No Bad Days Page 8

  What the hell was wrong with her?

  “So . . . what?” Taking another bite of my salad, I chewed as I gave her the side eye. She was acting weird.

  “Do you know where Nick is?” she asked, her tone cautious.

  “I have no idea. Why?” I shifted, her wariness making me uneasy as I placed my salad on top of the coffee table.

  “Because—”

  When she stopped and took a deep breath, I cocked my head to the side as I waited for her to continue, but she didn’t.

  “Oh my gosh,” I yelled. “Just spit it out, Rachel.”

  “He’s out with Carla Crawford,” she spat out in a rush. She came toward me slowly, taking small steps as if I might jump out of my seat and attack her if she approached too quickly. “He’s out with her right now. My phone won’t stop blowing up.”

  I shrugged, trying to play it off like it was no big deal, but the burn of humiliation mixed with shame swirled inside me, a nauseating combination.

  Nick wasn’t my boyfriend, so technically he could date whoever he wanted, but for some reason I had stupidly assumed that he wasn’t. Or that he wouldn’t, especially not after what happened between us last night and this morning.

  Jesus, was it just this morning that we’d walked to school hand in hand? Now it felt like forever ago.

  “Jess, did you hear me?” Rachel’s voice broke through my inner turmoil, her eyes reflecting her concern.

  “I heard you,” I all but whispered, training my eyes on a stained spot on the carpet.

  “Are you okay?”

  I swallowed, surprised that it was difficult, as if my throat was closing up.

  “I don’t know. I guess I should have known better, right? You probably think I’m pretty stupid,” I said, projecting my own feelings onto her. I was the one who felt stupid. Idiotic, actually.

  Rachel sat down next to me. “I don’t think you’re stupid. He’s an asshole.”

  I sucked in a quick breath. “That’s the thing, Rach. He hasn’t been like that to me. He’s been anything but.”

  She reached for my knee and gave it a light squeeze. “He’s good at this kind of thing. Nick could sell ice to an ice farmer, and we both know it.”

  “An ice farmer?” I tried not to smile at her odd choice of words, but then they sank in and began rattling around in my brain. “Wait—you think that I was just some kind of game? Like he didn’t mean anything he said to me?”

  “No, no, no,” she said quickly before throwing up her hands. “I just meant that Nick knows what he’s doing. He’s a great salesman. And if he didn’t want you to think he was an asshole, then you wouldn’t think it. Shit, does that make sense?” she mumbled under her breath as her phone beeped.

  “Let me see it.”

  I took the phone from her and opened up the newest text message. A picture appeared that showed Nick and Carla facing each other in a restaurant booth, his arm draped lazily around her shoulders. The slight smile that played on Nick’s lips made my stomach roll.

  They looked comfortable together. Carla’s long dark hair accented her naturally bronzed skin. She was exotic and breathtaking to look at. I could never compete with a girl who looked like a Hawaiian Tropic model.

  I handed the phone back to Rachel. “She’s really pretty.”

  “Who cares how pretty she is? She’s a puta,” my roommate spat back.

  Calling someone a bitch was satisfying, but it sounded even better calling them one in Spanish.

  “You know her?”

  Rachel propped her feet on the coffee table, narrowly missing my salad as she crossed her ankles. “I had a couple of classes with her last year. She walks around like she’s some sort of princess because her dad’s loaded and owns all those TV stations. I remember she was late to this one class almost every day. The professor stopped mid-lecture once to tell her that it was in poor taste to be habitually tardy, and that she should consider being more considerate to her classmates. That girl freaking said that she and her classmates paid his salary by attending school here, so she would arrive and leave whenever she saw fit. And then she stood up and walked out.”

  My jaw hung open as I formulated a response that contained actual words instead of amazed grunt-like sounds. “Wow,” was all I seemed to muster.

  “Right? And even if what she said was true in any way, which I don’t think it is, it was the way she said it. Her tone of voice.” Rachel crinkled her nose in disgust as she relived the memory. “Like Professor Santero was completely beneath her, and she was appalled he would even think to address her at all.”

