Alec laughed. “You think I care about the food? You’re the reward.”
She wrinkled her nose. “You’re getting so sappy in your old age.” She bumped him with her hip. “Senior.”
He reached between Cam and Max and swung open the door, ushering her in ahead of them. “Ladies first.”
She rolled her eyes but secretly adored the chivalry.
Seconds later, she found out why.
“Surprise!” The shouts rang out in a semicircle of people crowding the lobby. It took a minute for her eyes to adjust as she stood frozen.
“Happy Birthday!” said a voice from the back she recognized as Marc’s. And a whistle made her turn her head, so she spotted Danica and Lea, grinning like fools.
Her parents stepped forward and Kat couldn’t hide her surprise. She hadn’t spoken to them much the last couple of months. She’d been busy with classes and changing her major.
“Minha flor,” her father said, wrapping her in his arms. “Happy birthday to my sweet, brave girl.”
Her hands flapped at her sides, trying to hold back the well of tears that threatened to spill over her lashes. She gripped her father’s shirt to keep them steady. “Thank you, Daddy.”
When he released her, he stepped back so her mother could greet her as well. “Katía,” she said, kissing her cheek.
“Hi Mom,” Kat whispered, doing her best to maintain her composure.
Her father glanced over her head. “Thanks for inviting us.”
She looked over her shoulder as Alec nodded. “Of course.”
Alec had done this? Gathered her friends and family together to celebrate her birthday? And that was it. The dam lifted and tears dampened her cheeks. Alec saw it and grabbed her, clutching her face to his chest. “Hey, it’s okay. We all wanted to do something nice for you. It’s been a hell of a year.”
That was an understatement and it made her laugh. She pulled back. “Thanks.”
He swiped the wetness from her cheeks with his thumbs. “No problem.”
She turned around and waved. “Sorry for blubbering, everyone. I’m just surprised. Thank you all for coming!”
One by one, she greeted cousins and aunts and uncles. A couple other friends from college. Marc walked up to her and flicked her forehead. “Hey, munchkin. You gonna introduce me to the guy now?”
She swatted his hand away and grabbed Alec’s arm, pulling him forward as she made the introductions. They shook hands, Marc’s cool gaze on Alec’s.
“I like this,” Marc said, gesturing to gathered friends and family. “Good job.”
Marc’s attempt to play hard-ass annoyed her but Alec just grinned. “Thanks.”
Marc excused himself as Lea and Danica walked over. They each hugged her, laughing about how long they’d been bowling but congratulating Alec on a successful surprise birthday party.
Danica wore a long purple wig with low pigtails trailing down her shoulders. Her eyes matched her hair and she wore a tight rainbow shirt, a short black tulle skirt and rainbow knee-high socks.
“And this look is . . .” Kat raised her eyebrows.
Danica performed a mock curtsy. “I was going for a derby-girl look. Did I pull it off?”
Kat chuckled. “I think so.”
Alec clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention and then let them know pizzas and snacks were available at the food stand. As they walked over, Kat slapped her hand on his chest. “This isn’t fair, I was supposed to buy the food.”
Alec grinned. “I like knowing you owe me.” When she glared at him, he shrugged. “Actually, once I told your parents I wanted to do this, they decided to foot the bill.”
She raised an eyebrow. They’d had a lot of discussions about her parents. Alec tried to convince her that while misguided, their hearts had been in the right place. They’d made the wrong decision, but it didn’t mean they didn’t love her. “Really?”
“Kat,” Alec sighed patiently. “You’re their daughter.”
She pursed her lips and Alec directed her to sit at a table while he fetched their food. Kat plopped down in her seat and rested her chin in her hand.
The last couple of months with Alec had been like a dream. Not a Kat-land dream, because there had been a disappointing lack of bubbles, but as close to perfect as it could be. They got along, they argued, they made up and life went on. She’d never been with someone where she felt loved every minute of every day. But Alec never failed her, by the way his eyes searched her out in a crowd, his muscles visibly relaxing when he knew where she was, the way he deferred to her when making decisions that affected them both, the way he held her at night, their once-frantic sex now full of sweet words and soft touches.
