Players of Marycliff University Box Set, Books 1–3 Page 3

  It was Lance’s turn to be surprised. He figured she was from the Northwest somewhere, but didn’t realize she was still so close to home. “Why’d you decide to stay here? As a Spanish major wouldn’t you want to go somewhere where there are more Spanish speakers?”

  Abby shrugged, looking uncomfortable. The waitress arrived and plunked their slices of pie in front of each of them.

  Immediately picking up her fork, Abby took a big bite of her chocolate silk pie. “This is really good.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Perfect timing. Abby kept the thought to herself and her mouth full of pie so she wouldn’t have to answer. She didn’t really like to talk about the issues with her mom that kept her close to home. From the way her mother acted, you’d think Abby lived on the other side of the world rather than forty-five minutes away. And she certainly didn’t want to get into all that with Lance on this weird … whatever this was.

  She was acutely aware that she wore this random guy’s shirt. Every time she moved, the combined scent of Lance’s laundry detergent and cologne wafted up to tickle her nose. But she couldn’t tell if he was interested in her, or if he just viewed her as a convenient companion so that he didn’t have to hang out at home by himself. It didn’t make sense to her that he wouldn’t be able to find someone to hang out with if he wanted to, though.

  He was hot. That was the only word for it. His black hair was a little long, like he needed a haircut. It wasn’t all gunked up with gel or whatever like some guys did. It kept falling in his eyes, making her want to brush it back, run her fingers through it, and see if it was as soft as it looked. His eyes were a rich brown flecked with gold that lit up when he smiled. And that smile was enough to turn any girl on, which was why she kept snarking at him whenever he flashed it at her. She didn’t normally react to guys like she did to him. He was arrogant, but not douchey. Bossy, but also charming. Not at all like the nice but boring guys she normally interacted with.

  Lance was … thrilling. Challenging.

  And so much more attractive than the guys she had classes with.

  When the corner of his mouth quirked up, Abby realized that she was staring at his lips. She jerked her gaze to his eyes, her face heating up. His smile widened, and she looked down at her plate, shoving the forkful of pie in her mouth that she’d been holding in the air while she stared at him. Damn, her pie was almost gone. She ate the last few bites as slowly as she could without looking ridiculous, even scraping all the chocolate and whipped cream from the plate with the edge of her fork.

  She risked a look at Lance. He leaned back with his hands folded across his stomach, his pie gone as well. “Enjoy your pie?”

  Abby blushed again, though she wasn’t really sure why. “Yes.”

  He smiled at her. “I wondered if you were going to lick your plate next to get all the crumbs.” Abby’s blush deepened. He leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table, his face serious, his voice low and reassuring. “Don’t worry, I have to stop myself from licking the plates clean too. Their pie is the best.” Lance smiled again and sat back. “So, what do you want to do next?”

  Abby shrugged. “I think I’d like to just go home. I’m getting tired.”

  Lance studied her face for a moment before nodding. “Okay. Let me pay for our dessert, and I’ll take you home.”

  “Thanks. I can pay for mine, though.”

  Lance waved away her protest. “No, I made you come have pie with me. I’m paying.”

  With the food gone and nothing else to focus on, Abby felt the silence between them growing more awkward. She cast about for a safe topic of conversation. Work seemed like a safe subject. “So you said you have an internship this summer?” Lance nodded. “Where?”

  “The Forester Group.” And he launched into a jargon-filled description of what he did there. She didn’t quite follow all of it, but she enjoyed how he came to life while he spoke, his eyes lighting up, his face animated. “It’s a really cool campaign for a client that’s basically given us carte blanche. And if this goes well, I might be allowed to oversee a campaign of my own before the summer’s over.”

  The waitress came with the check, interrupting their conversation.

  “Do you know what kind of campaign you might get to do?” Abby prompted after the waitress left with his card.

