Just One Year Read online

  What?

  How dare he!

  “Who said that?”

  “Shelley seems to think you avoid her.”

  Now he’s ganging up on me with my family?

  Anger coursed through my veins. “She told you that? That’s ridiculous! What are you doing talking to my sister about me?”

  “I wasn’t talking to her about you. She offered the information. I asked her how you two get on, and she informed me that you don’t seem to have time for her.”

  That hurt. I didn’t know what bothered me more—what she said or that she was talking to him about it. Or maybe it bothered me because it was true. I didn’t so much avoid my sister as my family as a whole. I could do a better job of relating to everyone, but it pissed me off that he was interfering when he didn’t even know me. He’d been living in this house less than twenty-four hours.

  “I’m always here if she needs me, and she knows that.”

  “Really? When was the last time you initiated hanging out with her, helped her with her homework?”

  I didn’t have an answer. And that made me feel like crap. The past year, I’d retreated into my own world a lot. I had been a shitty sister. There was no denying it. I just didn’t appreciate a stranger waltzing into my life and calling me out on it.

  For the first time, I really looked Caleb in the eyes. “I don’t know who you think you are, but my relationship with my sister is none of your business.”

  He took the last sip of his coffee before placing the mug in the dishwasher. “Very well then.” He nodded. “Cheers. Good talk.”

  Then the critical bastard left the room.

  CHAPTER TWO

  * * *

  TEAGAN

  The nerve of him.

  Classes hadn’t started yet, so I had nothing better to do with the rest of my morning than stew over judgmental Caleb. He didn’t know me or anything about the issues I had with my family.

  Then guilt over what he’d said started to set in.

  Damn you, Caleb, for getting in my head.

  Eventually I went with Maura to the store, but when my friend Kai came over early that afternoon, she could see I was still upset over something.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  Kai lived a few doors down. She was a year older than me and commuted to Suffolk University.

  “You know how I told you we were getting an exchange student to live with us?”

  “Yeah. The guy from China—”

  “No. That’s Bo Cheng. I wish he were the one living with us. He had to move out because he’s allergic to Catlin Jenner.”

  “Oh, bummer. Okay…so…what’s the problem?”

  “The university sent someone else, an infuriating guy named Caleb Yates from England.”

  I proceeded to tell her the story of meeting Caleb in the men’s room.

  She laughed her ass off. “Holy crap.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, literally.”

  “Okay, so what’s the big deal? Life played a little joke on you. Get over it.”

  “I can totally get over the way we met. Truly. That’s not my problem. My problem is that he took it upon himself to accost me in the kitchen this morning.”

  She wriggled her brows. “Sounds exciting.”

  “Nothing exciting about it. Sorry. He started asking me why I avoid Shelley. Can you believe that? I mean, really? You’re living in my house for a matter of seconds, and you’re questioning my relationship with my sister? Like…who are you?”

  She deepened her stare. “You do avoid Shelley.”

  I blew out a frustrated breath. “Et tu, Kai? That’s not what this is about.”

  “Alright, alright. I understand that’s not the point here. The point is what you do or how you behave is not any of his business. What did you tell him?”

  “I told him just that—that it was none of his business.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He walked away.”

  She nodded. “And that bugged you even more.”

  “Well, yes, because isn’t walking away about the worst thing you can do when you’re in the middle of an argument with someone?”

  “Actually, it’s probably the smartest thing to do sometimes.”

  Blowing out a frustrated breath, I hugged one of my throw pillows. I needed her to be a friend and agree with me today, even if I wasn’t in the right. Part of me knew I was overreacting. But I couldn’t help how I felt.

  I sighed. “I don’t know why I’m letting him get under my skin like this. I really don’t.”

  “What does this guy look like?”

  I pulled on my ponytail. Do I tell her?

  My words came out fast. “He’s infuriatingly handsome and smells really good. It’s annoying.”

  “A-ha! You know you’ve used the word infuriating twice to describe him.” She laughed. “Anyway, I knew there had to be something fueling this reaction. He’s good-looking on top of everything, and that’s making this even weirder for you.”

  “My reaction would be the same regardless.”

  “No, it wouldn’t. You wouldn’t care so much if he didn’t have some other kind of effect on you—the effect you’re always trying to avoid when it comes to guys.”

  “Don’t go there, okay? We’re talking about him, not me.”

  “Alright, well, you know what you do? Send him something in writing, like an email. Nip this in the bud. Tell him that while you appreciate his concern, you don’t appreciate him sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong when it comes to your personal matters.”

  I raised my brow. “You really think that’s going to help?”

  “Written sentiments are more formal and show a certain level of seriousness. If you take the time to write him, you must really mean it.”

  ***

  After much consideration, I decided to do what Kai said. I took out some yellow-lined paper and began to write down my thoughts. After going back and forth and scratching things out, I finally determined what my message to Caleb would be.

