The Hazards of a One Night Stand (14 page)

“It’s okay. I’m all right.” I calmed myself down. Davie wouldn’t leave with me crying like that.

“I won’t be far.” He gave me a long look before walking out of the room.

“Pull that chair over here.” Even two days after a heart attack, Dad was ordering me around.

There was no reason to be difficult. I’d wanted to see him. “Okay.” I pulled the chair over near his bed.

“You don’t actually believe I didn’t want to see you, do you?”

“Of course, I do. You made your wishes clear.”

“Yet you chose to come anyway.” He studied me in the way you study a puzzle, as though he was trying to figure me out.

“Yes. I wanted to see you.”

“I wanted to see you too. Not like this though. A daughter shouldn’t see her father looking this way.” He gestured to his place in the bed and the multiple IV lines streaming from his arm.

“But Davie could? Why is it different?”

“Because it is.” He folded his hands in front of him.

“Great.” I tapped my toes on the linoleum floor. At least I’d stopped crying.

“How are you?”

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that question?”

He smiled. “I don’t know. I think your answer would be more interesting than mine.”

“I’m doing well. Fabulous, actually.”

“You get that sarcasm from me. Your mother doesn’t have that trait at all.”

“It’s a great one to have.” I crossed my arms.

“Well, you got your looks from your mother. You’re lucky there. And your brains.”

“What do you know of my brains?”

“You’re on a full ride at Harrison. That takes brains, sweetheart. And, contrary to popular belief, I did spend the first eight years of your life in the same house with you. You’re smart.”

“How’d you know about the scholarship?”

“I called the school to pay your tuition and—”

“What? You called Harrison?”

“Yes. Did you think I was really going to leave your schooling costs for your mother?”

“Thanks for the birthday card.” I’d thanked him in a note, but it felt better to say it in person.

“Glad you got it. Hopefully, you’ll put it to good use.”

“I’m sure I will.”

“Mallory?” he asked with the hint of a smile.

“Yes?”

“You do realize I know your birthday isn’t until January, right?”

I looked at him questioningly.

“I figured you could use the spending money now. I’ll send you something else on your actual birthday.”

“Oh.” I smiled. Maybe I didn’t give Dad enough credit.

A light knock on the door had us both looking up. A young nurse hovered in the doorway. “Is there anything I can get you Mr. Clark?” She smiled at him flirtatiously. Seriously? She wasn’t much older than me. Yuck.

“No, Nancy. I’m just spending some time with my daughter, but thank you.”

She nodded and walked off.

“Gross. Please tell me you don’t date women that young.”

Dad laughed. “No. I barely have enough time for my own kids. I don’t need to babysit any others. Although, that brings up another question I have for you.”

“I’m not pregnant, Dad.” I have no idea where the joke came from. I never joke that way.

He laughed. “I’d hope not. Although, is that a possibility? Do you have a boyfriend?”

“No. No boyfriend.” Colton technically wasn’t. Even if he was, I wasn’t going to bring him up to Dad.

“Just make your next one better than your last.”

“You only met Jack once.” I didn’t make a point of standing up for Jack, but when Dad criticized him, it also felt like he was criticizing me for choosing to date the wrong guy.

“And it was enough. You don’t need boys like that. They’d just keep you in Gasden. I’m so glad you’re in Charleston. You needed to see there’s more out there.”

“Jack left Gasden.”

“I’m sure he’ll be back one day. They all go back. You need to find someone with ambition, who won’t make the same mistake I did.”

“Mistake?” My chest tightened. “Was I a mistake?”

“No. Are you so self-centered you think I’d mean you?”

“Well, what other mistake would you have made?”

“Going back to that town. Your mother wanted it, but it wasn’t for me. I should have realized it would stifle me and destroy our marriage.”

Dad had never talked about the divorce to me. I didn’t say anything, afraid I’d ruin his uncharacteristic openness. “You need to choose your partner wisely. Don’t waste your time with a man who can’t give you the life you want.”

“You make it sound like I’m surrounded by thousands of men just dying to give me the perfect life.”

“At a school like Harrison, there are bound to be a few.”

“If you say so.” Talking to Dad about guys was incredibly awkward.

A loud knock signaled Davie’s return. “Can I come back now?”