  He screwed up his face in thought. “No. It’s up to my supervisor.” She happily listened as he talked enthusiastically about himself, thrilled to keep the focus off her. She was most comfortable listening to him talk, and barely even noticed when he extended his legs under the table so they caged hers in. She bumped against him once and muttered an apology. He grinned and rubbed his foot against her calf once before continuing with their conversation.

  When the waitress returned with his credit card, Lance signed the slip, and they both got up to leave. His hand went to her back, and the heat of it blazed through her shirt as he ushered her out the door of the restaurant.

  Lance opened Abby’s door again for her to get in the car. It caught her off guard every time. She reached for the handle, when suddenly his hand was there, swooping in and pulling the door open before she could. When she gave him a questioning look, he just grinned.

  Lance buckled himself in and started the car. “Where do you live?”

  “Vista View Estates. Do you know where it is?” Lots of Marycliff students lived there.

  “The apartments a couple of blocks from the science building?” Abby nodded. “I know where that is.”

  The night had cooled off more now that it was nearing midnight. Abby left her window up. The ten minute drive to her apartment passed in silence, the rumble of the engine and the tires on the asphalt the only soundtrack.

  Abby stared out her window, trying to puzzle through this evening. Maybe she was just too much of a pushover. First, Megan coerced her into going to the party with her. Then after running into Lance, she got pushed into going out for pie wearing his T-shirt. What she couldn’t figure out was why Lance had wanted to take her out, and why he wouldn’t just take her home to change first. And he kept touching her. They were all innocent touches. She doubted he even realized he was doing it, and what it was doing to her. How much she secretly liked it, despite herself.

  This is probably the weirdest night ever.

  “Which building is yours?” The sound of Lance’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts. She turned to him.

  “What? Oh. I’m in C-five. It’s down over there on the right, the bottom corner unit.”

  Lance pulled into a parking spot near her building. Abby got out, and as she closed the door, she saw Lance had gotten out, too.

  “What are you doing?”

  He looked at her like that was a dumb question. “Walking you to your door.” It sounded like he wanted to say, “Duh,” at the end of that sentence.

  Abby started walking toward her door, pulling the long T-shirt out of the way so she could get to her pocket to pull out her key. Lance fell in step beside her, close enough that she could feel the heat he gave off.

  She glanced at him when they reached her door. “Thanks.” As she stuck the key in the deadbolt, a thought occurred to her and she froze. “Oh, your shirt.” He must be expecting her to change and give it back to him before he left. Then she remembered that she’d left her shirt on his bathroom floor. “Wait, my shirt.”

  He flashed her another smile. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll get it from you another time. Why don’t you give me your phone number, and we’ll figure it out later.” He handed her his phone so she could put her number in. She looked up at him, hesitating for a moment. Then she shrugged, typed in her number, and handed back his phone.

  With a smile, he tapped on the phone screen. Abby felt the phone in her back pocket buzz with an alert. “There, now you have my number, too.”

  “Great.” Abby finished unlocking her door. With her hand on the doorknob she looked back up at Lance. “Well, thanks for the pie and … everything.” She lic
ked her lips and noticed Lance’s gaze zero in on the movement, staring at her mouth. “Umm … it was … nice.” He was still looking at her lips. Like maybe he wanted to kiss her or something. “Well, goodnight.”

  Lance finally pulled his eyes back to hers. He cleared his throat. “Yeah. Goodnight. I’ll text you tomorrow so we can trade shirts back.” He smiled at her and took a step closer.

  “Okay. Great. Talk to you later.” Abby opened her door and stepped through, closing the door as quickly as she could while trying not to look like she was running away from him. But she was.

  She leaned against her closed door, turning the locks. “What the hell was that?”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Lance was frustrated. Annoyed.

  He’d hit the weight room to try to work out his frustration, but it wasn’t helping. He’d put enough weight on the bench press to set a new personal record in an attempt to distract himself, but even that couldn’t keep his thoughts from drifting back to the night before.

