Reckless Together: A Contemporary New Adult College Romance (The Reckless Series) (29 page)

Logan nodded. "Yeah."

"Ellie, say goodbye to your boyfriend and get in the front seat with me. I refuse to look like your chauffeur. This isn't Mom's taxi service."

Logan opened the door and tugged me out with him, pulling me to him and holding me tight.
 

"What was that about?" I whispered.
 

"Amber double-crossing us." He ran his fingers through my hair. Suddenly he looked excited and hopeful. "I have some thinking to do. And some research."

"But how did Mom know about your business with Amber?"

He shrugged, like who cares? He was clearly excited. "She may have just saved my ass and our future." He kissed me before I could reply. "Go, El. It's going to be a long night. I have a lot of work to do." He kissed the tip of my nose. "I'll see you tomorrow. Wish me luck." He kissed me once more, hard, and held the car door open for me.

"Good luck." I slid in, still confused.

He closed the door, waved, and jogged off.

Mom put the car in drive and pulled away. "You could have spent the night with him."

"Not after what you just told him." I studied her. "You totally distracted him. On purpose."

She smiled.

"How did you know about Logan's business dealings with Amber?"

Mom's laugh was rich this time. "Excuses, excuses. You could have stayed and helped with the research. You're just making sure I don't sneak Caleb into your dorm room for the night and upset Bre and Donna."
 

"Someone has to keep an eye on you," I said. "You're deflecting, Mom. Answer my question."

"I don't like that Amber." Mom pulled out of Logan's parking lot onto the street.

"No one likes Amber." I paused. "No one who's female, anyway, not even dogs. Guys are another story. They fall for her crap." I shot Mom a look like she should sympathize with Amber's situation. "Turn right, here. You left the table to spy on her."

Mom put on her blinker and grinned. "Which you should have done. Haven't I taught you anything?" She shook her head. "Know your adversary. You weren't acting, so I did. She wants one of Walker boys, that's pretty obvious. She'd prefer Caleb, but she'd take Logan."

"What?" I stared at Mom. "Are you crazy?" I paused. "You saw how she was all over Logan. You aren't just making this up to make me feel better?" I looked ahead up the street. "Left at the next light."

"You know me better than that. I call them as I see them. You're blinded by your jealousy." Mom slowed to a stop at the light and hit her blinker. "Otherwise it would be clear. She was flirting with Logan for two reasons—she hates that she lost him to you and she was trying to make Caleb jealous and throw his parents off the scent. Not the best strategy, but she's an amateur. Did you notice the way she kept looking at Caleb when she thought no one was looking?"

I frowned. "I wasn't paying attention to her. I was trying
not
to look at her. She gives me hives."

Mom laughed and clucked her tongue. "What have I always told you?"

"Never trust another woman around your man," I said in unison with her.

She smiled as we drove up the hill toward campus. "Part of the art of war is knowing your enemy, Ellie. Trust me, she wants Caleb. She lost Logan. She only keeps him on her string now because of that damn business deal she sucked him into before you were in the picture."

I stared at her. "Who are you? Sherlock Holmes?"

"I have ears. How did I know about the business deal? I overheard what Logan was yelling at Harlan." She grinned. "And Caleb may have filled me in on a few details while we were waiting for a ceasefire in the parking lot."

"Shut up!" Against my better judgment, I was impressed. "So that's why you were flirting with Caleb, to show her who's the queen?"

Mom just smiled. "Nice try. I'm not admitting to any flirting. But I may have been friendly just to test my hypothesis. She's definitely hot for Caleb."

"Okay, if you say so."

"That doesn't mean you should drop your guard."

"Right at the stop sign," I said.

Mom nodded. "She'd still take Logan if she could."

"But if she's double-crossing him? How will that work out? He's going to lose a lot of money."

"She doesn't expect to get caught," Mom said. "They never do. Why do you think your second stepdad went to jail?"

I frowned. "Logan blames Harlan."

Mom shook her head. "Harlan's anger and surprise at being accused were genuine. That kind of thing is hard to fake. I should know. Logan saw what he expected to see, just like you did in the parking lot."

It was cheeky of Mom to bring that up again.

"And," she said before I could respond, "Amber set it up that way, or I miss my guess."

"You've watched one too many episodes of
Elementary
."

She laughed. "Oh, Dr. Watson, you always miss the clues."

"There's the visitor lot." I pointed. "We should be able to find a spot there."

She got lucky and found a spot in the row closest to the dorm. "Logan needs to get out of it before it's too late."

I didn't trust her, but I played along as I got out of the car. "It's already too late."

"The show's not over until the fat lady sings." Mom got out and closed her door.

We walked to the dorm in silence. I wanted Mom to be right about Amber, but if she was, I owed her, big time. Maybe even enough to forgive her. I wondered if I really could. At the same time, I realized I was a little less angry with her.

We climbed the stairs to my room in silence. Bre and Donna were already back and snuggled into their beds, eating popcorn and talking and laughing. The room smelled like melted butter.

"We had the best night," Bre said when we walked in. "Dan was at the hot-wings place with his mom. You should have seen how his eyes bugged out when he saw me. Melissa, you're a genius. I showed him."

"Walked right past him with confidence, I hope," Mom said. "Like you didn't even see him."

