Finding Our Forever: (A Defining Moments Novel) (17 page)

CLIMBING BACK INTO
my truck, I lay my head back on the seat and take a deep breath. I’m so thankful that damn test is over. It was harder than I’d hoped, but I think I did okay on it. At this point, I’ll just be happy to pass that damn class. The meeting with my advisor went great and he was supportive of my decision to make the change. Because I’m leaving his department, I’ll be reassigned to a new advisor before the beginning of next semester, one in the Psychology department. I turn my phone back on and it lights up with an e-mail from my mom, which makes me smile big. I haven’t heard from her in over a week.

To: Elijah Harper

From: Mama

Re: Life in Italy

Hi, sweetie! I know you’ve probably been a studying fool for the past week, which is why I’ve left you alone. ;) I hope that finals are going well so far. I just wanted to pop in and say hi and let you know I’m doing great. The lady that I’m staying with right now is amazing, and I feel like I am learning so much from her. I found a vineyard not far from here that I’ve fallen in love with. Not only is their wine to die for but the owners are so fun and they’ve welcomed me with open arms. I probably spend more time there than I should. Lol.

Anyhow, I just wanted to check in with you, let you know that I’m doing great and miss you boys like crazy. Shoot me an e-mail when you’re done with finals and let me know how things went and how you’re doing.

Still seeing Sara? :-)

I love you, baby boy.

Mom

As much as she tries to pretend that she is just fine and loving life, I know that whatever happened between her and Cord is still bothering her. I wish she’d tell me, but I don’t want to be that overbearing, nosy son. She’ll tell me if and when she’s ready I guess.

I shoot her a quick response, noticing that I need to get to Luigi’s soon or I’ll be late.

To: Mama

From: Eli

Re: College life

Hey, Mama! I just wanted to shoot you a quick response so you know I’m still alive and kicking. :-) I just finished with my last final, Trig, and that is the only one I was super concerned about. I think I did okay, but truthfully, I’m so glad this semester is over. I’ll be so much less stressed now that it’s done. I’m still seeing Sara, and am actually going to be late for our lunch date so I need to go. Just wanted you to know that I survived finals week and I miss you. I’ll call you this weekend.

Love you,

E

I hit send, throw my phone in the cup holder beside me, and head toward Luigi’s. I see her car as soon as I pull in the parking lot and smile.

Heading into the restaurant, my stomach lets out a loud growl at the amazing smells of this place. Best pizza ever.

She smiles big when she sees me and I bend and kiss her cheek when I get to her.

“How was your Trig final, big guy?” she asks with a smirk.

“It’s over and that’s the important part,” I reply with a laugh. “Now, I just want to eat this amazing pizza and spend the day relaxing with you.”

She nods and returns her attention to the menu in front of her.

“So I received a phone call from an old friend this morning,” she begins, not looking up from the menu. She’s using it as a distraction. “It seems that he lives in Phoenix, is also going to be attending PA school, and is looking for a roommate.”

My hands clench around my menu, but I’m trying to keep from freaking out. I mean, we haven’t discussed anything about how things will play out once she leaves. Last time we discussed it, which was weeks ago, we basically called this a casual, exclusive relationship. Jesus. It sounds exactly like what Ben said he has with Ramzi, except I’m not lying to her, or whatever the hell Ben is doing.

“So, you have an old friend, who happens to be male, going to the same school as you and wants to live with you? Am I getting that correct?” I ask, glaring daggers into the top of her head because she still hasn’t looked up at me.

“Sort of,” she mumbles. She slowly raises her head and looks me directly in the face, before smirking and continuing. “Are you jealous, Eli?”

I mash my teeth together and narrow my eyes at her. “Hell yes I’m jealous,” I grind out. “I know we haven’t discussed what comes next for us, but I know that hearing you might be moving in with another guy makes me feel sort of homicidal.”

She drops her gaze back down to the table and smiles. “Jose is gay, Eli. No worries.”

I take a deep breath and unclench my hands. “You could’ve started the conversation with that information, Sara. Way to give me a heart attack.”

She chuckles before replying, “Well, I kind of wanted to see how you’d react first. I knew if you acted like it didn’t bother you, that whatever this is”—she swings her finger back and forth between the two of us—“isn’t as important to you as it has become to me.” Her words make me really look at her.

I reach across the table and grab her hands, running my thumbs over her knuckles. “The more time I spend with you, the more important whatever this is becomes. The idea of you leaving makes my stomach hurt.”

She grips my hands in hers and nods, just as the waitress arrives to take our order.

We eat mostly in silence. It’s kind of weird now that it’s been put out there that we’re both starting to feel more for each other than we’d planned to let happen. I mean, we’ve known for weeks that she’s leaving soon. We’ve not discussed at all the possibility of trying a long-distance relationship. She has two years of PA school to get through and I have three semesters left. That puts me at a year and a half of school left. Plus, does she want to live here or would she eventually expect me to move there? Do I really want to leave Colorado eventually? I love it here.

When the bill comes, I pay it and we head out to the parking lot, hand in hand.

“Why don’t you come over to the house? We can watch movies and just hang out.”

“I think that’s probably a good idea. It seems as though we have some things to talk about too,” I reply, lifting her hand to my mouth and kissing it before opening her car door for her to get in.

