Okay

by Danielle Pearl

  I grab for her anyway, growling as she skirts just out of my reach and wraps an oversized white bath towel around her perfect body, cloaking it from my very hungry view.

  Rory grins in triumph. She's been doing that a lot lately. Grinning, smiling, smirking… she's fucking radiant.

  I shut the water and dry myself off. Rory's already pulling on her jeans, her white lace bra barely covering the world's perkiest tits.

  "My face is up here," she reminds me with another smile.

  "I know exactly where it is," I reply, never moving my eyes from her chest.

  She laughs one of my favorite sounds in the universe. Another thing that makes me feel like a god—just making her fucking laugh.

  I'm pathetic.

  I'm pathetic and I don't even care.

  Rory pulls her suitcase behind her and I carry the one box she's taking down to her dorm. We call out goodbye to Thea on our way out and climb into a cab.

  "You sure you want to do this?" I ask her for the hundredth time.

  She rolls her eyes. "Sam," she admonishes.

  "What if you leave something at the dorm that you need at my place?"

  "I didn't pack anything I really need. You know that. We've talked about this… it isn't going to change anything," she promises me for the millionth time.

  I want to believe her. Or rather, I want to believe it doesn't even matter. It's just that this summer has been a fucking dream. Having her with me every night, knowing she'd be there when I got back from working with Uncle Kelly, or with me in the Hamptons for the weekend—I just got used to it. And I don't want it to change.

  Rory signs me into her dorm and we take the elevator up to the fifth floor. It is like a scene out of a movie. From every college movie ever made. Loud music blares from multiple dorm rooms, boxes and packaging lining the hall. Freshmen are everywhere, bouncing from room to room with excitement, writing not-so-witty little notes on whiteboards that hang from the doors. Parents and siblings say their goodbyes, the new students anxious to get rid of them.

  Rory's dorm room is small, but it's what I'd been expecting. After all, I've seen freshman dorms before and they all look the same. I help her unpack the few boxes that had been pre-shipped to the dorm, and we make the bed I hope she'll never use. None of it takes very long since there isn't much to do.

  "We've got to get going if we're going to get to the restaurant on time," I tell her. It's going to be a bitch to get uptown now, even at the tail end of rush hour.

  Rory tells me to go ahead and grab a cab while she stops by her R.A.'s room to introduce herself. I kind of want to meet this "advisor" who's supposed to be responsible for whatever goes on on this floor myself, but I don't want Rory to think that I don't think she can take care of herself, so I do as she’s asked and head downstairs.

  "Cap?"

  I hear the familiar voice as soon as I step outside the building. Randy, Kendall's older brother stands behind me chatting with some girl. He excuses himself from what was probably some pick-up and makes his way over to me.

  "Hey, bro, how are you?" He asks with a handshake/half-hug.

  "I’m Great, Rand. You still prowling for freshmen?" I tease.

  Randy smirks. "Hey, she was a sophomore. I think. What are you doing here?" he asks.

  "Waiting for my girl." I can't help my grin.

  He shakes his head almost reproachfully. "Yeah, Ken told me about that. Heading into college with a girlfriend? Have I taught you nothing?"

  "Turns out, it seems you're the one with a lot to learn," I retort and we both laugh. "Plus I'm pretty sure your sister was just telling everyone about how you're ready to settle down into a nice, committed relationship." I don't tell him she said it as part of a ploy to set him up with my girl to try and make me jealous.

  Randy rolls his eyes dramatically. "God, I say one thing about how I wouldn't be adverse to a relationship if I met a girl who was worth it and Ken can't stop suggesting girls to set me up with. She drives me nuts."

  I smile. That does sound like Kendall.

  "Still, I never thought you'd end up having a high-school sweetheart," he says.

  I laugh at his choice of words. "Rory's not my high-school sweetheart," I reply. It sounds so ridiculous. Like some young couple who goes to homecoming and pins corsages and then breaks up after graduation.

  "What is she then?" he asks.

  I stare at him a moment, a little surprised by how serious he suddenly seems. Like he really wants to understand something he just doesn't get. So I tell him the truth.

