From the little I’d observed, she seemed to have an upbeat personality, always happy—at least when I saw her.

“Yeah, if only my mom could.”

I nodded. “Parents have a way of dictating your future.”

Going to college was my one shot at freedom, and that was coming to an end. The only reason I enrolled in the first place was not for the education, but because I had a job to do. Though I’d taken advantage of the opportunity.





6





megan





Thanks to my mother and her genes, I couldn’t sit idly without dire consequences to my backside. So I forced myself into workout clothes and left the comfort of my dorm. I headed across the football field to the gym—the quickest route there.

To my dismay, several guys were on the field using it as their personal playground, though I couldn’t blame them. The weather was surprisingly warm and who knew how long that would last.

I plastered a smile to my face and trudged across, trying not to let self-doubt creep into my mind.

“Hey, sexy, you want to come play with us?”

The boy in question wore a lopsided grin. I flashed him a smile back despite his crude attempt at a pun. The positive was he found my curviness sexy.

“Not today,” I said.

“Watch out,” a female voice cried out.

It was surreal how I turned in what felt like slow motion. It was too late to move as a Frisbee headed directly for my head. Strong arms wrapped around my waist and yanked me out of the way in the nick of time. The Frisbee zipped by so close to my nose that I felt the breeze as it traveled past me.

When my savior set me back on my feet, I stumbled a step to turn around to thank him or her. I had to crane my neck up to look into the eyes of Gavin, whose expression wasn’t friendly.

“Hey assholes, watch what you’re doing,” he yelled to the motley crew.

There was a round of muttered apologies like, “Sorry Gavin” in a repeating chorus.

“Thank you,” I told him.

His frown rose into a sexy smirk. “Couldn’t let anything happen to that beautiful face of yours.”

It was his fault I turned a bright red. “I should go.”

“Running from me, Angel?

Angel? Was he that much of a player he didn’t remember my name? Before clouds marred my internal perfect sky, I tried to think of a bright side. But was there one?

I backed away from him, but managed to maintain my smile. “That’s not my name,” I said, though I vaguely remembered him calling me that the other night.

His grin didn’t falter, and my stupid heart tripped over itself as the curve of his mouth gained more confidence as if his ego needed it.

“I know, Megan. But the way you’ve brightened my day, you can’t be human. You must be a gift from heaven.”

Holy huckleberries. I spun around knowing if he saw the cheesy way I giggled, his ego would inflate like a balloon until it popped. His chuckles quickened my steps as I made my way into the gym. I had to get out of there before I wrapped myself around him and declared my surrender.

What was wrong with me? Okay, I hadn’t had sex in months, like since my breakup. But I’d tried to date other guys. Unfortunately for me, hookups weren’t my thing, though again, I’d tried. I thought maybe sex with someone else would fill the hole where all my romantic notions had been leaking out. Only I wasn’t that girl.

If I’d had any brain cells in that moment, I would have come back with something clever about the way he’d dropped the weights the day before, wiping that smug look off his face. But I couldn’t quite think right when I was around him. It was like I was some teenager who’d never been kissed.

“Whoa, there.”

For the second time that day, I couldn’t seem to walk without almost careening into something or someone.

My weight trainer was there. He stood a few inches taller than me with rich mocha skin and a smile that would get any girl to lose her clothes.

“Sorry.” I gave him a pained smile. “I guess I wasn’t paying attention.”

He slung an arm around my shoulder. “No worries, Meg. What’s got you all tied up in knots?”

I shrugged as much as I could, tucked next to him. “Nothing. I just have a lot on my mind.”

He stopped and pulled me to the side of the door where he taught fitness to a few volunteers as a part of his senior project. Basically, it meant I got a trainer for free. “You should consider yoga.”

My eyes widened. “But I thought we weren’t supposed to do anything extra?”

For several weeks, we were supposed to eat like we normally did and not increase or decrease our physical activity outside of what we did in his class.