Her golden hair was spread out over the pillow like a halo and her eyelids fluttered now and then and I wondered what she was dreaming about.
A few minutes later, Dean and Jed reentered the room.
“Hey,” Dean said softly. “I’m going to take everyone back to the house. Call me when you need me to come back for you.”
It felt strange that he was leaving, but that was for the best. We didn’t all need to be stranded here, adding to the stress of the situation.
“I’m not leaving until she leaves with me,” I told him, and he smiled.
“I know.”
He kissed me on the forehead and Jed kept his face neutral, which surprised me.
“Bye.”
“Bye,” I said breathlessly, my eyes trained on my uncle.
Dean and Jed nodded to one another before Jed moved into the room with Emma and me.
He sighed and crossed his arms as he observed the little girl in the bed.
“You and Dean Powell seem awfully close,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
I didn’t have anything to say to that, so I just gave him a look.
“What did you tell the hospital about Emma?” I asked, meaning guardianship.
“I sorted it out, don’t worry,” he said cooly. “I’ll bring the papers by in a couple of days for you to sign.”
I nodded, still unsure how I was going to work any of this out. Dean’s classes resumed on Monday, and I would have to decide if I could transfer. I had to be able to transfer. If I couldn’t, I couldn’t stay. There was no way to just not finish college after all the hard work I’d already put in. It wasn’t me. If I had three people other than myself to take care of, I would definitely need at least an undergraduate degree, if not more.
Jed’s phone rang and he left the room to take it.
“I’ll be in touch,” he said, gripping my shoulder lightly before he left.
A few hours later, I woke to a small voice calling my name.
“Elle,” Emma rasped. “Elle wake up!”
She coughed and my head shot up. It was resting on Emma’s bed, and she was grasping for the water cup by her bed. Her arms weren’t long enough, and she was too tangled in the web of wires.
I helped her sip the cup, and she smiled at me. I felt her forehead, and it wasn’t burning up like it had been all day.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, running my fingers through her hair.
“Better,” she said. “Where’s Dean?”
I couldn’t help but smile. After all of this, that was what she was concerned about.
“He’s at home. Once you’re better he’s going to come back for us, so hurry up!” I joked.
She shut her eyes and squeezed them as she made a little noise.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting better,” she said, still determined.
“Get some more sleep,” I told her. “I’ll talk to the doctor about how much better you are and see if we can go home.”
“To Dean?” she asked excitedly, her eyes wide.
“To Dean,” I said, mimicking her expression.
She nodded and turned over.
The doctor let Emma go home once she was sure that her fever was down and she was fully hydrated.
“I’m better!” Emma announced, holding out her arms for me to pick her up.
“That you are, little one.”
I signed Emma’s discharge papers and carried her out to the lobby where I waited to see Dean’s car. The second I saw the black Range Rover pull up, I dashed outside with Emma in my arms. Dean got out of the car and helped me fasten her into her seatbelt.
She was elated to see Dean, and I felt a stab of jealousy. Would she always love him more than she loved me?
As if reading my mind when we got in the front seat, Dean leaned over and whispered in my ear.
“She’s known me longer.”
I gave him a small smile as we drove home.
Emma was in bed, Dean and Jenny had gone home, and Callie and Chase were upstairs. There was no way I could go sit in on classes tomorrow. Callie still had one more day of her suspension, so she could technically watch Emma, but I felt like an irresponsible guardian leaving them alone while Emma was sick.
I dialed Kenzie’s number.
“Lauren! I’m so excited for tomorrow!” she answered.
I sighed.
“Kenz, I can’t. I’m so sorry. Emma’s sick.”
“I know, Dean filled me in,” she said. “But that’s not going to stop you.”
“I really can’t leave her.”
“You’re going, Lauren Lindsay, and that’s final. If you don’t go tomorrow, you know you’re never going to go, and that isn’t going to work out. I don’t have classes tomorrow because I’m on the Tuesday and Thursday schedule. I’m coming over to watch Emma, and you’re going to school with Dean.”
She wasn’t going to let me out of this one.
“Kenzie−” I started.
“Nope. You’re going. See you at ten.”
She hung up, and I knew there was no point in calling her back to argue.
I groaned and looked at my texts. There was one from Dean, telling me he would pick me up at ten. Great, he and Kenzie had already coordinated almost like they knew I would call and cancel.
I had another text from an unknown number. When I opened it, my heart leapt. I immediately pressed the call button.
“Hey sis, I got a new phone,” Tucker’s voice answered on the first ring. “Long time no chat.”
“Seriously,” I said, sinking back to sit on the couch.
“How have you been?”
“Oh you know,” I said casually. “Just getting crushed by avalanches. The usual.”
“I heard. I tried to fly out there, but Jed said he had it handled.”
“He did have it handled,” I said. “Don’t worry about me over here.”
