Reckless Together: A Contemporary New Adult College Romance (The Reckless Series) (2 page)

"I'll stay with you. Isn't that what most moms do?" Her voice was too sweet and happy to be genuine, and sharpened with a warning edge.
 

"I have a roommate and she has a mom, too. It will be crowded."

"Too many excuses, Ellie. I'm coming. Get over it." Her tone had become firm.

"Okay," I said. "But I reserve the right to kick you out. Once glance at Logan and you're sleeping in your car."
 

She ignored my terms. "Excellent! Plan something fun." She laughed a little too brightly. "Plan lots of fun things! Don't they have a whole host of things for moms to do? A mother/daughter mani and pedi would be great. My treat. And I want to meet all your friends. And their moms. I'll be in touch." She hung up.

I stared at the phone, stunned and wondering how she'd gotten what she wanted so easily. My mind raced with tasks. There was so much to do—warn Logan and Jason. And hope Jason didn't fight me when I asked him to hold off on telling Mom about him until I was sure of her motives. Which meant, like, never telling him, because you could never trust her. I had to give my roommate Bre the bad news that Mom was coming to town. Make plans to keep Mom busy and out of trouble…
 

I took a deep breath, wondering if there was a way to get Mom out of my life for good. Something short of murder. As long as I had a hot guy in my life, Mom was going to be a clear and present danger.

A knock on my dorm door startled me. The door burst open before I could answer it. My two good friends Nicole and Taylor rushed in, jovially arguing with each other.

"She's back!" Tay turned to Nic. "I told you she was. I thought I'd seen her come in." She plopped onto Bre's bed across from me.
 

Bre was out, probably with her boyfriend Dan.

"No, you said you saw a car that looked a lot like Logan's pull away. Not the same thing."

I was happily invisible until Nic swung her gaze to me. "How come you didn't come find us?" Nic had an accusing tone in her voice. "You knew we'd be dying of curiosity! After that totally adorable way Logan was waiting for you at Up All Night with his balloon heart in his hand, how could anyone resist him?

"You're just lucky you got to him before someone else stole him away. You owe us for not letting you chicken out and run away." She plunked next to Tay on the bed and fixed her interested, yet accusing, stare on me.

"I told you Falcon26 was going to be awesome!" Tay beamed and wore her smug expression.

Falcon26 was Logan's screen name when he played
League of Legends
. It was a long story, but basically while Logan and I had been broken up, I'd played LoL with Falcon26, not knowing Falcon26 was Logan. Falcon26 flirted with me all the time. I thought he was a lonely geek.
 

"You drew him as a beak-nosed, winged nerd," I said.

Tay shrugged. "Artistic license. I was just teasing you. What I told you is that you should meet him because he was so sweet and he could be the one. Thank me later." She made a bowing gesture, like she deserved tons of applause and even more eternal gratitude.

Nic interrupted. "Enough!" She pointed at me. "Dish."

Tay studied me and frowned. "Why aren't you glowing?" She glanced at Nic. "She should be glowing. What's gone wrong
now
?"

"No, she should be walking like a cowboy." Nic winked. "Bowlegged and sore in the saddle." She laughed until she saw my face. "What the hell
is
wrong? Don't tell me Logan is impotent."

"Or a totally sucky, selfish lover," Tay added, and sighed. "No, I can't believe that." She glanced at Nic. "That goes against every rumor we've ever heard about him."

"What rumors?" I said.

Nic shrugged and doggedly hit her point again. "Why aren't you grinning from ear to ear? You should be flying."

"Maybe they had a fight." Tay shuddered. "Don't tell me you blew it. No more secrets, right? He knows about your dad. You know about him and the chem prof. It's all out there now.

I sighed. "What makes you think I slept with him?"

"Oh, come on! You did." Nic pinned me with a look. "If you didn't, I'm going to have to kill you."

"Get thee to a nunnery!" Tay was reading
Hamlet
for her English class.

"Why wouldst thou have me be a breeder of sinners?" I shot back, hoping I wasn't breeding anything. Getting accidentally pregnant was one of my biggest fears.

"You modified the quote," Tay said.

"Good. You get an A in English Lit." I sighed. Thinking about Logan, happiness bubbled up inside me. I couldn't hold down my smile.

Nic's smile returned. "She slept with him."

Tay's eyes lit up. "So? How was it?"

"The rumors are true." I glanced at the heart-shaped Mylar Logan had given me. It floated in the corner and made my heart swell just looking at it. I grinned. "That's all I'm going to say."

"You're no fun." Tay made a pouty face.

Nic was undeterred. "We'll get it out of her eventually." Her eyes were a dark, deep brown and usually sparkled with fun. But they turned serious. "Seriously, though, what's bothering you?"

I sighed heavily and bit my lip. "Logan has met my mom."

Nic and Tay made a collective gasp and their mouths popped open.

"Crap," Nic whispered. "Met? Like in person?" She was way too tentative. Nic rarely danced delicately around any issue.

She and Tay knew about Mom sleeping with Austin.
 

"He'd been talking to her while we were apart," I said. "Trying to keep her away from me so I could get to know Jason without her interference."

"Whoa!" Tay put her hands beneath her thighs and stared at me as if she was measuring how I was holding up.

"So, yeah," I said. "He hasn't pulled an Austin."

