The Hazards of a One Night Stand (Hazards #2)(7)
Author: Alyssa Rose Ivy

I ignored the return message as I pulled onto the interstate. His text wasn’t worth an accident. I also ignored the next few text notifications. I hoped they were from my friends.

I finally took a look at my phone as I sat at a light a few blocks from campus.

You left town? When were you going to tell me you were leaving?

If you’re embarrassed about last night, don’t be. It was right. I’m glad it happened.

I’ve been waiting years for that, and it was so much better than I thought possible. But I don’t want it to just be about hooking up. I want to take you out too. And if this is about Jack, don’t worry. He’s cool with it. I promise.

I closed my eyes for a second. Damn it. What kind of mess did I create? And Jack was cool with it. What did that mean? He didn’t care that his brother was hitting up his leftovers? Colt had already told him what happened! My stomach churned. I couldn’t afford to go down the negative spiral of self-doubt that thinking about Jack always brought me.

I flipped over my phone so I didn’t have to look at the screen and drove the remaining blocks to campus. I turned once more and parked a block down from the house. I took a deep breath. It was time for sophomore year.

Chapter Four

“Mallory? What are you doing back so early?” Juliet nearly knocked me over when I walked into the house. The display of excitement was as un-Juliet as it comes. She usually smiled and gave you a small hug. I guess she was still on a Reed high. She’d been on cloud nine since she got back together with her upperclassman boyfriend. He was a senior, and president of Kappa, the frat we spent most of our time with. He was also sexy as hell and completely in love with her.

“Don’t you ever check your phone?” I set down the bag that she hadn’t knocked out of my hand.

“Oh. It’s upstairs. I’ve been cleaning.”

“Cleaning?”

She pointed out one of those Swiffer duster things. “I didn’t realize cleaning was part of what I signed up for when I agreed to help with rush prep, but it was worth it.”

“I wonder why,” I teased. I knew she’d been dying to get back to campus to see Reed. He lived in Charleston year round, but her parents made her go home for the summer.

“How have you been the past few weeks? We’ve been playing phone tag.” She tied up her long dirty-blonde hair into a bun.

“Pretty good. I’m glad to be back though.”

“I’m glad you’re back early.” She got a gleam in her eye.

“For a reason other than the fact that you’ve missed me terribly?”

“I’ve got someone you have to meet. He was abroad all last year, but he’s completely your type.” She picked up one of my bags and walked toward the stairs.

“My type?” I grabbed a bag and followed her.

“Yeah. Tall, dark, and sophisticated. He spent all of last year in London for Junior Year Abroad.”

“What’s his name?” I stopped to readjust the strap of my duffel. The worn out fabric was cutting into my shoulder through the thin cotton of my t-shirt.

“Tanner.” She started down the hallway.

“Okay, cool. You’ll have to introduce us.” Tanner was exactly what I needed, a distraction from the idiotic thing I’d done the night before.

“Welcome home.” Juliet stood back so I could step through our doorway first.

“Ahh!” I ran into the room unable to contain my excitement. Living in a triple with my two best friends was pretty much a dream come true. Juliet’s bed was already made up on one side. She’d left the bed by the window open, and I happily tossed my stuff down. “I have to get more bags, but this is going to be awesome.”

“I know! I’m going to call Cara and see if she can come back early too!”

“Is anyone else here? Where’s the rest of the rush committee?”

“They get here tomorrow.”

“Haven’t you been here a week already?”

She smiled. “I may have told my parents I needed to be back here earlier than absolutely necessary.”

I laughed. “I’m sure Reed was happy about that.”

“Thrilled. The summer apart was really hard. I spent so much time on the phone with him, I’m lucky the thing didn’t fuse with my face. He came up to visit a couple of times, but it wasn’t enough.”

“What did he do to celebrate your return?” I sat down on my mattress.

“Took me to dinner at Peninsula Grill, and then we went airplane gazing.”

“Ah, airplane gazing. I really need to try that sometime.”

“You do… maybe with Tanner.” She grinned. Juliet and Cara were desperate to set me up with a Kappa. They spent so much time over at the house that I think they felt bad leaving me out. I’d gone on a date with a Kappa once, and it had ended with him crying about missing his ex-girlfriend. That was the aforementioned failed random hook-up. “Any boys this summer you forgot to tell me about?”

“Nothing worth discussing.”

“But there was something.”

“Maybe.” The last thing I wanted to discuss was Colt. If I mentioned his name, she’d be all over me for details.

She squealed. “Spill!”

“No, thanks.”

“Come on. You can’t hold out on me.”

“All right, so I might have hooked up with someone I knew from high school.”

“Might have?” She wrinkled her nose.

“Okay. I did, but it was just a one night thing. It didn’t mean anything.”

“Where does he go to school?”

“USC.” For most people, that would mean the University of Southern California, but around here, everyone knew that stood for the University of South Carolina, home of the Gamecocks. Colt hadn’t actually started there yet, but that’s where the Gasden paper said he was going.

“What’s his name?”

I figured it couldn’t hurt to share the details. “Colton.”

She laughed. “Seriously? That’s such a country boy name. Does he let you call him Colt when you ride him?”

“So uncalled for. And it was one time, remember?”

“I couldn’t resist.”

I looked out the window. “Whatever. I need to get the rest of my stuff.”

“I’ll help.”

We went back down and outside.

“Where are you parked?” She looked around.

“Over there.” I pointed to my slate gray truck. I might as well get the mortification over with.