“Yes. Good timing. I’m going to grab something to eat.” I stood up. “Great talk, Dad.”

He smiled. “Pick me up a coffee while you’re down there.”

“Are you allowed to have caffeine?”

“Wouldn’t you get it for me even if I wasn’t?”

I smiled. “I’m guessing I get my stubborn streak from you too.”

“Correct.”

I patted Davie’s shoulder before heading into the hallway. Dad’s words swirled around my head the rest of the day and evening while Davie drove me home. I was still thinking about it when he dropped me off. What was I going to do about Colt?

Avoiding one person is hard. Avoiding two is even harder. I wasn’t ready to give Colt an answer, and I definitely wasn’t ready to tell Tanner I didn’t want to see him again. I took my time getting ready Monday morning. My goal was to make it to class right on time. The less time for conversation with Colt the better. If I was confused before seeing Dad, now I was completely baffled. I was beginning to wonder if my determination to stay away from Gasden boys was silly, but Dad was of the same belief. I refused to get pulled back into that place. Fooling around with Colt was one thing, but getting serious? That was something else altogether. Could I separate the two? And then there was Jack. Even if he was completely over me, how could I ever face his family as Colt’s girlfriend?

Cara and I walked out the front door, and we’d barely made it five steps from the porch before running into Tanner.

“Tanner, hi.” I choked back my surprise.

“Hey, Tanner.” Cara gave me a knowing smile. It was her version of a wink. I fought back guilt. I was doing that a lot lately. I still hadn’t told my friends how little I was into him. I knew how much they wanted things to work out.

He turned to me, flashing me his brightest smile. “I remembered you saying you had a nine o’clock. I figured we might as well walk together.”

“Oh. Great.” Fantastic. Now I had to face him and Colt in a matter of minutes? I breathed in and out. I could handle this.

“You know what, I need to run ahead. Catch you guys later.” Cara smiled and ran off without giving me a chance to reply.

“We kept missing each other yesterday.” Tanner walked down the steps to the sidewalk. He’d called me a handful of times, and I’d avoided the calls. I timed my one response for when I knew he had a frat meeting.

“Yeah.” I followed behind.

“What’s your day look like today?”

I adjusted my bag on my shoulder. “Just class.”

“How many do you have?”

“Three. I have this one, econ right after with Reed, and a sociology class this afternoon.”

“Great. Let’s do an early lunch then. I’ve been craving Thai since I got back.”

I gratefully used the same excuse I’d used on Colt the week before. “Sorry. I meet my friends for lunch on these days.” I wasn’t ready to have the talk yet. I was still planning my speech.

“Just call them. It’s not like they’re going to mind giving up your lunch company for one day.”

He was right. They’d be thrilled Tanner and I were hanging out again. But lunch with Tanner didn’t appeal to me at all. Especially since he’d probably try to kiss me or something afterward. “Maybe another time.”

He looked at me funny. “Wednesday. You’ll have plenty of time to tell your friends before then. That is unless you want to do dinner instead. Maybe tonight at seven?”

“Lunch on Wednesday works.” I groaned internally. He’d backed me into a corner.

“Great. I look forward to it.”

I was never happier to reach my anthro building. I smiled. “This is me.” Colt was waiting for me outside with my coffee. He noticed my company and shook his head before Tanner noticed him.

“Hi, Colton. Waiting for someone?” Tanner put an arm around my waist, and I wanted to scream. This was bad, so bad on too many levels.

“Yes. Mallory.” He held out my coffee. “Here you go, babe.”

“You bought her coffee?”

“Yeah. She usually forgets to grab some before class.”

Tanner turned. “We could have stopped for some on our way here. Next time just tell me you need some when we leave in the morning.”

It hit me. He was trying to make it sound like I’d spent the night at his place.

“It’s not a big deal.” I stepped away, glad I had the class excuse to get out of the awkward situation.

“All right. Give me a call later.”

I gave a noncommittal nod and headed toward the door. Colt caught up with me. “Either he takes rejection well, or you didn’t tell him anything yet.”

“He ambushed me when I stepped off my porch. I wasn’t expecting to see him.”

“Nope just me.” He held open the door to the classroom.

“Yes, and I’m wearing a bra,” I said quietly.

