Heat Up the Fall: New Adult Boxed Set (6 Book Bundle)

by Gennifer Albin

  “Are you sure?” Lexi asks.

  I give her a genuine smile. I like Lexi and I want her to be happy. She has a far better chance of that with Brandon than I do. “I’m positive. Have fun.” I raise my eyebrows and tip my head toward Brandon.

  She laughs. “Thank you, Caroline.”

  I turn to leave and walk out into the parking lot and pull my cell phone out of my purse. I hate to call Scarlett but she’s the only one who I trust right now. The phone rings twice before Tucker answers. “Hey, Caroline. What’s up?”

  “I need to talk to Scarlett.” I try to stop the tears welling in my eyes and a lump burns my throat.

  “She had a headache and went to bed.”

  “Okay.” I choke out. “I’ve got to go.”

  “Caroline. Wait.” His tone has changed to hesitant. “What happened?”

  Tucker is the last person I want to see, but I can’t afford a cab and it’s too far and too dangerous to walk. Especially in these shoes. “I need a ride.”

  “Where are you?” He sounds worried. “Was it the dickhead you went out with tonight? What the fuck did he do?”

  I laugh through my tears. I inherited an enforcer when Scarlett got herself a boyfriend. “I’m at Belvedere’s. I’m waiting outside.”

  “Go back inside. It’s not safe for you to be waiting outside alone at this time of night.”

  “Tucker, it’s only ten o’clock.” Great. I fucked a guy in a storeroom and I have time to get home and watch the evening news. I choke back a sob. Look how efficient I am. “I’m fine.” But I’m the furthest thing from fine I’ve ever been. I just need to get to the safety of my home.

  “I’m already on my way. But go inside if you feel threatened.”

  “Just get here. Please.” I hang up before I embarrass myself anymore. I’ve done that enough tonight to last a lifetime.

  The air is crisp and my wrap barely covers me. I wrap my arms around myself in an attempt to keep warm and to stop my shaking. After about five minutes, Tucker’s car pulls into the parking lot as Reed storms out of the building. He searches the parking lot, worry on his face when he turns to see me. He squeezes his eyes shut for several seconds then starts toward me as Tucker’s car pulls up to the curb. I reach for the door handle.

  “Caroline. Wait!” Reed shouts.

  I shake my head, not trusting myself to speak. I climb into the car and lock the door.

  Tucker’s knuckles are white as he grips the steering wheel. “Do I need to get out and kick that fucker’s ass?”

  “No.” I choke out. “Go.”

  As Tucker pulls out to the parking lot, Reed shouts, “Caroline!”

  The sobs are building in my chest, and I’m not sure I can hold them in until I get home.

  “That was Reed Pendergraft, wasn’t it?” Tucker is seething with rage.

  I nod. “Yeah.”

  “What did that son of a bitch do this time?”

  I shake my head. “I’m fine.” If I told Tucker what just happened, Reed and I would both be dead. I’d die of humiliation and Tucker would beat the ever-loving shit out of Reed.

  “The fuck you are.”

  “Tucker, you have no idea how much what you’re doing means to me right now.” Tears stream down my face, taking pressure off the sobs begging for escape. “But I need to deal with this on my own.”

  “I’m taking you to our place.”

  “No. Scarlett’s sick and I’m fine.”

  “Scarlett only has a headache. She would want you at our place.”

  I’m tempted, but a meltdown is rushing to the surface, and I don’t want Scarlett and Tucker to witness that. “Tucker. I need to be alone.”

  “What if he shows up at your apartment? Does he know where you live?”

  I don’t dare tell him Reed’s on a date with Tina. Oh shit. What if he tries to see me when he takes her home? But surely he won’t. Oh, God. What if Tina finds out? No, Reed wouldn’t be so stupid to tell her, and Brandon and Lexi have no clue. The only person who knows anything happened between Reed and me is Tucker.

  “You have to promise you won’t tell anyone anything happened between Reed and me.”

  He turns to me, his forehead wrinkling in suspicion. “Why?”