  I then went to find Maura to see if she had Caleb’s email address with the information she’d received from the university. As expected, she did ask why I would write to him when he was just upstairs, but she gave it to me without prying too much.

  I returned to my room and carefully typed out my message.

  Subject: Unsolicited Advice

  Dear Caleb,

  While I appreciate your concern about my lack of interaction with my sister, I find the fact that you’re inserting yourself into our business very intrusive and unbecoming of someone who doesn’t know me.

  You don’t know all of the details of my life or my history with my family. Actually, you don’t know me at all.

  So, I would greatly appreciate it if you didn’t offer unsolicited advice on matters you don’t understand.

  Regards,

  Teagan

  I read it over a few times and hit send before I could change my mind. Boy, that felt good.

  I kept my computer open as I folded some of my laundry over the next several minutes.

  Then I heard my email notification chime.

  A message in bold showed a response from Caleb.

  From: Caleb Yates

  To: Teagan Carroll

  RE: Unsolicited Advice

  Dear Teagan,

  I’ve edited your email. I believe this is what you meant to say:

  Dear Caleb,

  I don’t like to be called out on my bloody awful behavior because it causes me to have to stop and look in the mirror. I don’t like the fact that, even though you don’t know the details of my life, you were still able to recognize something about me that I don’t like about myself—thus the attitude I gave you. I want to change, to be better, but don’t know how. You see, I’ve become very wrapped up in my own head as of late.

  If I hadn’t forced you to walk away from our argument, maybe I would’ve figured out that you only had my and Shelley’s best interests
in mind. But since I have my head stuck up my arse at the moment, I chose to believe you’re a tosser and write you this note instead, even though you’re right upstairs.

  Fuck off,

  Teagan

  Oh my God.

  Oh. My. God.

  My blood boiled.

  Are you kidding me?

  This time, I started writing without thinking first. I tapped on the keys in anger.

  From: Teagan Carroll

  To: Caleb Yates

  RE: Unsolicited Advice

  Dear Caleb,

  Are you serious right now???

  Send.

  Ten seconds later, a new email came in. The fact that he’d been waiting by the computer for my response annoyed me even more.

  From: Caleb Yates

  To: Teagan Carroll

  RE: Unsolicited Advice

  Dear Teagan,

  You asked if I was serious. I am going to assume that’s a rhetorical question, and you don’t actually want me to answer it. Let me know if I’m mistaken.

  Caleb

  Again, I typed without thinking it through.

  From: Teagan Carroll

  To: Caleb Yates

  RE: Unsolicited Advice

  No, it wasn’t rhetorical. I asked if you were serious because I find your attitude unbelievable. I seriously want to know why you think it’s okay to analyze someone you don’t even know. Seriously!

  Exhaling my frustration, I told myself this fruitless attempt at communication was finished—until my computer dinged again.

  I clicked on his response.

  From: Caleb Yates

  To: Teagan Carroll

  RE: Unsolicited Advice

  Sounds like you seriously have a serious problem with me and a serious overusage of the word serious.

  What?

  I typed.

  From: Teagan Carroll

  To: Caleb Yates

  RE: Unsolicited Advice

  There’s no point in continuing this email exchange.

  Almost immediately, he responded.

  From: Caleb Yates

  To: Teagan Carroll

  RE: Unsolicited Advice

  Ding! Ding! Ding! She finally gets it. There was never any point to this email exchange. It never should have happened. Want to take a guess as to why?

  I banged on my keyboard as I responded.

  From: Teagan Carroll

  To: Caleb Yates

  RE: Unsolicited Advice

  What are you talking about?

  Again, his reply was immediate.

  From: Caleb Yates

  To: Teagan Carroll

  RE: Unsolicited Advice

  There was never any point to this email exchange because…DRUMROLL...I’m right upstairs.

  RIGHT upstairs, Teagan.

  Why would you send me an email instead of coming to talk to me?

  (Seriously!)

  I slammed my laptop shut. I was done. Done.

  Yet over the next several minutes, as I continued to put my clothes away, I did nothing but obsess. Why was I letting him get to me? I didn’t want to react this way. He’d blown the whole thing out of proportion. The email was an attempt to get my point across without having to see him, but maybe I’d have to get in his face after all.

  I stormed up the stairs and headed straight to my old room—his room. But when I got to the top of the stairwell, I swallowed the words I’d been prepared to unleash. The unexpected sight of Caleb doing pull-ups met my eyes. He used a bar affixed to the top of the door to lift himself up. He wore a T-shirt that rode up each time he rose. His hard abs were now staring me in the face, ripples of carved muscle. He had black wrist wraps on. He’d turned my old room into a home gym.

  He was a bastard—but there was no denying he was beautiful.

  I cleared my throat. “Did my father give you permission to put that thing in the doorway?”

