Fallen Crest University (Fallen Crest High #5)(64)

Instead, she murmured, “Well, that’s nice of him to come.”

David gazed at me. I felt the questions from him, but he didn’t ask them. During halftime, I went back to the dorm to get ready. Summer wasn’t in the room, but she texted with the time to be ready and when she would pick me up.

I sat on the bed and waited.

Nothing. No text message. No phone call.

After waiting another hour, I had enough. I changed back to jeans and a Cain University sweatshirt with Mason’s football number on the back. I was heading through the lobby to go to the game when my phone buzzed in my hand. I was tempted to ignore it. Fuck whatever shadiness my roommate was doing. I’d get to the bottom of it, but my parents were in town. I wanted to see them, not deal with people who were lying to me—including Garrett.

He should’ve called. Hell, he should’ve called a long time ago, like after I had flown back to Fallen Crest, or after I found out he wasn’t moving anymore and was going to stay in Boston. I got that golden nugget of information from Malinda who heard it via her friends at the Fallen Crest Country Club.

There’d been no word from Garrett at all, so I moved on.

David was my real dad. I didn’t need Garrett. Just like Analise, he wasn’t important enough to be a part of my life. The fact that both my biological parents were absent wasn’t lost on me. It was funny, in a sick and sad way. The parents that mattered to me weren’t blood, but they were my real family now.

A black vehicle pulled up to the dorm as I was coming out. I was passing by when the back door opened.

“Sam.” Summer was there, half coming out of the door. She paused there and waved for me. “I’m sorry I’m late. My car broke down, so I had to call for a ride. My mom sent the car, and it took longer to get here because of traffic on game day.”

Ah, yes, all the extra traffic because of my boyfriend’s football game.

I gritted my teeth. “Fuck this, Summer. I waited. I’m over it. I’m going to spend the day with people who don’t lie to me.” I turned to go past the car.

“Please, Sam.” The break in her voice had me pausing.

I wanted to curse again. I was turning back.

Fuck me. I was never going to learn.

But I went to the vehicle.

Summer lit up before she scooted back and made room for me. She said, as I climbed in and closed the door, “I promise that, after this dinner, I will explain everything. I mean, everything.” She reached over, her hand squeezing on my arm as she said that last word. “I’ve wanted to come clean about some things for a long time. After this, no lies. I promise.”

Considering the fact that I hadn’t known there were lies, I was more than okay with that.

One dinner to hear the truth. That was easy. I could do that.

We were driven through the city and turned into a gated driveway before coming to a stop. Summer was nervous. That was obvious from how she was fidgeting with her hands, how she only glanced at me before skirting away again, and the number of times she readjusted her clothing. Her shirt was pulled up, then pulled down, and then flattened over her stomach. She’d repeated that process over and over and kept scratching her forehead.

I kept my mouth shut. I knew the answers were coming—or they’d better be.

Her house was huge, but I wasn’t surprised. Summer came from wealth. I hadn’t known it for sure, but I figured it out by the time we got there. It wasn’t any bigger than Mason and Logan’s house when I’d moved in with Analise. That place was a mausoleum, and so was this.

Summer led the way, casting me another look, before swallowing, rolling her shoulders back, and heading inside.

Marble tile, a statue of a nude woman on a horse, and the color of gold greeted us. The gold was everywhere. There were small gold flecks on the walls, but they sparkled and matched the gold that had been woven into the marble tile. The horse’s halter had gold in it, and so did the woman’s hair. There were hints of gold glitter on her body as well.

I felt like rubbing my eyes raw and dousing them with salt water. Too much gold, just too much.

“I know.” Summer moved around me to close the door. She glanced around the foyer and winced. “It’s a bit…much.”

“You live here?”

“Hell, no.” Her eyes got big. “I live in the dorm.”

“But before that?”

She stared at me, confused. Understanding dawned. “Oh, no. I lived with my mother. My dad recently had this built. The stepmonster has a complex, obviously.” She pointed at a flourish on the horse’s halter. “See? There’s even a goldfish in the middle of that swirl thing.”

I didn’t want to look. “Can we not? I…I’m not trying to sound like a bitch, but if this is all to impress me with your family’s 401(k), it’s not working.”

“What?” She blinked a few times. “Oh, no. I mean, sorry. Yeah. Let’s go in.”

It was a grand hallway. I was led past portraits of people and could recognize Summer in a few of them. Another couple—I guessed the father and stepmother—were in others. There was a family portrait with a boy, but I couldn’t get closer to study who he was. Summer hadn’t mentioned a brother. I took a step toward it. There was something about him…about how he was looking back at me…