"That's for after the ceremony," Rachel screamed, running towards her.
Logan couldn't believe his little sister was getting married. He looked around the yard with the perfect decorations, the perfect band, the perfect day. There was only one thing that wasn't perfect about the wedding, and that was Mia missing it.
It happened in a flash: one minute Logan was contemplating Mia and the wedding, the next his decision about everything was made. It was all so clear. He jumped into his car and almost crashed pulling into the parking lot of Smart Mart. He searched the aisles, frantic to find what he was looking for. Finally, his eyes lit upon it and he ran to the checkout counter.
It was dark when he pulled up to Mia's. He saw the glow from their apartment and hoped Mia wouldn't get mad when he knocked. She opened the door and a smile registered immediately on her face. She threw her arms around Logan, who returned her embrace. Her lips were soft as she pressed them against his.
"Wow," he said. "In front of the babysitter and everything." Mia looked behind her and saw Tera watching with wonder as Mia kissed Logan again. Mia had been terrified she'd blown it last night. That she'd never see Logan again. When she heard his knock on her door, it was like a weight had been lifted. She was determined never to let him get away again.
"Emma honey," Mia called. She turned to Logan, smiling, radiant. He'd always found her radiant though. Emma walked over and beamed up at Logan.
"Hi you," he said.
Emma smiled, but seemed shyer than usual. She cast a sideways glance at Mia.
"Emma, tell Logan what we were talking about earlier." Mia knew this couldn't make up for the last three years, but she hoped it was a start.
"Mommy said you're my Daddy."
The second Emma uttered "Daddy," Logan's heart melted. Football players weren't supposed to cry, but in that moment, he didn't think he could stop himself.
He nodded. "That's what Mommy told me too. I'm sorry I've been gone for so long." He hesitated, suddenly uncertain what to say. Emma's eyes spoke for him, moving to the box in his arms. "I've got a present for you," he said, holding the box out to Emma. She smiled and gently took it from him. He had a whole lot of presents to make up for.
Mia gave him a look which, for once, looked happy instead of angry. He wrapped her hand in his, and they watched as Emma ripped open her gift.
"Princess dress!" she screamed, excited. Mia's eyes brimmed with tears.
"Go ahead and put it on," he told Emma. "We've got a wedding to get to."
Mia's head snapped towards him. Her eyes searched his face. "All three of us?" Logan saw her grow pale and tightened his hold on her hand.
"We're a family now. I'm not embarrassed, and you shouldn't be either. Just hold onto me, and I promise I'll never let go."
THE END
TIGHT
STORY DESCRIPTION
She didn't even know how it happened. One minute she hated him, and the next she was wrapped in his strong arms giving herself to him completely...
Emma Davis is nicknamed “mouse.” She's quiet, brainy and keeps to herself. At nineteen, she's never even had a boyfriend.
Mason Haley is rumored to be the best football star the college has ever had. His hot bod and all-American good looks make it easy for him to get whatever girl he wants, and he wants them all.
To Emma, the most important thing is school, maintaining her 4.0 GPA. A social life is the least important thing she can think of.
Biology is the love of her life.
Until she meets Mason...
To Mason, grades are the least important thing he can think of. It’s important that he doesn't disappoint his team or his father.
Football is the love of his life.
Until he meets Emma...
When other students start calling Emma a stalker, it seems that Mason has played her for a fool. Is Mason so embarrassed to be seen with Emma, the mouse, that he spread a rumor that she’s stalking him?
Will Mason prove that he truly cares for Emma, or will he watch as she slips through his grasp and he loses her forever?
Can the dorm room mouse and the college football hero find love despite their differences?
Chapter 1
Emma opened one eye and peered into the darkness. Her first thought was that a burglar had invaded her home, then she remembered that she was in her dorm room, not her parents' house, and the noise was more likely her idiot roommate than some dorm room prowler. She closed her eyes again but opened them immediately when there was a loud thump followed by an "Ouch!" and a giggle. It had only been a few days since school started but she'd recognize that giggle anywhere.
