I just didn’t know what else to do.
Elise: You know what? That sounds wonderful. I’ll text you my address. See you soon. Wait, you know my coffee order?
I smiled.
Me: I do. Unless you’ve changed your normal order.
Elise: No, I kind of want to see what you come up with.
I couldn’t help but smile, even after the shitty altercation with my dad.
Me: Deal. See you soon.
I set the phone down and headed to our coffee shop, wondering why it could be ours after such a short time.
And wondering if I would open myself up to a girl I had told myself I couldn’t fall for.
Chapter 10
Elise
* * *
I ran down the hallway, into my bedroom, leaving Corinne and Nessa in my wake.
“Is there a reason you’re running?” Nessa asked as she followed me.
“Dillon’s on his way here. With coffee.” I looked around my room frantically, straightened my comforter, then looked at my reflection. “Crap. Why did I say he could come here?”
“Because you like him? And you’re sort of dating him?” Corinne asked, and I looked at her reflection in the mirror as she nodded pointedly at Nessa.
“We’re not dating.” I paused. “Are we dating?”
“Well, let’s see,” Nessa began, holding up her fingers. “One, you go out to eat with him.”
“Two,” Corinne continued, “you’ve slept with him. More than once.”
Nessa nodded. “Three, you guys constantly text and talk about your days. I’ve even heard you talk to him, gasp, on the phone.”
I glared at them both. “You are not helping.”
“Your room is pristine,” Corinne said, looking around the place. “You look great. You even washed your hair this morning, so it’s not like you’re going to cover him in dry shampoo.”
I sighed. “Oh, come on.”
“What’s he coming over for?” Nessa asked, walking towards me.
“I don’t know for sure. But he said he’s bringing coffee. And I think I might’ve asked him over. Or to go out for coffee, at least. I don’t know. My test sucked.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Do you think you didn’t do well?” Corinne asked.
“No, I think I did fine. I was just stressed, and it wasn’t what I expected. But whatever. I have more important things to worry about, like the fact that Dillon’s on his way here.”
“Okay, he’s on his way over. With coffee. Even though it’s evening, but okay,” Corinne said.
I sighed. “I like coffee. And Dillon didn’t even have to ask me what I wanted.”
“Ooh,” both girls said.
I laughed.
“Right? I mean, he could totally be wrong, but at least he’s trying. And I think I accidentally made it a quiz for him, and that’s not right. I’ll have to make it up to him later.”
“Yeah, you will,” Corinne said.
I flipped her off again. “Okay, am I dressed?”
They looked down at me and nodded. Nessa tapped her lips. “Tight jeans, cute boots, double tank tops under a sweater with one shoulder showing. Your hair is done. You have some makeup on but not too much. That way, it doesn’t look like you added more for him. Maybe a little bit of lip balm or gloss and call it a day.”
I blinked at Nessa. “That was quick. And spot-on.”
She smiled. “You look great. Now, come on, plump up those lips, and make sure you put a sock on the door.”
I cringed. “None of you guys share a room with me. Why do I need a sock on the door?”
“Please do not put a sock on the door. Play music or something. Or always play music so that way I don’t know what you guys are doing in there,” Corinne added.
“Wait, did someone say put a sock on the door?” Natalie asked as she walked in. “Oh, by the way, this is Mackenzie.” She gestured to the girl at her side. “We’re doing a group project together. What’s going on?”
“Oh, hi,” I said, wanting to die from sheer mortification. “Hi, Mackenzie. Nice to, uh, meet you.”
Mackenzie, a girl with gorgeous hair and eyes, tilted her head and smiled. “Wait, you’re going out with Dillon, aren’t you?”
I blinked, then recognition hit. “I think so. Oh! You’re Sanders’ girlfriend, right?”
Mackenzie grinned. “I am. This is nice. I didn’t realize you were roommates with Natalie. Small world. Or, I guess, small campus.” She grinned again. “And if you’re talking about socks on the door, I guess Dillon’s on his way over?”
