Before It's Love Read online

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, then. I’m sure that’s what it was. Now you can forgive him and move on, right?”

  If by moving on, she meant eating the ice cream, then yes, I totally could. But I took small bites, wanting to make it last. Beth ate one scoop, then tossed her spoon in the sink.

  I gestured to the carton. “Have as much as you want.”

  Shaking her head, she leaned back against the sink. “No way. That’s your treat. You think I haven’t noticed that you don’t buy much?”

  Blushing a little, I said, “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine as soon as I get a job. I’m a good cook. I can make heaps of food from scratch. I just need more money for ingredients. But when I can, I’m going to share with you and you’d better not say no.”

  She pointed at me. “Count on it.”

  The doorbell rang and I went to open it, smiling when I saw it was Nick. “Hey there! Come in!”

  I lifted my face for a kiss and held my dirty spoon away when he hugged me so I wouldn’t get it on his shirt.

  Releasing me and stepping back, he asked, “What are you eating?”

  “Ice cream. Want some?”

  “Sure.”

  He followed me over to the kitchen counter and I got a bowl and a clean spoon. I scooped some in and handed it over, but he made a disgusted face.

  “What?” I asked. “Don’t you like peanut butter?”

  “Yeah, but what kind of serving is that?” Then he pulled the carton closer and nearly emptied the carton into his bowl.

  I stood watching with a mix of dismay and guilt, mourning the loss of my treasure, but knowing I shouldn’t be stingy with it.

  “You dense buffalo,” Beth shrieked. “Jake got that for Lauren because she can’t afford it. And now you’re hogging it all.”

  Nick paused with his spoon a few inches from his mouth, then tossed it on the counter, smearing soft ice cream along the surface. With narrowed eyes, he looked at me. “Why is Jake buying you ice cream?”

  With a cold feeling running through my chest, I tried to laugh it off. “I don’t know. I didn’t even see him. He just dropped it off.”

  “He was just being nice,” Beth broke in. “He knew she could use a little help.”

  “Why is it any of his business?” Nick retorted.

  Beth crossed her arms. “You’re right, Nick. You should be the one buying her groceries,” Beth said.

  I stood watching in horror, trying to figure out how to stop these two from arguing. But they were like forces of nature squaring off.

  “You mean he got you more than just ice cream?” His eyes shifted to the groceries spread out around the counter. “All this?”

  “Look, don’t make this into a big deal,” I said, gripping his arm and keeping my voice as calm as I could. “He asked why I was applying for a job with the art department, I mentioned that I needed money, and then I ran into him at the store. He was just being nice.”

  “I have a problem with him being so nice to my girlfriend. And I’m going to tell him.” Nick stood and shoved his stool back.

  Finally snapping, I said, “Go ahead and make a fool of yourself if you want. But don’t get mad about friends helping me when you didn’t even notice I need help.”

  Nick glared at me for several long seconds, then slammed out the front door. Beth and I stared at each other in shock. She recovered first, motioning to Nick’s ice cream. “Do you want to save this? He didn’t even touch it.”

  Depressed, I was about to say no. Then, rebellion rose in me. “You know what? Yes, I do.”

  I grabbed the carton and started spooning Nick’s ice cream back inside. Beth didn’t say another word. She just started putting away her groceries. Soon we had the whole kitchen straightened up. Not sure what to do with myself, and still reeling from what just happened, I sat at the counter, staring blindly at the opposite wall. Beth grabbed a bag of chips and pulled on my shoulder. “Come up to my room. I think it’s time you tell me the whole story of how you started dating Nick, because it doesn’t make any sense to me.”

  I followed her upstairs, realizing I hadn’t been up here since Natalie first gave me a tour of the house. Beth’s room was on the far end of the hall, overlooking the side yard. She plopped on her bed and moved a giant teddy bear to make room for me. “Okay, spill.”