  And this was the type of person Nick liked? “I can’t believe Nick is out with someone with that.”

  “Nick’s dated all kinds of girls, Jess. And they’re not always nice.”

  “I know that,” I lied. Actually, I didn’t know that. “I guess I just thought he was different. He seemed different with me.”

  “I’m sorry. In all honesty, I thought he was different with you too. I mean, he spent the night here last night, and you guys held hands today at school.”

  My head snapped around in her direction. “How do you even know about the hand-holding thing?”

  “Duh. I hear everything, Jess. You know this. And not that him holding hands is odd, but I just thought it meant you guys were dating now and not dating other people.”

  I groaned. “I thought that too, that we were starting something, and now we’re over before we even really began.”

  Her phone beeped again, and she glared at it. “Enough, people, jeez! I already know.” She turned to me. “You’d think I ran an online gossip site or something.”

  “Maybe you should. Just don’t start with this story. Please.”

  A sharp knock at the door pulled us from our conversation.

  “You expecting anyone?” Rachel asked.

  As she moved to get up, I stopped her.

  “No. You?”

  “No.”

  “I got it.”

  When I opened the door, Nick took a step toward me before I could even react. Without a word, he cupped the back of my head with his hand as he planted a kiss on my lips like he owned them . . . like they belonged to him.

  Quickly, I pulled away, wiping my lips with the back of my hand. “Don’t touch me!” I said, wondering how he was here when I could have sworn he was just at a restaurant.

  Nick’s brow furrowed. “Jess? What’s wrong?”

  The clueless act only pissed me off more. Clearly, he assumed I had no idea where he’d just been and with whom.

  “What are you doing here?” I demanded.

  “What do you mean? I wanted to see you.” He took a step toward me, and I pulled back. “Jess?”

  “Get out of here, asshole,” Rachel called out from the living room. “I swear to God, I’ll put a curse on you, Nick Fisher.”

  Nick jerked his head toward her. “Asshole? What did I do?” His gaze pinged between us, his expression all innocence when everyone knew he was guilty.

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “I thought you were on a date with Carla Crawford?”

  He blanched, his body language immediately changing. “How’d you even know about that?”

  When he didn’t deny it, my heart sank. Not that he could deny it, anyway—I’d seen the pictures—but part of me hoped . . . Hell, I didn’t know what I had hoped.

  “I was informed,” I said, not wanting to rat out my roommate.

  “I told her,” Rachel said before pushing off the couch and heading into the kitchen. “My phone’s been blowing up all night with stupid pictures of the two of you at Shakes.”

  He shook his head as he tried to process the information. “Your phone? Why? Why is my having dinner with Carla so text-worthy?”

  Rachel groaned before rolling her eyes dramatically. “Jesus, Nick. You can’t walk around campus holding hands with Jess, and then go to dinner that same night with a girl who isn’t her, and think that people aren’t going to talk about it.”


  “Shit.” He pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and sat down, dropping his head into his hands.

  “I don’t think you’re welcome to stay,” Rachel said before I could.

  And she was right. Nick had admitted he’d just been on a date with another girl, and he thought he could still hang out with me like nothing was wrong with that? Everything was wrong with that.

  “Why is everything always so complicated?” he muttered as he gripped his head between his hands.

  “Because girls are gossipy. And nosy. And more than that, they’re competitive,” Rachel told him.

  Nick lifted his head, his eyes pleading with me. “I did take her out, but it’s not what you think, Jess. I promise.”

  My heart sped up as his gaze met mine, but I refused to give in or believe him so easily.

  “Hell, I didn’t even take off my hat.” He pointed at the baseball cap he always wore, still firmly on his head, as if that meant something.

  “So? Then what was it, exactly?” I asked.

  I walked into the kitchen where Rachel stood, needing her support. Plus, the more space between Nick and me, the better. I didn’t trust myself with him; my desire to believe him was too strong.

