Read Online Teaching Roman by Gennifer Albin - Free Book Online Page A

note of suspicion in her voice.
    I shrugged. “I do remember some high school Spanish.”
    Despite our lack of beach chairs, the sand was soft, hot, and welcoming beneath me as I settled down with Cell Biology and Genetics . Cassie stripped off her sun dress, revealing a tiny bandeau bikini top and something that barely qualified as bottoms.
    “Aren’t you going to put sunscreen on?” I asked her.
    She raised an eyebrow over the rim of her sunglasses. “No, Dr. Stone, I’m not. I wanted to get some sun, remember?”
    I could hear the challenge in her words. She suspected I wanted to give her a lecture on skin cancer, but I knew she was trying to pick a fight.
    “Have you talked to Trevor?” I asked, switching topics to what I knew was on her mind.
    “Absolutely not. I’m not even sure I can get service down here.” She shrugged like she didn’t care and rolled onto her stomach on the beach towel.
    I knew she was lying. We’d both texted Jills earlier to touch base with her, and we were probably both going to get smacked with some serious roaming charges, too. But we definitely got service down here, which meant Trevor hadn’t called or texted.
    “When did you talk to him last?”
    Her voice was muffled by the sound of rolling waves. “Let’s see, when I was throwing his shoes at him.”
    She’d left that part out of her story before. Of course, her first version was a barely coherent string of curses and sobs. “You threw his shoes at him?”
    “And his pants and his shirt and a lamp.”
    “A lamp?” I couldn’t help but be impressed. Apparently Cassie had a little bark behind her bite.
    “He’s a piece of shit,” Cassie said. “I would have kept throwing things at him but I decided I was above it. Right now, I’d rather just enjoy the fucking sun and not think about the son of a bitch.”
    “Fair enough.” I flipped my textbook back open and uncapped my highlighter.
    “You are in the middle of fucking paradise and you’ve got your nose stuck in a book.” She hadn’t even rolled over to confirm this, she just knew me that well.
    “I can’t get behind.”
    “The semester hasn’t even started yet. You just aced your finals. Take a break.”
    “Think of it this way. I have to get ahead,” I explained.
    “How’s the view from up there?” she asked. “You’re soooo far ahead of me! Is it sunny?”
    “Looking good.” I smiled to myself as I found the spot I’d bookmarked.
    “Too bad you’re missing the view from right now.”
    “That’s deep,” I told her absently. “You should write a book. I bet you could give Deepak Chopra a run for his money.”
    Cassie snorted as she laid her head on her arms, which were already kissed with sun. No doubt she’d look like a beach goddess by the time we headed back to Washington. I pulled my beach hat further down to keep my nose from burning. I wasn’t born to tan. I was born to freckle and roast.
    “So what happened last night? How did I get back?” Cassie asked in a soft voice. I heard the reservation in it as if she didn’t really want to know.
    “Don’t remember, huh?” I tossed my textbook on my towel, abandoning it for a minute to have a much needed heart-to-heart with my best friend.
    “Uh-oh. Jessica put down her book. This can’t be good.” She rolled to her side to look at me. Her gaze tentatively probed my face for confirmation.
    “You gave Jills some competition in the drama department,” I told her.
    “That bad?”
    “You ripped apart about twenty magazines at a bodega.”
    “Why would I do that?” she asked in a confused tone.
    “They were bridal magazines mostly.”
    Cassie’s face disappeared in her towel as she wrapped her arms around her head. I suppose I had to wait on my lecture until she resurfaced. After a few minutes, she sat up, facing me. “Go ahead.”
    “Go ahead and what?”
    “Lecture me,” she said. “I deserve it.”
    “I’m not going to lecture you,” I