Before Ryan Was Mine (The Remembrance Trilogy - Prequel) (10 page)

Now we were at O’Hare and my mother was dropping us off at the curb. Julia was wrapped in my leather jacket because I’d thrown that purple atrocity in the trash the second day after she arrived. We’d been dumped on by a foot and a half of lake effect snow and stayed in practically the entire time. Except when we went snowmobiling on Sunday.

Julia stood there in quiet acquiescence as I pulled two of my sweaters over her head, one after the other, and gave her a pair of my old sweats to wear over her jeans for added warmth.
The spare ski gloves I found were way too big for her small hands, but they, along with the layers, my mother’s parka, and a cashmere scarf my grandmother brought back for me from Germany, kept her warm enough. Her green eyes peeking out of the scarf that was securely wrapped around her head and over her mouth, rolled at me.

“I look like the Stay Puff marshmallow man. Only in color,” she’d mumbled through the fine wool.

“And cuter.”

“Whatever, Matthews.”

I hugged my mom goodbye, leaving her to gush over Julia while I retrieved our luggage from the trunk. “Come back and see us again, sweetheart. We loved having you, and Gabe won’t stop raving about your cooking.”

“Thank you, ma’am. I really appreciated being with your family.”

“Next time I see you, I don’t want to hear any of that ma’am stuff. Got it?”

Julia smiled. My mother cupped my cheek and stood on tiptoe to kiss me one last time. “Take care, son. Have Aaron call me.”

“I will. Don’t get a ticket.” I nodded at the policeman on the sidewalk. He was walking two cars down from where I’d parked the car.

She nodded and opened her door. “Have a safe flight and—”

“—Call when we get down. I know.” Julia stood with her arms crossed over her chest, trying not to shiver, so I tried to hurry. “Bye,” I said and turned with Julia to go through the sliding glass doors into the terminal.

“Ryan, that bag dude was waiting.” Julia looked up at me as she walked by my side, unraveling the scarf from around her head. Her hair was full of static electricity and many of the long, dark strands stood out from her head.

I screwed up my face. “So? We need to check in at the counter.”

“Why?” She half-stopped, turned and pointed back in the direction we came.

“Just… come on.”

I had both of our bags and she followed two feet behind me as I looked at my options. I picked out a particularly pretty and young-looking woman checking bags at one end of the United counter and got in her line.

“Ryan, that line is shorter.” Julia indicated another as I passed it.

“Just… shh.” I grinned. She was looking at me like I was mental.

When it was our turn, I turned over my driver’s license. “Do you have bags to check?” She was pretty, with bright pink cheeks, and shoulder-length hair that bobbed when she moved or talked.

“No. It’s a carry-on. But, I’m traveling with my friend, and we booked our tickets at different times.” I laid a smooth smile on her. “We’d really like to sit together, if possible. Could you reassign our seats?”

She began typing quickly. “May I see the young lady’s ID?”

Julia handed it over, glancing at me through hooded eyes.

“Most of the seats are full, sir.”

“Please?” I asked. “I have a nut allergy, and planes have nuts and she knows how to administer epinephrine, in case I have an attack.”

The woman stopped typing and looked me straight in the eye, her own narrowing just a bit.

“Ryan,” Julia began, and I squeezed her hand to cut her off.

“Yes, sir. It seems I do have two in first class. But that’s it.”

“Okay.” I whipped out my wallet. “How much more is it?”

“I’ll go ahead and just upgrade you. Since it’s a medical emergency.” She shot me a small wink.

“Unbelievable,” Julia snorted.

The desk attendant printed off two boarding passes and soon we were on the way to the gate.

“You’re welcome,” I gloated, a smug smile playing on my lips.

“There’s no room for me in first class with you and your ego!”

When we got to security, I kicked off my shoes and dumped them in one of those gray bins. We both had laptop computers and had to take them out of the bags and place them in two of their own tubs. I tossed both bags up and pushed them toward the conveyor, watching Julia go through the security X-ray machine. She collected her things, stowed her laptop again, and was already putting her shoes back on by the time I got through and grabbed my bag.

I looked at the sour look on her face. “Why are you pissed? Now we can sit together.”

“You’re a shitty liar, Ryan.” She put her bag on the chair next to the one I was sitting on as I tied my shoes. She used her thumb and index finger on one hand to grab the tip of her tongue.

“I hav ah nu allery,” she mocked a swollen tongue, and again rolled her big green eyes. “As if batting your eyes like Shirley Temple wasn’t enough.” She referenced the little girl from a movie we fell asleep to the night before.

I burst out laughing, as did the two people sitting next to me on the opposite side.

“Who’s Shirley Temple, again?” I asked in fake innocence, still chuckling. I dug my boarding pass out of my back pocket and checked our gate.

“It’s sickening. It’s like you have some sort of poison love potion that wafts around you and works on anyone with a vag.”

I couldn’t stop smiling. I loved that she thought I had some magical power over women. It made me puff up like a peacock.

“Why doesn’t it work on you, then?” I leaned down and blew on the side of her face.

Julia huffed playfully. “Immunity from repetitive small dose exposure over time… Geez. Some doctor you’re gonna be!”

I laughed and nudged her shoulder as our gate finally came into view. “Shut up. I don’t want to put up with your whining for three hours.”

She was smiling when we found two chairs by a window and sat down. I went to get us drinks and by the time I returned, she was looking through the Stanford spring semester course catalogue. A guy sitting across from her was checking her out, but Julia was completely immersed in figuring out her schedule. Registrations were due by Monday at noon.

I twisted the bottle cap off of the green tea I’d purchased for her and took a swig before handing it over. Her hand took the bottle and she drank from it without looking up. I took the chair next to her, leaning in, shoulders touching, to see what she was looking at. I tossed a hooded glance at the guy across the aisle as I opened my own drink.

