Free Star Crossed by Alisha Watts Page A

store?”
    “Maybe some milk since that’s really the only thing you’ve been using up. Are you sure that you eat?”
    “Mom,” she said mildly as she ate. She arched a brow at Nellie when the dog laid her head on her thigh and stared up at her pathetically. “No begging.”
    Nellie sighed dramatically and curled up at her feet so that Skylar would have to all but kick her in order to stand up again. She peered around the table to give her a reproving look but Nellie was too busy staring out the window to notice.
    “She seems pretty content with her life,” Skylar said as she checked her phone for a text from Grayson.
    When her daughter started grinning at her cell phone she gave her a mild look. “I don’t think Nellie is the only one,” she commented wryly.
    “Hm?”
    “Nothing. Have a good day, don’t forget to let Nellie out for a while before you leave. If you’re going to be gone more than a few hours please put her in her kennel. She’s been getting antsy when left to her own devices lately.”
    “Aww, are you a nervous lady?” she asked as she reached down to fluff the fur around her ears. “Yeah, it’s no fun to be stuck at home. Not sure why being stuck in your kennel is better.” Skylar rolled her eyes and did her dishes before going upstairs to get ready.
    She was vaguely puzzled as to what to wear to go to the lake and ended up putting a swim suit on under her clothes just in case. She startled when her phone began to ring and answered it distractedly.
    “Hey, Skylar, is this a bad time? It’s Chris.”
    “Oh, hey! No, it’s not a bad time. What are you up to? I haven’t heard from you in a while. I kind of expected another call after you asked me to catch up the other day.”
    He laughed self-consciously. “I guess it’s been a minute. I was in kind of a weird place mentally because Steve was a moron and kidnapped me to the mountains for a while.”
    “What? Are you okay? Why didn’t you tell me that sooner?”
    “Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” he said, sounding somewhat as though he was frustrated at himself for some reason. “When I came home everything just started to fall together and I finished my thesis just about all at once. I guess I got caught up in that and forgot to mention the kidnapping thing.”
    “You’ve finished it? Has it been that long since we actually talked? It seems like last time I heard from you you had no idea when that was going to happen.” She fluffed her hair as she thought about what she had been up to lately and was mystified that she had not made nearly enough time for her friends. The last time she had talked to Tara was at least a week ago, and it had been nearly a month since they’d had that double date at the movies. Or had it been longer? She’d been spending nearly every minute of her free time with Grayson so it was difficult to tell.
    “I guess I just made a breakthrough. I was just thinking about where I was in my life and what I wanted out of it and suddenly a lot of the things I had been looking at and thinking were really convoluted actually made a lot of sense.”
    “Um, that’s good,” Skylar said, feeling rather confused for her part at this change of heart she was seeing in him. Wasn’t he so worried about the world that he wanted to be a scholar forever? Chris was shy and reclusive, not at all like her charismatic Grayson, and she never saw much of him even before he disappeared into his books. Sure, she could understand him being a little out of touch with the world after his father died, but he’d taken it to an extreme that had worried her. “I’m glad.”
    “Did you get my text about my graduation party?”
    “Um, I think so. I’ll have to dig through my inbox and find it. Is that coming up soon?”
    “Yeah. I was wondering if you might like to get some coffee today so I can tell you about my thesis. Maybe let you know some of what I’ve been thinking about. That is, unless you’re still too busy.”
    “Oh, I’m