Winter (Four Seasons #1) (2 page)

“
I’m leaving,”
I announce when I manage to shove my way through the crowd towards
them. Morgan drops her hand from her mouth and scowls at
me.

“
No way, we
just got here!”

“
It’s one
thirty. We’ve been here three hours, and I’m sick of random douche
bags with green face paint grinding on me and calling me
darlin’
. No one can pull
off a decent Irish accent when they’re wasted.”

“
There are a
couple of Irish people here. I bet they can,” Tate
interjects.

I hitch an
eyebrow. “Regardless of any genuine, bone fide Irish people in
attendance at this party, it’s still time to go home.”

Morgan jabs me
with her index finger, not hard enough to hurt but hard enough to
tell me I’m ruining her chances of a night of fun with Tate.
“You’re a complete buzz kill, young lady.”

“
Don’t worry,
you can stay. I’m all right to walk back on my own.”

“
No way.
Didn’t you read the college orientation and safety handbook? No
walking alone at night.” Morgan shoots Tate an apologetic look and
shrugs. “Maybe we could catch up tomorrow night
instead?”

Tate looks put
out as Morgan slips her arms through the sleeves of the jacket
she’d already been holding in her hand. He’d clearly been about
five seconds away from getting lucky. “Sure. We could rent a movie.
Night, ladies.” He turns and disappears into the press of bodies
leaping up and down to the sounds of
Jump
Around
by House Of Pain, and Morgan pokes
her tongue out at me.

“
I could
strangle you sometimes.” She grins as she says this, though, and I
know she’ll forgive me before we reach our building.

We don’t get
that far. Halfway down the steps leading from the frat house, a
police car pulls up on the sidewalk, the red and blues rotating,
throwing tall shadows across the street. The girls in tiny green
mini skirts and high heels, smoking outside, scatter when the siren
buzzes, squealing like morons.

“
Shit!” Morgan
mutters. “Can we get by without them talking to us?”

“
Don’t freak
out. It’s probably just a noise complaint.”

“
No, Ave. I
don’t wanna get caught up with these guys tonight.”

I know Morgan
doesn’t exactly have a healthy respect for the law, but there’s no
reason she should be so worried about getting a three-second
telling off. “Don’t freak out, it’s going to be fine.”

I immediately
regret my words. When the doors of the police car open and the two
officers step out, my stomach falls through the floor. “Oh,
shit
!”

“
What? What?”
Morgan grips hold of my arm so hard she cuts off the
circulation.

“
Nothing, it’s
just…”

Luke Reid.
Luke Reid is what. I haven’t seen him in his uniform in almost four
years, but he still looks smoking hot in it. Luke was the all-star
hero of Breakwater High. Girls dropped at his feet like swooning
maidens in distress in the hope that he would catch them as they
fell. I’d been dazed by him in the same way most fourteen year olds
are dazed by god-like seniors. People had actually mourned when
he’d graduated, students and teachers alike. He’d passed on a full
ride to college courtesy of a football scholarship to join the
police force. He kept in touch with me after he left for one reason
and one reason only. A reason I don’t want to think about right
now. A reason I’ve tried to forget all about in the three months
since I moved to New York City and successfully managed to avoid
him.

His black hair
is shorter than usual but still a little longer than it probably
should be. Same deep brown eyes. Same strong jaw line. Shock
registers on his face when he catches sight of me. He pauses for a
second as he walks around the car, taking a moment to rein in the
surprise of me tripping down a set of frat house steps in one of
Morgan’s impossibly short tube dresses. I cringe at the look on his
face. He doesn’t seem too impressed.

“
Iris?”

My whole body
shrinks away from that name. I glance at Morgan and see the
surprise in her eyes. I told her my real name, but she’s never
heard anyone use it. “Iris? Does this guy know you?”

“
I’ll explain
later,” I whisper. Doing my best to pretend I am one hundred
percent sober, I take a deep breath and face Luke. “Hey.” I give
him a weak ass smile. “Been a while.”