Unless it was make-up sex. That was still awesomely aggressive. Like the time he refused to spend the night because she was procrastinating over writing a paper. So she poured her soda all over his head. Then, naturally, he had to shower. And naturally, she had to help him because she was the one who got him sticky. And naturally, that resulted in her pressed against the wall with her legs wrapped around his waist. Which naturally resulted in mutual orgasms.
“Hi, Katía.” Her mom’s voice took her out of her thoughts and she blushed at being caught daydreaming naughty things. Her mom took a seat across from her.
“Alec told me,” Kat looked around, “about you guys helping out with the party. Thanks for that.”
“Oh, of course. We were happy to help out.” Her mom grabbed her hand, rubbing the back of it with her thumb. “We’re proud of you, too, you know. Both your father and I.”
Kat squirmed and tried to shift away.
“No,” her mom said, tugging on her hand. “I’m sorry we didn’t take your teacher’s words seriously to get you the help you needed. And we’re so, so proud of you for doing it yourself, and for choosing such a wonderful vocation. You’ll be a great teacher.”
Kat bit her lip to hold back the tears. She hadn’t realized how much she wanted to hear those words until her mom said them. She wouldn’t know if she’d made it off academic probation until she received her final grades for the semester, but with the extra help and techniques she’d been learning, she felt much more confident in her academic future.
“Oh Mom,” she murmured. “Thanks.”
“Love you, Katía.”
“Love you, too, Mom.”
When Alec returned to the table with their food, her mom murmured she had people to talk to and left them alone. As he sat down beside her and she took a bite, Lea and Danica sat down across from them.
“I can’t believe you two kept this a secret,” Kat said.
Danica narrowed her eyes at Alec. “Stone threatened my life.”
“Well that’s not very nice,” Kat said to him.
He rolled his eyes.
“Check it!” A deep voice hollered and Kat looked up to see Max strolling toward them, chest thrust out, pointing both thumbs at the front of his T-shirt.
“Christ, Max, you bought one already?” Alec said.
“Best shirt ever,” he declared, swiping a fry from Danica’s plate.
“Hey, get your own, jackass,” she said, covering her plate.
He leaned down. “One shot at my ass and I’d turn you straight.”
Danica coughed and fake dry-heaved. Max straightened up, a smirk on his face until he caught sight of Lea.
Surprise crossed his face before the smirk returned and Kat knew what was coming. Max sauntered over and pulled up a chair beside Lea, straddling it with his arms over the back. “Hey there, doll.”
Kat opened her mouth to tell him to leave Lea alone, but her friend spoke up first. “You steal one of my fries, and I’ll castrate you.”
Max’s body jerked before he threw back his head and roared with laugher. “Is that your way of saying you’re kinky? I think I could handle it.”
Danica snorted. “I’d like to see you try to handle Lea.”
Kat opened her mouth to explain Lea had been enrolled in mar
tial arts since she was a kid but Danica shook her head and made a zipper motion over her lips. So Kat kept quiet, thinking it would be amazing if next time Max said something obnoxious, Lea executed a painful karate chop to his throat. She looked over at Max and Lea, who were locked in some stare-down.
“I’m Max,” he said, voice low, and held a hand out.
Lea ignored the proffered hand and scrunched her lips. “Hmm. I’ve heard about you.”
Max’s smirk didn’t falter. “Oh yeah? All good things I’m sure.”
Lea shifted to face him fully. “If you call arrogant asshole a good thing.”
His mouth dropped open and he placed a hand on his chest in mock affront. “I’m hurt.”
Kat spoke up before things got ugly. Or ugly-er.
“Sorry, Lea, this is Max, Alec’s roommate. Max, this is Lea, my—” Kat bit her cheek.
