“Are you serious?” I burst out, finally finding my voice. “What?” This definitely needed an explanation.
“I get it, okay? I haven’t been around much. I’ll fix that, I promise,” he stated calmly.
I squinted my eyes as I thought over what he said, debating how best to proceed. Snapping out the first thought that popped into my head—which consisted of calling him an ass—wasn’t the best way to go, as tempting as it was. “Is that what you really think?” I asked in a quiet voice.
“Isn’t it?” he responded as he crossed his arms over his chest. I might have taken a moment to enjoy the view of his gray Henley shirt stretching to accentuate his biceps and shoulders. Then I remembered he was treading in dangerous waters.
“No. It’s not that. What is it with you two?” I exclaimed in annoyance. First Connor, now my boyfriend…
Teagan frowned at me. “What are you talking about?”
I flopped back onto the bed. “You and my brother. Both of you are acting like I’m a child screaming to be noticed.” I scowled at the ceiling. “I’m not a child and I’m not trying to get anyone’s attention, Teagan, just so you know.”
“I never said you were a child, sweetheart,” he replied.
“You don’t have to,” I muttered. The implication was quite clear.
“Look, there is obviously something going on here.” He raised a hand and scrubbed his face. “Let’s figure out what it is so we can fix it, okay?”
“Why are you so convinced something is going on?” I demanded as I glanced down along the bed at him.
He rubbed the back of his neck and blew out a breath. “Because,” he said tiredly, “you came home with Caldwell.”
Well, that made me pause. I shifted so I was braced up on my elbows and studied him. Upon my closer inspection I could see the dark circles under his eyes, and his hair was messed up from shoving his hands through it repeatedly. In short, he looked stressed out and rough. It took some of the self-righteous wind from my sails. I swallowed the words I’d been about to blurt out. Instead, I gave him a sad smile.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “There’s nothing going on, baby. I promise. I just went to a party.” I sighed. “You weren’t home, and I’m tired of always sitting around alone. I don’t want to be that kind of girlfriend,” I explained.
Teagan blew out a breath and made his way around the bed to stand beside me. I watched him silently study me for a long moment. Impatient, I was about to ask him what he was thinking when he lowered himself to the bed next to me. We rolled to face each other and I reached out to touch his cheek.
“I love you,” I whispered.
“I love you too.”
I stared into his eyes for a second, then something odd occurred to me. “Did you tell me not to throw up on you last night?”
Teagan muffled a laugh. “Yes.” He tapped my nose with the tip of a finger. “You were projectile-vomiting. The only thing left was for your head to spin around,” he mused.
Ugh! His movie reference wasn’t lost on me. “But you’d have loved me anyway if I had?”
“Yes.” He gave me a soft smile. “I’ll always love you. I did, however, make you brush your teeth before I carried you back to bed.”
I gave him a mock glare. “So your love is conditional,” I said with false indignation.
“When it involves vomit, absolutely.” He grinned at me, and then leaned forward to nuzzle my nose with his. “But for morning breath, I’ll make an exception,” he muttered just before he captured my lips with his.
***
I slammed my book shut and gave it a dirty look. I was so over finding derivatives in calculus. I glanced over and saw Annie didn’t look much better off. I decided at that point if this was how I felt at mid-terms, finals were going to kill me.
“It’s official,” Annie announced. “Chemistry is trying to kill me.”
I laughed and stood up from the floor. She and I had been studying for the past four hours. “Well, you brought it on yourself, Miss Honors Classes,” I teased. “No one to blame but yourself.”
She glared. “I hate you.”
“Nah,” I said with a laugh. “I’m pretty sure it’s the periodic table you hate.”
“That too,” she agreed. She flopped back onto the floor with a deep sigh. “I can’t wait for next semester to be over and I’m done with the subject,” she said, making a dramatic slashing gesture with her hand.