  “Please. Just promise me.”

  “Caroline, I don’t even know what happened.”

  “Tucker, please.”

  “Okay.”

  “Not even Scarlett.”

  “Now I can’t—”

  “Tucker, I’m begging you.” If he tells Scarlett he picked me up, she’ll want to know why, and I’ll have to tell the whole sordid tale. I’d rather keep this walk of shame between Tucker and me. “Please.”

  “Fine.” He grunts, clearly unhappy about what I’ve asked him to do.

  Tucker insists on walking up to my apartment with me and waiting for me to unlock the door. My hands are shaky, and he takes the keys and opens the door. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  I nod, refusing to look at him.

  “Caroline.” He waits for me to look up at him. “I’m here for you. Consider me the big brother you never had. If some guy messes with you, you tell me, and I’ll take care of it. Okay?”

  I nod, tears flowing against my will. I have a big brother and he never once offered anything like this. “Thanks.” I’m grateful for everything Tucker’s done, but I don’t know how long I can keep my sobs in check.

  Tucker kisses my forehead. “I’m only a phone call away, Caroline. Use me. Let me kick that fucker’s ass.”

  “And mess up his pretty face?”

  “That’s what he gets for screwing with my girlfriend’s best friend.”

  Tucker’s word choice hits too close to home. “Good night.” I shut myself in the apartment, locking the door, sobs erupting before I make it to my room. I kick off my shoes and fall onto my bed, sobbing for what seems an eternity until I fall asleep.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “You look like shit,” Tina mumbles the next morning. She’s sitting at the kitchen table with a textbook and a cup of coffee.

  I pull a box of cereal out of the cabinet and find a bowl. “Gee, thanks.”

  “Bad date, huh? I saw your guy hanging out with some other chick at the club I was at.”

  “Yeah.” I open the fridge to get out the milk and peer at her through the hair hanging in my face. She looks relatively happy, even if it has a surly edge. “How’d your date go?”

  She groans. “He’s a bore.”

  I think about what Reed and I did in the storeroom and boring is the last thing that comes to mind. “That’s too bad.” Pouring the milk in my bowl, I keep my back to her. “What are you doing up so early?”

  “Reed brought me home before eleven o’clock. Can you fucking believe it? That’s what I get for dating a guy in the math department.” She looks up from her book. “Say, do you know why Tucker was here last night, sitting on the steps to our apartment?”

  I nearly choke on my cereal as I spin around. “Tucker was here?”

  “Yeah, totally random. Just sitting there. I asked him why he was there, and he said something about how he’d been out for a run and needed to rest, but his car was in the parking lot, and he was wearing jeans.” She turns the page of her book. “I suspect it had something to do with Reed.”

  Blood rushes to my feet. “Why do you say that?”

  “Because they had this weird vibe going. Tucker said something like ‘You don’t plan on going inside that apartment, do you?’ and Reed said, ‘I don’t see how it’s any of your business,’ or something like that.” Tina gets up from the table with her cup and heads for the coffeemaker. “Why would Tucker care who I go out with?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Reed didn’t come in, not that either of us wanted him to, even before Tucker said his piece. I think they talked after I came inside, though. I saw them in the parking lot.”

  “What?” I’m horrified. Did Tucker force Reed to tell him what hap
pened?

  “I wonder if it has to do with Scarlett.” She puts a cup in the coffeemaker and pushes a button. “You know how protective he is of her.” She shakes her head. “Who can figure those two out?”

  My stomach is rolling, so I set my bowl in the sink and head to my bedroom. I lie on my back and stare at the ceiling. Maybe I can become a recluse and do all my classes online so I don’t ever have to leave this apartment. It’s bad enough I completely lost control and slutted it up, but what if Tucker knows what I did? And what does Reed think about me? Sure, he wanted me in the storeroom, but the look of disgust on his face afterward was enough to tell me what he really thought. Maybe that’s his thing, to fuck girls in storerooms.

  Of course, I’m completely dismissing the fact I dragged him back there. I instigated the entire thing. If anyone is to blame, it’s me.