  Abby hadn’t been overly talkative, but he figured she was just shy. She’d sparred with him verbally off and on, but clammed up when he’d asked more about her beyond the usual superficial questions.

  The goodnight frustrated him the most, though. Why had she scampered away when he was about to kiss her? Most of the girls he walked to their doors were all flirting and smiles, waiting for him to make a move. But not Abby. Didn’t she realize that he was into her? Why else would he take her out for pie in the middle of the night?

  Oh god. Maybe she wasn’t into him. He put the bar back in the rack and sat up, grabbing his towel and wiping his face, thinking over that possibility. That would explain why he got all of her snark and nothing more than the barest of personal details.

  It seemed possible that she might not be into him. But the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like he made her nervous. The way she’d darted inside seemed like she was scared, not disgusted. Wouldn’t a girl who’d given him shit for staring at her wet shirt be upfront about not liking him? If she didn’t like him, he wouldn’t have been able to convince her to let him take her out. She’d have insisted that he just take her straight home and not put up with his bullshit of going home and changing first. She hadn’t even protested that.

  She was just nervous, Lance decided. Feeling better, he put away the weights he’d used, wiped down the bench and bar, and went home.

  He’d found Abby’s shirt on his bathroom floor when he’d gotten home the night before. He’d even held it to his face so he could smell her scent—lightly floral with hints of vanilla. Feeling like a creeper, he’d thrown it into his pile of dirty clothes.

  Giving up on the gym, he headed home and started a load of laundry. He threw in Abby’s shirt, too, wanting it clean when he gave it back. Maybe doing something nice for her would help win her over.

  He’d just shut the lid on the washing machine when his phone started buzzing with an incoming call. He glanced at the display quickly before answering. “Hey, Mom.”

  “Hi, Lance. How’s your weekend going?”

  He grabbed a beer out of the fridge on his way to the couch, settling in for his weekly phone call with his mom. “Good. Just doing some laundry.”

  “Any interesting girls I should know about?”

  He rolled his eyes as he answered, but managed to keep the exasperation out of his voice. “Mom, if I start dating anyone I’ll let you know.”

  “You better. Now, how’s your internship going?”

  Lance was glad for the neutral change of subject and happily talked about his job for the next twenty minutes.

  “It sounds like you’re enjoying it and learning a lot.”

  “I am.”

  “Good. Do you think a lot of it will help when you come back here?”

  Lance paused, taking a deep breath. “Yeah, I guess so.” He should’ve known his mom would bring it back around to him coming home. She brought it up every week when they talked. That and asking about a girlfriend. Which made no sense. Unless she expected him to bring said girlfriend with him? He couldn’t quite follow her logic there.

  Not that he wanted a girlfriend anyway.

  He also didn’t want to go back home and help his dad run the family’s mechanic shop. His parents had expected him to come home after graduation. He’d convinced them that the internship would teach him a lot about marketing in a business setting, outside of the classroom. He’d used a similar argument to get them to agree to him getting his degree in the first place—that it would help him to be able to run the family business better when he took over.

  The internship could lead to a job he really wanted. But he knew he was just delaying the inevitable. In August he would be packing up and heading back to Denton to work on cars for eight to ten hours a day.

  “Lance, I know coming back here isn’t what you want.” His mom’s voice pulled him back to their conversation. “But we need you. Your dad needs you.”

  Lance let out his breath slowly, resting his head in his hand. “I know. I’ll be home in August, Mom.”

  “Okay.” In a more chipper tone she added, “And there are several young ladies here who’d love to meet you. I really think you’d hit it off with Shelley. Lauren’s nice, too. I had lunch with her mom last week—you know my friend Linda? Well, I was telling her—”

  Lance broke in, needing to put a stop to where this was going. “Mom! No matchmaking.”

