All Of Me

Chapter 26

Tripp looked confused as he looked back and forth between Clint and I. I quickly walked over and cleared my throat. "Clint, this is Tripp Sparks. He's been my best friend since I moved here." Clint hesitantly extended his hand for a handshake, but Tripp just looked at me. "Tripp, this is Clint Harper. He's in my World Religion class." I waited for them to shake hands, but Tripp never accepted Clint's gesture and Clint dropped his hand, sliding it into the pocket of his khaki shorts.

"I'll come back later. I don't want to interrupt your time together." Tripp gave a small smile and turned on his heel, walking back down the creaky metal apartment stairs.

I quickly excused myself from Clint and went after Tripp. "Why are you mad at me?" I asked before he could get into his truck. "I'm not mad at you Brooke. I came by to ask if you were still coming tomorrow." His tone was clipped and he opened the door to his truck.

"Yeah, I'm coming. I'll be leaving right after school. I already got the address so I'll just put it in the GPS and-" "Okay, sounds good." He got into the truck and cranked it. He backed up and drove off, leaving me alone in the apartment's small lot.

"What's his problem?" Clint snorted when I got back to the apartment. I tried to laugh a little, knowing it must have looked a little strange to an outsider looking in.

I glanced at the jacket laying over the couch and my mind wandered back to the night last week when he left it.

Timing it perfectly, Clint appeared behind me and snaked his large arms around my waist. "I can't blame him for being jealous. I'm dating the most beautiful girl in all of Georgia." I compared his arms to Tripp's before I could help myself. As nice of a guy as Clint was, it would take time for me to develop feelings for him.

Tripp and I had a connection. Physical, emotional, and I assured myself that it was because of the friendship we had shared over the years. But even I couldn't deny that it was different now. I felt Luke give me a swift kick to the front of my belly and couldn't help but smile.

Luke knew it too.

But there was no sense jumping to conclusions when Clint was such a nice guy. Though I planned to solely provide for Luke and I. This was mine and Luke's life, and anything else was just an extra.

I gave Clint's arm a pat and moved out of his arms, giving him a smile, struggling to remember the compliment he'd just given me. Coughing to drown out the sound of my stomach's obnoxious grumbling. As good as his cooking was, I desperately needed some meatballs in my pasta.

And maybe a cheeseburger.

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Tripp's POV

I hit my steering wheel until my palm was throbbing. Not because I was mad at Brooke, and not because I was mad at the yuppie standing beside her, but because I was mad at myself. Furious even. Disgusted.

I had used the reasoning, "She deserves to be happy" for the past 4 years as an excuse not to have to tell her how I feel.

I'd been a coward, and I deserved exactly what was happening right then. She was in her apartment with a preppy boy in khaki shorts too small for him, and a pink polo shirt, and a yellow cardigan around his shoulders.

Looked like something he borrowed from his sister.

I ran my hands over my face in an attempt to clear my mind, but failed.

I feared rejection for years, and now I was tasting it in it's most potent form. Seeing her with someone else. Someone who apparently had money and ambitions. Surely that isn't just his fashion statement.

IS that the kind of guy she was into? She had never really talked about guys before. Never went on a date. I really wasn't sure what she wanted in a guy. For a while after we kissed, I thought it might be me. But how selfish would that be of me? A photographer for a newspaper. What could I offer?

Nothing. I could offer nothing. Nothing like pretty boy could. He would be a good father to Luke if that's what she eventually decided.

But for some reason, I felt a burn in the pit of my stomach when I thought of a little blond boy, dressed in khaki's and a matching pink polo. No doubt getting his first set of golf clubs and a lifetime membership to a country club for his first birthday.

I never thought I'd be one in competition with another guy, especially such a pretty one, but if that's what it took, then game on.

You, Mr. Preppy, might have a lot of money, but I love her. No idea how to show her, but I love her. And I will probably no doubt fail, but hey, I love her. And it was worth a shot. Getting over my fear, and telling her.

It would happen this weekend. I would be rejected this weekend. "Oh Tripp, if only you could color coordinate cardigans with your cowboy shirts." I said aloud to myself as I arrived home.

Every bump in the road suddenly, in my mind, was Clint Harper.