’s all that?”

“Oh, Tasha. She’s ditching me to live with her girlfriend.” She makes a noise and waves at the boxes. “It’s no biggie. I’m happy for her.”

Tasha and Kayla have been roommates since freshman year of college. They got the apartment last summer when Kayla and Tasha decided to stay in North Carolina for the summer. I almost moved in with them but decided my mom missed me too much and went home for summer break. “Who’s going to move in?”

Kayla shrugs. “I haven’t thought that far ahead. So, what are you going to make Caleb tonight?” She smiles and nudges my elbow as I pull out eggs from the bag.

“Homemade ravioli.”

She frowns. “Aw, I want some.”

“I’m making you some too. Did you talk to Lance yet?”

“Yeah. He’s coming over later on tonight to ‘talk.’” She makes air quotes with her fingers. “Ooh … Can you make extra for him too?”

I nod. “Sure, but you’re going to help.”

Kayla bites down on her lower lip, her eyes widening. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“Kayla, I’m not going to let you screw it up.”

“O-okay.” She scrunches up her face. I smile.

“I’m serious. It’s going to be fine.”

I tell her some of the things we need and she sets off to gather mixing bowls and pans. She places two large pots onto the stove. I switch sides with her and unwrap the ground sausage, place it in one of the pots, and turn on the stove. Kayla hands me bowls and I give her a long wooden spoon. She looks confused. “You’ll be in charge of mixing and sautéing the veggies.”

She nods. “Okay.”

Her eyebrows are still drawn together and she doesn’t exactly appear confident. I smile to try to ease her worry. “It’ll be fine. I’ll be right here. You won’t burn anything.”

Kayla starts on the veggies, while I work on the dough. This is going to be a new experience for me. Not making the dough so much, I’ve done that a few times, but never by hand. Each time I did it I had my mom’s Kitchen Aid mixer with the awesome pasta-making attachment. The only mixer in Kayla’s apartment is her handheld. So, I’m going to be doing a lot of rolling. Which isn’t necessarily a terrible thing, but it’s a lot more time-consuming. I just hope when this is all done Caleb likes it.

After the dough is exactly the way I want it to be, trimmed, and ready to be filled, I immediately cover it and work on the next step. I chunk up tomatoes, and add sauce, spices, onions, and garlic to the big pot and set the burner on low.

“Kayla, go ahead and mix the spinach, ricotta cheese, and herbs together.”

While she gets to work on that, I throw a bit of Parmesan cheese in the mix. After two minutes of mixing, Kayla and I are ready to make some stuffed-pasta magic. Yay!

Kayla pulls out two small spoons and hands me one. “So, do you think you’ll forgive Lance?” I ask as I take one from her.

“Yeah. I think so.” She sighs. “I love him. He makes me mad sometimes and when he ran off to the first available you know.” I don’t say a word just nod. “I felt like he should trust me. But he just …”

I remove the plastic from the spread-out dough. “I know,” my voice cracks a little. I hope she isn’t paying close enough attention to tell. We scoop dollops of filling on one side of the dough squares.

Kayla says in a soothing voice, “Sky.” I glance over at her. She observes me for a moment. “What’s wrong?”

I break eye contact and go back to filling the pasta. “I think Caleb’s going to break up with me. He’s been … God, Kayla, I don’t know. The other night after work, he didn’t stop by. Hell, he didn’t even call me.”

She digs into her mixture and frowns. “Maybe he got busy studying or something.”

“That’s the thing, he wasn’t. My mom told me his uncle talked to him. And he was hanging out in his room. Maybe I’m worried because he’s been flaking out. Or maybe I’m making this out to be a bigger deal than it really is, but … I don’t know. It’s just off somehow. You know what I mean?”

“Sure. When I lived in California, that guy I dated? The one that was trouble? Well, before we got into trouble together I kept getting this funny feeling like what he was telling me was different than what he really meant.”

