Beg You to Trust Me (Lindon U #2)(113)

I nod. “I get that.”

“So, is it okay that I’m here? Really?”

I inch forward until our knees are touching. “Skylar, I’ve been wanting to see you since Ivy drove you away. Caleb had to physically restrain me from showing up at your dorm. But I knew that isn’t what you wanted from me. So, yeah. This is more than okay. How long are you here for?”

“Your grandma told me I could stay until we have to go back. As long as that’s—”

I stop her from asking if it’s okay again by kissing her. The second my lips crash against hers, she melts into me. I taste her, breathe her in, touch her cheek, cup her skull, anything I can do to keep her close.

To prove to her I mean what I say.

When I pull back, she lets out a shuttered breath and a cute ass giggle. “Okay. I’m convinced.”

I peck her lips again and grin. “It was the tickets to Ocean Fest, wasn’t it?”

Her hand comes up to cup my cheek, stroking the stubble I’ve let grow in. I plan to shave it before heading back to school, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the way she paid it special attention. “That may have been part of it. How did you even get your hands on them?”

I’m never going to tell her the truth—that I messaged four different people attached to the book con, including the big-ticket author she’s dying to see, to plead for their help in winning over a girl. It was the very person whose books she introduced me to that responded with the information to claim the tickets in hopes I win Skylar over.

Instead of admitting that, I say, “I have my ways, Blondie. Don’t you know that my charm is my biggest ally by now?”

She snorts, not believing my bullshit answer for a second. Her lips press against mine lightly, exploring them before I open my mouth to let her in deeper. The little noise she makes the second our tongues meet has my dick growing instantly.

Our hot little make out session only lasts a few minutes before a throat clears. “You better not be making babies on my brand-new couch,” Ma says from the hallway.

Skylar breaks our kiss breathlessly, her cheeks turning the shade of pink I’ve missed for weeks now.

I lean in until my lips brush her ear and whisper, “She didn’t say anything about not making babies on my 10-year-old mattress upstairs.”

She slaps my chest and puts distance between us.

Probably smart.

I’m almost tempted to haul her over my good shoulder and carry her upstairs to see just how far she’ll let me get.



The rest of break is spent hanging out around the house. Once a week, I join Skylar for FaceTime calls with her family so they can all interrogate me. Even after an intense grilling, I’m reassured by the scariest sister that I’m well-liked for their sibling.

Skylar and I go out a few times, usually just to eat because I’m still beat as hell from all the medicine and appointments I’ve been going to before heading back to campus. I’ve been cleared to make the drive after a few scans, even though both my ma, grandma, and girlfriend—I still have to make that official—insisted that Blondie drive for at least part of it to give my arm a break.

It’s still crazy to me that I’m in my last semester of college. This summer, I’ll have my bachelor’s degree and will be moving on with my life along with the rest of the people I’ve grown close to over the past four years.

Even though Caleb plans on sticking in Lindon and running his family’s hardware store, most of the other guys who are graduating are spreading out.

Aiden is officially done with school, and I only just learned that Ivy is dropping out. They’ll be out of the house while Aiden trains for the Combine that he was invited to. It’s inevitable he’ll get drafted, and obvious his girl will be following him for the ride.

Brady accepted his enrollment at Cornell University and already has a new place lined up for after graduation.

Marks has even less of a clue as to what he’s going to do with his life than when he started college.

Then there’s me.

“I have something to tell you,” I say to the girl next to me on my bed, nudging her foot to gain her attention from the screen where a movie is playing. “I got into grad school.”

Her eyes widen. “What? When? Where?”

“It happened a couple weeks ago. Got the email confirmation, then the packet in the mail a few days later.”

She fiddles with the drawstring of the hoodie she stole from me the first night she arrived. It’s gigantic on her but hot as hell. The only thing that’d be sexier is peeling it off her. “So, you’re leaving in a few months?”

The disappointment in her tone has me smiling like a fool. “I’m attending grad school at Lindon. Sorry, Blondie. Can’t get rid of me for another couple of years.”

Her teeth bite into her bottom lip before she releases it. “I’m happy to hear that. I don’t think I’m ready to give you up quite yet.”

“Yeah?”

She nods. “I was wondering if you’d help me with something before we go back.”

“Anything. Name it.”

That’s how, two hours later, I’m crammed inside the upstairs bathroom one-handedly helping Skylar bleach and color her hair back to the closest shade of blonde she was born with.