Now Lea’s narrowed eyes were aimed at her.
“Every time I have to avoid an acronym, a part of me dies inside,” Kat whined.
Lea sighed. “Go ahead . . .”
“MBF!” Kat crowed. “She’s my MBF!”
“MB what? You still haven’t told me what that means.” Alec said.
“Major Best Friend,” Kat explained.
Lea rolled her eyes.
Max opened his mouth but a shout from behind them cut him off. “Hey!” Cam yelled, sitting at a computer in a bowling lane. “I’m going to enter you as Maxi Pad, sound good?”
“Asshole,” Max muttered as he shoved out of his chair and stalked off toward a laughing Cam.
Lea’s eyes were on Max’s retreating back and Kat thought maybe there was a spark of interest.
Alec leaned in and kissed her her cheek. “I know what you’re thinking. Don’t try to play matchmaker.”
“What? I wasn’t thinking that.” She said in mock offense.
“Liar,” Alec said softly, leaning in to kiss her lips.
After they ate, they got their shoes and walked to their lane, picking their bowling balls along the way. Alec triumphantly showed her a god-awful electric blue bowling bowl with tacky neon yellow—glow-in-the-dark, he told her proudly—lightning bolts, and she chose a sparkly, glittery hot pink ball. After much deliberation and full-on debate with an excellent rebuttal by Alec, it was determined he won the unspoken Ugliest Bowling Ball competition.
She bowled horribly for the first five frames trying to think of how to get back at him. Losing was no fun.
She ended up bowling three strikes in a row, beating Alec as well as a grumbling Cam. Max probably would have grumbled if he’d been paying attention to the game and not staring at Lea with a softened expression as she laughed with Danica.
As Kat hopped up and down shouting about her victory, Alec laughed and grabbed her around the waist. His eyes darkened. “I so do not want to make out with you right now.”
She gripped his shoulders. “No?”
“Not at all.”
She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips. “Details.”
“I definitely do not want to find the nearest flat surface and hook your legs around my waist. And squeeze your ass. And kiss that victorious smug smile right off your face . . .” He trailed off as he buried his face in her neck. She felt lips, tongue and a little bit of teeth.
She bit back a moan. “Well, that’s good, because I don’t want to get naked right now. I ate like three brownies last night.”
Alec laughed and nipped her earlobe.
“And you’re the aspiring lawyer,” she said, “So you know that I’m definitely not worth the risk of a public indecency arrest.”
He pulled back and chuckled, cupping her face to swipe his thumb over her cheekbone. His lips quirked into a smile. “Nah, definitely not worth it.”
She ran her fingers along his jaw, then placed her hand over his heart. “Ditto, meu coração.”
Enjoyed Megan Erickson’s Make It Count?
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Make It Right?
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Make It Right
Bowler University, Book 2
MAX PAYTON WOULD like nothing more than to forget his junior year of college . . . and yet, senior year isn’t looking to be much better. After graduation he’ll still be under his overbearing father’s thumb, helping run the family business as he’s always been expected to do.
When Max volunteers to help teach a self-defense class after a rash of assaults and thefts on campus, one of the other instructors is the pixie-faced girl he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about since last year. His dad always taught him size and strength always win a fight. But while Max is lying on the mat at Lea Travers’s feet after a skilled blow to his carotid artery, he begins to revise that thought.
Lea Travers avoids guys like Max—cocky jocks who assume she’s a fragile doll because of her small stature and disability from a childhood car accident. She likes to be in control, and Max challenges her at every turn. But during the moments he lets his guard down, she sees a soul as broken inside as she is outside. Trusting him is a whole other problem . . .
When the assaults hit close to home, both Max and Lea have to change their assumptions about strength and weakness before they can get the future they want—together.
COMING SEPTEMBER 2014
Chapter One
THE CAT WAS back.
Its left ear was shredded but healed, and that scar on its chin a hairless C amid the black fur.
But it was limping and Max could see a dark, wet spot on its haunch. Small red footprints marked its path leading to Max’s back door.
