“Where to?”
She gives me directions, and we take off down the drive. Her lemon, sunshiney scent is already filling the cab and making me dizzy with desire. I want, no, Ineedto lick every inch of her body, to find out if she tastes as good as she smells.
“How long have you been at Sequoia?” I ask as we turn onto Main Street.
“I just finished my second year.”
Two years.She’s been in my town for two goddamn years and I didn’t know. It’s hard not to feel sad for all of that wasted time. Now I only have thirty days with her to get her to see how great we could be together.
“Do you like it here? At Sequoia University?”
“I love it. My roommate and friends are awesome and I like most of my classes.”
“It must be hard to be away from your family.”
“Yeah, but I talk to my sister all the time.”
“What about your parents?”
She tenses, shifting in her seat and I can sense that she doesn’t like them before she opens her mouth.
“I don’t talk to them. Neither of us do,” she says, her tone flat.
“Why not?” I ask, genuinely curious.
“They’re not very good people,” she says.
I look over to see her shoulders are tight, bunched up around her ears. “What do you mean?” My hands choke the steering wheel, but I manage to calm myself down. I can’t imagine anyone being mean to my girl, let alone her own parents.
“Between drinking and drugs, they hardly remembered they had kids,” she mumbles. I’m about to pull the car over and make her tell me every detail, but she’s already shaking her head and curling in on herself. “Never mind. It’s nothing,” she’s quick to say, brushing me off.
“I’m so sorry you had to live through that hell,” I whisper, my tone soft so I don’t scare her off. “I won’t push you for more, though I very much want to know everything. I want to earn your story, angel. And I will.”
“Back to being cocky, I see,” she huffs out, though there’s a tiny smile curling up one corner of her lips.
“Nah, just confident. We’re going to be so good together, Monty. You’ll see.”
She gives me another tentative smile at that, and I return it as I pull into her apartment parking lot. It’s not much, but I’ll take it.
She points me over to the spot that’s reserved for her apartment, and I back in so it will be easier to load the truck up.
I follow her up the stairs and down the hall to her apartment. Monty unlocks the front door and heads straight down the hallway and into one of the bedrooms. I take my time following her so that I can look around a bit. The apartment is decorated fancier than any other college place I’ve ever seen.
The floors are a dark hardwood and the walls are painted a serene cream color. I peek into the kitchen and I swear the countertops are granite. All of the appliances are stainless steel and gleaming under the recessed lights.
I make my way down the hall and stop at the entrance to her room. Monty is busy shoving stuff into a suitcase, giving me a chance to look around her room.
Unlike the rest of the lavish apartment, her space is sparsely decorated with just a bed, dresser, and small desk tucked into the corner. It’s neat and clean looking but it doesn’t feel like Monty. It’s too plain. Where are the colors? Where’s the life, the fire?
“Just need to grab a few more things,” she says as she walks into the attached bathroom.
I step into her room, taking a look at the few mementos she has on top of the dresser. There are several framed pictures, and I smile as I see Monty with her arms wrapped around a girl who is obviously her sister.
They have the same coloring, the same pale skin, but her sister’s hair is brighter and she has green eyes, where my Monty has blue.
The other picture is her with two younger looking girls that I’m guessing are her friends here at college.
“That’s Gwen and Malia,” she says as she comes back into the room.