Gracie: Why do you call me Gracie? Of course I’m tough. I’m a Texan. And I’m not too sure you have enough eyeballs in your head to keep an eye on me, plus the other gazillion girls you keep an eye on.
My mouth pulled, and I grinned.
Me: I’ve got wicked eyeball talent Gracie. Tough? You’ll have to prove it to me. I call you Gracie cuz that’s your name. Are you wondering why I didn’t try and kiss you tonight?
There was a pause; I thought I’d scared her off.
Gracie: It’s my middle name. No one calls me that. You didn’t try and kiss me bc you knew I’d punch you in the nose.
Me: I’m original that way, see? I call you something no one else does. Punch me in the nose, eh? That’s interesting enough. Now stop bothering me and go to bed. I’ve got an early class in the morning.
Gracie: You’re so weird.
Me: Takes one to know one.
Gracie: ’Night Brax ☺
Me: Sweet dreams, Gracie.
I set the alarm on my phone and shoved it under my pillow. Gracie was tough, yeah, I could see that. But there was something off about her, too. A vulnerability that she tried her goddamned best to hide. Why did I care so much? What was it about Gracie that made me pass up a half-drunk piece of ass, just to lay up here in the dark and send a few texts to a girl I barely knew? How was it she’d already gotten in my head? I’d been at Winston almost two years and not one girl had managed it.
In less than forty-eight hours, Gracie Beaumont had.
I punched the side of my bed, jumped up, and made my way to the bathroom down the hall. I stared at my face as I brushed my teeth. Turned my head to the side a little, and noticed how the scar on my cheek bone was more silver and less red. The skin around my blackened eye had turned the color of light purple and rust. Lifting my chin, more scars. Ink. How Gracie had even agreed to get on my bike in the first place still shocked the hell out of me. Girls like her? Usually they made a wide fucking arc to avoid guys like me. She wasn’t a half-witted party chic in college for the sheer fuck of it. No sorority. No running the frat party scene with a group of over the top make-up wearing girlfriends. She wanted to be a goddamned astronomer. Worked at the observatory. Used an outdated cell phone to save money. And drove an old ass tank of a pick-up truck.
And every single one of those things intrigued the hell out of me.
I spit, rinsed, and threw water on my face. Pushing my fingers through my hair, I stared in the mirror. And the longer I stared, the more I wondered. And got pissed at myself. What the hell are you doing, Jenkins?
“I don’t fucking know,” I finally said to my reflection. “I just don’t fucking know.”
Tessa’s screeching alarm jolted me out of sleep and brought me to my first conscious thought of the day.
Braxton Jenkins. Brax. This couldn’t be happening. I closed my eyes and breathed.
“Dammit! That noise is so freaking annoying!” Tessa said in a sleepy voice. Her voice was scratchy and groggy in the dark, and after a few seconds she found her cell and turned off the alarm. I pushed up and rubbed my eyes, and flicked on the lamp. Tessa’s floppy hair ball was again slumped over to one side, and she was in full stretch/yawn mode. She peeked at me through squinted eyes. “Did you shower last night?” she asked. “Because I totally didn’t.”
By the time Tessa had made it back to the dorm it’d been close to 2am. She tried to tiptoe in, but tripped over one of the three pairs of discarded heels she’d tossed onto the floor before she left, and it took almost an hour for me to fall back asleep. No wonder her eyeballs were puffy. Crazy thing. I gave my roommate a grin. “Yeah, go for it.”
“Sweet!” Tessa said. She leapt up, grabbed some necessities, and darted for the bathroom. “Thanks! I’ll be out in a sec!” She slammed the door behind her.
I slipped from my bed, yawning as I cleared the nighttime cobwebs from my head, and padded over to my very slim fold-out closet. Stretching my arms way overhead, thoughts of Brax and our conversations filled my head. I’d had fun with him yesterday. A lot more than I even admitted to myself. So much that he’d managed to completely kick the dreadful thoughts I had lingering about Kelsy right out of my brain. I wondered if I’d run into Brax today? I’d be lying to myself if I said anything other than I hoped so.
First day of college. My anxiety from last night seemed to have dissipated, and eagerness filled its place. A familiar tug pulled at my mouth as I situated my gaze to the narrow rack of clothes. Thinking of Brax, his arrogance, and his Southie mannerisms made me smile. And I couldn’t get his face, and those ghostly eyes, out of my head. Just as I chose a treasured E.T.-The Extra-Terrestrial tee shirt that my mom had given me, my cell phone chirped an incoming text. As unavoidable as breathing, my stomach flipped from anticipation. I knew it was Brax before I even looked at my phone. Was I the first thing on his mind this morning, too? It was dangerous to think it, to hope it. But I dang sure did, and I couldn’t help it.