"She did," Donna said, smiling like she approved.

"While we were waiting for a table, I met this great guy. It was really crowded. Tables for two were impossible to get, so the four of us decided to share a table." Bre was beaming. "He asked for my number. He's already texted."

"Oh my gosh, Bre! That's fantastic," I said.

"His mom's nice, too," Donna said. "I had a good chat with her. They're from Olympia. His dad's in state government."

Mom kicked off her shoes. "Exciting! Details! We want details. And photos. If you didn't take a selfie of all of you I'm going to have to kill you both."

Bre laughed and dragged out her phone.

Chapter Twenty

I spent a restless night on the floor in my sleeping bag next to Bre. I kept thinking about Logan, hoping he found out what was really going on. Hoping he could save his investment. Dreaming of him at grad school while I finished up my senior year. Of course, there was still the trial to get through. I was optimistic that Logan would get nothing but support and that would convince him to stay. But most of all, he needed to feel like he was free from his dad, just like I needed to be free of Mom.

Mom.
I couldn't figure her out. It was like she was a changed woman. But I knew better than to trust this new transformation as anything like permanent.

The four of us woke early with the sun shining through the light-filtering shades. After we showered, Mom braided Bre's hair and styled mine. Then she did our makeup. Bre texted her new guy two dozen times, at least. Life was looking up, so it seemed.

When it was time to get dressed for breakfast, I went to my closet to get the matching Mom's Weekend sweatshirts. I had a momentary pang of guilt as I looked at the medium I'd gotten Mom. She was going to swim in it.
 

"Mom, I got you something, too." I pulled them out of the closet and handed her the larger one.

She looked pleasantly startled and then, crap, were those tears in her eyes? How did she make me feel bad so easily?

She shook it out and read the slogan on the back: "Home is where your Mom is." Her voice broke.

I pulled mine on over my head as she held hers up to her. I was right—it was too large. Good guess on my part. "Sorry. I had to guess on the size. You're, you know, bigger on top than I am, so I got you the larger size."

She hardly seemed to hear me. "That's nothing. I can fix it." She gave me a hug and grabbed her purse, rifling around for something. She pulled out a roll of fabric tape.

"What do you have in there?" I said, though I should have remembered she had everything in there. "Are you training for
Let's Make a Deal
?"

She laughed. "Men and their duct tape, me and my fabric tape." Within minutes, she had taped the sweatshirt in so that it was no longer boxy on her, but nicely tailored.

I should have known.

The four of us went to breakfast together. Tay was working. "What's up with Bre? She looks great and she knows it," Tay said.

"Mom and the guy Bre met last night. Mom gave her some beauty tips and did her hair and makeup. The new guy makes her glow."

"Speaking of your mom, you two look sweet in your matching sweatshirts. You must have guessed wrong on her size. I guess there's some consolation that she's bigger than you thought."

I shook my head. "No, I guessed right. Mom altered it to fit her."

"Wow, she's good." Tay handed me a cinnamon roll and coffee.

I frowned. "Yeah. If you want her to try her magic on you, just stop by. You may as well join the club of her admirers."

"I'd like that." Tay winked at me.

"Traitor."

Logan texted me while we ate, excited. He'd pulled an all-nighter, but he was on to something. Caleb was hanging with him while their parents were in College of Business meetings and events all day. Caleb wanted to tag along with us to Up All Night and see what all the hype was about. They'd pick us up at eight.

"Caleb's coming with us tonight," I said to Mom.

"I don't mind." She smiled at me. "As long as he can dance."

I shot her a warning look. After breakfast, we parted ways with Bre and Donna. Mom and I went to the mother/daughter pedis and manis appointment I had scheduled. We came out wearing special Mom's Weekend flip-flops and protecting our matching nails and toes decorated with tiny flowers.
 

"That was fun." Mom hugged me enthusiastically.

"Yeah, except for the part where they asked where our moms were." I rolled my eyes.

She laughed. "Look on the bright side—there's hope you inherited my young-looking genes." She studied me with that searching look again.

I brushed it off. "Or your talent with makeup."

"That just takes practice."

We headed to the coliseum to meet Dex and his mom for the craft fair. Linda and Nic unfortunately had to bail on us. It was a beautiful day. The spring trees were in bloom and the usual wind was just a gentle breeze. The campus was covered in matching moms and daughters, but very few guys wore sweatshirts to match their moms.

We got to the coliseum early.
 

"Dex is your genius friend?" Mom said. "What does he look like again?"

I showed her a picture of him on my phone. "But don't worry about spotting him. You'll know him when you see him. He'll be the one guy on campus wearing a Mom's Weekend sweatshirt."

"Mama's boy?"
 

I shook my head. "Coerced." Then I grinned, thinking of Dex's prank. "Just between you and me, he has a plan to get her back."

Mom was scanning the crowd. She pointed in the direction of a crowd of people coming to the coliseum over the footbridge from the main part of campus. "Oh, look! Is that him?"

For a second, I gave her credit for having good eyes. Then I spotted Dex, too, and broke out laughing. "Oh, no. No, no, no!"

Dex was walking next to his smiling mom with a sour scowl on his face. I swore he blushed when he spotted us. He wore the dark gray guy version of the sweatshirt. The petite woman next to him, whom I assumed was his mom, wore the light gray women's version.