Are you with me? Read online

  ARE YOU WITH ME

  Regina Bartley

  Contents

  Untitled

  Other Books by Regina Bartley:

  AYWM

  1. Josh

  2. Gwen

  3. Josh

  4. Gwen

  5. Josh

  6. Gwen

  7. Josh

  8. Gwen

  9. Josh

  10. Gwen

  11. Josh

  12. Gwen

  13. Josh

  14. Gwen

  15. Josh

  16. Gwen

  17. Josh

  18. Gwen

  19. Josh

  20. Gwen

  21. Josh

  22. Gwen

  23. Josh

  24. Gwen

  25. Josh

  26. Gwen

  The End

  Epilogue

  Coming Soon

  About the Author

  ARE

  YOU

  WITH

  ME?

  Trinity series book III

  REGINA BARTLEY

  ARE YOU WITH ME

  Copyright © 2018 Regina Bartley

  All rights reserved

  www.reginabartley.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either a work of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity between actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Any uses of locales, or events are used fictitiously.

  Cover Design by: Emily Wittig Designs & Photography

  Created with Vellum

  Other Books by Regina Bartley:

  The Unbroken Series:

  Escaping Heartbreak

  Causing Heartbreak

  Lasting Heartbreak

  The Rosen Brother’s Series:

  Klay

  A home for Caroline

  Kory

  THE TRINITY SERIES

  Do You Love Me?

  Can You See Me?

  Standalones:

  Moonshine

  I am free

  15 years to Life

  Dirty Nails

  Replica

  The Struggle is Real.

  1

  Josh

  “Tell me again why we had to come to the grocery store, and why we couldn’t just stop at a gas station? You know I despise the grocery,” I told Garrett as we walked through the automatic door of the supermarket. “We only have to bring chips.”

  “And dip,” he clarified, loud enough for the entire place to look in our direction.

  Every day with him was like opening night on Broadway. He felt the need to announce to everyone within a half-mile radius of his grand entrance and departure. Seriously, I couldn’t make that shit up.

  “Couldn’t we get dip at the gas station? Surely, they sell dip.” My voice piqued at the end for his amusement. Musicals, and sarcasm were the only language he spoke. “It’s just a card game. The guys won’t care what kind of dip we bring.”

  “Yeah, well I will. Now get a cart.”

  My head snapped in his direction. “C’mon. I draw the line at getting a cart. We don’t need one. Now move your feet. The card game starts in thirty minutes.”

  “Keep snapping at me, and I’m going to take all your money tonight, Big Guy.” The sarcasm in his voice was noted. Between the two of us, he was far bigger. He had a good hundred and fifty pounds on me, at least. “Why are you in such a big hurry anyway? You know Jude will be late. He’s always late.”

  “True.” Jude was always late. His schedule kept him busy. “I just hate the grocery. A bunch of random people with their filthy hands on every item in the store gets to me. Then you put it on a dirty conveyer belt, where someone touches it again. Oh, but that’s not all. Then you have the bagger who manhandles it into a bag, so you can put it back into the filthy cart you took it out of.” I scrunched up my nose. It’s so much easier to order the groceries online and pick them up. If I can’t see it happening, then it’s like it never did.

  Garrett smirked before giving my shoulder a little shove. “You’re such a weirdo.”

  I smiled and shrugged. No sense in denying it.

  With summer ending, the guys decided to start our usual poker games back up. We’d been doing it once a month since I started Trinity College last year, and it just stuck. It became a ritual for us, a chance to blow off some steam in a laid-back setting. We took turns playing at different places, and tonight we were meeting at Fox’s guesthouse.

  I’d never been there before, but according to the other guys, it was a sight to see. His parents were filthy rich, and they lived in some gated community near downtown. As much as I wanted to see the house, there was someone inside of it that I wanted to see more. Don’t get me wrong; I loved a fancy place as much as the next guy, but I was hoping for a chance to see his sister.

  Gwen Taylor, the girl who never texted me back, the girl with long blonde hair, blue eyes, and an ass that would stop traffic. I shit you not.

  She was the reason I was in such a rush. I was hoping to catch even just a small glimpse of her before we started our game.

  “Ouch!” I jumped. “Can’t you drive that thing?” My heel was on fire from him ramming the cart right into the back of it. He insisted on getting the cart, but he couldn’t drive it any better than he drove his truck.

  “If you quit daydreaming and walk a little faster that wouldn’t have happened.” His teeth were on full display with his shit-eating grin. “Come on. Let’s check out.”

  “Finally.”

  Over the past year Garrett and I became more like brothers, than friends. We bicker, we laugh, and we always manage to have a good time no matter what he coaxes me into doing.

  Like grocery shopping…

  When I think back to move in day at the dorms, it still cracks me up. He walked out of the bathroom naked, burst into song, and claimed to be my best friend in the world. It just worked. Despite our crazy journey, I couldn’t picture having anyone else for my roommate.