He crouched down and held a hand out. “If you could talk, bet you’d say, ‘You should see the other guy.’ ”
The cat sat down ten feet away and licked its black lips as if in an affirmative answer.
“I bet you got some good licks in, huh?” He said, reaching behind him for the can of tuna he’d opened when he saw the cat through the window of his college town house.
The cat didn’t move, just studied him, yellow eyes glowing in the setting sun. From what Max knew of cats—which was limited since his dad threatened to shoot any potential feline pet when Max had been a kid—the cat must be hurting to let the injury sit without cleaning it thoroughly. So he quit the small talk, scooped out the tuna onto a small plate and shoved it toward the cat.
Then he waited. And the cat didn’t move.
This wasn’t their normal routine. Max always left right after supplying the food, like he was the cat’s dirty secret and if its big cat-gang buddies found out it had a human on the side, it’d be laughed out of the alley.
But he didn’t like the way the cat was favoring his leg. And he was tired of being a dirty secret. Next he grabbed a plastic bowl of water and shoved that alongside the food.
Then he waited. And still the cat didn’t move.
“Come on, buddy,” he whispered, hearing the concern in his voice. “I’m your friend.”
The cat’s yellow eyes never left Max as it dipped its head and slowly crept forward, body tense, clearly fighting the flight instinct.
Max didn’t move.
The cat reached the plate of food and crouched, then scarfed up bits of tuna in between glances at Max. He ran his eyes over the sleek, battered body and sighed.
When the cat ate all the tuna, he gave Max a long look before lapping at the water.
He was close, only like two feet away, and if Max just stretched out his arm . . .
There was the bang of the screen door behind him and the cat took off like a shot, bounding down the alley and disappearing through a hole in the neighbor’s shrubs.
“Dammit!” Max swore, jumping up from his crouched position and whirling to face whoever interrupted the moment. “Could you be any louder—”
Kat Caruso stared at him, eyes wide, empty gallon of chocolate milk dangling from a finger.
Then those blue eyes—which would darken when he used to lower his head to nuzzle her neck—narrowed. She dropped the gallon in the recycling bin and wiped her hands. “Excuse me for helping to clean your kitchen, Max.”
He winced. When they’d dated, she’d taken his bad attitude without a peep. But since she’d fallen in love with his best friend, she didn’t let anyone give her crap. As it should be.
And that just depressed him further, because he never inspired someone else to be a better person. He couldn’t even inspire himself. So he tightened his jaw and stayed silent. He should apologize for swearing at her, but the words stuck in his throat.
Kat cocked a hip. “What are you doing out here anyway?”
Before he could answer, movement behind Kat caught his eye. Lea Travers’s big brown eyes focused on him below her thick fringe of dark bangs. “I heard yelling, what’s up?” Her voice, as always, was soft and musical and did something weird to his gut.
Kat glanced at her friend and waved in Max’s direction with an eye roll. “Max being Max. Come on, Lea.”
Kat turned and walked back into the house, light brown hair swishing behind her.
But Lea didn’t follow Kat. Her eyes landed on the empty plate of food and bowl of water, then roamed past his shoulder. The scrutiny unsettled him. Made him cranky. Okay, crankier.
It must have shown on his face, because Lea’s pixie features hardened into an indifferent mask. He waited for her to leave so he could clean up after his cat—shit, his cat—and get to class. She crossed her slender arms over her chest. “It takes time, you know?”
“What’re you talking about?” he snapped.
Lea didn’t flinch. She nodded toward the cat’s dinner area. “Cats. Takes a long time for them to trust. And sometimes feral cats never trust humans.”
Who died and made her an expert? He’d get that cat to trust him if it killed him. “Well thanks, Miss Veterinarian. Didn’t know you were studying that on top of your Shakespeare and Dickens.”
She dropped her hands at her sides, fingers curled into little fists. “Why do you always have to be an asshole?”
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