Gold (All that Glitters #2)(78)

She was shocked that he had said those things. She never would have guessed that he felt this way about what had happened.

“It’s been hard without you.”

“No one to keep your ego in check?” she joked.

“You’re ridiculous,” he said.

But he was laughing. Suddenly, all the tension that had been between them seemed to leave his shoulders. She didn’t think they would be perfect, but she was willing to try.

“Are we cool?” she asked.

“It’s a start.”

“I can live with that.” It was more than she had expected.

“Come on, you.” He directed her out through the back door and to his pool.

Her mind immediately went back to a different pool where she and Eric used to hang out with margaritas and burgers she couldn’t always eat. It made her sigh as she lounged back on a chair.

Speaking of Eric…

“Now that we’re kind of on the same page,” she said, narrowing her eyes, “you put me in quite the bind last year.”

“How? I wasn’t even around!”

“Do you remember when we went to LV State for my campus visit?”

He shrugged. “Sure. You got trashed.”

“That night, you told me that Eric Wilkins was gay!” she spat. “And you told him that I was a slut and to stay away from me!”

Gates looked at her and then busted out laughing. “Holy shit! I forgot all about that.”

“I can’t believe you did that!”

“Hey! I never said he was gay! You inferred that. And, at the time, I didn’t want anyone else near you.”

“Yeah, well, thanks for the heads-up. Jesus. I spent the last year thinking he was gay, and now…he’s not.”

She looked away from Gates, but she was sure he had read her expression. They had known each other for too long that even a little distance couldn’t change that.

“So, you like him.”

“No,” she said fiercely. She didn’t know what she felt for Eric. She still couldn’t get the image of him with Audrey out of her mind even if she knew it was irrational since she had been with someone else the whole time. But she missed him, and that sucked. “It’s complicated.”

“Everything always is with you.”

BRYNA RETURNED TO LAS VEGAS on cloud nine. She’d road-tripped with Stacia up I-15 a week early, and both girls were happy to return to cheer practice. It worked Bryna’s lax summer muscles and kept her mind occupied. By the time classes were starting again, she was ready to face school once more, but this time, it would be with a bright new outlook.

After talking with Celia, Bryna had been feeling a strange calm about her family life that she couldn’t remember existing since middle school. Baby Zoe had made an impact. Not that everything was peachy keen. She still hated Pace and had been avoiding him like the plague while at home. But now that things were back to normal between Bryan and Stacia, Bryna knew she would be seeing a lot more of him. And as much as she despised the way he treated Bryna, she knew he was as much a product of their parents’ marriage as she was.

And now she had Gates back. Things were still a little weird between them. She had expected as much, but at least they were talking. It was better than the alternative.

She walked into her film history class with a bounce in her step that she had never had before and a genuine smile that she couldn’t wipe off her face. She recognized a few familiar faces from her intro class last semester. She ignored their stares. She had gotten them last semester, too, because of who her father was. It had isolated her in the class, but she hadn’t cared then, and she certainly wouldn’t care now.

With her head held high, she took a seat in the middle of the lecture hall and pulled out her MacBook. She hummed to herself as she scrolled through pictures from this week at cheer. She felt the seat next to her shift, and she grumbled under her breath. Of all the places for someone to sit in this huge auditorium, some person had to sit right next to her.

She glanced up to make some snide remark about it, but it stalled on her tongue. “You.”

He lazily smiled down at her. “Hey yourself.”

“It’s Cam, right?” she asked uncertainly.

She had briefly met him inside Hugh’s resort last semester. She had given Cam her number on a whim, but he’d never called. She hadn’t even thought about it since then. But now that he was in front of her again, she remembered why she had given it to him.

“That’s right. And you’re Bryna? I knew I recognized you.”

“You never called,” she accused, looking up at him through her lashes.

“And I bet it broke your heart.”

“You’ve no idea.”

“Well, I’m here now. Who could have guessed we’d have a class together?”

She tilted her head and licked her lips. “So, are you a film major?”

He shrugged. “I’m kind of in between. Acting. Film. I like them both. I wouldn’t mind getting into either. I’m in an acting class, too. Are you?”

She shook her head. She had no desire to act…ever. She belonged behind the camera, like her dad, not in front of it, like her mother. Not that she was about to say that to someone she had just met. With some luck, he wouldn’t find out that her father was Lawrence Turner for a very long time.