Read All She Wanted (2) for Free Online Page A

was thinking...” Briggs began.
    “Yes?” I reached for another couple of
fries.
    “You like cards?”
    “Uh…that’s not random or anything,” I
said.
    “Random—maybe, but a very simple
question nonetheless. Do. You. Like. Playing. Cards?” He emphasized each word
like I was unfamiliar with the English language.
    “Depends.”
    “On?”
    I leaned back, assessing him carefully,
“What’s at stake.”
    His laugh was low and deep, “You’re a
girl after my own heart.”
    I felt a jolt of electricity charge
through me at his words. Of course he was only joking, naturally, but the uncomfortable
tension seemed to hang in the air like salt at the beach.
    “What do you think about having a
couple of my friends over tomorrow night—for poker?” He leaned in, putting his
elbows of the desk as he waited for my response.
    “Is this a new tactic to get me to stay
away from the booty-call clubs ?”
    Smiling, he pushed his chair out slowly
and stood, “That’s ten points to you, Shortcake.”
    And then he was out the door.
    I shook my head, biting my bottom lip
as I tried to restrain my ridiculous grin.

 
    **********

 
    The cool feel of the ivory beneath my
fingers was home .
    There was nothing I knew better than
the keys of a piano, nothing more natural for me to give my life to. With each
press of my fingertip I could orchestrate a piece of time and space. The melody
was mine alone, responding only to my creative impulse and desire.
    And in this ever-shifting world, that type
of control was unmatched anywhere else in my life.
    I grabbed the composition I had been
working on during the last two semesters and played it over and over, getting
stuck at the same bar each time through. I could hear the notes somewhere in
the far corner of my mind…yet it just wouldn’t transpire correctly when I tried
to mimic it.
    I thought of my favorite music
professor—Mr. Wade—and smiled. He always had some crazy story about finding his
latest muse; I was suddenly very envious of him.
    I missed school.
    Despite how awful the last six months
had been, or how hard it was to show up for class and complete my assignments, I fit there. The students, the staff, and
even the classes had all felt tailored for someone just like me.
    Yes, I had been angry when the Dean
suspended me for the term, but if I was honest with myself, the anger I felt
was not toward the scholarship committee. I had never been one to slack off in
school. I’d always had plenty of drive to push through the temptations of the
social world, but that was all before Alex.  
    Alexander Monroe had swooped into my
life almost as fast as he had swooped out of it.
    He was a drug to an addiction never satisfied.
    I could still feel the way his eyes had
watched me during my audition last summer. He had followed me into the parking
lot afterward, and I had known it was him before I ever turned around. His very
presence was intoxicating, and I was drunk on his charm after just one sip. With
him in focus, every line had been blurred. And within only a few days I had offered
him my very soul.
    I was desperate to be loved by him; he
was all I wanted.
    Yet no matter how he had spun it, no
matter what he promised, only one fact remained:
    Alex Monroe didn’t want me.

Chapter Four
    Briggs
    “Did you get my birthday invitation,
Uncle B?” Cody asked.
    “Sure did—hey, are you calling to un-invite
me?” I teased.
    My nephew laughed. “No way! You’re the
only one who knows the rules for water wars.”
    I had made the game up three years ago
at Cody’s fourth birthday. Each year I threw in a new twist to make it more
exciting than the year before, thus insuring my indisputable place-hold at the
birthday party.
    “Ha, right! And don’t you forget it,” I
said.
    “Okay, Mom says I gotta go do my homework now—I really hate homework!”
    “Yeah, well, she used to get on my case
about that too, bud, but she’s right,” I countered.
    “I know, I know. Bye Uncle