“Is there anything in there we can take together?”

Julia looked up and turned her face toward me. She held her bottle close to her chest, her arm curled in, the neck of the bottle resting on her lower lip. “Really?” she asked softly, almost as if she didn’t think I was serious.

“Yeah. I’ll miss seeing you in psych.”

A little crinkle appeared above her nose as she frowned. “We see each other all the time, Ryan.”

“I know. But I’m sort of used to you now, and this might be the last semester we’ll be able to have a class together. Once electives and base recs are done.”

“Afraid my immunity will wear off?”

My lips twitched and one corner lifted in half smile. “Something like that.”

“Well, I think we should see what time we both have open then look for something in that time slot.”

“Sounds good.” I had a heavy math and science load in front of me for the next three years, and beyond six hours of electives and the basic liberal arts stuff, it was pretty much mapped out. But I wanted a class with her. Even if I had to take more hours than I needed.

It wasn’t long before we both had our schedules lined up, with an English lit class together at 11 AM on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

“Reading and writing. I can handle that,” I teased. They began boarding our flight and Julia stuffed it all back in her bag. We settled into our first class seats, both tired from the night before, and I began to drift, my eyes heavy. Her perfume was familiar and comforting and it wasn’t long before I felt her head drop onto my shoulder.

~4~
Valentine’s Between Friends

Fucking Valentine’s Day! I hated everything about it and always had. Ever since I’d hit puberty, there was always at least one girl expecting something I wasn’t willing to give; batting their doe eyes in expectation then angry or crying when I didn’t fulfill their sugarplum visions. It was uncomfortable as hell and I really didn’t get it. I rolled my eyes in disgust. I had a feeling this year would be worse than ever.

Aaron wasn’t the romantic type at
all
! In fact, I’d call him the actions-speak-louder-than-words sort of guy; as long as the actions included the humpty dance, that is.
His words,
not mine.

Me? I had more finesse. Women wanted me and I knew it, but my delivery was much more refined. Admittedly, most of the time I was more interested in physical release than making a mental connection, but I tried not to abuse it and seriously, it was because I hadn’t found anyone I wanted to talk to more than have sex with. Other than Julia and I couldn’t even think about taking my relationship with her to that level, so I had to make do with the options I had. I balked a little at the thought. Was it my fault if they threw themselves at me? I’m only human. I huffed then smirked because I seriously found it amusing.

The only thing that redeemed me was that Aaron was worse. However, this year, he was stumbling all over himself to show his new girlfriend, Jenna, he was a one-woman man. I couldn’t tell if he wanted more than sex with her, since he went on and on about how mind-blowing it was, but his actions gave me hope. I had to stop and make sure I wasn’t imagining it, but my brother was pacing back and forth, going over what to write on the card. You’d think he was going to his execution instead of a dinner date. He was so stressed out it was ridiculous!

What the hell, I may not have anyone I wanted to fawn over, but the least I could do was help him out. “Aaron. Chill, dude. Stop fidgeting, for Christ’s sake! You’ll scare the shit out of her.”

“Shut up! It’s only because you’re never invested in your relationships that you can be so cool about women. I actually care about this girl.”

“You’re right. I’m not the fawning type.” He looked at me in confusion. “I don’t fawn. I bask in the fawning.” I explained simply, grinning.

Aaron frowned and stared at me blankly. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You! You’re a mess. Get your balls back, man!”

“Well, some of us have to work at it, pretty boy.”

“Yeah, Ryan, you have it easy! I mean, look at that mug!” Julia huffed at me. “It’s not as if you’ve ever had to work for it, so cut Aaron a break!”

My eyes darted to my best friend, sitting on the chair at the other end of the sofa in the small apartment I shared with my brother. She was concentrating on her calculus assignment, and wasn’t looking at me, so I let my eyes roam over her.

Her fine brows were knitted together as she worked out a problem, glancing between her notes and textbook, once in a while grimacing and taking her eraser to the page. The long, flowing dark brunette hair falling almost to her waist in waves, draped over her face at one point and she impatiently shoved it behind her ear. Her small, rose-colored bow of a mouth looked so soft. Not to mention her firm little body, with the lush curves I’d imagined naked a hundred times, just lying in wait to be discovered. I inhaled, filling my chest to capacity before blowing it out and running my hand through my hair. Once again, I had to remind myself who she was, and what we were.

She was so beautiful, but off limits. Off. Fucking. Limits. I tried to convince myself she wasn’t a woman and treat her only as my best friend. It shouldn’t have been that difficult because she was unlike most of the women I knew. The few months since we’d met, felt like a lifetime. I liked her mind, she was funny and she didn’t take my shit… I had serious respect for her. She was the best of both worlds; I could be myself around her, goof around or tell her absolutely anything. She was the first person I wanted to talk to in the morning, and the last person I wanted to see at night. She got me. And I got her. Now, if only I could convince my dick, but it was a constant struggle. My lips thinned in determination.

“Shut up, Abbott. You’ve probably got gaggles of poor assholes just waiting in line with hearts and flowers today. What happened to that sap making googly eyes at you in the library, yesterday? Poor bastard!” I scoffed.

Her eyes lifted from her assignment, and she scowled at me. “Martin Frank? You’ve got to be kidding me!”

One side of my mouth lifted in a lopsided smirk. The dude had it bad for her, but he was a first class nerd. No way in hell she’d ever be interested in a worm like him. “Yeah, you guys could probably use the grease in his hair for lube.” I continued to goad, fighting hard not to laugh out loud, but couldn’t stop myself.

She smiled and bit her lip, trying not to join my laughter but when her eyes locked with mine she grinned wide, and one eyebrow shot up. She was so beautiful. If only I could forget how beautiful she was.