  “We already had that date set up before you and I were—” He stopped before pushing away from the table and moving toward the countertop that separated us. “Well, whatever we are. I couldn’t just cancel on her. Our dads set us up. But I did tell her that I was seeing someone, and that this would be our first and last date.” He reached for my hand, and this time I didn’t pull away when his fingertips touched mine. “Actually, I told her it wasn’t a date at all. But I still paid for dinner, so maybe she thinks it was.”

  I stopped myself from smiling before glancing at Rachel. She smiled too, reassuring me that I wasn’t being stupid or naive for believing him.

  “Does she hate you now?” If he had done that to me, I’d probably hate him.

  “I don’t really care,” he said, his eyes holding mine as his thumb rubbed small circles on the top of my hand.

  I didn’t care either.

  “Excuse us for two seconds.” Rachel shattered the moment as she grabbed me by the hand and yanked me into my bedroom, closing the door behind us.

  “What are you doing?” I asked her, feeling frantic.

  “Do you believe him?” she whispered.

  I nodded. I did believe him. The moment he mentioned his dad, I believed him.

  “I do too. I’ve heard about Nick’s dad setting him up on dates before, so I don’t think he’s lying.”

  “Then why are we in here whispering when we should be out there?” I whispered back.

  “I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.”

  “Are we both dating Nick now?” I said with a laugh before we left my bedroom.

  Wait, am I dating Nick?

  Nick hadn’t moved an inch. His eyes tracked me as I returned to my spot in the kitchen, keeping the counter between us.

  “Why did your dads set you up?” I asked, wanting to hear his reasoning.

  “My dad sometimes tries to set me up with the daughters of his business associates. He’s been doing it since high school.”

  “Seriously?” I couldn’t even wrap my head around that kind of weird archaic thinking. “So he thinks it’s good if you date someone whose family could help his business?”

  “Honestly, I don’t even know his real reasoning,” he said, exhaling a long breath. “He tells me to take someone out, and I do it. It’s not like he really gives me a choice.”

  “Sounds like a bad movie plot,” I added, remembering what Nick had told me in the bleachers about not being able to tell his dad no. I hadn’t seen it in action before, but now I understood a little better. Nick wasn’t exaggerating when he said he couldn’t do it.

  “Welcome to my life.”

  “Is he stuck in the forties or something?” Rachel asked, her gaze swinging between us. “Seriously?”

  Nick shook his head. “I think it’s just another way for him to control me. He has plans for me, the company, and my life. He doesn’t give me a say, and I don’t always know what to do to make him happy.”

  He stopped abruptly, but I didn’t push him. I knew talking about this made him uncomfortable, and was surprised that he’d shared that much in front of Rachel.

  “Jess, tell me you forgive me.”

  “I forgive you.”

  “Can we go talk in your room now?” he asked, then glanced at my roommate. “No offense, Rachel.”

  “None taken.” She waved her hand at us. “Go away.”

  So we did.

  We’re Doing This

  Nick

  I headed toward Jess’s bed and sat down the way I had last night.

  Shit, had it just been last night? It felt like days ago instead of only hours.

  Jess stepped toward me, stopping once she positioned herself between my legs. I wrapped my arms around her and pressed my face against her stomach. She tugged off my hat before raking her fingers through my short hair. That simple gesture felt so damn good, I think I moaned out loud.

  “I don’t understand this thing with your dad,” she said, her tone hesitant.

  “What do you want to know?”

  I realized in that moment that I trusted Jess enough already to confide in her. Hell, I’d already told her that afternoon in the bleachers more than I told most people. Something about her comforted me. Her presence was steadying, and I was drawn to it.

  “Do you guys have a bad relationship? I can’t quite figure it out. It seems like you idolize him one minute and then hate him the next,” she said, and her words struck a chord with me.