“I might have to see that for myself.” He wriggled an eyebrow before pulling out both of our chairs.

“Yeah, not going to happen.” What I really wanted to say was yes please. God, what was wrong with me? Maybe I just needed to get him out of my system. Sleep with him again and realize I’d totally glorified it in my head. Maybe without the alcohol it would be awful. Of course, I’d been completely sober the last time we’d made out, and it was anything but awful.

“What are you thinking about?” Colt brushed his arm against mine. He made it look like an accident, but I highly doubted it was.

“Nothing.”

“Likely story.”

“We’re in class. Let’s focus.”

“I’d focus better if I knew what decision you’d come to.” He scooted his chair closer to mine.

“What decision do you think I made?”

“The right one.”

“If you’re so confident, why are you even asking?”

He leaned over. “Because I want to hear you say it.”

I groaned. “Let’s just get through class.”

“Fine.” He leaned over to whisper in my ear. “But I know what you’ll be thinking about.”

I refused to look at Colton at all during class. I wasn’t sure what answer I was going to give him, but I knew what I had to tell Tanner. I was out of time. I couldn’t put it off much longer.

Class crawled by as Cains lectured on the significance of the Lascaux cave paintings as a reflection of life in the upper Paleolithic period. I couldn’t concentrate. My thoughts kept drifting to Colt.

“Have a great day, pumpkin.” He kissed my cheek before I’d even packed up my books. He wasn’t even waiting for me? I refused to get annoyed. I was the one holding him at bay, right?

I got through econ and changed out my books before meeting the girls at the student center. I bought a sandwich and took a seat across from Juliet and Cara at a window table.

“Do you girls want to get away next weekend?” Juliet asked with some excitement.

I answered immediately. “Yes.” I definitely wanted to get away.

“Reed and I have been talking about going out to my grandparents’ beach house. Want to come with?” Juliet wasn’t super wealthy or anything, but her grandparents had a place on an exclusive island about a half hour outside the city.

“Sure! I’ll ask Aaron.” The expression on Cara’s face said it all. She was already picturing herself on the beach with her other half.

“Oh. I don’t want to be the fifth wheel.”

“You won’t be. Tanner would come.” Juliet smiled. “You don’t have to share a room if you don’t want. He can sleep on the couch or something.”

“Oh. Tanner?”

“Bingo!” Juliet yelled out.

“What?”

“I caught you.”

“Caught me?”

“If you were into Tanner, you’d be excited. And it’s not about sex, because I gave you an out there. You don’t want Tanner, you want someone else.”

I shook my head. “No. I just don’t want to spend a weekend with any guy, okay?”

“Just answer the question. Are you into Tanner or Colt?”

“Neither.” I was tired of lying to them, but I wasn’t ready to admit what had happened at the practice field.

“Okay, then let’s take care of part of this. Tell Tanner that.”

“I will.”

“Do it now.”

“No. We’re having lunch.”

“And he’s walking this way right now.” Juliet nodded toward the door behind me.

I groaned. “No way.”

“Hey, ladies.” Tanner slipped into the empty seat next to me. Mental note. Always sit next to someone.

“Hey, Tanner,” Cara said. I said nothing.

“Don’t I get a hello?” He turned his attention to me. “I didn’t know you girls ate lunch here.”

“Where did you think we ate?” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my voice. This meeting was as far from random as Gasden was from being a major bustling metropolis.

“I don’t know. There are plenty of eating establishments in the area.” He grinned.

“Well, aren’t you going to get food?”

“Maybe later.” He put an arm behind my chair.

Juliet gave me a look. She was challenging me and trying to get me to do the right thing. The problem is, I didn’t know what that was. Breaking up with Tanner was necessary, but how I did it was important too.

“Mallory?” Tanner said my name and I realized I’d just missed what he’d been saying.

“Sorry, what was that?”

Cara and Juliet laughed in a forced ‘this is awkward’ sort of way.

“I was asking what you were up to this weekend.”

“I’m not sure.”

“So you’re not going out to the beach?” He looked at Juliet. “Reed mentioned you were inviting your roommates too.”

Damn Reed.

“Cara’s probably in. Mallory doesn’t know yet.” Juliet shot me a well-meaning look. She was trying to help.