Fighting Fate (Granton University #1)(40)

If he’d been honored enough to go to a party with her, he certainly would have paid attention to her.

Hell, he felt honored just getting to drive her home. His lips twitched with pleasure because not only had she been around him and not hated on him, but she’d actually smiled, teased him, and thanked him for the ride. Things were definitely looking up.

If he’d never learned her alcoholic father had physically scarred her, tonight might actually have ended up a being spectacular.





Chapter Sixteen


OCTOBER WORKED ITS WAY into November, and the weather grew colder as the days grew shorter.

Reggie stopped flirting with Paige in Geography. Either he must’ve known he’d lost her after the Halloween flop, or he’d lost interest himself. Whatever the case, he now sat by a stunning Latina near the back of the class and made her giggle all hour while Presni tried to give his dry lectures.

Despite all that, she wasn’t depressed. Her B in Chemistry rose to an A. And Einstein’s tormentors gave up on him altogether, finding fresh prey in another dorm building.

Mariah met a guy she liked enough that she actually entered a monogamous relationship, and her rare visits to the dorm room stopped altogether after she packed all her clothes and moved in with Gavin.

Bailey became determined to find Mariah’s castoff cowboy. She dragged Tess and Paige outside every free evening they had together so they could walk the campus, scouting for him.

And all the while, Paige looked for Logan Xander. She didn’t spot him once. Her obsession had gotten almost as bad as Bailey’s. She scanned for even a glimpse of him everywhere she went, and it wasn’t to hide from him either. There was just something about the hard-working, protective, strong-willed, tortured loner that drew her, like they were kindred spirits, though that couldn’t be possible. They were supposed to be complete opposites.

When Thanksgiving break rolled around, she packed a few days’ worth of clothes into her beaten down old car and limped it five hours back to Creighton County.

Though she still talked to Kayla over the phone, she’d spoken to her father only a handful of times all semester to check in on him. But every time she had called, he’d seemed too inconvenienced to hear from her. She’d finally stopped altogether and didn’t even bother to let him know when she’d get home for the holiday.

The house was quiet when she slipped in the back door late Tuesday night after she’d driven straight from her last class.

Too quiet. It reminded her of the day she’d come home and found her mom lying in a pool of her own blood.

“Hello?” she called in a small voice as she flipped on a light.

The sight that greeted her made her catch her breath.

Lord above, had he cleaned at all since she’d left?

“Who’s there?” a gruff voice bellowed from the living room. It didn’t really sound like Paul Zukowski, but she knew it couldn’t be anyone else.

Relief swamped her. At least he was alive. “Dad?”

A pause. “Paige?”

Footsteps slugged through the house until he appeared in the opening of the kitchen, grease and sweat stains marring the dingy off-white tank top he wore. His ragged, saggy blue jeans didn’t look any better. A half-empty beer bottle dangled loosely from one hand as if the two had grown attached to each other.

Paige wanted to weep when she saw what he had become. She could remember when he’d been the most hygienic man she’d ever known. He’d had such particular grooming habits; he used to put his hair comb in the dishwasher at least once a week to keep it sterilized.

But she found she couldn’t shed a single tear for him.

“What’re you doing here?” he grumbled, eyeing her as if he was trying to figure her out.

Paige forced a smile. “I’m home for Thanksgiving.”

He gave a grunt of acknowledgement and turned away. “Didn’t think you’d come back for that nonsense.”

As he began to shuffle off, she lifted onto her toes. “Kayla invited us to eat with her family this year. I thought you and I could ride over there together.”

He paused but didn’t turn around. She knew good and well that Kayla was his soft spot. “Oh,” he mumbled. “Well. I guess that’d be okay, then.”

Her shoulders relaxed as he left, but she really didn’t feel as if she’d accomplished much. Glancing around the mess that had once been her family kitchen, she blew out a long, tired sigh. Then she rolled up her sleeves and got to work.

After cleaning all of Wednesday from sunup to sundown, trying to put the house back together, Paige was sore and tired, and kind of irritable. She was beyond ready for Thursday to roll around. Still, she climbed out of her childhood bed early to make a dish to bring to the Hashmans’ house for dinner.

When the oven dinged, telling her the pumpkin pie was ready, her father appeared in the doorway. This time, he’d at least attempted to tidy himself. He wore one of the shirts she’d laundered and hung in his closet the day before, and his wet hair was combed sloppily over his bald spot.

“About time to go, is it?”

Paige nodded, feeling a stirring of the doting love she’d once felt for him. She kept glancing at him from the passenger seat of his truck as he drove them to Kayla’s.

“What?” he asked with a scowl when he caught her peeking.