I nod. That’s kind of how I feel with Caleb. Lately we seem fine, but then he avoids me for days at a time. “Everything with us has been amazing. We had one little fight a few days ago. Before that, though, everything was absolutely fine. We were on the same page. Made these future plans. Then out of nowhere he starts ignoring my calls, missing appointments.” I shake my head. “I chalked it up to nerves. But when he didn’t come to my place the other night … Yeah, something is definitely going on. When I ask him about it, though, he tells me everything is fine. I can tell he’s lying about it.”

“So …”

“That’s why I’m putting all this effort into this meal.” I can’t lose Caleb. My life without Caleb is meaningless. I know. I tried it. It wasn’t fun then and it wouldn’t be fun now. And I don’t want to hear that plenty of fish in the sea shit. There isn’t, if you’ve already found the person who makes your soul feel like it’s on fire. There’s only one of those in the whole sea and I have mine.

After I finish my mini meltdown, we cook the pasta, and combine the ravioli with the sauce, separate them into two glass baking dishes, top them off with cheese, and put them in the oven. As the dishes bake, I busy myself cleaning up the kitchen.

I hand Kayla a bowl to rinse off and ask, “When you’re with Lance, do you see the whole wedding and future mapped out?”

Kayla laughs. “In high school, I thought that about anyone I had a crush on. I would think, ‘Oh man, but he’s my everything!’ And I thought the universe was against me when the guy didn’t even know my name. But with Lance it was different. I mean, yeah, I thought he was this whole sexy god-like type and there was no chance in hell he’d ever want me. But we started dating and it was fantastic. Like everything was right and nothing could go wrong. At first I could see this being so final and I loved it. Then we had that major fight over my internship, and I don’t know. Everything kind of changed.”

“Changed how?”

Kayla sighs. “I don’t know. I don’t see the whole ‘two-story house, kids, and neighbors that are overly jealous of our happy family’ future anymore. I’m just living in the moment. If stuff with us works out, fine. If not … I’ll be okay. Eventually. Not right away, but I’ll get there.”

The oven’s timer goes off right as she rinses the last pan. I pull out the baking dishes, shut off the oven, gather up my things, and hug Kayla goodbye.

On my way back to the dorm, all I can think about is how everything has to be perfect. I need to lay it all out there, too. How I’m feeling. Tell him there is no pressure to move in with me; if this step is too fast, then fine, I can move in with Kayla or something.

I pull into my dorm’s parking lot and carefully remove the glass from the back floor. I hurry to the steps and frown. The entrance to my dorm slipped my mind for a second. In order to get in I’m going to have to set my dish down and swipe my ID. Then I have to open the door, prop my foot in between the door and the jamb so it doesn’t shut, pick up the pan, and go on through. I just manage it and head up to my room.

My roommate isn’t home, of course, so I repeat the same steps with the door. When I get my door open, my jaw almost hits the floor.

Our room looks like a cyclone just tore through. Clothes, shoes, coats, possibly some underwear, are strung over every surface. Makeup is spilled out all over her desk. Mine is covered in sticky notes. There are skirts, bras, and jeans strewn all over my bed. The two chairs and small eating table are covered in papers, books, and envelopes. Ugh! I didn’t plan for this.

My roommate was going to her friend’s party and said she’d be staying the night. Which is fine, but holy crap, why leave a whole big mess? This is one of the main reasons I need to get a place of my own. Sure, Brie is nice, and she doesn’t make me feel awkward to be around her, but she’s messy. And sometimes I think she does it on purpose because she knows I’ll clean up.

I put down the pan and get to work. This will leave me with less time to do my own makeup, but there was no way I’d ever let Caleb see this room as it is right now.

A half-hour later, I’m literally tidying up the last bit of the room, remaking the beds, when my dorm intercom buzzes. “Skylar, you have a guest ready to be checked in.”

Crap! I have no makeup on, didn’t take a shower, and I’m wearing the worst clothes imaginable for a date. I buzz back. “Okay. Be right down.”

I look around the room and smile. Well, at least it’s in order. I grab my shower caddy and change of clothes then head down to greet Caleb.