  “I don’t know what to say. I’ve known him since we were kids, and every summer when he and Natalie came out to stay with their uncle on the next ranch over, we spent a lot of time together. I’d had a crush on him for years, but he never paid any special attention to me until this summer.”

  “But what do you see in him?”

  Thinking for a moment, I said, “He’s cute, and he likes to have fun. At home, everything is about work, work, work all the time. I mean you have to work hard to keep a ranch running. But when Nick came, he was always taking me out to do fun things.”

  “Like what?”

  “Oh, hiking, riding ATV’s, target practice, fishing. Sometimes he even drove me into town for dinner and a movie. I’d never dated before. When you live miles away from people, it’s hard. And at college, I didn’t have time. As soon as classes were over, I had to head home. So, for the first time in my life, I was having fun with a guy I wasn’t related to.”

  “Does your family like him?” Beth asked. Her voice sounded hesitant and careful, like she was stepping on eggshells.

  I stared down at her purple comforter and traced the floral design on it with my finger. “Not really. In fact, my brothers kind of hated him. They never had much to do with him.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m not really sure.”

  “I think I know.” She looked away, frowning.

  “Why?”

  “Because Nick is selfish and arrogant.”

  I started to argue, but all I could come up with was, “No he’s not.”

  Beth rolled her eyes. “Oh, I know he’s charming, and he can be sweet as honey when he wants to be. But it’s always to get what he wants, not because he’s a nice guy.”

  I looked straight at her, my eyebrows pulling together. “Why do you think that?”

  “I don’t think that, I know. And someday, you will too. When you do, if you need a friend, I’m here for you.”

  “What if he proves he’s actually a good guy who just has a temper problem?”

  Beth smiled and opened her bag of chips. “I’ll be one of your bridesmaids of course.”

  I chuckled, but only half-heartedly. “You don’t think Nick went over to start something with Jake, do you?”

  With a shrug, Beth said, “I wouldn’t put anything past him, but Jake can take care of himself.”

  He probably could, but I’d feel terrible if Nick had gone over to yell or threaten him. “What’s Jake’s apartment number?”

  Chapter Twelve

  Jake

  Buying groceries for Lauren wasn’t enough. I knew I had to get her the job at the school. I’d finally gotten Rossi on board in exchange for a favor. As the day wound to an end, however, I still had to convince Chavez. I’d been on the phone with him for twenty minutes, but I almost had him convinced. I leaned back on my couch and got comfortable in case this took a while.

  “I know Brody makes more sense physically, but Lauren can handle it too,” I said, smiling as I remembered our impromptu arm wrestling earlier in the day. “And we all know that even though he’s a decent artist, he’s inherently lazy. Otherwise he’d be moving on to bigger challenges instead of taking the same classes over and over. He’ll hang around the art building all right, but will he actually get anything done?”

  Chavez sighed. “Probably not. I wish we’d had more than two applicants to choose from.” He paused before continuing, “Okay, let’s give it to Lauren. If we have any problems, we can reevaluate at the end of the semester. Tell her to go fill out forms at the personnel office.”

  Before I could respond, someone knocked on my door. Standing up, I said, “Sure. I
’ll take care of it. Thanks.” I hung up and opened the door. It was Lauren, as if talking about her had summoned her to me. With the dying sunset to the west gilding her skin, I couldn’t take my eyes off her, though I was a little creeped out by the coincidence.

  “Hello,” I said, my voice sounding deeper than usual.

  “Hi,” she said, sounding distracted. She stood on her tiptoes, clearly trying to see past me into my apartment. “I just came over to…”

  “See if I’ve dusted my furniture lately?”

  “What? No. Sorry, I was just trying to see if Nick was here.”

  I raised my eyebrows. It would be a cold day in Hades before Nick and I hung out. “Is there any reason he would be?”

  She sighed and folded her arms across her chest. “He came over and saw the groceries you bought me and got jealous. He said something about coming over here. I just wanted to make sure…”

  Her voice died away as her expression grew embarrassed, so I finished for her. “That I was okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “He didn’t come by.”