“
Yeah…” He
looks quickly from me to Morgan and back again, clearly trying to
piece everything together in his head. “I went back to Break a
couple of months ago. Stopped by Brandon’s but he said your mom had
shipped you up here to college. I did a search but I couldn’t find
you registered anywhere.”

My cheeks
redden. He searched the police database to find out which school I
was attending? Does the police database even contain that kind of
information? I shiver and pull myself closer to Morgan. She is as
stiff as a board, staring straight at Luke. I nod, biting my
lip.

“
Yeah, you
wouldn’t have. I changed my name. I didn’t want…I
didn’t…”

“
I
understand,” he says, saving me from saying it. Loud shouts and
cheers leak out onto the street as the doors fly open and three
girls teeter down the steps behind us. They immediately freeze,
their hyena-like laughter paused as soon as they land eyes on Luke
and his partner. At first I think it’s because they’re cops, but
the tallest one, a brunette with smoky, dark, fuck me eye make up
squeals and rushes forward, placing a well manicured hand over her
ample cleavage. “Oh my god, you’re Luke Reid, aren’t
you?”

Luke looks
seriously uncomfortable. Like he just got caught with his pants
down in a big way. His partner rolls his eyes. “Here we go
again.”

Luke clears
his throat. “I’m on duty, ladies. Have you been drinking
tonight?”

The smile
drops from the brunette’s face. Her blonde friends grab her by
either arm and start guiding her down the stairs. “No! No way,
officer. We were just leaving,” one chuckles nervously. From the
look on the brunette’s face, she might just be willing to get
busted drinking underage if it means she gets to stay and talk for
another minute. She’s walking backwards, mouth open, as her drunk
buddies drag her away.

I can’t help
it. I have to ask. “What the hell was
that
?”

Luke rubs a
hand across his jaw, looking away. “I’ve played a couple of times
in a few bars. Sometimes people recognize me.”

Luke’s always
played guitar, not that I ever really got to hear him. When we were
at school, it was enough for most of us love sick teenagers to sit
and observe him and his friends from a distance. He always seemed
pretty shy about playing, anyway. Always did it somewhere far from
lunch crowds. And now he’s apparently playing in bars? “What, like
in a band?”

Luke’s partner
answers before he can even open his mouth. “Yeah. Reid’s quite the
celebrity. We got us some One Direction shit right
here.”

Luke bites
down on his jaw, his embarrassment suddenly gone. In fact, he looks
seriously pissed off. “Can you just shut the hell up? Go inside and
scare some teenagers, will you? Fuck.”

His partner
shrugs, completely unaffected. “Whatever you say, man.” He stomps
up the steps, one hand on the hilt of his night stick like he’s
planning on making use of it any second now. Cheering blares out
into the night again as he lets himself inside. Luke rubs at the
back of his neck, staring at my feet.

“
So, uh,
you’re tearing up the place, huh? We’ve had five phone calls about
loud music and disturbance at this address.”

I look back at
the house, seeing all the drunk people, painted green, laughing and
swigging back beer inside. It doesn’t look great that I’m stumbling
out of the building, especially since those girls a moment ago
weren’t the only ones not old enough to be drinking. “We were just
leaving, too, actually.”

“
Oh.” Luke
stares at me for a moment, his dark eyebrows twitching like he
wants to frown. “Hey, why don’t you guys wait until we’re done
here? This’ll only take a second. I’d really like to talk to you,
Iri—” He breaks off, and I catch the hurt look in his eye. He
doesn’t know what to call me.

“
Avery,” I say
quietly.

“
Avery.” He
nods. “It’s nice. I’ll get used to it.”

I send him a
faintly apologetic smile and clear my throat. “We’re in a rush to
get home. I have to be up real early. Could we catch up another
time?”

The radio over
Luke’s breast pocket squeals, making Morgan jump out of her skin.
Static fills the air for a second before Luke leans down and speaks
into it.