  "Rory's the love of my life."

  And then Randy's smiling coyly and looking over my shoulder and I turn to find Rory hovering behind me, obviously not wanting to interrupt my conversation. She's blushing, but there's also a small, shy smile. I don't know what Randy's wry little look is for—I didn't say anything I wouldn't have said in front of her, didn't tell him anything Rory doesn't already know.

  I take her hand and pull her forward to introduce her, loving how she burrows into my side and how it satisfies the possessiveness within me. Randy takes us in as he murmurs some introductory platitudes.

  That's right, she's mine.

  We make some vague plans that may or may not end up actually happening before Randy heads toward Union Square.

  "He looks just like Kendall," Rory murmurs as we climb into a cab.

  I shrug. I don't care what either of them looks like. I'm only looking at Rory.

  We head back uptown to meet my parents and Bits. Rory has promised she'll stay at my apartment tonight. I hate that it's a question I'll have to ask every night, for the time being anyway. At least until I can convince her to move in officially. But it's a whole lot better than where we were a few months ago. When I thought I would have to get used to only having her as a friend.

  We didn't exactly take things slow, so I don't know why we have to play this game with the apartment-dorm room situation, but I'll play. Because I know that we'll get there eventually. And the truth is, as long as I know I have her, that she loves me, I know everything will be okay.

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  Please consider leaving your review for OKAY!

  Also by Danielle Pearl:

  Rory and Sam fell in love in NORMAL, and we all fell in love right along with them. Now see it all unfold through Sam's eyes, and learn just how the new girl with anxiety issues stole the heart of the gorgeous heartthrob, and turned his world upside down.

  You already heard the story. The one of how Rory and I fell in love, supposedly, even if she couldn't handle it in the end. You know how it all went.

  Or you think you do.

  You only know her side. But I have my own point of view, and even Rory couldn't know my thoughts in those few months it took for her to go from being a stranger to my whole entire world.

  Every moment is permanently ingrained in my memory. In my goddamned soul. From the moment I stumbled upon the girl panicking outside of calculus - the one with the tight little body, the angelic face, and the fierce attitude - to the night she abandoned me in Miami. It was the sum of those moments that changed me irrevocably.

  Our story isn't over. I won't let it be. But this, this is what happened so far, the way I saw it.

  I'm Cap. Or Sam, to Rory. And this is my story.

  *ReCAP is Book 1.5 of the Something More series

  Acknowledgments

  First I have to thank the amazing readers who gave NORMAL a chance even though it was published by an unknown indie author. All of your reviews and feedback have been more encouraging than you know, and gave me the courage to make it to the end of OKAY. Thank you to the wonderful bloggers who helped get the series out there with features and reviews, who took the time to recommend it to readers who otherwise never would have found it. In no particular order: Bedroom Bookworms (thank you Trish!), The Book Hookup, Young Adult Book Madness, Trusty Page Turners, Crystal’s Many Reviews, Lost to Books, I Heart YA Books, Of Books and Book Thoughts, Late Nights Book Blog, A Beau
tiful Book Blog, Books Unhinged, Prone to Crushes on Boys in Books, Biblio Belles. Thank you to all of the bloggers who take the time to blog about the books they you love.

  Thank you, always, to my invaluable beta readers/sisters, Rebecca, Gabi, and Drew "Drewdle", the only people in the world I trust with an unfinished work. Thank you for taking the time to read and give honest feedback so I don't have to let actual real people read a manuscript until it is "ready".

  Thank you to my ever-supportive parents and in-laws, Margo and Jay, Mike and Lana, who are there when life gets tough. To my husband, Roman, who continues to believe.

  Thank you to the veteran authors who have been so generous with advice, especially TW who helped me through some of the more daunting moments I never saw coming.

  About the Author

  Danielle Pearl lives in New Jersey with her husband and delicious little boys, Cameron and Liam. She is a life-long book enthusiast who has been writing since she could hold a pencil.

  Follow Danielle on Twitter (@DaniPearlAuthor)

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  Stop by her website: daniellepearl.com