  “Oh, good. I guess I should have called. Not that I have your number.”

  She was rambling now, which made me smile. I held out my hand and said, “That’s easily fixed. I’ll put it in your phone if you want.”

  She reached in her pocket for her phone, unlocked it, and handed it to me. After I put my number in her contacts, I texted my phone so I’d have hers too. “There, but don’t think that means I wish you’d called. I’m glad you came over.”

  She smiled and put her phone back in her pocket. “I probably shouldn’t have though.”

  I knew what she meant. Hanging out at another guy’s apartment when she was dating someone else was definitely crossing a line. But I didn’t want her to go home before I could fix a few things with her. “Do you want to go for a walk? I have something to talk to you about.”

  She tilted her head and looked at me curiously. For a moment, she seemed hesitant, but then she said, “Sure.”

  My shoulders relaxed. “Great. Hold on a sec.”

  I ducked back inside and grabbed my phone and keys. After locking up, we went downstairs together. It was only when we got to the parking lot that I wondered where we should go. This late in the evening, the best place to walk would be on campus, so I turned that direction.

  We walked without talking for a while, with only the sound of passing cars to break the silence between us. Lauren looked pensive, and I didn’t want to push her. By the time we got to the school, the pink and blue tones of twilight were shifting into dark grays, and the light poles spaced down the sidewalks cast halos of light on the pavement.

  The sprinklers came on, spraying us as they spun around. I grabbed Lauren’s hand and ran before it could spray us again, pulling her behind me until we reached the large, paved courtyard. The urge to keep hold of her hand was too strong. Instead of letting go, I tangled my fingers with hers for a brief moment before pulling away.

  She didn’t look at me, but she wiggled her fingers before curling them into a tight fist. Had it affected her as strongly as it had me? I couldn’t shake the desire to reach for her again, so I crammed my hands in my pockets and looked straight ahead.

  A few yards later, I glanced down at Lauren as we passed through a column of light from the pole above us, wondering if she knew how beautiful she was.

  “I haven’t thanked you for the groceries yet.” She’d been looking at the ground, but looked up as she spoke. “Really, it means a lot to me.”

  “It was the least I could do after making your situation more difficult, even if the problem was only temporary.”

  “Temporary?”

  “I called Rossi and Chavez. Everyone’s on board to give you the job. You just need to do a little paperwork and you’ll officially be a part time employee of the college.”

  “Are you serious?” When I nodded, she grinned and gave a little skip hop. “Can you stand to get another thank you from me?”

  Unable to resist smiling back at her, I shook my head. “Please, don’t. I’m just…being a good friend.”

  “Yeah.” Her smile faltered for a minute. “It’s so strange. I thought when I moved here that Nick and Natalie would be the ones I depended on most. Instead, it’s you and Beth.”

  “You and Natalie aren’t getting along?”

  “No, we are. It’s just that I don’t see her much. And when I do…well, I guess we’ve never had much in common.”

  “Kind of like you and Nick.”

  She shrugged. “I’ve never known anyone who had much in common with me, but it didn’t mean I couldn’t have a relationship with them. Like, I have nothing in common with my brothers, but I love them.”

  “Ah, but family is different. Tell me more about them,” I said, hoping she’d take me up on the invitation and think of happier things for a while.

  She didn’t need any more prompting. She told story after story from the ranch. Most of them had me laughing, but a few made me think that maybe I’d missed something growing up in a city. One thing I was sure of—her brothers sounded like the kinds of guys I could be friends with.

  We drew near to a fountain, watching as it sprayed feathery jets into the air, illuminated by lights at the base. The falling water misted us as a breeze swept through the courtyard.

  “Oh, my gosh, that feels amazing,” Lauren said, coming to a stop. She closed her eyes, and smiled as she lifted her face to the spray. “I will never get used to the humidity here.”

