Suite Dreams Read online

  “I’ve been in Australia all my life. So there you are. It’s great if you love the water, which I do. But I was in the mood to try something different. Rick thought this would be it.”

  I couldn’t even begin to imagine the astounding number of words it would have taken for Rick to convince him of that. The guy I’d believed couldn’t communicate apparently could when he set his mind to it. Interesting. I was learning more about Rick in the short time I’d known Jude than I had in the four months I’d known Rick.

  “Did you ring Rick up last night?” Jude suddenly asked.

  “Ring him?”

  With his hand, he made the universal signal for phone.

  “Oh, call him. No. Well, yes. I called, but we didn’t connect. I left him a message. Not sure what he can really tell us, though. Not unless there’s a hidden couch somewhere.”

  Jude furrowed his brow. “That’s probably not likely, is it?”

  I nodded grimly. “No, probably not, which means he probably won’t be much help.”

  Jude studied me for a minute. “So what are the plans?”

  “Well, barring a secret couch, I’ll talk with Stephanie. Like I said last night, she might be okay with you staying here. One slight problem. Guys aren’t allowed on this floor after midnight, so we’d have to sneak you around.”

  “I’m good at sneaking.”

  Considering our encounter last night, that went without saying.

  The door to the other bedroom opened and Stephanie—she was always Stephanie, never Steph—stepped out wearing flannel pajamas. She had curly brown hair, and first thing in the morning, it usually looked as though she’d stuck her finger in a socket. Her brown eyes were opened wide.

  She arched a brow at me. “Uh, hello?! What’s going on here?”

  Chapter 3

  Jude had her at g’day.

  “I love an Aussie accent,” she said. “Say something else.”

  Jude laughed. It was the first time I’d heard him laugh, and I swear, it too rang with an accent. “Now, you’ve put me on the spot.”

  Stephanie giggled lightly and repeated spot, saying it the way he had, somehow hiding the vowel. A lot of his words sounded shorter than they actually were.

  “How cute is that? Totally,” Stephanie said.

  Stephanie was in the habit of often asking a question and answering it herself. I wasn’t quite sure if she was mental and carrying on conversations with herself or if she didn’t have the patience to wait for the answers.

  “You are the absolute cutest,” she went on. Then she shifted her gaze to me and crooked her finger. “Uh, can I see you in private for a minute?”

  “If you don’t mind, I’m going to pop into the loo,” Jude said, pointing toward my bedroom.

  “Uh, yeah sure. Actually”—I got up—“hold on just a sec.”

  I hurried into my room. Who’s mental now, Alyssa? I asked myself as I dashed madly around picking up discarded clothes. I tended to avoid hangers when I didn’t have a roommate around who might object to tripping over clothes. Sheli had finished finals early and left a few days ago, so I’d immediately thrown caution to the wind. My clothes had suffered as a result.

  Then I ducked into my bathroom to make sure I hadn’t left any underwear or personal items lying around. Why hadn’t it occurred to me that eventually he was going to need access to a bathroom?

  Okay, okay, okay. I straightened things, placed a couple of clean towels on the counter, and calmly walked back into the living room. Hanging on to Jude’s every word, Stephanie was sitting on the edge of the coffee table. What did I care if she was ogling him and he was interested in her? Not my business. But I still had this strange urge to break up their conversation.

  “It’s ready,” I said.

  “I’ll visit with you more in a bit, Stephanie.” Jude stood up and grabbed his duffel bag. He winked as he walked by me. I wasn’t sure why or what it meant but it made me feel special.

  Stephanie’s eyes followed him as he disappeared into my bedroom and closed the door.

  “Omigod! Is he not the cutest?” Stephanie asked. “Where did you find him?”

  “In the front yard,” I said truthfully, surprised he hadn’t shared every sordid detail. Then I told her all about last night’s misadventures. When I finished, she said, “So Rick made these arrangements and didn’t tell anyone?”

  “Apparently. So how do you feel about letting Jude stay here?”

  “As long as he’s using your loo and not mine. But if we get caught, it’s your problem.”

  I felt an amazing sense of relief. I really hadn’t wanted to let Jude down. “I think I can handle that.”

  By the time Jude came out of my bedroom, Stephanie had left to spend the day on the slopes with some friends.

  I put my hand beneath my chin, striving for nonchalance as I worked to keep my jaw from dropping.

  Omigod! Freshly showered, Jude looked absolutely amazing. He was wearing a forest green cable-knit sweater which really brought out the deep green of his gorgeous eyes. Now that they no longer contained a hint of red, they were even more beautiful. If his emerging from my room hadn’t knocked the breath out of me, noticing his eyes would have.

  I suddenly felt very awkward. I didn’t know what to do with my hands, because they wanted to reach out and brush his autumn-colored hair off his brow. I tucked them beneath my arms, as though they were cold. Actually nothing about me was cold. Jude somehow had the ability to raise my temperature to the point that I probably appeared fevered.

  “So what’s the verdict?” he asked.

  “Stephanie is okay with you staying in our suite. So our couch is yours if you want it.”

  “Do you have a problem with it?” he asked.

  “What? No, not at all.” Did I sound too eager? I thought I sort of did. He was fascinating, and what I’d thought was going to be an uneventful winter break suddenly had possibilities.

  Jude gave me a big grin. “Fantastic.”

  “So what are your plans for the day?” I asked.

  “Take a walkabout. Want to come with me?”

  “You know, I would but I need to go to the campus bookstore.”

  “I like bookstores.”

  That was all I really needed to do today. Pick up my books for Monday’s classes. So why not?

  We walked to a little pancake house near campus. I’d changed into jeans and a curve-hugging red sweater. I’d felt a compulsion to at least look like someone Jude wouldn’t be embarrassed to be seen with—although he seemed to just go with the flow, no matter how turbulent it might be.

  He ordered scrambled eggs, crisp bacon, sausage, biscuits, and a “cuppa tea.” I ordered buttermilk pancakes and a glass of skim milk.

  It was a bright clear day. The snow that had come through the night before had left a fresh blanket of white, but most of the sidewalks and the roads were already cleared. When you live in snow country, the city is always prepared.

  “So how’d you get into couch swapping?” I asked, pouring maple syrup over my pancakes.

  “Money.”

  “There’s money to be made in it?”

  He crumbled his bacon over his eggs, stirred them up. “No, my lack of money. You read the note, right? Rick said you’d hook me up with some cheap eats.”

  Considering how much Jude was eating for breakfast, I didn’t think I’d have much luck in that department. Maybe it was my fascination with watching $40 a Day with Rachael Ray that had convinced Rick I was the cheap-eats go-to girl. She could go to any city and eat all day without spending more than forty dollars. She always had interesting meals—and everything was absolutely delicious. Just once, I wanted to see her taste something, grimace, and say, “Okay, this was a bad choice.”

  But I didn’t want Jude to know that I had concerns about delivering on the inexpensive food. It would be a challenge, but not impossible.

  “Speaking of eats, you absolutely can’t come to Vermont and not have our maple syrup.”