“I’m not putting a sock on the door,” I said with a laugh.
“I’m just saying,” Nessa began, and I groaned.
“Stop it. Go act natural. Or away from here.”
“Is this his first time here?” Mackenzie asked, and my roommates all nodded.
“This is his first time here. And he’s bringing coffee. Apparently, he already knows her order,” Nessa stage-whispered.
Mackenzie’s eyes brightened. “Oh, that’s so sweet. Dillon seems like a great guy. I know the guys just moved in with one another, so I don’t know them all that well, but he’s always very respectful. And I’ve never seen him with more than one person at a time, if you know what I mean.” She paused, blushing. “I’m sorry. Was that too much information? I was just saying that he would never cheat, and he’s a great guy. And even though he’s super handsome, and I know that other girls and guys have all commented on it, he totally only has eyes for you. And I’m going to shut up now because I was trying to be helpful and warm and all that, and I feel like I’m just digging a hole. Does anyone have an extra shovel? I could use it.” She put her hands over her face, and I just laughed.
“I think that was actually kind of helpful. I know Dillon’s hot,” I said.
Corinne laughed. “Hell, yeah, he is.”
“Anyway, I’m still trying to get over the fact that I think I’m dating him. I wasn’t really ready to use that term, yet here we are. But the fact that you just said that about the whole not-cheating thing and everything means maybe I need to have a conversation about who we are to one another. But that’s something for another day. You did make me feel better, though, even though I’m still nervous. Now I’m just going to pretend that everything’s not tumbling around in my head, and I don’t want to throw up.”
The doorbell rang, and my phone buzzed.
“He’s here!” Corinne said, clapping her hands. “I’ll go get him.”
“No, it has to be her,” Natalie said, pulling Corinne back.
“But doesn’t she need to make an entrance?” Nessa asked.
“Not necessarily. If it’s a date in which he’s just coming over, maybe it needs to be her so he doesn’t realize we’re all here waiting and watching in the wings,” Mackenzie explained.
“I really think I’m going to throw up,” I said. “Also, please don’t wait and watch in the wings.”
“Don’t leave him waiting,” Mackenzie said and pulled at my hand. “It will be fine. I’ll go study with Natalie in her room. If you need a buffer, we can come out and have a conversation. But he doesn’t even have to know we know he’s here.”
“You sound like you know what you’re doing.”
“Sanders and I’ve been dating since the cradle. And he always has tons of either school friends or work or family friends that date a lot. That means I’ve always had to watch the girls with the guys figuring out what they’re supposed to do. I’ve taken some notes.”
“We need to talk sometime,” I said.
“You’ll take her help but not mine?” Nessa asked.
“I always take your help. I think that’s how I’m in this situation.”
“No, that was my help,” Corinne added helpfully.
“He texted again,” Natalie sing-songed. I groaned, grabbed my lip gloss, and ran towards the door. Somehow, I had my phone in my hand, redid my lip gloss, and made it to the door while stuffing everything back into my pockets and was only b
reathing a little heavily. I looked behind me and saw that the girls were gone as if they hadn’t been there at all.
I opened the door and smiled, trying not to look like I was out of breath. “Hey there.”
“Are you okay? You look flushed.”
I closed my eyes and let out a curse. “It’s a very long story that means nothing. But I’m great. Hi.” I went to my tiptoes, kissed him softly, and took the coffee from him that had an E on it.
I took a sip and groaned. “It’s perfect.”
“Nonfat sugar-free caramel latte with actual caramel on top to negate the sugar-free.”
I cringed. “I like caramel. But I try to be good. It’s just like asking for a double burger with extra cheese, extra-large fries, and a diet Coke. But it makes sense in my head.”
“I don’t mind. I go full-on sugar. Although Pacey reminded me that I’m not going to be young forever and that I should probably start watching my figure now or will end up with a beer belly before I’m thirty.”
“Do you even drink a lot of beer?”
“My family owns a brewery, and I’m probably going to be working at it or something like it for the rest of my life. It could happen.”
