Page 38 of Almost Rotten

I take in the land I love. The land I’m proud to cultivate. The land that’s home to a small business that’s doing “not too bad at all” this month.

My heartrate slows.

A sense of hopeful ease settles around me.

As I ground myself, I acknowledge that for the first time in a long time, my life is not so bad either.

Chapter fifteen

Sawyer

Ifiddle with the fourth button on my sweater as I ascend the stairs of the Wheeler Center.

I’m late.

Not intentionally.

Strike that. Maybe intentionally.

I just… I couldn’t decide on an outfit, then I had to run back to my room—twice—because I forgot my notes and my water bottle.

Clearly, I don’t want to do this. How can I look Mercer in the eye after all that’s transpired over the last forty-eight hours?

Despite my untimely arrival, I left the dorm before Ty was finished with morning skate.

He was in my room when I got home last night. And what happened Monday happened again. Twice.

Except this time after we dry-humped until I came, he didn’t leave.

He stayed over.

In my room.

In my bed.

He slept beside me all night, with his heavy arm draped over my stomach.

Last night, something shifted.

Last night changed everything.

I could have claimed the first time was a fluke. The product of pent-up frustration and complicated emotions fueled by a hormonal response to a man I’ve fantasized about for years.

But there’s no justification for the second incident.

There’s no justification for my behavior.

I’m mortified.

Disappointed in myself.

And terrified of what Mercer will think—and how this could change our relationship.

At the end of the hall, I pause, studying the solid-wood door that leads into his office.

It’s cracked, like it usually is when I arrive for our pre-class check-in.

He’s in there.