  “But Lance—”

  “I mean it, Mom.” He kept his voice stern, not wanting any room for misunderstanding or misinterpretation. “I don’t want to be set up with anyone. Especially not the week I get back. Stop.”

  “I just want you to be happy.”

  He let out a resigned sigh. “Running a bunch of random girls at me isn’t the way to do it. I can find plenty of dates on my own.”

  “But you haven’t dated in months!”

  “Yes, I have,” he responded, too surprised to censor himself. “I go on plenty of dates.” He wished he could cram those words back in his mouth as soon as he said them.

  “But every week I ask about girls and you tell me there’s no one. Now you’re telling me you go on dates all the time? Both things can’t be true.” His mom sounded affronted.

  “No,” he explained patiently, “you ask if there are any interesting girls or special girls. I don’t usually go out with anyone more than once or twice.” He cringed when he realized he’d just said that to his mom.

  “Why are you going out with them if you don’t find them interesting or special?” Disapproval was seeping into her voice.

  “Because I like taking out girls for a night of fun. Just because I take a girl to dinner or something doesn’t mean I want a relationship with her. And I’m not going to get your hopes up by telling you about some girl I don’t plan on seeing again.”

  Silence. “Lance Jonathan Kane, you better be treating those young ladies well.”

  He looked up at the ceiling in silent protest to this conversation. “Yes, ma’am. I am. I hold open their doors and act like a gentleman. I don’t lead them on or trifle with their affections.”

  She sniffed. “Good. If I find out otherwise, you’ll have me to answer to.”

  Lance couldn’t help but smile. “Yes, ma’am.”

  His mom was a stickler for gentlemanly behavior. She’d smack him upside the head the next time she saw him if she heard about what happened with Abby last night. Sure, he’d held all the doors for her. But staring at her boobs through her wet shirt and not taking her home right away would be grounds for smacking according to Elizabeth Kane. No son of hers would act that way and get away with it. Opening doors for ladies was expected. It didn’t make up for poor behavior.

  After hanging up with his mom, Lance couldn’t help but think about what he’d told her about the girls he saw. It was true, mostly. There’d been a couple he’d seen more than twice, but that had been quite a while ago. He liked pretty girls, and he liked flirting. He even lik
ed what came after the flirting, but he hadn’t liked any of those girls enough to really get to know them. They hadn’t done anything to capture his interest beyond the physical.

  Until Abby.

  Abby intrigued him. She was pretty and snarky and didn’t take any shit from him. He liked that about her. And she clammed up when he tried to get to know her better. Most of the girls he went out with could barely stop talking about themselves. He was always polite and let them talk, even if he didn’t care about whatever they were prattling on about. With Abby the opposite had happened. He’d found himself talking more than she had.

  Maybe it was just that she was a challenge. Whatever it was, Lance was determined to find out more. He wanted to know what made her tick, why she’d ignored his question about going to school close to home. There was something there, and he wanted to know what it was. He’d let it go last night because he hadn’t wanted to push too hard too soon. He didn’t want to scare her off, and he’d already pushed his luck.

  And then she’d run away when he’d been about to kiss her. He hadn’t planned on trying to take it beyond a goodnight kiss. But he’d wanted to see if she still tasted like the chocolate pie she’d eaten. What that sassy mouth felt like pressed against his.

  Just as soon as her shirt was clean, he’d text her and make a plan to get together with her again. This time he’d get her to open up more. And this time he’d get that kiss.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The ding of her text alert made Abby put her book down and fumble in her blankets looking for her phone. She muttered softly to herself in irritation, careful to keep her voice down because Megan had a hangover—no surprise—and demanded quiet. She’d actually kicked Abby out of the living room earlier when she’d tried to watch a movie, whining about the noise. And it’s not like she’d been watching an action flick, either. It was Love Actually.

  Phone in hand, she wrinkled her brows in confusion when she saw the text. It was from a phone number she didn’t recognize, not someone saved in her contacts. All it said was, “I have bad news.”