“I’ll meet you at my place then,” she says and smiles up at me.

THE WHOLE DRIVE
to Sara’s house, I can’t stop thinking about what she said. We really need to talk about her leaving more. I need to just lay it out there and hope she feels the same way. It sounds as though she does, but I don’t want there to be any misunderstandings about what’s going on with us or where our relationship is going once she leaves.

I pull up in front of her house a few minutes later and she’s already getting out of her car. I meet her at the front door, and when she opens it, Diesel lets out a whimper from somewhere in the house and Sara freezes.

“Diesel,” she yells into the house but is only met with another whimper. I whisper to Sara to stay outside, but she shakes her head and pushes her way into the house, once again yelling for him.

We follow the whimper to the back of the kitchen and find him lying in front of the slightly opened refrigerator.

“Ah, Diesel,” Sara huffs. “Not again!” She sits down beside him and starts rubbing his belly, which makes him groan.

“What’s going on? What’s wrong with him,” I ask quickly.

“He got into the refrigerator and ate a bunch of crap he shouldn’t have,” she tells me as she stands and opens the fridge door all the way. I watch as she looks through the contents left inside.

“So, he ate my leftover Chinese food from last night, the half a pound of lunch meat and half a pound of cheese I bought yesterday, and chewed up a container of mustard. He has a belly ache for sure.” Her voice is muffled due to her head being stuck in the fridge.

“I don’t think any of that stuff will hurt him, but he’s probably not going to feel good for a little while,” I reply, gently rubbing his belly. He farts so loud that Sara jerks her head out of the fridge and looks at me as if I did it. The smell about knocks me over.

“Don’t look at me like that. That was your dog,” I laugh out. She looks down at Diesel and shakes her head.

“Poor guy.” She reaches down and pats his head. “I’ll go get the medicine the vet gave me last time he did this.” I watch her rush down the hallway and into the bathroom. Sitting down beside Diesel, I rub his tummy gently, causing him to squirm a bit. He’s so uncomfortable.

“Here we go,” she says out loud but more to herself. She pulls out a bag of treats from the cabinet beside the fridge, removes one, and shoves a tiny pill into it. “See if you can get him to eat that,” she tells me while sitting down on the floor on the other side of him.

When he smells the treat in my hand, he lifts his head only far enough to prop it up on my knee and give me the big puppy-dog eyes. I put the treat in front of his mouth and he groans and licks it. I chuckle because I can tell he wants to eat it, but his tummy hurts and so he’s trying to decide if eating it will be worth the additional pain. Little does he know it should help. Poor guy.

He eventually eats the treat and falls asleep, farting every few minutes. We sit, avoiding our earlier discussion, and chat as we keep an eye on him to make sure his discomfort doesn’t get too bad. An hour or so later, he’s snoring and not groaning anymore, so we assume it’s safe that he’ll pull through.

Ben texted me a few minutes ago and asked me if I was coming home tonight. Said he’d bought Thai food and would be hanging out at home if I was up for a guys’ night. Our relationship hasn’t been right since mom’s accident and I need to fix it.

Kissing Sara and telling her goodnight seems weird because it’s still light outside and usually, if we spend the day together, it ends up being an all-nighter, or I go home super late. Now that school is out for the summer, I foresee a lot more all-nighters, although we have both avoided the serious discussion we need to have since Diesel sidetracked us.

When I get home, Ben is spread out across the couch watching baseball and shoveling Pad Thai into his mouth with chopsticks. I freaking love Pad Thai.

“Dude, I’m gonna jump in the shower real quick. Don’t eat it all!” I yell as I rush to the bathroom, stripping off clothes as I go.

I make quick work of the shower and throw on a pair of basketball shorts. When I walk back into the living room, Ben is rubbing his belly and groaning.

“Did you save me any?” I chuckle as I make my way around the couch.

“Yep,” he mumbles and lifts his hand toward the containers on the coffee table.

“Damn, Ben. Were you hungry? That’s a lot of damn food.”

“I was starving, and I wasn’t sure if you’d bring Sara home with you, so I bought enough for all of us.” His tone seems a little off, but I don’t point it out.

I grab a carton and a set of chopsticks and squeeze some lime over the noodles and sprinkle on a little cilantro. My mouth is watering before I even put the first mouthful in.

Between bites, I manage to ask Ben about how things are going with Ramzi, but he just grumbles under his breath and ignores the question.

We watch more baseball, eat more Pad Thai, and just hang out like we used too. It’s nice. No heavy discussions about family drama. Just brothers kicking it.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. Destry will be back in three weeks. We need to decide on the bigger apartment or the house,” he says quickly before adding, “I personally think having a house would be better for us.” Although I enjoy having the onsite gym and pool, I’m definitely over the idiots who live above us stomping around at all hours and the pothead down the hall who basically gives everybody on this floor a contact high on a daily basis.

Ben went and looked at a three-bedroom apartment and a three-bedroom house earlier this week while I was in finals. His opinion, which I trust completely, makes sense. The house is 1800 square feet and the apartment is 1200. The house makes sense with so much more room.

“I trust your judgment, Ben. The house it is,” I reply without a second thought. That makes Ben smile.

“Thank God. I really didn’t want to live in another apartment,” he says with a sigh.