  Instead of pulling into the circular driveway in front, we followed the road on the side of the house that led to the back of the property. I had to slow down, so that I could take it all in. We were inching in like turtles. I was barely driving three mph. My Camaro hadn’t ever been driven at such low speeds. They weren’t kidding when they said the place was huge. It was massive, and one of the prettiest places I’d ever seen.

  Parking behind Obi’s SUV, I sat there staring out my window, trying to take it all in.

  “Freaking amazing, right?” Garrett chimed in, before climbing out of the car.

  “Right,” I nodded.

  Who would actually need a house this size?

  I climbed out of my car and closed the door behind me. My eyes were still glued to the house. Seriously, it was something out of a movie. I kid you not. There must’ve been a hundred windows. Scanning over them, I couldn’t help wondering which one of them belonged to her.

  In the midst of being a nosey stalker, I tripped over my own feet. If I hadn’t caught myself on the edge of Obi’s SUV, I would’ve face planted on the pavement. Call me Mr. Graceful.

  “Easy there, Slick,” Garrett said. He laughed at me all the way up the sidewalk, and I could still hear him chuckling when he walked inside.

  Let’s just hope that Gwen wasn’t staring at me through whatever window was hers. I would’ve made a complete fool out of myself. Everybody inside the guesthouse must’ve seen me too, because the laughter carried out through the door when I opened it.

  “Laugh it up, Guys.” I called out to the room.

  “It’s not the first time someone has been impressed with the size,” Fox belted out over the laughter. That only made it worse. Poor Garrett w
as bent over, and I thought for a second he was going to piss his pants.

  The rest of the night seemed to have the same theme. We did more laughing than card playing, and I wound up losing fifty bucks. It was all in good fun though. I loved our card games. It was nice to have a good time, and not have to worry about anything. The parties on campus were too much for me. It got old, trying to see who could drink the most, or trying to see who could snag the girl before the night was up.

  I was glad to see freshman year come to an end. This year was going to be different, better.

  When the night was over, Garrett and I headed out to my car. The place looked different when it was pitch black outside. The lights were bright, and you could see the moon reflecting off the pool. What a good life they had. Not that I didn’t, it’s just I’d never seen a place of that magnitude. The money that must’ve gone into it was more than I’d probably ever see in my lifetime.

  I opened the door of my Camaro and was just about to climb in when a new light caught my eye. It must’ve just turned on. When I gazed into it, I could see her there. She was far away, but I still knew it was her. There was a dusky silhouette near the pane of the window, tiny and feminine. I squinted to see if I could get a better look, but the body moved.

  Man, was I hoping to see her.

  Maybe some other time, or maybe I’d get lucky and she’d finally text me back for once.

  A guy could dream right?

  2

  Gwen

  Summer break was almost over and I’d barely stepped foot out of the house. I’d been cooped up for weeks taking an online summer course, and watching hours of crime shows on Netflix. Exciting right? Summer was practically nonexistent. I barely had a break at all.

  But that was my life, my sheltered, unpredictable life.

  Things weren’t always this way, so restricted. There once was a more freeing time in my life, but that was light years ago, and it wouldn’t be that way again until I was grown and married, which was laughable. Me, married? It was never going to happen.

  Truthfully, I’d kept my distance from most guys. But, I had my reasons. My life just seemed too difficult to include anyone else in it. Plus, my brothers would have a fit. They’d go to the ultimate lengths to make sure it never happened.

  There were families, and then there were the Taylors. This would be the part of the story where you –Insert eye roll here.

  The Taylors came from a long line of oil tycoons. My great grandfather was involved in some kind of crude oil in the late twenties, and then my grandfather, and of course my father. We’ve been in the Arkansas oil business nearly a hundred years. Fortunately for me, I wouldn’t be carrying on that oil baby tradition. He had sons for that.

  My only plans were to get out of my house, out from under the rock I’d been living under. Hell, I’d even get out of this town. I just needed to breathe a little. They’d put me in an invisible bubble with boundaries that no ordinary person could handle. It felt like I was suffocating, like the four lavender painted walls of my bedroom were squeezing in tightly around me. Most girls my age had freedom and the full experience of college life. They were partying, dating, and some were off on exciting summer adventures with their friends.

  Not me.

  The closest thing I’d had to an adventure was a trip to the mall with my brothers. It was safe to say that I was living the hermit life, and growing tired of it every, single, second.

  “What are you doing, Little Bird?” My older brother Fox always called me Little Bird, ever since I was a young girl. It was because of my chicken legs. Even though I’ve since filled them out, the name stuck.