He paces around the lobby area and stops when he spots me. I smile at the girl working the front desk and sign Caleb in. He looks me over as we start to move toward the elevator. “Did I come too early?”

“Not really. I just … I had a lot of cleaning to do and haven’t changed yet.”

He smiles as we enter the elevator and the doors close. I hit the button for the fifth floor and rock back and forth on my heels. Caleb leans in and captures my mouth with his. I moan lightly against his lips as he pulls me closer to him.

He inches back a little and breathes, “I thought you said this was going to be dinner. I didn’t know we were going to be showering together.”

A blush ignites my face. “I didn’t plan on this.”

Caleb grins. “Uh huh. Teasing me with your shower caddy is a very low blow, Fletch. But in the future, all you have to do is ask.”

“I’m not teasing you. But now that you’ve brought it up, did you want to take a shower with me?” It comes out like a typical question, like do you have any sugar? Not at all sexy or mysterious, which is what I probably should have aimed for.

Caleb quirks up a brow and says, “Is that what you want?”

The last time Caleb and I showered together was last summer. He and I were coming back from the beach and he said it would be faster if we took a shower together. Call me weird, but I kind of wanted our next shower to be romantic. Candles, maybe some soft music, and in our own apartment. Not in the dorms, where anyone can just waltz in on us.

I shrug. “If you want to. I was just going to take a quick one. Ten minutes, tops.”

“And if I’m there?” He nuzzles on my neck as the door slides open and a giggle slips from my mouth.

We step out of the elevator and we head to my room. Caleb looks over at the table and then around the room. “Babe, it smells amazing in here.”

“Thanks. So … um … did you want to shower with me? Or did you want to wait here?”

Chapter 10

Caleb

Skylar undresses slowly and it takes all of my willpower to remain where I am. Trust me, I’m thinking about bending her over her desk and possibly taking her on the floor. I know if I start this we won’t make it to the bed.

She casts me a look over her shoulder as she swathes a towel around her body. My need to stay good falls away and I approach her. I lace my arms around her and kiss her shoulders, then up her neck. She leans into me and mumbles, “Caleb, I really …”

“We will. But I need you now.” I rip the towel from her and let my hands roam her body while my mouth covers hers. I rub my hand against her sex, God, she’s so wet. I slide a finger inside her and feel her arch against me.

She moans. I glide another finger inside and continue pleasuring her until she begs for me to stop.

I spin her around to face me and kiss her while she wraps her legs around my waist. Pressing her against the wall, I groan as her lips trail down my jawline. She works her mouth up my neck and flicks her tongue across my earlobe. “Jesus, babe, you do that so good.”

She giggles lightly against my skin and I can’t stand it. I need her now. I unbutton my jeans and try sliding out of them without dropping her. My hands are preoccupied cupping her ass while I kiss her breasts. Skylar grinds against me and I suddenly drop her into her computer chair.

Her eyes are on mine, full of hurt and I instantly regret letting her go, but we came damn close to doing something really stupid. “Babe, I need a condom. You almost …” I stop as tears start to form in her eyes. “Babe.” I kick off my shoes and socks along with jeans and boxers then kneel down in front of her. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just … everything lately … You’ve been so distant. I don’t know what’s wrong or how to fix it. And then we were … and you just tossed me down like I was trash to throw out.” She sighs. “I’m sorry. I just … lately I feel like you’re trying to get rid of me.”

I stiffen. She’s so close to the truth. Not that I want to leave her. I don’t. If there were a way to follow my dreams and for her to pursue hers and we’d be together, I’d do it in a heartbeat. There isn’t, though. If I don’t let her go and she follows, she’ll hate me. At the same time, if she stays, we’ll both be miserable missing each other like crazy.

I’m so selfish. I want as much time with her as I can possibly get. So instead of being a man and telling her, I say, “No babe,” I kiss her lips and then her cheek. I lick off a salty tear and kiss her some more. In between kisses I breathe, “I love you. I just didn’t have a condom on. That’s all. I know you’re on the pill, but I don’t trust those damn things.”