"Then why are you upset? It sounds like he's been playing hero. Don't you believe him?" Nic studied me.

"There's a reason I didn't come right to see you—Mom called just as I got back to my room. She's coming for Mom's Weekend. There's no way to stop her."

Nic whistled and winced. "Ouch."

I nodded. They both knew our sordid history.

"What are you going to do?" Tay said. "Are you going to tell her about your dad?"

I shook my head. "No! No, no, no, no. And ruin everything? Including his life? Are you kidding?"

Nic tried to take a pragmatic approach. "Didn't you say Jason was just a friend to your mom, a one-night stand with a brainiac guy she thought was beneath her? Why would she even care about him now?"

"That's what Jason said," I replied. "He may even be right. But you give Mom way too much credit if you think she's going to happily let bygones be bygones. I ruined her life. And I'm here because of Jason. You don't think she'd like to take her revenge?"

Tay shook her head. "You're being melodramatic. She never told him about you. There must be a reason. Maybe she won't want to see him. Besides, he's happily married with a baby and another on the way—what can she possibly do to him?"

I wagged my finger at them. "You are so naïve! Mom never lets a man get away.
Never
. It's a matter of pride with her. She likes to think all her ex-men are still longing for her tragically. She'll do something. I
know
she will.

"With Lyssa pregnant and emotionally vulnerable, the last thing she needs is to be ambushed by my mom. No, I won't let it happen."

"What are you going to do?" Tay asked.

"Ask Jason to stay out of the way and keep Mom as far away from him and Logan as possible."

"We'll help," Nic said. "My mom is coming and she can badass with the best of them. She'll keep your mom out of trouble, or in trouble, if that's what you want."

"My mom can't make it. Too much to do at work." Tay's face fell. Her mom put work above her too often. "I'll have to be your wingman."

"The sorority has a tons of functions for the moms I'm obligated to attend, but I'll break away when I can." Nic had gone through informal rush at semester. "We'll plan every minute of her stay. No downtime. No time for trouble. She'll be so busy, she won't have enough energy to cause trouble. We'll tag-team her if necessary." Nic nodded like she approved of her own scheme.

"Sounds good to me," Tay said. "Could be fun."

I rolled my eyes. "Fun? Hardly. Mom says she wants the full college experience." I snorted. "I'm assuming without the studies and test pressure. Which are the only parts I really want to give her."

"I'm guessing she probably wants the men," Nic added.

"Shut up."

"Oh, I think we could find her someone to keep her distracted." Nic had a wicked grin.
 

I rolled my eyes and ignored her suggestion.
 

"Forget guys," Tay said. "If she wants the full experience, the first thing you need is matching sweatshirts. There's a Facebook group where Geeds can order matchy-matchy sweatshirts online and pick them up at a house just off campus a few days before Mom's Weekend."

"Dress her up in a bulky sweatshirt! I like the way you think, Tay." I grabbed my laptop, prepared to order Mom a size too large.

"Okay, order your sweatshirts," Nic said. "But you're not getting out of giving us the details of your first time with Logan."

After Tay and Nic left, Dex called. Something was up. He usually texted.

"Why the fuck didn't you tell me Falcon26 is Logan? If this is your idea of a sick joke at my expense—"

"Whoa! Hold on. First—how did you find out? And second, I only learned the truth last night when I went to the SUB to meet Falcon. He asked me out and I let Tay and Nic talk me into going. I was fully expecting him to be a geek."

"How did I find out?" Dex sounded slightly mollified. "Tay tweeted it."

I mumbled something about killing Taylor.

"You really didn't know Logan was Falcon26?" Dex didn't sound fully convinced.

I spent the next five minutes assuring him I didn't and relating the whole story to him.

"Well, that explains why Falcon is so good and why he favored you and helped you all the time. Damn," Dex said. "I suppose you've gone over to the dark side now—his side?"

I laughed. "Yeah."

"I won't be able to use you as my secret weapon anymore."

"Nope. But cheer up. He's graduating this semester."
And leaving,
I thought with a desperate sense of hopelessness. I didn't want him to go.
 

Dex hesitated. He wasn't a touchy-feely-talky guy. "You and him back together—you're okay? He's not going to break your heart again, is he? The odds of me finding another guy like Falcon for you are pretty slim."
 

Dex didn't often show soft emotion, but the protective tone was there in his voice. He was sweet, not wanting me to get hurt again.
 

"There are no guarantees in life," I said. "But I hope not."

"He's okay with Jason being your dad?"

"Yes. We're good."

"Good." Dex sighed. "At least one thing is looking up. This has been a shitty day already."

"Why? What else happened?"

"My mom called. She's coming to Mom's Weekend."
 

I pictured him making a face.

"I thought you and your mom got along great. What's the problem?"

"She babies me. And acts all girly. She wanted a daughter instead of me and sometimes she still doesn't act any different. Did I tell you that she didn't cut my hair until I was nearly three? I had curly ringlets. Everyone thought I was girl until Dad finally took matters into his own hands and sheared me like a sheep." Dex's tone was full of affection for his dad. "Do you know what Mom's done now?"

"No, astound me," I said.

"She ordered us matching Mom's Weekend sweatshirts. She actually expects me to pick them up here and wear mine. Like a real man dresses like his mom. How she found that damn website…"

I cracked up. "You're going to look so cute, you and mommy dressed alike."