"Zoey! For God's sake it's two in the morning." She rolled onto her side and tried to drown out the noises.
"Sorry Mouse," Zoey called back. Emma groaned. She hated the nickname that she'd earned in so short a time. Just because she preferred a quiet evening in to the party house atmosphere that the sororities and fraternities espoused didn't mean that she was a mouse. She was just smarter and cared more about her education than most of the people attending school here.
Emma closed her eyes and tried to block out the sounds. A second voice echoed in the room—a man's voice—and Emma's eyes shot back open. Mason Haley. Of course it was Mason. Zoey's boyfriend was not only the college football hero, he was also something of a fixture in the girls' dormitory. His sandy hair and blue eyes made him the epitome of popularity. Of course, it helped that his body looked like it had been sculpted by Michelangelo himself.
He'd dated nearly every girl housed here, though as she understood it, there was only a handful of girls that he'd actually deemed worthy enough to see more than once. Zoey was one of them. Of course she was. She was head cheerleader for the college—beautiful and blonde with long legs and a perfect tan. What man wouldn't want her?
Emma's own appearance was drab compared to Zoey's. She had dark hair and glasses which pinched her nose. Her body wasn't bad, but it wasn't a cheerleader's body either. She had always been "the smart one" of her friends growing up. Smart, quiet, and boring. But that was how she'd gotten into Stanford on a full academic scholarship. Her parents never could have afforded it otherwise. She had to keep her grades up or she'd lose everything. After Stanford, she had hopes of getting into the master's program at MIT.
She grabbed her pillow and held it over her face, wondering if maybe her parents were right. They had warned her that life in a dorm room was not going to be fun. They'd practically begged her to reconsider and stay at home with them, but she was nineteen and ready to fly the nest a little. Or so she'd thought. They'd told her she could move back home any time she wanted, but she was afraid if she did that she might never leave again.
Emma groaned as Zoey and Mason jumped onto Zoey's bed. It was much louder than her own, and Emma didn't think she could handle the noises that she started to hear coming from that direction. She jumped off her bed, keeping her eyes shut, and walked blindly towards the door, her blanket and pillow under her arm.
"Hey, shut the door!" Zoey called as Emma stepped into the hallway. "Jeez! Some people." Then the bed started squeaking again. Emma hurried away from the room and made her way to the common area. Only a handful of people lingered around, and Zoey was able to find a chair big enough to curl her legs onto. She tried to fall back asleep, but it wasn't exactly a restful night. She woke again and again as people wandered in and out.
Around five in the morning, just after she had finally fallen asleep, there was a peal of laughter as several drunken coeds stormed through the area throwing beer bottles across the floor. One of them splattered beer across Emma's face. She jumped awake and fell out of her chair. Everyone laughed. She laid on the floor a minute before finally standing up.
She decided to give up. She was obviously not going to get anymore sleep tonight. Besides, the sun would be coming up soon anyway. She stumbled across the floor, back to her room. Surely Mason had left by now. She opened the door and heard Zoey snoring. Thank God
. She plopped onto her bed, thinking maybe she could at least rest if not sleep, and immediately jumped back up.
"Aaahh!" she shouted, flicking on the lights and turning towards her bed. Mason climbed off her mattress. He was naked and stood facing her, smiling like it was the most normal thing in the world for him to be naked in her bed. It had been him she'd heard snoring, not Zoey.
"Mason!" she shouted.
"Sorry," he said. "Zoey kept dragging the covers off me." He yawned and stretched his arms. His muscles flexed and Emma couldn't stop her eyes from catching the way his golden skin shimmered in the early morning rays as they seeped in through her windows. At twenty, Mason was already considered the best football player the school had ever seen.
