Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 64727 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64727 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Nonetheless, it had been a while since I’d looked twice at a guy in the middle of the day while mostly sober.
The hottie noticed my lingering once-over. He lifted a package of sliced cheddar and flashed a shy smile. “Like minds.”
“Yeah, I love tuna melts, and they’re always better with thick cheddar. I’m Gus, by the way,” I said, tilting my chin in greeting. I debated offering my hand, but that seemed like overkill in a grocery store.
“I know who you are.”
“You do?”
He nodded. “I think the whole campus knows you. I’m Eli. Nice to meet you.”
“You too. So…what are you making with your cheddar cheese?”
“An omelet.”
I crossed my arms, cocking my head slightly. “What else is in that omelet? Ham, onion, chives, bacon? Oh, gotta have bacon. Don’t tell me you’re leaving out the bacon.”
Eli snickered. “Afraid so. My season just ended, but I’m still in training mode and bacon doesn’t make the cut.”
“That’s a damn shame,” I lamented. “What’s your sport?”
“Figure skating.”
I raised my brows. “No shit. My roommate is a figure skater. You must know him. Rafe Johnson.”
“Johannsen?”
I snapped my fingers. “That’s it.”
“Yes, I know Rafe.” The unabashed once-over was confusing.
I couldn’t tell if Eli was sizing me up and judging me based on a negative review from my roommate, or if he was interested and wondered if it was awkward that we had Rafe in common.
Buzz buzz.
I rescued my cell from my pocket and automatically glanced at the caller ID. Mom. I let it go to voice mail, thinking I’d call her when I got home. I wasn’t ready to sever the connection with this sexy guy, and I certainly wasn’t going to waste my flirting window by bringing up my crabby roommate again.
“Let’s go back to that omelet. Are you telling me it’s a cheese-only thing?”
Eli blushed. The softest shade of pink ghosted his high cheekbones. Did I mention he was pretty?
“And tomato with a sprinkle of goat cheese.”
“Now that sounds tasty.”
“It is,” he assured me. “Simple and easy and—do you have to get that?”
Buzz buzz
If my mom was doing the double-call thing, she had something to say and Constance Langley was nothing if not relentless. “Yeah. I…should. Hey, it was nice to meet you.”
“You too. Good-bye, Gus.” Eli ducked his chin and pushed his cart in the opposite direction.
I watched him longingly, admiring his pert ass and broad shoulders…just as my cell went off in my hand like a grenade.
“Geez, Ma. What’s up?”
“That’s no way to greet your mother, Augustus, darlin’,” she replied, her tone dripping with slow Southern charm.
Mom was a Charleston transplant who’d married my hockey-playing dad fresh out of college, and they’d settled in Indiana. Both of my parents were outgoing, congenial people, but my mom could be a little ferocious. A “Bless your heart” with a sweet-as-pie smile from Mom was the equivalent of a death warrant. And most folks never saw it coming.
“Hello, Mother. What can I do for you this fine morning?”
“It’s afternoon,” she corrected. “And you can tell me why you still haven’t forwarded your résumé to me. I want to help you, and I can’t do that if I don’t have the information required.”
“Mom, I don’t need help getting a job. I’ll do it myself.”
“Will you? Or will you succumb to the unfortunate habit of living off your inheritance? I know you’ve withdrawn money from the account your grandfather set up.”
“For tuition,” I snapped, manhandling the cart to the cereal aisle. “That’s what the money is for.”
“True, but you could have had a law degree by now. Derek Collinsworth is hiring, darlin’. He’s a dear friend of the family, and you really can’t go wrong. You could intern for his firm this summer in Charleston and…”
Oh, my fucking God.
I picked a box of Wheaties off the shelf and read the ingredients in my head to drown out my mom’s harping. It was the same ol’ theme. You should have done this, you could have been that. According to my mom, I was so far behind the curve, I was in danger of becoming a big fat nothing. Those weren’t her exact words, but the gist was… Get your shit together and be a fucking lawyer already.
Except I didn’t want to be a lawyer. And I didn’t aspire to manage hedge funds or go to med school like my brothers, either.
My mother didn’t know I’d technically graduated and was working toward a master’s degree in English. No one knew, and I had my reasons for that. Mom would hate it. In fact, she’d lose her mind and ask what I was going to do with a useless degree. Maybe teach? I didn’t know, and I wasn’t ready to go to war over it yet.
That day would come, but it wasn’t today…in the middle of the cereal aisle with a cart full of shit I was buying for my roommate, who probably thought I was as big of a loser as my mom did.