“I am worried about you though. Jed told me that you’re adopting Linda’s kids?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I’m proud of you, L. That takes a lot of guts.”
I sighed.
“I’m not sure I can even do it,” I said honestly.
“You can,” he said confidently. “They’re lucky to have you.”
“I guess.”
He paused.
“Hey, I’ve gotta go. Mom’s calling me.”
“She’s calling you?” I was shocked. She never, ever contacted me. But then again, she always liked Tucker better.
“Yeah,” he said quickly. “I’ll call you back soon. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
Then he was gone.
I felt hurt that my mom was calling him, and that to him it was no big deal. Like she did it all the time. What was so wrong with me? Tucker and I were twins. She was supposed to love us equally.
I marched into my room and turned off the light as I cried myself to sleep.
THE NEXT MORNING, I woke Chase up and drove him to school early. My plan was to get back in bed for a couple of hours before Kenzie and Dean showed up, but I was too nervous so I cleaned the house from top to bottom and even alphabetized Chase’s games and Emma’s movies.
Kenzie knocked on the door at exactly ten o’clock, just as Dean pulled up in the driveway.
“Emma’s upstairs,” I told her as she hugged me quickly.
“Don’t be nervous,” she said. “Everything is going to be fine. I’ll text you every half hour with Emma updates, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Wow,” she said, placing a hand on my forehead. “That was easy. Are you sick or something?”
I shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
I was still upset over my mom last night.
Dean walked up the front steps and looked at me expectantly.
“Are you ready?”
“I guess,” I said softly. He looked between me and Kenzie.
She shrugged, and he took my hand.
&
nbsp; “Are you nervous?” he asked as he squeezed my hand reassuringly.
“I don’t know,” I told him truthfully. He looked concerned, but I took a few steps toward the door. It was better to just get this over with.
We got in the car and Dean didn’t say anything for a few minutes because I’m sure he didn’t know what to do. I was being weird, but I couldn’t help it.
“So my nutrition class starts at eleven,” he said, filling the silence. “We’ll have plenty of time for you to go down to administration and talk to them about a transfer application.”
“Okay,” was all I said numbly, staring ahead of me.
“You don’t have anything to be nervous about,” he said, running his hand over mine.
I wanted to believe that.
“Okay.”
We walked into the administration building and he led me to the front desk.
“What can I help you with?” An older woman in glasses asked me.
Dean nudged me forward, and I knew I had to stop moping.
“Hi,” I said, pushing a piece of hair behind my ear. “I’m interested in transferring.”
“Where from?” she asked.
I told her, and her eyes brightened.
“Most of our transfer students come from there,” she said. “As long as your grades are up to admittance standards, everything should go smoothly.”
She leaned down and pulled a packet out of her desk drawer.
“Here’s a transfer packet. It’s very straightforward. When it’s all filled out, you just need to drop it off right over there.”
She pointed at another window.
“Can I take it home with me and look it over?” I asked, clutching the envelope.
“Sure,” she said sweetly. “But make sure you get it filled out soon, the deadline for fall transfers is in a couple of weeks.”
I nodded but felt slightly rushed. A couple of weeks? That was no time at all to decide. It seemed like my life was being forced on me one quick decision and a time, and none of them were easy.
“Thank you,” I told the woman, and gave her a curt smile. She winked at me and looked at Dean, who took my hand again. When he smiled at her I thought she was going to have to press her Life Alert button.
“You know, you look like the man on my favorite TV show,” she said, taking her glasses off to clean them. “The rich one who’s always shooting arrows and saving the city.”
“Thank you,” Dean said, but it sounded more like a question because he had no idea what she was talking about, and to be honest, neither did I.
I put the packet in my purse and took a deep breath as we walked away.
“Do you feel better?” he asked as we walked to his class.
I shrugged.
“Not really. I only have two weeks to decide.”
“I thought you had already decided,” he said, looking concerned.
“Me too.”
I didn’t like the fact that I was hesitating any more than he did, but it was a huge life change. Part of me still didn’t want to accept it even though I wasn’t sure it was a choice any more. I was still extremely concerned about where I would get the tuition funds.
We arrived at the classroom a little bit early, and Dean introduced me to the professor.
“Lauren, this is Dr. Nielson. Dr. Nielson, this is my girlfriend Lauren.”
I raised my eyebrow when he said the G word, considering we’d never actually talked about it. We had exchanged the L word, so I guess that counted.
The professor was a woman who looked a well preserved forty, but I couldn’t be sure.
“Nice to meet you,” she said cooly. “Dean didn’t say he had a girlfriend.”
I audibly scoffed.
“It’s recent,” I told her, eyeing Dean. Why was this professor so concerned about his love life?
“How nice for you,” she said shortly, and turned away from me to talk to another TA.
“Wow,” I whispered to Dean as I gave him a look.
“Sorry,” he said as he kissed my cheek. “Here, you can sit in the front row.”