  Tears prick my eyes but I force them to dry up. I had my cry and crying won’t help anything. Okay, so Reed thinks I’m a slut. I’ve made it a point to make sure everyone else thinks otherwise. Even if he tells people what happened, who’s going to believe it? We weren’t at the club together. As far as I know, no one even knows we saw each other there. I’m freaking out over nothing.

  But I’m not. I close my eyes and feel Reed’s mouth on mine, his hands on my ass, his…. If I’m honest, my behavior isn’t my only fear. My biggest fear is that I’ll never experience that kind of primal, lusty sex again. And that is just as devastating to face as the fact I actually did it. Because I liked it. I liked it a lot.

  Good girls don’t behave that way.

  I groan when I realize I’m going to have to face Reed on Monday. Will he give me the same look of disgust? Why did he come after me in the parking lot?

  I’m horrified at what I did in the storeroom, but I’m frightened of my body’s reaction even after he told me it was a mistake. The man has serious control over me, whether he realizes it or not, and that’s dangerous.

  I need to avoid Reed at all costs.

  ***

  I decide to spend the rest of the weekend working on my designs. Once I push Reed from my head, as much as I possibly can, I focus on a theme for the collection. I need something narrower than Everyday Living. I think about what I wanted when I was Desiree’s age—to look like all the other kids, to have name brands like Justice and Abercrombie.

  What if there was a brand that made trendy clothes affordable? It wouldn’t help kids like me when my dad was laid off for a year. But kids, whose parents have money for clothes—just not very much—could afford them.

  The usual budget for each design student’s collection is five hundred dollars, but the foundation has kicked in an additional amount. I have fifteen hundred dollars to make real clothes for these kids. Clothes they can keep when the show is over. I search eBay for some fabric bargains then realize I’m going to have to leave my house.

  What are the chances I’ll run into Reed at a fabric store?

  I don’t want to risk it. I call Scarlett. “What are you doing?”

  “Studying.”

  “How’s your headache?”

  She pauses. “How did you know I had a headache?”

  Shit. Tucker told me and I told him not to tell Scarlett. “Um, I called you last night. Tucker answered and told me you were asleep because of your headache.”

  “Do you happen to know where he went last night? I woke up and he was gone. When he got home, he wouldn’t tell me where he’d been.”

  Guilt rushes through me like a tidal wave. “That’s odd.”

  “I totally trust Tucker, and we never keep anything from one another. But I have to admit, I’m worried. He’s used to partying and we both know I hate it.” Her voice breaks. “What if he’s tired of me, Caroline?”

  I push down a groan. I can’t let her think Tucker is going out without her, but I don’t want to tell her my secret shame. But she’s my best friend and I need to set her straight. “He was with me.”

  “You? I thought you were on a date.”

  “I was. But then I needed a ride home, and Tucker answered your phone and came and got me instead.”

  “Oh.” She’s quiet for a moment. “Where were you? He was gone for over an hour.”

  I sigh. “I promise you that Tucker picked me up and dropped me off. But Tina said he was sitting on our steps when she came home around eleven.”

  “Why?” She sounds confused, not that I blame her.

  “I need to tell you all of this in person. I’ll buy you lunch if you come to the fabric store with me.”

  Scarlett groans. She hates the fabric store. “Lunch is hard to pass up. I want Mexican.”

  “Done. I’ll pick you up at eleven. We’ll go to the fabric store before lunch.”

  When I get to her apartment, I climb out of the car and see Tucker running down the steps. I walk toward him and he stops, a fierce look on his face. “Reed won’t bother you anymore.”

  My stomach drops. “What happened?”

  “I waited around to make sure he didn’t come looking for you. I was kind of surprised to see he was with Tina.”

  My face blushes. “What did he say?”

  “Not much. I did most of the talking. I told him I didn’t know what he’d done to you, but he had his two strikes and I guaran-damn-teed him I’d beat the shit out of him if he so much as talked to you again.”

