Read Staying On Top (Whitman University) for Free Online Page B

a big exam tomorrow. I was hoping we could hang out, actually.”
    I smiled, still surprised that her friendship inspired that reaction in me. Friends had never been encouraged. They asked too many questions. “That would be awesome. I’m ready for my marketing exam tomorrow, and I’m leaving town Saturday, so it’ll be nice.”
    “Where are you going?” She asked, her voice muffled by a navy blue ruffled sheath.
    It brought out the green in her eyes, reminding me how pretty the Scottish girl was, and making me think again how too good she was for Logan Shapiro.
    “I’m meeting my dad overseas for a few days.”
    “You aren’t going to miss the rest of the semester again, are you?” Concern lit her expression as she swept her lashes with mascara.
    “I don’t think so. Last year was a family emergency.” Lie. It had been to set up a few of Dad’s clients in the Caymans. “This is vacation.”
    Not technically a lie. It seemed as though I might be having a forced fling with Sam Bradford, if talking him into trusting me turned out to be as difficult as expected. Thinking about it twisted my lips into a grimace. Plenty of girls would willingly take my place, but there were way too many reasons this was a terrible idea. Dad hadn’t wanted to hear any of them, though, even though it could very possibly mean curtains on my time at Whitman.
    I was used to moving, though, and I could graduate from anywhere with a marketing degree. The plan to get Sam to trust me would work, but I hadn’t thought of a way to come out the other end still smelling like roses. He would tell Quinn what I really am, and my life here would become a living hell, at best. 
    Audra watched me, her expression curious. “What are you thinking about? You looked so sad for a second.”
    “Did I?” I forced a smile, unused to having other people watching me. “I was thinking about how I hardly see you since you’ve started dating Logan.”
    “I know.” Audra reached out and squeezed my hand. “I’m going to do better at managing my time. Plus, the sex has to slow down eventually, right? Like, the honeymoon period only lasts so long?”
    Knowing the answer to that question would require having been with someone long enough to find out. “That’s what I hear.”
    “Cole has been bugging me about why I never spend time at their house anymore, too. The excuses of not wanting to hang out with old grad students and sorority duties only goes so far.”
    “I can’t believe he doesn’t know who you’re dating, Audra. Whitman isn’t that big of a campus. He’s going to find out sooner or later, and don’t you think it’s going to hurt his feelings that you didn’t tell him about a guy you’re so obviously crazy about?”
    “I’m more worried about what piece of Logan he’ll hurt if he finds out at all.”
     I rolled my eyes and grabbed the folder of financial reports off my desk. “The Stuart brothers can’t possibly have expected you to never date a single soul until you married. Right?”
    She shrugged and slipped into a pair of heels, declining to answer the question. “Ready?”
    We left the room together, her knee-length skirt and mine making swishing noises in the empty hallway. It bothered me that Audra was so keen on keeping her relationship a secret from her brothers. If Logan was a good, upstanding guy then she would trust him to win her family over . . . wouldn’t she?
    Spending years watching other people—brothers and sisters, parents and children—meant that I knew them well enough to scent their weak spots. It taught me nothing about how to live inside a family unit. There were surely more complications than I could guess, so maybe Audra deserved some slack.
    But if she and Logan were still dating when I got back from Christmas break then my sleazy private investigator would have another project. I lived by my instincts. I’d learned to trust them, and even though Audra would probably hate me as much as everyone