Students were starting to file in, so I took a seat in the front row on the side. I took the packet out of my purse and started to look over it so I didn’t seem completely out of place. Dean smiled at me and went over to chat with Dr. Nielson and the other TAs.
I was deep in thought reading about transfer credits when two girls behind me caught my attention.
“Thank god he’s a TA again this semester,” I heard one of them say.
“I know,” the other replied. “That man is dirty hot.”
I glanced behind me to see where they were looking and blushed when I realized they were talking about Dean. Of course they were.
Who else fit that description?
He turned and saw me looking at him and flashed me a smile.
One girl hit the other.
“Did he just smile at us? I think he smiled at us.”
“No,” the second chimed in slowly. “I think he was smiling at her.” I knew they were talking about me.
I smiled back. This was going to take some getting used to, but I guess Kenzie was right about why girls were enrolling in this class, and it wasn’t for the science credit.
An hour later, every single girl in the class was drooling over Dean. I’m wasn’t sure that anyone was even paying attention to Dr. Nielson’s lecture. It got even worse when the lecture ended and Dean walked to my seat, grabbed my hand, and pulled me out of the classroom while people were packing up. I turned around to see a hundred blank stares as we exited.
“Do you have any idea that you’re going to be responsible for all of those girls failing the class?”
He smirked.
“I’ve heard rumors of my legendary hotness,” he said sarcastically. “Or should I say, rugged sexuality.”
I punched him in the arm.
“No seriously, I’m pretty sure there’s a contract out for my murder right about now.”
He shook his head as we walked to the car.
“Then I’m pretty sure you didn’t notice that you can’t ever go to that class ever again either, because the entire male population was fixated on you. Then no one will pass that class.”
I laughed.
“Way to try and even the score,” I said, climbing into the Range Rover.
“No,” he said after he ran around to the driver’s side. “I’m not trying anything. I just deal in facts.”
I kept going through the information in the packet while we drove home.
“So,” he asked, “Did you like it?” His eyes were hopeful.
I shrugged.
“It was okay. One of the TAs was really distracting so I don’t even know what was happening. Are all the TAs here that attractive? It might have an impact on my decision.”
A smile spread across his face and he winked at me.
“Are all the prospective students who sit in the front row so beautiful?”
I rolled my eyes.
“You’re hopeless.”
I pulled out a green sheet of paper that I hadn’t looked over before. My stomach dropped when I read the title. My fingers skimmed along the lines and stopped on a final figure.
“Fuck.”
My heart sank. I couldn’t do this.
“What’s wrong?” Dean said, looking over at me, instantly concerned.
I put the packet back in my purse and ran my hands through my hair. What was I going to do?
“Seriously Lauren, what’s wrong?”
I bit my lip and tried to keep the tears from falling.
“Money. This is way more than I have.”
Of course tuition here would be much more than at the state school. It was nearly twice the amount, and I didn’t have enough. This was one roadblock I couldn’t overcome.
“So?” he asked, his eyes darting between the traffic and my face.
“So? I can’t pay that.”
His eyes went back to the road fu
ll time.
“It’s not an issue,” he said seriously, and I knew what he was thinking.
“Dean, I am not going to let you pay my tuition.”
“Yes,” he said firmly, “You are.”
He kept his eyes on the road.
“No, you’re not. That’s a ridiculous amount of money. I don’t want to have to pay you back.”
“So don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Pay me back.”
I scoffed.
“Dean, no. You are not paying a cent.”
His lips set in a firm line.
“Then get student loans if you’re concerned about it.”
“I don’t have any credit.”
“Get a cosigner.”
“I don’t have any parents.”
“You do have a parent,” he said. “You have your mom.”
“My mom isn’t going to cosign a loan for me. I don’t even know where she is right now.”
“Ask Jed to do it.”
“He’s just my uncle.”
“So I’ll sign it.”
“I highly doubt they’re going to let my uncle cosign for a loan of that size, let alone you.”
He stopped the car outside of my house and hit one hand on the steering wheel.
“Damn it, Lauren! Stop making up excuses! If you don’t way to stay, then don’t. I can’t believe you would do this.”
“Do what?” I asked softly.
“Go back on your word. But then again, I guess I don’t know you as well as I thought.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I felt the anger rising in my chest.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
I slammed my door as I got out of the car and walked up the front steps. I knocked on the door. Dean’s car was still waiting, and I just wanted him to go.
Kenzie opened it, holding Emma.
“Yay! How was it?” she asked, waving to Dean.
“How was it?” Emma asked excitedly, echoing Kenzie.
“I guess someone’s feeling better,” I said as I stepped inside, ignoring what they had asked.
“She is. Don’t distract from the question,” Kenzie said. “How was it?”
“Oh, it was great,” I said, taking off my coat. “I found out that basically every girl with eyes wants to screw Dean the second he walks into view.”
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