“
Unit 23
responding to noise complaint. Copy.” He looks torn as he allows
another couple of girls to skitter off down the street. “I really
have to sort this out. Can I call you tomorrow?”

Morgan’s
fingernails dig into my arm. What the hell is her problem?
“Tomorrow’s fine. I have to study for my midterms, but
yeah…”

“
Okay,
tomorrow. Write down your number.” He hands me his notebook, which
has his police number and an embossed golden badge on the front. I
flip it open, looking up to find him watching me as I quickly
scribble down my cell phone number. I give it back and he purses
his lips. “Thanks.”

We pass on the
steps as Morgan and I descended and he goes up, and I see that look
in his eye that always makes me dread our ‘catch ups’. It’s pity. I
hate being looked at like that. As Morgan and I make our way back
towards campus, I wish I’d been sober or smart enough to write down
the wrong number.

Two

Rosito’s

MORGAN MAKES
me run the next morning. Running and I aren’t even vaguely
acquainted let alone best friends, so it takes a few strongly
worded threats and the promise of chocolate waffles to get me out
the door at six am. It’s bitterly cold, the morning air determined
to freeze my lungs from the inside out. We last all of twenty
minutes before the temperature gets the better of us and we head to
Jacquie’s Breakfast Diner.

“
You realize,”
I say, sliding into the booth opposite Morgan, “that ordering
pancakes with a ton of maple syrup is going to make your ass
fat?”

“
It’s already
fat,” she announces.

“
It really
is,” I agree. “I was trying to be polite, but damn you need to
start eating right. I’ve never seen an ass that big.”

“
Bitch!” she
laughs, slapping my arm with the menu.

“
You deserve
it.”

“
I know,” she
sighs. “So, we going to put it off much longer?”

I squint at
her, trying to ascertain whether there’s any point in pretending I
don’t know what she’s talking about. It’s not every morning she
shows up on my doorstep demanding exercise. This is all subterfuge,
and I know what she’s after. Her jaw is set, which means I am shit
outta luck. “He’s just a guy I used to know back home,” I tell
her.

“
And?”

“
And
nothing.”

“
Don’t give me
that,
Iris
,”
Morgan quips. “I know there’s a whole freakin’ well of gossip here
and you’ve been holding out on me.”

My face
blanches at her use of my real name. I haven’t had to hear it in
months. Even my mom calls me Avery now. It’s as though, if she can
pretend I’m someone else and not Maxwell Breslin’s daughter, she,
in turn, can pretend she was married to some other guy named
Patterson and not a murderer.

I look down
and see that my hands have clenched tight and I’m ruining the
waffle house’s laminated menu. Morgan sees, then screws her face up
into a fairly good impersonation of remorse. “Oh, uh…sorry, Ave.
I’m not too smart sometimes.”

“
It’s okay. I
just…I’m not her anymore.”

“
I know. I
won’t do that again, I promise.”

I shoot her a
guilty smile. “Thanks.”

The waitress
comes and takes our order; we both get the same thing—Belgian
waffles with chocolate sauce. By the time our coffee arrives,
Morgan is over the embarrassment of upsetting me and back in
Spanish Inquisition mode.

“
So, how do
you know him?” The salacious glint in her eye declares she’s hoping
for a hot hook up story. Boy, is she going to be
disappointed.

“
He went to my
school. He was a cop in my home town for a few years before he
moved out here.”

“
Uhuh…” She
nods, taking a sip of her coffee, never taking her eyes off
me.

“
That’s
it.”

“
That’s
it?
”

“
Yeah.”

She looks
around the room like she can’t believe what she’s hearing.
“You knew that guy back in Hicksville and you didn’t claim him
immediately? What’s wrong with you, girl? You do realize he’s
fucking beautiful, don’t you?”

I blow out a
long breath and drop my head against the table. “Yes, I know how
hot he is. But he was twenty when he left town and I was sixteen.
Plus he has a girlfriend, Casey Fisher. They dated the whole way
through high school and moved out here together. So…”