I tilted my head. “I’ve met your brothers. Well, at least two of them. They didn’t have beer bellies.”
“It is my hope that I at least have Aiden’s and Cameron’s genes.”
I frowned. “But not Brendon’s?”
A look crossed Dillon’s eyes, and I frowned harder, pulling him farther into the living room. “What did I say? I’m sorry. Is there something I’m supposed to know? I forgot.”
He let out a breath, his gaze going dark for a moment. “No, it’s just…I wanted to talk to someone, and then I realized later that I didn’t know who I was supposed to talk to. And now I don’t know. Let’s just talk about your test.”
“No, let’s not.” I pulled him past the kitchen, the living room, the closed doors of everyone else’s rooms, and into my bedroom. I locked the door behind us, aware that even though my friends wouldn’t come in if they were all leaning against the door trying to listen in, they could end up opening it by accident. I had to trust that they wouldn’t do that, but tonight was a weird night.”
“Talk to me.”
“I don’t know. It might be too much. I don’t want to put all of this into your head or add to your burdens.”
I set my coffee down and pulled him onto the bed with me. We sat cross-legged facing each other, and I just stared at him. “I think we’re doing this whole one-night-stand thing completely terribly.”
He smiled softly. “I don’t think you can count it as one anymore.”
“True. And while I’m not great at labels because they scare me, I think it’s okay if we talk to each other about what’s on our minds. I would like that. I don’t know if I’m good at the whole just-casual-sex thing.”
Dillon shook his head. “I’m not either.”
Relief flooded me. “Oh, thank God.”
His lips quirked into another smile. “Yeah, same. I think I tried it once and ended up feeling like shit afterward.”
“With Mandy?” I asked softly, not knowing if I wanted the answer.
“Yeah, though I thought we were something more. She only saw me how she wanted to. And I didn’t like it.”
“That’s not nice.”
“No, we had our roles laid out before us, and I didn’t fall into line. But I don’t want to talk about her.”
“Then talk to me about what’s on your mind. For real.”
“Shit. Okay, so about the whole genes thing… Brendon isn’t actually my brother.”
I blinked. “What?
“It’s a long story.”
“If you’re up to telling it, I’d like to hear it.”
He met my gaze, then looked down at his hands. I slid mine into his open palm, and he squeezed it, but I didn’t do anything else. Didn’t say anything else. I just let him think.
“I guess I’ll start at the beginning. My mother liked drugs, selling herself for drugs, and was the worst possible mother ever.” He didn’t look at me, but I still froze, my hand on his. “Don’t say anything until I’m done, okay?”
He looked up at me then, and I nodded. “Of course. I don’t know what there is to say to that anyway.”
“Nothing, really. Mom was a terrible mother. She was worse, I think, when Aiden and Cameron were born. They’re twins but have a different father. Mom ended up getting in trouble with something or other and lost Aiden and Cameron to the system. They bounced around for a bit and finally ended up with Jack and Rose Connolly here in Denver. Brendon was in the system as well, and the Connollys started with a foster program with all three. When they were able, they adopted them all formally.”
“Wow,” I whispered.
I nodded, swallowing hard. “Aiden and Cameron were even split up for a bit when they were younger, but Rose and Jack did their best to get them back together. And it worked out in the end. Except for, somewhere along that path, my mom decided to get pregnant again. This time with a different dude, another lowlife. And she had me.”
I met his gaze, and he shrugged. There was such sadness in his eyes, with a little bit of anger mixed in.
“She wasn’t the worst mom at first. She tried. I got cereal—the off-brand stuff, but that was what we could afford, and that was fine. We didn’t have lunch or dinner on most days. I ended up getting myself to school when I could, at least at first. Mostly because the elementary school was a block away. But then she found a new dealer, and he ended up becoming her pimp.” He cringed at that. “It was easier for her to keep the lights on if she had a job. And that was the job she liked. And while I have a whole idea in my head, I can’t judge sex workers for the jobs they do. Though I can’t help but judge my mom. Because she was only doing what she did because she wanted drugs. And she wanted to keep the lights on in the house. For her. I was barely a thought.”
