Free Into the Deep 01 by Samantha Young Page B

settled in. It was from Jake.
    You called Brett an asshole? Everything okay?
    Jeez, news really did travel fast in this school. Dude killed my erection. I retaliated. Xoxo
    Ten seconds later: LMAO. And two seconds after that: I’m so into you.
    I smiled, probably looking like the idiot Brett had just accused me of being. Good xoxo

 
    “Who? What? Who? How?” Andie’s hazel eyes, identical to mine, were wide as she stared into the camera.
    That was pretty much the reaction I’d been expecting when I told her via Skype that Jake was in Edinburgh.
    “You heard me,” I replied, gazing past her to her office. Light spilled in from a window somewhere, reminding me I was five hours ahead. It was almost midnight in Scotland but Andie was always so busy with grad school and her internship that we could only talk on her schedule. I didn’t mind. I really wanted to talk to her.
    “Jake, your ex-boyfriend Jake? The Jake who knew that you were always planning to spend your third year studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh?”
    And that was exactly why I really wanted to talk to my big sister.
    She knew mostly everything about my relationship with Jake, not because she’d been there to witness it (she’d only met him once during her Christmas break home from Dublin), but because I’d told her probably every little detail. This meant she knew that Jake was privy to all my thoughts and feelings and plans and dreams.
    I’d talked to Jake a million times about studying in Edinburgh because Andie was always calling home from Dublin talking about what an amazing time she was having. I wanted to study in Europe too, and while Ireland struck my sister’s fancy, for me, it was Scotland. Jake had said he wanted to come with me.
    “Yes.”
    “So,” Andie scrunched up her nose as she ran her hand through her hair, a habit we shared and a tell that we were trying to work something out, “he obviously came to Edinburgh because he knew you’d be there. Why? To apologize? To get you back?”
    And this more specifically was why I wanted to talk to Andie. It was the question I’d been too scared and confused to ask, so I wanted someone else to ask it because I knew if they did, it would make me feel less crazy for thinking it. I still felt crazy. Because of Melissa. “He did apologize. But he’s here with his friends and … his girlfriend.”
    “He brought another girl? What!” Andie slammed her hands on the desk and leaned closer into the camera so her nose and mouth looked huge. “He knew you’d be there, that little …”
    I sat back and let Andie have her rant, expelling all the questions and anger I too was feeling. When she was done, she sat back, exhaling.
    “Uh, everything okay in here?” a masculine voice I knew well asked from off camera.
    Andie twisted her head around to stare in the direction of the voice and her face got soft. “Yeah, baby, I’m just raging on behalf of Supergirl.”
    “What happened?”
    “Boy problems.”
    “Thanks,” I mumbled sarcastically. That made it seem so trivial.
    “Do I need to kick someone’s ass?” The voice got closer and then Rick’s handsome face appeared beside Andie’s. “You okay, Charley?”
    “Hey, Rick, good to see you.” I wasn’t lying. My sister’s fiancé was the shit. He was ten years older than Andie and a Chicago police detective. They met a year ago when Andie’s friend’s car got stolen and Andie had driven her to the precinct. To Andie’s friend’s annoyance, Detective Rick Pertrard, who’d overheard the complaint to the officer on duty, had taken an immediate shine to the damsel-in-distress’s friend and not the damsel herself. He’d asked for Andie’s number and the rest was history. They moved in together after only six months and got engaged two months after that. I loved the changes I saw in my sister. She was far less concerned with being perfect all the time, and she’d definitely loosened up.
    As for me, I kept trying to