I snickered at her antics and prepared to tease her some more when a knock sounded on our door. A glance at Annie revealed she was just as surprised. Looking at the clock, I frowned at the late hour. Both dread and curiosity started to build in the pit of my stomach.
I walked to the door and paused with my hand on the knob. “Who is it?” I called through the door. There was the sound of shuffling on the other side and then silence again. I was about to turn back when I heard a heavy sigh.
“Hey, it’s Dana. Could I speak with Annie?”
Ugh, Dana. Great.
I turned at the low groan behind me and found Annie sprawled back on the floor. Her arm was draped dramatically over her eyes as she clenched a fist. Her jaw was tight and lips thinned into a line, obviously unhappy about this visitor.
“What do I tell her?” I whispered. Dana was a clingy pain-in-the-ass and I knew Annie had been trying to avoid her.
Annie rolled her head toward me but kept her face covered. “Maybe if I lie real still, she’ll pass on by,” she whispered back.
Almost as if she heard, Dana knocked at the door again. “C’mon, Ash. I need to talk to Annie.” Her voice had taken on a decided whine.
“Jesus,” Annie grumbled. “Let her in. Otherwise she’ll be out there all night and wake up the whole floor.”
I rolled my eyes with an aggravated sigh. I didn’t like Dana. She was a nosy gossip who had tried to pry into my relationship with Teagan more than once. That little bit could have been tolerated, but she didn’t know when to quit. Despite my repeated avoidance, she kept prodding and prying.
That just pissed me off.
I shot Annie a dirty look she couldn’t see but must have felt because she waved a hand with a grunt. With a sound of disgust, I turned back to the door and scowled. I’d rather wake up with my lips stapled to my forehead than open that door. However, seeing that my roommate was of no help, I reached out and turned the knob.
I barely had a chance to crack open the door before Dana shoved it open. I stumbled back as she barged in, stopping myself from falling onto my ass by grabbing the door. Not even sparing me a sideways glance, Dana rushed to where Annie lay on the floor.
“Nice to see you too,” I muttered from where I clung to the door.
“Oh, yeah, hi,” she tossed my way absently.
I shot her a dirty look she blithely ignored.
“I’m all right, by the way. You know, in case you were wondering,” I added. When she continued to ignore me, I threw my hands up in defeat. “Unbelievable.”
Annie shifted from her spot on the floor and sat up. “What do you want, Dana?”
“I have my chem mid-term tomorrow. I’m going to fail. You gotta help me!” she announced dramatically.
Both Annie and I looked at her in shock. In synch, we turned and glanced at the clock together. It was after one in the morning. I opened my mouth to tell her she’d lost her mind when Annie beat me to it.
“Two things, Dana,” she said. “One, I don’t gotta do anything, especially this late at night.” Dana went to say something and Annie held up a hand, stopping her before she could start. “Two, I can’t teach you the whole first half of the semester in the next couple of hours. You should have asked me for help weeks ago.”
“I did!” she burst out.
Annie shook her head. “No, you didn’t. You came over claiming to need help with English comp, but all you did was bug Ash about her boyfriend.”
“What? No, I didn’t.”
I nodded. “Yeah, you did. And you got
pissy when I wouldn’t tell you any details,” I confirmed. Dana’s face turned red as she looked back at me. I met her eyes with a level stare in return. With a huff, she turned back to Annie.
“So, you won’t help me?” she whined.
Annie shook her head. “I can’t, I’m sorry. I have some notes you can borrow,” she offered. With a shrug, she added, “That’s all I can do, sweetie. You waited too late.”
“Seriously, you’re just going to leave me hanging?” Dana looked like she was on the verge of tears and I felt kind of bad for her. That was, until she turned to me with a glare. “Why are you so smug?” she demanded.
“Huh?” I asked in surprise, “I’m just standing here!”
A calculating look entered her eyes, and for some reason it made me nervous. A feeling of foreboding started to steal over me.
“I guess we can’t all be so lucky to have an older boyfriend to tell us what to do, huh?” She snorted. “But then, do you really have a boyfriend who tells you everything?”
