Beautiful Oblivion (Maddox Brothers #1)(71)
Author: Jamie McGuire

“I’m sorry,” Trenton said. “He wouldn’t want you to do this, either. He would want you to marry him because you want to. If he ever found out, it’d break his heart.”

I leaned in.

“Don’t be sorry, Trent. It’s going to work. At least it will give him a chance. It’s a chance, right? Better odds than he had.”

“I guess,” Trenton said, sounding defeated. Abby remained quiet. “Congratulations.”

“Congratulations!” I said, desperate to feel something other than depressed.

Abby said something, and Trenton nodded. “Will do . . . and it’s really f**king weird that our baby brother is the first to get married.”

Abby laughed, but she sounded tired. “Get over it.”

“Fuck off,” Trenton said. “And, I love ya.” He hung up, and tossed the phone to the end of the bed. After staring at my broken closet doors for a while, he laughed once. “I need to fix those.”

“Please do.”

“Travis is getting married before me. I don’t know how to feel about that.”

“You wish them well. They could be married forever and have ten kids, or they could get divorced next year. And that’s all if Travis doesn’t end up . . .”

Trenton looked down at me.

“I’m betting on the ten kids scenario.”

“Me, too,” he said. He leaned his head back against the headboard, and closed his eyes. “I’m going to marry you someday.”

I smiled. “When pigs fly.”

He shrugged. “I can put a pig on a plane. No problem.”

“Okay, when you dance around in a thong to Britney Spears in front of your dad. That’s when we’ll get married.”

He took in a long, deep breath, and then blew it out. “Challenge accepted.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

IT FELT STRANGE TO RETURN TO CAMPUS MONDAY MORNING. Trees were tied with black ribbons, and Keaton Hall was quartered off with yellow police tape. Murmuring could be heard in every hallway, elevator, and stairwell. People were discussing the fire, who died, who lived, and who was to blame. They were also gossiping about the rings on Travis and Abby, and speculation about a pregnancy began to circulate.

I just let them talk. It was nice to hear something other than theories and conspiracies surrounding the fire. The police had already been by Jim’s and spoken to Trenton, so I wasn’t letting on that I knew a damn thing.

After classes, I trudged through the muddy lawn to the Smurf and froze when I saw T.J. leaning against the side of the bed of the Jeep, tapping on his phone. He stood up straight when he noticed me standing twenty feet away. I continued to walk, albeit slowly.

“I wondered if you would come back,” I said.

“Took the first flight out.”

“Checking on everyone?”

He nodded. “Damage control.”

“What can you do?”

He shook his head. “It’s both of them.”

“You leave Trent out of it,” I snapped.

He laughed once without humor, clearly surprised at my anger. “It’s not me, Camille.”

“If you’re not here for work, then why are you here?”

“I can’t tell you the specifics, Camille, you know that. But I’m here, now, to see you.”

I shook my head. “T.J., we’ve talked about this. Your random drop-ins are making things a lot harder than they have to be. So unless you’re ready to come clean . . .”

He shook his head. “I can’t do that right now.”

“Then you should go.”

“I just wanted to say hi.”

“Hi,” I said, offering him a small smile.

He leaned in to kiss my cheek, and I backed away. As much as he wanted to pretend that it was all innocent and friendly, we both knew it wasn’t.

“I was just saying good-bye.”

“Good-bye.”

T.J. nodded, and then turned around and walked away.

I drove home to grab a snack before leaving for the shop, feeling sad. I made a couple of ham-and-cheese sandwiches, and then ate one on the way, thinking about the stuffed animals and flowers that had begun to pile up in front of Keaton.

When I pulled up to Skin Deep, the Intrepid and Hazel’s Talon were already there. I walked in, but no one was at the desk or in the vestibule. I walked a few steps down the hallway, immediately seeing Trenton’s yellow boots, one of his feet bouncing up and down.

“Just f**king do it, Hazel! Are you waiting for Christ to come back? Fuck!”

“No,” she said sweetly, glancing at me. “I was waiting for her.”

She impaled his ear, and he stifled a growl, followed by a string of expletives—some I’d never heard before.

“Beautiful!” she said.

“Really? I’m getting f**king gauges for you, and you call me beautiful? How about manly? Studly? Badass?”

“Pretty!” Hazel said, planting a kiss on his forehead.

Trenton groaned.

“I brought you a ham and cheese,” I said, picking off tiny bites of ham in the remainder of mine. “It’s in the bottom cubby up front.”

Trenton winked at me. “Love ya, baby.”

“Next!” Hazel said.

Trenton’s smile vanished.

Hazel stabbed him again, and both of Trenton’s feet came off the floor, but he didn’t make a sound. “And that is why I waited for your girl. So you wouldn’t cry. Damn, Cami takes your dick every night, and it’s way bigger than a sixteen gauge.”

I frowned. “Uncalled for. You need to get laid. You’ve been super in-apropos lately.”

Hazel jutted out her lip. “Tell me about it!”

Trenton wore a wry smile. “But she’s right, baby doll. I’m way bigger than a sixteen gauge.”

I choked. “I’m outta here.” I walked back to my desk, threw away the rest of my sandwich, and organized forms, counting to see which ones needed more copies. Then I walked back to the copy machine. I didn’t have to do busywork for long, though. Our afternoon was soon filled with students getting tattoos for their deceased classmates, frat brothers, sorority sisters; and in one case, a father came in to get a tattoo in memory of his daughter.

I wondered if any of the people walking through our door knew the girl with the pretty toes. I closed my eyes tight, trying to fill my mind with something more pleasant. By close, we were all exhausted, but Trenton and Bishop wouldn’t leave until everyone who came in for commemorative ink got what they came for.