"It's okay," she mumbled, turning towards Zoey's bed to yell and realizing Zoey wasn't even there. "No... no problem." She felt her cheeks burn and wondered why Mason just kept standing there. Didn't he know he was naked?
"How was your night?" he asked. "Did you do anything fun?"
Emma's heart hammered in her chest. Was he brain damaged? Maybe all football players had the misfortune of not being able to tell an awkward situation from a normal one. "Not really," she said. "Um, I was just going to take a shower."
"Yeah, me too," he said, crossing the room. "So what classes do you have this morning? I had to switch some of mine around. They interfered with football practice."
Emma nodded, trying to keep her eyes averted from the thick mass of skin and muscle that hung between Mason's legs. "I-I don't know," she said. Mason looked at her with a strange expression. She couldn't think. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. If he wasn't going to leave, she had to. "Excuse me," she said, grabbing her shower caddy and running out the door before he could ask another stupid question.
Out in the hall her breath finally caught up to her and she felt the blood return to her face. A peal of laughter echoed off the walls and she turned to see Zoey and her friends doubled over.
"Guess you ran into Mason," Zoey said, her eyes bright and sarcastic.
"Yeah, thanks for that," Emma retorted.
"Oh whatever," she said. "You're lucky you even got to peek at someone as hot as he is."
Zoey's friends echoed their agreement. One of them, another blonde who's name Emma always forgot, said, "I wish I could get a chance with him some time." She looked at Zoey with pleading eyes.
Zoey flipped her hair behind her head. "Maybe when I'm done with him," she said, then resumed whatever discussion they'd been having prior to Emma's entrance. She heard them discussing rush week and what sororities they would all be pledging. For a brief second, Emma considered her parents' offer. She could just commute to school five days a week. Then she pushed it away and headed for the showers. It was way too soon to decide something like that. She just had to give things more time.
Chapter 2
Emma stepped into class exhausted from last night. She couldn't let the lack of sleep get to her though. She had to focus. Her first lab was the most crucial one. It could set the tone for how the rest of her classes went the next two years. If it went well, she'd know that all of her other classes would go well too. It might have sounded a little like superstition, but she firmly believed it.
She took a seat at a lab table and opened her new blank notebook. A pencil sat beside it, another one tucked behind her ear. Professor Douglas walked into the room and the class fell silent. She felt the discomfort she'd been facing since her arrival at this school ease ever so slightly. These were her people now. Science majors like herself. Professor Douglas was supposed to be brilliant, and she looked forward to his first lecture.
"Good morning," Professor Douglas said, opening his briefcase and setting some papers on his desk. "Glad you all could make it. Welcome to Biology 101A. This class contains a lab. If you are in the wrong class, you have the opportunity at this time to gracefully remove yourself from this room without any harm coming to you." He smiled and a few people chuckled.
"Alright," he said after a moment. "So I shall assume you all belong here. Let us begin. Biology is possibly the most important class you will have during your time at this school. It will give you the foundation for—"
It was just then that the door opened and Mason walked in. He looked around the room, and instead of heading quietly to his seat, rose one hand and pointed at a group of football players sitting in the back of the room. "Hey! You guys are stuck in this class too! I thought I was gonna be forced to get through this all alone."
He walked to the back of the class and raised his hand, palm open. The players took turns slapping it. Emma watched the scene, horrified at the egotism and disrespect Mason and his friends displayed. She'd somehow managed to ignore the other football players in the room. They'd been quiet enough until Mason arrived, now they joined him in his coarse social meanderings. Professor Douglas stood at the front of the room, his head in his hands. "Mr. Haley, please take a seat. Class has already begun and you are late."
Mason's smile faltered a second before resuming the idiotic grin Emma was starting to think was permanently etched on his face. He searched the room and his eyes fell on Emma. His smile widened. She quickly looked away. It wasn't until he was pulling out the chair beside hers that Emma realized her table had the only open seat left in class.