I narrowed my eyes. “What are you talking about?”
“Where is Teeg tonight?” she asked suddenly.
Puzzled, I replied, “He’s at a study group.”
“Where?”
I looked at her in exasperation “Why?”
“Just tell me where,” she countered.
I threw my hands up in annoyance. “At the student center. Now, why?”
A self-satisfied smirk spread across her face. “You know, I live over at Arboretum Corners,” she said. I stiffened as I recognized the name. “I’ve seen Teeg around there a lot lately, with a blonde.”
Okay, this was nothing big. The Arboretum happened to be where Lauren lived. But I was getting fed up with the cryptic innuendos. “Your point?”
“My point, Ash,” she said with a smug tone, “is that just before I came here, I saw Teeg leaving.” She paused for dramatic effect. “Guess the study group moved,” she mused. “It’s weird, though. There were no lights on in the apartment he left, and his clothes were a mess.” She shrugged dismissively. “I dunno.”
Explanation. There was an explanation. The room was suddenly shifting. I could feel myself breaking out into a sweat.
“Dana?” Annie said in a low voice.
“Yeah?”
“Get out.”
“But—” she started to protest.
“Get out.” Annie advanced toward the door, grabbing Dana by the elbow and dragging her along the way.
“Hey!” she yelped as she stumbled behind my enraged roommate. “What the…? Let me go!”
“Oh, I’ll let you go,” Annie snarled. “Just as soon as you’re out of this room.” With that, she shoved her into the hall and slammed the door shut. Everything happened so fast I hadn’t even closed the door yet. We could hear Dana sputtering indignantly through the solid door. It would have been funny if my head hadn’t been spinning. I stared at the closed door in frozen confusion.
“Ash, honey? You okay?” Annie’s voice was somewhere beside me. Weird, she sounded far away…
I shook my head, trying to make sense of what I’d just heard. None of it made any sense. Less than an hour ago Teagan had sent a text that his study group was running late. An insidious little thought wormed its way into the front of my whirling thoughts.
Had Teagan lied to me?
Chapter Seventeen
The doorway held me captive as I silently eyed Teagan sitting at his desk. I’d avoided him for two days, using mid-terms as an excuse. My thoughts and emotions had been all over the place and this was a situation that needed calm. I couldn’t lie to myself and pretend that it didn’t bother me when he didn’t protest my absence. That shit hurt.
As if sensing my presence, Teagan finally looked over at me. He gave me a tired smile that looked more like grimace. Sitting back in his chair, he held a hand out to me. I found myself still drawn to him and walked over without thought. Once I was within arm’s reach, he took my wrist and tugged me onto his lap. Wrapping his arms around me, he buried his face in my neck and took a deep breath. “Hey, baby,” he whispered.
“Hey,” I said quietly as I twisted to wrap an arm around his neck. “How you been?”
“Missing you,” he replied while studying me. “Where you been?”
“Trying to finish up mid-terms,” I hedged. I wasn’t entirely sure I was ready for the conversation that needed to happen.
He was silent for a moment before he tightened his arms around me. He rested his forehead on my shoulder then whispered, “What’s wrong, Aislinn?”
Despite my best effort, I stiffened in his lap. Not my terms, not how I wanted to do this, I thought frantically. Though, to be honest, there was the distinct possibility what I thought ‘my terms’ were would never have happened. Sometimes you just wanted to bury your head in the sand.
So, with that in mind, I chickened out. “Nothing’s wrong.”
Teagan huffed a laugh. “You still can’t lie for shit,” he said, “so you might as well come out with it.”
“I really don’t want to talk about it right now.” And I didn’t. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that this was a bad road to go down.
He sighed and leaned back in his chair. I could feel his eyes boring into the back of my head but refused to turn around. There was no way this would happen like this. Quiet settled around us, almost deafening in its lack of noise.