  The house shook as he landed on his feet. “Well, hello, Teagan. Amazing how easy it is to walk up the stairs, isn’t it?” He grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat off his forehead. “And yes, in fact, your father did give me permission to put the bar up.”

  I came out with it. “You think you know it all, don’t you? Who are you?”

  He glared at me. “Who am I? Well, nice of you to ask, Teagan.” He threw his towel down on the desk. “You’ve had no interest in getting to know me from the moment I walked in the door. But since you finally did inquire… Hi, I’m Caleb Yates. Happy to be here. I have no clue what I’m doing with my life and have a somewhat crappy family situation back in England. So, I came to a strange country for the first time to get away for a bit. I miss my mum, but the good news is, I’ve just moved into a house where everyone is cordial—except for the cranky girl in the basement.”

  Wow.

  “That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?”

  He came closer, and the smell of his cologne mixed with sweat was…interesting. Couldn’t say it was a bad thing, that’s for sure.

  “You didn’t have to write me a snooty email, Teagan. You can come talk to me if I do something to piss you off. If you write me emails like that when I’m right upstairs, that’s the kind of response you’re going to get, each and every time.”

  He had a point. The email was a bit cowardly of me. Yet I’d still managed to convince myself it was a good idea. He was right. Anything I needed to say to him, I should be able to say to his face. Quite honestly, the benefit of that was also his face—getting to look at it, I mean. It turned out, looking at him was a lot more fun than avoiding eye contact had been. Thank goodness he can’t read my mind right now.

  Seeing that he actually seemed angry as opposed to amused caused me to change my tune—that and perhaps his scent going straight to my head as it followed my mind right into the gutter.

  He held out his hand. “Give it to me.”

  I looked down at my empty hands. “Give you what?”

  “The stick in your arse. Take it out and give it to me.”

  I crinkled my forehead. “What?”

  He wiggled his fingers. “Come on. Hand it over.”

  Genuinely curious as to where he was going with this, I motioned with my hand, pretending to remove the imaginary stick from my derriere and throwing it over to him.

  He pretended to catch it, then let it weigh him down. “It’s bigger than I thought.” Looking around he said, “I’m gonna find a space for it. Hang on.”

  I laughed, against my better judgment. He shoved the imaginary stick under his bed and wiped fake dust off his hands.

  “Now that that’s out of the way, why don’t we start fresh?”

  Do I really have a choice? This guy was going to be living with us for a year. It would be easier to get along than continue on the rocky path we’d started down—the rocky path I’d carved. As annoying as Caleb was, he’d managed to charm me just enough. I decided to try to let my anger go.

  “Okay, Caleb.”

  He was all too amused by my change in attitude. “Wow. Didn’t think it was going to be that easy.”

  “Well, it just hit me that you’re not going anywhere.”

  “Ah. So I’m like an incurable disease.”

  “Or an allergy.” I laughed.

  “Quick. Someone tell that chap Bo Cheng to stay far away from me.”

  “Good ol’ Bo Cheng. He doesn’t realize he dodged a bullet with the cranky girl in the basement,” I cracked.

  Am I actually playing along here? What kind of a spell had this guy placed on me?

  “Why are you down in the basement?” he asked. “This is such a beautiful house. And seeing as though I’m now in your old bedroom and can personally attest to how nice it is, I can’t imagine why you’d give up this space for that little room down there.”

  His comment set off an alarm in me. “You’ve seen my room in the basement?”

  “Yes. I ransacked it when you were out. And what I found explains a lot.”

  His smothered laughter gave
him away.

  “No, you didn’t!”

  “Relax. Your father gave me a proper tour of the property while you were gone to the store earlier. He took me down to the basement and showed me where the washing machine is. I happened to see your room while I was there.”

  “I see.”

  “I found it very strange, by the way.”

  “My room?”

  “No. The washing machine in the basement. In England, we do laundry in the kitchen.”

  “Oh, that’s weird. What about the dryer?”

  “We don’t have one. My mum just lines the clothes up outside.”

  “I can’t imagine that.”

  “What, you can’t imagine your knickers flying in the wind for all the world to see?”

  I chuckled. “Pretty much.”

  He scratched his chin. “You’re very conservative, aren’t you?”

  I probably should’ve responded to his question. Instead, I let my eyes travel down his chest, noticing the way his shirt clung to the sweaty muscles. I felt far from conservative right now.

  I shook my head. “Why do you say that?”

  “The way you dress—always covered up quite well from head to toe. Also, the way you reacted when we met in the men’s room at the university. You were mortified at the prospect of me thinking you were responsible for that smell.”

  “Let’s not bring that up, please. We’re doing so well.”

  He chuckled and wandered over to the bookshelves, which housed dozens of my old books. I hadn’t bothered to move them downstairs because I didn’t have as much space.

  Brushing his index finger along some of the spines, he said, “Nice collection, by the way.”

  My brow furrowed. “Is that sarcasm? I can’t tell.”