Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
“Hello?”
Nothing except more echoes.
“Um… I’m here. Hailey, I mean.”
I strained my ears, but I couldn’t hear any sounds. Surely a house this size wouldn’t be empty. I made my way further into the house. I’d been given a quick tour yesterday, but I’d only seen parts of it. I passed the dining room with an enormous table that could seat at least twenty. Then I poked my head in the kitchen with its gleaming stainless-steel counters and its three refrigerators. No surprise that that was empty.
My arms ached, but I didn’t want to set my scuffed-up bags on the fancy flooring. Instead, I made my way to the end of a hallway where there was a staircase. I hadn’t been upstairs yet.
I was a bit winded by the time I got to the second-floor landing. Possibly it wasn’t wise to climb stairs while carrying half of your belongings. I left some bags in the corner of a stairwell and pulled open the heavy door. There was a long hallway with at least a dozen doors leading off of it.
I stepped inside, wondering how many led to bedrooms. Some had to be bathrooms or other kinds of rooms, like maybe a study area. And didn’t fraternities sometimes do secret rituals and stuff? Hopefully that was just in the movies.
Turning, I reached for the door to the stairwell, but it burst inward. I stepped back so hastily that my duffel bag slid off my shoulder and landed at the feet of a guy I’d never seen before.
A half-naked guy I’d never seen before. Wow. He was wearing shorts and sneakers and absolutely nothing else, though he had a white towel slung over his shoulder. He took a step around my things and wiped the towel across his brow as he stared down at me.
His broad chest was dotted with sweat, and he had a water bottle in his hand. I suddenly remembered overhearing that there was a full gym in the basement here, but I didn’t know how accurate that information was. A girl in one of my classes had bragged that she’d banged one of the frat bros on top of a weight bench down there.
“Sorry, I, uh, didn’t know anyone was here.”
In order to keep from staring at his flat abs, I bent down and collected my duffel bag. But that gave me a closeup of all of him as I straightened back up. Finally, I met his eyes. They were green.
“It’s a big place.” His voice was deep, but quiet. It was like he knew he didn’t have to project his voice to be heard. To command attention. And judging from the way my pulse sped up in reaction to his body, attention came his way quite often. “I’m Ian.”
“Hailey,” I said, managing not to stammer.
“Ah, the new girl,” he said. His eyes swept down my body once, but it wasn’t in a lingering way like Grant and Bennett yesterday. “Let’s hope you last longer than the last one.”
What? The summer semester had barely begun. Someone had already taken this job and quit it? Or been fired. I didn’t know which option was worse.
“Uh, do you know what room I’m supposed to stay in? They said it was on this floor.”
He nodded. “Edward’s old room. It’s just up there on the right.”
“Thanks.”
He nodded and turned away. His back was every bit as muscular as his chest and arms. But then he stopped, peering back at me over his shoulder. “Do you need help with that?” The way he’d asked made it seem like an afterthought, but at least he’d offered.
“I’m fine, thanks.” As I watched, he shoved his short brown hair away from his eyes. “Besides, you’ve already done your workout.”
A grin crossed his face and then disappeared as quickly as it had come. “I did indeed. Now, I have to take a shower and study. Nice to meet you.”
That last part was curt, but I echoed it as I headed back to the stairs to get the rest of my things. I was curious about what Ian’s major was. He seemed like a no-nonsense kind of guy. But that wasn’t all I wondered about. Try as I might, I couldn’t get the vision of him stepping into a hot shower, his tan skin bare, out of my mind.
Living with these guys probably wasn’t a wise choice, but I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be a boring one, either.
4
HAILEY
I stood back and surveyed the results. Not bad. Not bad at all. And now I could say I’d cleaned at least one room in this gigantic place.
The room that they’d assigned me wasn’t huge, but now that it was clean, it was a big step-up for me. I’d spent over a month sleeping on the couch at Tori’s apartment. Before that, I’d spent a lot of my nights in the armchair in my grandfather’s room at the nursing home.