Great, she thought. What did I do to deserve this? Any of the other football players would have been better. Mason seemed to her the king of the Cretans.
Professor Douglas continued his speech. "The person you are sitting next to will be your lab partner for the rest of the semester. So exchange phone numbers, emails, and whatever else you kids are using these days. The point is you will need to work together or neither of you will succeed in this class."
Emma's stomach churned. She watched Mason out of the corner of her eye as he clicked his pen, tapped his foot, and doodled all over his notebook instead of writing down anything of value. She saw a few heads turn and look at him, so she knew it wasn't just her that he was distracting.
"Mr. Haley," Professor Douglas called. Mason looked up from a drawing he was doing of a big breasted woman holding a banana. "Why don't you tell the class the answer to my question."
"Sure. What was the question?" Mason grinned at their professor, who looked like he was getting closer to a coronary the longer class went on.
"The question was: what is the definition of biology?"
Mason hesitated a moment then said, in all seriousness, "It's like, when you cut people and pets open to see what they look like inside."
There were several chuckles from around the room. The light in Mason's eyes dimmed ever so slightly but his smile stayed plastered where it was.
"Biology," Professor Douglas said, "in the simplest terms, is the study of living organisms. Perhaps later in the semester we'll be able to study you, Mr. Haley. I'd be interested to see how just how much damage playing football has done to your brain. There's obviously been a great deal." Mason's face turned a shade pinker but Emma didn't care. It had been such an easy question a squirrel could have answered it. She didn't think Mason was even trying.
When the professor finally told everyone to turn to their lab partners and begin the first assignment, Emma groaned. She opened her lab book to the first page and when she looked back up Mason was staring at the door.
"We should get started," she told him.
"Sure," he said, still staring at the door.
"Why don't we read through the assignment together, then I'll do the first section?"
"Whatever you want," he said, finally turning to her and grinning. "I've got practice today."
She stared at him, her mouth dropping open, wondering what the hell his having practice had to do with their assignment. She saw the vacant look in his eyes and realized this was never going to work. She slammed her book shut and walked to the front of the room, where Professor Douglas was seated.
"Professor," she said, lowering her voice, though not bothering to lower it enough so
that everyone in class couldn't hear if they tried. "I think I need a new partner."
Professor Douglas peered over her shoulder at Mason, who was watching them with wide, hurt eyes. Emma was sure it was all an act; she doubted that Mason cared enough about her or this class to be hurt.
"I understand, Ms. Davis, but I'm afraid that there is no one else left to partner with at this time. Just do your best and let me know if you have any problems."
Emma turned away, expelling a breath a frustration. Luckily for her, class ended and she was able to put Mason off until tomorrow. She'd have to figure out a way to deal with him if she was going to be stuck with him. She couldn't trust him to understand the material, let alone do any work. She'd just have to do it all herself and hope for the best. Maybe she could join a study group.
"Hey, Emma," Mason was calling from behind her in the hallway. She turned to him, afraid to hear what idiotic thing might come out of his mouth next.
"Yes?" she asked, her voice cold. She resented being forced to have him as her partner.
"Look, I just wanted to say... to tell you not to worry. I'll pull my weight on our assignments."
Emma laughed. She couldn't help it. It wasn't like her to be sarcastic, but she was still mad at him for keeping her awake last night. "Gee, thanks Mason. You've given me so many wonderful insights into biology already, I can't wait to see what you come up with next." Then she turned, a twinge of guilt flickering across her face as she saw Mason's hurt expression. She pushed it away and hurried to her next class.
Chapter 3
Emma sat on her bed, books piled at her feet. She pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes as she scribbled her answer to her chemistry professor's questions. Her glasses slid down her nose and she pushed them back up. The door opened and Zoey and Mason stumbled in, their faces pressed together in a hard lockdown that made Emma groan. Zoey shot her a look but said nothing.
Bears of Burden: STERLING Page 37