  “Just finished working on my homework for my summer English Lit class. All I have left is the final assignment, and I’ll be done. Thank God,” I breathed a sigh of relief. I had taken English Literature because I thought the class would be a breeze as a summer course. “This class was harder than I was expecting.” I admitted. “What are you doing home? I thought you and Obi were going out tonight.” There was a hint of jealousy in the clipped tone of my voice, but I couldn’t help it. It was so unfair how they could go and do as they pleased while I was left home with my nose buried in a book. It pained me to think of all the things I was being left out of.

  “We are,” he shrugged. “I just wanted to check on you first before we left.”

  “I’m fine.” I was up to my ears in FINE.

  Closing my laptop, I scooted past him as he stood in the doorway of my bedroom. My shoulder brushed against his arm.

  “Hey, wait.”

  “What, Fox?”

  He stared down at me, and like the good little sister, I forced a smile.

  “I’m good,” I lied.

  “Want to come with us?”

  I squealed and threw my arms around his neck. “Yes!”

  Fox very seldom took me places that didn’t involve small crowds. He was always so overbearing, and trying to protect me from everything like I was an egg with a cracked shell that could burst open at any moment. It sometimes made me wish that I had sisters instead of brothers.

  “Wait,” I released my arms from around him. “Where are we going?” He was about to answer but I cut him off. “Never mind. I don’t even care. I just want to get out of this house.”

  He smiled at me. Fox only ever smiled at me. He was like a sour patch kid, and the sweet was only reserved for me. Despite his control issues, and the inferiority, he loved me unconditionally. His intentions were always good; it just bugged me when he went overboard, which was ninety-nine percent of the time.

  “Let’s go, Little Bird.”

  I didn’t bother fixing my hair or re-doing my makeup. Fox would’ve gotten aggravated with me and left my butt behind. I couldn’t risk the chance of being left behind. It was a shot at freedom, even if only for a couple of measly hours.

  Obi gave me a big hug as soon as he came in the front door to meet us. He was my adopted brother, but you’d never know it. He treated me the same as Fox, loved me the same too. It was a love that knew no boundaries. When he joined our family, he was eight years old, and I loved him just as much then as I did now. Never once in eleven years had I thought of him as “adopted.” One thing my parents taught me at a young age was to take value in family, and they instilled a good sense of morals in us when it came to acceptance. Obi would never feel unaccepted in my presence.

  “Where are we going?” I asked Obi.

  “Hopefully out to eat. I’m starving.” He rubbed his thin stomach like he hadn’t eaten in a week, but I knew that wasn’t true. He was like Fox. He could eat an entire pizza and be hungry again in five minutes. They were two bottomless pits.

  “Let’s go.” Fox stepped out the front door, leading us to the cobblestone driveway. His brand new matte gray Audi RS 7 was parked in front. It was the prettiest car I’d ever seen. As soon as Dad bought it for him, I was jealous. I knew what kind of cash had to be dropped for it, but I also knew there were giant strings attached to it to. He expected a lot from Fox and I’m positive one of those jobs meant keeping tabs on me.

  After sliding into the backseat, I buckled my seatbelt. I felt giddy being able to leave the house, and I couldn’t hide the smile on my face. You’d think it was Christmas. Most people wanted their futures to be stable and secure, but not me. I dreamt of independence, even if it were only for a day. Hell, I was happy with just a few hours.

  “Where we headed?” I asked.

  “To get food.” Fox said before accelerating us out of the driveway and past the iron gates. I didn’t ask any more questions.

  We pulled into RACK Bar & Grill, which was the guys’ favorite hangout. I’d been there a half-dozen times with Fox, but never on a crowded Friday night. The place would be packed to full capacity with college students. That meant I might actually get a chance to mingle with some people my own age. Incredible, right?

  Underneath my calm exterior, I was about to burst at the seams. It was my first night out of the house in weeks.


  “Is everybody here?” I asked, knowing that he’d know exactly whom I was referring to. The group of people he hung out with was exceptionally close, recently adding a few new faces, but mostly the same group that had been hanging out for years.

  “I think so. Not sure if Jude will be able to make it, but everyone else should be here.”

  A flight of butterflies came to life inside my stomach, fluttering so hard that it felt like they’d fly right out.

  Josh.

  Just thinking about him, made me nervous.

  I’d seen him a few times now, and just two of those times had we been alone. Once was in the library on campus, and again at the school carnival. That was it. Both meetings lasting just minutes, but both were engraved deeply into my memory. It was hard not to forget a face like his, those deep blue eyes and his rosy red lips.

  Gah.

  Ever since the first time I saw him, I was like a flighty bird, doing things I normally wouldn’t do. Like talk. He was so easy to talk to, so incredibly charming. The male species to me were like creatures of the unknown. I’d trip over my words, or find myself wishing I could run and hide the moment guys tried to talk to me. But every moment alone with Josh was different. I was comfortable. I mean, aside from the intoxication of those dimples. I found it easy with him, which worried me even more.