  “Don’t worry. If you’re here long enough, you’ll grow a set of gills.”

  She laughed, sounding so carefree and adorable, I wanted to grab her and swing her around. I wanted to do a few other things, but I was better off not thinking about them.

  “Don’t you think that if Nick was jealous about groceries, he’d be even more jealous if he saw us together like this?” I asked, though I hated to spoil the moment.

  Her expression contorted into something bordering on panic. “No, I didn’t think. I should have though.” She walked over to a bench and sat down. When I dropped down beside her, she said, “But we’re just friends, so it’s okay.”

  “As far as I’m concerned. He may have a different opinion though.”

  Her lips tightened for a second and she lifted her chin. “He’ll have to deal with it. I’m not losing one of my only friends because he’s jealous.”

  “Good for you.”

  We sat staring at the play of water and light against the backdrop of the silhouetted buildings and darkening sky, both of us caught up in our own thoughts. But warm magnetism pulled at me, urging me to close the gap between us. Unable to bear it any longer, I groaned and scrubbed my face with my hands. “Can we just be friends, Lauren?”

  From the bleak look in her eyes, my meaning wasn’t lost on her. “I hope so.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lauren

  The glare of morning sun wasn’t the best light to paint by, but it was all I had right now. With the curtains open, my room was flooded. I sat with my back to it so it didn’t blind me, but there was quite a bit of glare reflecting from the oils on my canvas. It was liberating though, to paint while only guessing at what it actually looked like.

  There was a knock on my door seconds before Beth stumbled into my room and flopped on my bed. All I could see of her was a fluff of messy hair.

  “Uh, good morning,” I said, trying not to laugh.

  “Morning,” she mumbled. She tried to look up at me but was blinded by the light behind me. “Errrgh! So bright!”

  I did laugh this time. “I’m guessing you aren’t in here just because you want to hang out.”

  “No. Freakin’ Jake called me and told me to wake you up. He’s been trying to call you.” She tossed my phone at me.

  I glanced at the screen. It showed several missed calls from him. “Oops. I slept right through it. He probably wants to know when I want to go meet his grandma. He asked me about it last ni
ght after our walk.”

  Beth raised up and stared at me. “No wonder you were gone so long. What happened?”

  “Nothing. We just talked.”

  “Are you sure? Because you’re blushing.”

  I pressed my hands to my face. “Beth, don’t ask any more questions, please. I’m dating Nick, remember?”

  “You’re no fun,” she said, letting her head flop down again.

  Consumed by guilt now, I thought about how Jake had held my hand, though only for a few seconds. All my determination to not react to him had disappeared like mist in the warmth of the sun. I just couldn’t fight this attraction. Being close to him would be dangerous until I got my wayward emotions under control, but I’d already promised to go to Grams’ house. Somehow, I had to make this “friends” thing work or go insane.

  Beth’s voice was muffled by the blankets, but I managed to make out, “I’m going to steal your bed.”

  I was grateful for the change in conversation. “It’s actually comfortable, huh? And I can’t believe it’s held up this long with no leaks.” I focused on my canvas and added a few unnecessary brush strokes. “Thanks for not telling Natalie about, you know, whatever happened between Jake and me.”

  She sat up, but shielded her eyes with her hands. “Do you mean the groceries? Because Nick will probably tell her. If you mean the flirting at the store or the late night walk, I didn’t see or hear anything.”

  That made me laugh. “Sure.”

  “Seriously. And I didn’t hear or see anything when Jake came by the house this morning and Natalie left with him.”

  “What?”

  “They’re running buddies. Jake must have been calling you before they left which was why it was so blasted early.”

  “Yeah,” I said, no longer feeling like painting. Sitting on the porch, watching for them to get back sounded much more important. “I hate running.”

  “Wow. That’s the first thing we have in common.”

  “How are we friends?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe because I like drama, and you provide it.”