  “That’s how I feel half the time. I love him because he’s my dad; he’s extremely smart and successful, and I know he wants the best for me. But I hate him because he’s controlling, and I don’t feel like I get a say in my own life sometimes. I never know what to do to make him happy. Whatever I do, it’s never enough. When I played football, he’s pissed that I’m playing. So I quit, and then he’s pissed that I quit. I join the same fraternity he was in when he was in college, but I had to be the president. Because just being in the same fraternity as him wasn’t good enough, I had to run the damn thing.”

  Sighing, I added, “I date girls, but they’re always the wrong girls. That’s why I stopped bringing anyone home to meet him. He’s nice to everyone’s face, but then behind closed doors he rails the living shit out of me.” I dropped my head in my hands before continuing. “If the girl doesn’t come from money, he tells me I’m being stupid. That love has no place in business, and to get my head on straight.”

  “I don’t know what to say. Obviously, I think that’s all insane. Him, not you.”

  Time to change the subject. Take it away from my fucked-up father and back to us. “Jess, are you sure we’re okay? I’m really sorry. I should have told you about the date.”

  I really was sorry that I hadn’t mentioned it to her, but the truth was that I was terrified she wouldn’t listen to reason. Most of the girls I’d dated in the past had run on emotion instead of logic, and instead of hearing me out, they’d just scream and yell. It was exhausting.

  “Why didn’t you?” she asked. “About the date, I mean.”

  “I wanted to. I almost did when I walked you to the library this morning, but . . .” I paused, thinking of exactly how to word it. “I thought you’d be pissed. Or wouldn’t understand, and I wasn’t allowed to cancel on her. I didn’t want you to be mad at me.” That was some more truth right there. The last thing I wanted was to piss Jess off. I liked her too much already.

  She tugged at my hair until I looked up at her. “You can’t lie to me, Nick. Or keep things from me. Otherwise, this doesn’t work.” She winced, clearly more than a little uncomfortable.

  “You’re right. You’re absolutely right.” I looked her in the eyes, noting how the blue of them seemed to cast a spell on me I refused to fight.<
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  She leaned down, trying to plant a quick kiss on my lips, but I pulled her on top of me, deepening the kiss. I refused to let her get away that easily. I gripped the back of her neck, spreading my fingers through her blond hair as my mouth tasted her, loving every second of it and never wanting it to end.

  “Nick,” she said softly, her breath feathering my lips, and I reluctantly stopped kissing her.

  “Yes?”

  “What are we doing?” She tilted her head as she stared at me.

  “I thought we were kissing,” I said with a smile, and she scrunched her nose.

  “You know what I mean. Don’t you?”

  “You mean about us. What are we doing, right?”

  She caught her bottom lip between her teeth, something I’d noticed she did when she was uncomfortable. “Yeah.”

  Shit. She was nervous.

  “Well . . .” I moved her body off of my lap so I could think straight. No guy in his right mind could think at all with a hot girl sitting on his junk. “I like you. A lot. And at this point, I have no desire to see anyone else.”

  “At this point?” She swallowed before scooting away from me.

  Damn. That didn’t come out right.

  “That’s not what I meant. I want to be with you, Jess. I want to date you. Only you. I can’t stop thinking about you, okay?”

  “So we’re dating then. And we’re not dating other people?”

  “Right. I mean, if that’s what you want.” Please say that’s what you want.

  “Is that what you want?” she asked, her expression so unsure that it almost hurt to look at.

  I laughed. “Yes, Jess. That’s what I want. I thought I said that already.”

  “I know, it’s just . . . you have a reputation, and I like you a lot. Probably more than I should.”

  I reached for her hand and pulled her closer. “I like you more than I should too.”

  “You do?”

  I tugged on her arm, wanting her even closer. When she did as I’d hoped, I pressed a kiss against her cheek.

  “Yes.” I kissed her forehead. “You’re fun and you make me laugh.” I kissed the tip of her nose. “And your motivation is sexy as hell. Most girls just want their MRS degree, but not you.”