He let out a breath. “I was eleven years old when she asked for help. She couldn’t do anything anymore, and Cameron came out.”
My eyes widened. “Cameron?”
“We were out west by then. Cameron was twenty-one. He ended up raising me out there. Aiden and Brendon didn’t come, but that’s not my story to tell, you know?”
I nodded.
“When I turned eighteen, it was just Cameron and me. Mom was long gone. Dad never contacted me. I had no idea who he was, other than a name on a birth certificate and the fact that he was my sperm donor. But when I turned eighteen, I made a couple of mistakes. Didn’t apply for college and lied about it.” He groaned.
“What?” I asked finally, confused since that didn’t sound like the boy I knew now, the one sitting right in front of me.
“Yeah, I thought I’d be in a rock band. I play guitar,” he added, shaking his head. “And drums. Not that great, though. The guys in my band all promised that we’d stay in LA and make something of ourselves. Their parents weren’t working two jobs, and didn’t own a bar, and weren’t working themselves to death like Cameron was. And their kids didn’t lie to them.” Dillon groaned. “I told Cameron point-blank that I had applied to college. When he found out that I hadn’t, that my dreams of making it big in a band were in place, he just looked at me like he didn’t even know me. I was an idiot. I still have no idea why I even followed that path. It’s not like I actually see myself as that person.”
“I can’t see you as that person.”
He smiled then. “I don’t know. I think it was just a little too much. Cameron and I were barely speaking at that point. We didn’t really know each other. Yeah, I lived with him, but I didn’t know that he was there because he loved me. I thought it was just because he felt like I was some responsibility. And then I wanted to know who his brothers were and why they weren’t my brothers and why they weren’t there, and it turned into this whole thing where I didn’t understand anything. My friends ended up going to college, and I haven’t spoken to t
hem since. They thought I was a fucking idiot. And I was, but they were willing to push me in that direction. Honestly, I think they just wanted to see what would happen when the deadbeat kid didn’t make it.”
“Where are they? I can beat them up for you.”
Rage filled me, but Dillon squeezed my hand.
“Don’t worry about them. I don’t care what they do with the rest of their lives. I figured out what I wanted to do. It took Cameron and me moving to Colorado, but after Jack Connolly died and the will was read, he left the bar to the three of them. They had to work together and somehow become a family again. I won’t bore you with the details of that, but they all ended up doing pretty well, and I somehow got three brothers and three sisters along the way.”
“Wow,” I whispered. “I didn’t know that. I mean, my family is pretty normal. Or as normal as you can be with two hyper-attentive doctors who expect the most out of you. But it’s not the same at all.”
“Everybody has their problems. Mine just tend to be a little more dramatic,” Dillon said dryly. “I went through my version of hell, but my three brothers? They went through so much more. In the end, though, I always had Cameron. Even when I thought I didn’t, I did. And it took me a long time to realize that. But today, things got a little extra complicated.”
“What happened?” I asked, nervous now.
He sighed. “I need to tell my brothers this. I should have done so before, but I don’t know… I thought maybe if I just ignored it, it would go away.”
“What? Dillon, you’re scaring me.”
“My dad, Dave. He’s been texting me.”
My eyes widened. “Are you serious? Just out of the blue?”
Dillon cringed. “He somehow figured out where I was, and he’s been texting me—hounding me for money and crap. I don’t have anything to give him. My brothers do, but I don’t. I’m in school, for fuck’s sake. But he found me and has been hassling me. Today, he showed up at the house. Where all the guys were. And they got to see my dad in his deadbeat glory. Threatening them—mostly Miles and me. And wanting money.” He paused. “I think he’s on drugs. And not the kind that keep you laidback. The kind that makes you tweak and get fucking dangerous if you aren’t careful.”
My One Night: An On My Own Novel Page 10