That was nearly as unsettling as the conversation had been. Even though I fought it, I couldn’t help but fidget. The tension that had now made itself known was deep enough to be a tangible thing.
“Yeah, this is bullshit,” he muttered as he suddenly removed my arm from around his neck. He tapped my leg and shifted to let me know he wanted up. I scrambled from his lap and stood beside his desk as he got up and looked down at me.
The seconds ticked by in silence as we stared at each other. He broke first and turned slightly, raising a hand to rub the back of his neck. His shoulders were drawn tight with tension and his jaw ticked repeatedly.
Finally, he dropped his head forward and stared at the floor. “I’m going to ask again, what’s wrong?” He turned back to look at me again.
I started to shake my head, but stopped when I saw the expression on his face. I met his eyes and knew whatever I decided to do in this moment would set a course—good or bad—for us. Chewing on my bottom lip, I debated my options. Confront the situation head on? Or did I tuck it away and hide it in the deep recesses of my heart and mind?
Teagan remained silent, eyes locked to mine as my mind whirled with thoughts. It didn’t take long, only a few seconds, to realize I couldn’t live that way. I had to know. It would eat away at me—the ignorance—slowly invading everything. I might be a masochist, but my decision was made.
“Maybe we should talk,” I said, my voice so soft I was surprised he even heard me. The tightening around his eyes told me he had, however. The anxiety at what was about to happen threatened to strangle me.
“Okay…what do we need to talk about?” he asked in a cautious tone.
I suddenly found it hard to look at him. My gaze dropped from his and my hands reached behind me to grip the desk. I swallowed hard against the lump that built in my throat. The desire to be anywhere but here was strong. That wasn’t an option, though.
“Aislinn?” Teagan’s voice broke my thoughts. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Feeling a bit more balanced, I straightened and looked at him.
“Where were you Tuesday night?” I asked, getting straight to the point.
“What?” He tilted his head and met my gaze with a scrunched brow. “What are you talking about?”
I crossed an arm over my chest and pinched the bridge of my nose with the other hand. This was going to be harder than I thought. With a sigh, I responded, “The night you had the last-minute study group. Where were you?”
“I was at the study session,” he said slowly. He straightened and placed his hands on his hips. “What�
�s this about? I’m confused.”
I studied him closely, knowing he was lying. The longer I watched him, the more he fidgeted. He crossed his arms over his chest and glanced around the room. It didn’t escape me that he was avoiding looking at me. That both alarmed me and pissed me off. “Don’t play games, Teagan.”
He whipped his head around to look at me. He squinted and pursed his lips for a moment. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Look,” I said as I let out a frustrated breath. “This is the last time I’m going to ask you. Think real hard about that night. Where were you?”
“Jesus, Aislinn!” He threw his hands up on the air. “I was at the study group and came home after.”
I felt my heart stutter to a stop at his words. He was really going to do this. My chest grew tight and a burning began at the back of my nose. “You went home?” I asked. “Didn’t stop anywhere along the way?”
“No!” He raked a hand through his hair. “What the hell? What is going on here?” His tone was angry and defensive.
I felt my own anger build. “You’re telling me you went straight home,” I repeated. My breathing had picked up, causing me to gasp softly.
“I’m not going to keep repeating myself.”
My heart shattered at those words. I blinked back the tears that tried to fill my eyes. Sniffing, I took a deep breath. “I know where you were, Teagan,” I whispered.
He froze, and that told me more than any words could ever have.
“What?”
A question for an answer. Classic stall technique. I’d grown up with a woman who worked in police stations most of my life. I knew the tells that showed when someone was hiding something. “You heard me,” I answered.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. We finished the group then went home. We were all tired and had exams the next day.”
My snort of laughter held no humor. “Why are you lying to me?”
He began to pace in agitation. “I’m not!”
I stared at the wall for a moment before I laid out my last card. “I know you were at Lauren’s that night. You texted me you were going home, but you went there instead.”
Decisive Moments (In Time Series Book 2) Page 15