Slowly We Trust (Fall and Rise #3)(42)
Author: Chelsea M. Cameron

Will and I took it slow in his bed, trying to be quiet because his neighbors kept banging on the wall when we were too vocal.

“They’re just jealous,” he said as we lay panting after he’d given me three unbelievable orgasms. My body was heavy, my joints unscrewed and my head quiet, for the moment.

“I thought Lottie was crazy for moving in with Zan so quick, but now I’m seeing the appeal of having your own place,” I said. Will made a choking noise and sat up.

“You okay?”

“Uh, yeah,” he said, wiping his watering eyes. “It’s just that that’s the second time you’ve mentioned living together and I’m beginning to think that you’re giving me heavy hints and I’m too stupid to see it.”

“I’m not giving you hints. We haven’t even been dating a week. Moving in together would be crazy. Totally crazy. And where would we even get the money for a place? And I’m sure it’s impossible to get an apartment at this time of year. And I don’t have a car, so how would I get to class? No, it’s totally crazy.” Will stared at me as if I’d just spoken in tongues.

“I am not going to point out how much you just sounded like my sister. Nope, I’m not going to do it.”

“You just did,” I said, smacking him in the chest. “It would be crazy. Absolutely crazy.” Beyond the crazy, it would be next to impossible to keep Will in the dark when he was with me all the time. What if my parents called and he picked up? I didn’t think they’d have any qualms about filling Will in on what a disgraceful daughter I was.

“Right. Crazy,” he said, getting a shirt from the floor and a pair of boxers. “I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.” He kissed me quickly on the lips and I almost tore the clothes off him again.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I said, grabbing another one of his shirts and putting it on as he left the room. I stuck my thumb through one of the holes in his shirt and breathed in his scent. I loved that most of his clothing was so worn that it was soft and nearly threadbare.

I rolled onto my stomach and sighed. I was going to have to get a phone. I hadn’t lied to Will when I told him that my parents wouldn’t worry if they couldn’t get in touch with me. They wouldn’t worry, because they’d stopped caring much about what I did. But Maria was persistent. That much I knew. If she wanted to get in touch with me, then she was going to do it.

Even thinking about that blocked out all the afterglow of being with Will, and made my stomach twist itself into knots. I needed to have a phone for a lot of reasons, so I was going to have to get one. But I couldn’t do it with Will. I picked his phone off the desk and sent a quick text to Trish, asking if she would go phone shopping with me the next day.

She messaged back right away that she would, and we planned when and where she’d pick me up. As soon as the details were set, I deleted the messages. I’d just tell Will that we were going shopping and he couldn’t know why because it was a surprise. I’d also pick out some lingerie, in case he got suspicious.

I hated, hated, hated lying to him, but for now, this was all I knew how to do.

The next day Aud said she was going shopping with Trish, which sent up all kinds of red flags. Most of all because Trish hated shopping, but Aud assured me that she was picking out something that she would surprise me with later, and that made my pants a little tight and I got dickstracted from my original suspicions.

After she left for whatever she was doing with Trish, I sent Simon a message asking if he was up for tennis. I felt the need to hit things, and maybe bounce some of my ideas and suspicions off him. I hadn’t talked to anyone about the situation with Aud and I needed a second opinion.

“So you finally won her over, did you? Dropped some of that Will Anders charm and she just swooned in your arms?” Simon smacked me with his racket and I was beginning to regret asking him to do this with me.

“Something like that. But she’s still so secretive. She’s got this big, thing, I guess and it’s driving me crazy. I mean, I wouldn’t care if she wasn’t so torn up about it. I can see her struggling with it and it just wrecks me that I can’t do anything to help.”

Simon shook his head.

“You are so gone on her. Do you remember when Kandy freaked out on you for not forgetting all your anniversaries?”

I didn’t want to talk about my ex.

“Well if she didn’t have so damn many of them. I mean, am I seriously required to remember the first time we went to second base? Or went to the movies together, or all that shit?”

“Depends on the person. I bet you could remember when you did all that stuff with Audrey, couldn’t you?”

“Not all of them.” All of them. Definitely. Probably down to the hour. Everything about my time with her was burned into my memory. I couldn’t forget it if I tried.

“My point is that Audrey is your one-and-only. Either the two of you will end up married, or you’ll end up alone and never be able to love anyone else again.”

“Wow, thanks for the pep talk, Coach. Really inspiring.” I punched him in the shoulder. He deserved it.

“You’re still not getting my point. Some people fall in love a lot. Some people have a lot of “the one”s. But you, William, you’re a one and only kind of guy. You’ll only ever give your heart to one person, and you’ve been lucky enough to find her. So stop worrying about her secret and enjoy being in love. I’m enjoying watching you be in love. You look happy and it’s good to see.” We stopped walking and he gave me a quick pat on the back.

“Thanks, I think. But I do need your advice.”

“Lover, you always need my advice,” he said, giving me a look as two girls walked by, staring at us.

“That’s the worst idea you’ve ever had, and I’ve been present for a lot of your bad decision-making,” Simon said as I told him about my plan to figure out Aud’s secret and then surprise her with not caring.

“But it would save her telling me and that would just make everything better. I can’t believe you think this is a bad idea,” I said, serving the ball. Simon was on his game today, and was beating me soundly.

He volleyed back and I missed.

“No, no, no. I might be of the g*y persuasion, but I know women don’t think that way.”

“That’s such a sexist thing to say, that women are just a bunch of people who all think the same way.” Simon snorted and took a swig from his water bottle. I’d had plenty of lectures on feminism from my sister, and even if I hadn’t, I hated it when people acted like women had some sort of herd mentality. Men, on the other hand . . .