  I’m both relieved and disappointed. I look up at Tucker, surprised by the anger in his eyes. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”

  “You and Scarlett had each other’s backs before she moved out, and we all know that Tina’s in her own little selfish world, which means you’re on your own. It worries Scarlett sick. I meant it when I said I’m here for you, Caroline. You’re like a sister to Scarlett, and she loves you more than her own family. That alone is good enough for me. If you’re upset, Scarlett is upset. But not only that”—his voice lowers—“you’re a sweet girl, Caroline, and the world is full of fuckers who only want to screw you and move on.”

  I look down, my humiliation resurfacing.

  “What you do is your business, but if some asshole hurts you in the process, he’s answering to me, got it?”

  I nod, swallowing my tears of gratitude. When Tucker started showing up at our door last winter, I warned Scarlett that he was trouble and would hurt her. If someone had told me what he’d be doing for me now, I never would have believed it. I reach up and wrap an arm around his neck. “Thank you.”

  “Anytime.” He squeezes me before pulling free. “Now I’ve got to get to the soccer field. Or a bunch of ten-year-olds will be without a coach.”

  He jogs to his car, and I see Scarlett coming down the stairs. Her gaze follows him as he gets in his car. “Good chat with Tucker?” There’s no jealousy in her voice, only curiosity. She knows I’d swallow cyanide before I’d betray her.

  “Yeah. For the record, I retract all objections to your dating him.”

  She laughs. “He is pretty great, isn’t he?”

  “Just don’t tell him. His head is already big enough.”

  “True.”

  On the way to the store, Scarlett fills me in on her decision to stay at Southern for graduate school, purposely avoiding anything about my personal life. She knows me well enough to know I need to ease into this slowly.

  We wander through the store, and Scarlett asks, “So are you looking for something for the fashion show?”

  I tell her my idea for my collection. She not only thinks it’s a great idea but has a few suggestions of her own. Now that she knows I’m making designs the kids from the center get to keep, she’s more willing to help.

  I finger a soft denim, distracted. I need to tell Scarlett, but I’m not even sure where to start. “My date was a failure.”

  She waits a second. “I figured that since Tucker came and got you.”

  “But it wasn’t Brandon’s fault. He was thoughtful and witty and funny. He’s a pre-med student. He’s everything I’m looking for.”r />
  “I’m sorry to hear that,” she says in mock sympathy. “How awful.”

  She’s joking, but tears fill my eyes.

  “Hey, I was teasing.”

  “I know. That’s why what I did is so awful.”

  She grabs my arm and pulls me to the wall filled with clearance fabrics. “What you did?”

  I swallow the lump in my throat and look at the ceiling to regain control before I face her. What can I tell her? We’ve never been prone to share the details of our sex lives with one another, and I don’t intend to start now. I lower my gaze. “I ran into Reed.”

  She shakes her head. “I’m confused.”

  “Scarlett.” I lower my voice. “This week, Reed kissed me. When we were at the nonprofit with Lexi. I saw a photo of me when I was a little girl and I got upset and Reed stayed with me and then before I knew it, we were attacking each other in the hallway. Oh, Scarlett. This is such a mess.” The words tumble out.

  She studies me for several seconds. “Fabric shopping has to wait.” Grabbing my arm, she heads to the door. “We need food to go with the margaritas we’re about to drink.”

  After Scarlett takes my car keys, she drives to an authentic Mexican restaurant we like. It has zero atmosphere, but the food is great and it’s cheap. The seating area is also usually filled with Hispanic men who won’t pay attention to my pathetic tale. When we order our food, Scarlett makes sure they send our drinks out right away. Once they’re on the table, she looks at me with a determined look in her eye. She’s analytical Scarlett, set on finding facts. “Start over. Way back to the second meeting with the committee.”

  After I tell her about the committee meeting and our field trip and our kiss, I tell her about Brandon asking me out and my reluctant agreement.

  “That’s not like you,” she says as the waiter sets our food in front of us. “You don’t turn down dates with cute guys who have great majors.”