Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Noah
I’ve Got Her
We walk into the football house for Parker’s twenty-first birthday.
It’s not like all jocks are friends, or that we hate each other, but Parker and I have classes together and he’s good people.
That’s why I’m here, but I’m aware most of my teammates came for the free-flowing booze and the ridiculous number of women who’ve converged.
It all looks exactly like I was expecting, except there’s a girl in Parker’s arms, which I’m about to rib him about when he kisses her on the forehead, but then I see it’s Savannah.
I stop dead, ready to defend her honor or some whipped shit, even if this is the last dude I’d ever think would do something like that, but she leans in and hugs him like he’s her favorite fucking person, then kisses his cheek before she goes off into the house.
I head for the kitchen, because I need a minute to calm down before I can talk to the fucking birthday boy. If she has a thing with Parker, it explains her comments about my room. Why football is her default. How she knew what to do with the door…Fuck.
It does not explain why she let me give her an orgasm the other night, and kissed me like…
I don’t even know. It’s not like it’s my business what she does, or that I even want a relationship; I’m super happy with our hanging out and making her come thing.
I just know that seeing them together makes me want to punch something.
Preferably Parker.
“You good, Cap?” Owen asks me with a smirk before taking a swig of his beer.
“That was Savannah, right?” Mike confirms.
I think I growl in response before making my way back to the living room, grateful Parker is no longer there.
I know my reaction makes no sense. She’s not mine.
I basically begged her to let me give her an orgasm – a bet I won, thank you very much – so it’s not like we’re exclusive or that she ever agreed to anything more than that one time.
And I can’t handle another person expecting things from and depending on me.
Parker is actually a great guy who would treat her right and be awesome for her.
But fuck if I don’t want to punch him right now, even on his birthday.
I end up in the garage, which Parker told me they’d set up as an at-home gym when they moved in. I thought it was overkill when the athletic center is less than a fifteen-minute drive, but the football team is huge, so what do I know?
Their size does nothing to discourage my urge to punch things, but I’m not an idiot, or drunk enough to not know better, so I use their punching bag. Cross, jab, uppercut. Trying not to question why it bothers me so much. Reminding myself why I shouldn’t care, even if I obviously do.
I’ve been at it at least fifteen minutes, long enough for my brain to shut down and stop telling me I’m being a possessive caveman over someone that isn’t even mine, when the door opens.
“What the…Callahan! You came!” Parker’s confusion turns into excitement as he comes over and hugs me. “What are you doing in here?”
I shrug. “Blowing off steam.” He’s drunk, and if I should be punching anyone, it’s myself.
“Yeah, I saw Crystal with Declan.”
It takes me a minute to realize he means Crystal from Kappa Tau, because he saw me with her at Slapshots on Blackout Friday and thinks she’s the reason I’m jealous. I don’t even know who Declan…no, wait, I do.
“The lacrosse guy?” I’m surprised she didn’t go for someone on the football team, since she actually likes that sport, but Parker takes my confusion as me not knowing she replaced me.
“Shit, I’m sorry.”
“We hooked up a few times last year, I’m glad she’s moved on,” I assure him.
“Is everything else okay?”
“Dude, it’s your birthday. Don’t worry about me.” I nudge him and make an effort to smile, because him asking about me with concern just makes me feel like more of an asshole for wanting to punch him earlier. “How many shots are you at?”
“Six for real, officially twelve, I think. I can’t let the boys down, but liver poisoning sounds sucky.”
“Smart man.” I pat him on the shoulder. “Happy birthday,” I start, but an alarm goes off on his phone.
“Shit,” he says before silencing it. “Thanks man, I’m glad you’re here. There’s alcohol in the kitchen, the bag’s yours if you need it, and we can catch up later, but I have to go say goodbye to Banana.”
“Savannah?” I ask, assuming I misheard him. Then I kick myself because I’m sure as shit not masking any of my emotions, and he has a fucking nickname for her. Which happens to also be a fruit.
“You know Banana?” He’s smiling, excited, but then he quirks an eyebrow.
I tell myself it’s more protective than possessive, but that may be because I’m trying not to want to hurt him again.
Though maybe it would be better if he did get possessive, staked his claim and punched me.
Selfishly, I want none of that. Because then I would have to back off, and I’m not sure I could.
“She watches my sister sometimes,” I say like an absolute jerk, diminishing her to a fucking babysitter, but every time I say we’re friends, everyone immediately believes we’re friends with benefits, or secretly dating, and I don’t want Parker to kill me now I’ve decided I don’t want to hurt him.
“Yeah, she loves kids.”
“Didn’t realize she was here. Doesn’t seem like her scene.” I’m fishing, but he doesn’t drop his smile, if anything, it gets bigger.
“If it wasn’t my birthday, a milestone one at that, she definitely wouldn’t be,” he shares, and now I want to hit him again. “Her brother convinced her, but she was only staying for an hour, so I’m guessing she’s about to flee, and won’t waste time trying to find me once her pumpkin comes back.”
“Her brother…what?” I try to make sense of his Cinderella reference, but then I see team photos on the wall.
One of them was taken in front of my house, with just a handful of players in it.
I recognize the guy beside Parker as Dallas James, who’s killing his rookie season in the NFL…
and it hits me. “You didn’t live in the football house when it was on Ivy, did you? ”
“Nah, unless you count all the nights I spent on their couch. Which was a lot. I’m glad it stayed in the fam,” he teases with a glance at his watch. He’s about to tell me he really has to go, but…
“Dallas James is her brother,” I state. It isn’t even a question anymore.
I think he wants to deny it, but he goes pale, which confirms it instead. I don’t know how I missed it when they have the same fucking last name.
“Fuck.”
I don’t know why I’m upset. That she didn’t tell me? That whatever she has with Parker could have been years in the making, that even when they’re over, they’ll never really be over…but then Parker’s reaction worries me.
“Dude, no. Friends or not, you tell a soul, and I will end you,” he warns. Or it might be an actual threat. “She doesn’t need that shit. And if you even think of using her to get to him, I will fucking—”
“What the hell?” I stop him. “Do I look like I give a fuck who her brother is?”
“You just asked.” He has a point, and he’s suddenly completely sober, ready to take me on. For her.
“Because she never said anything, and I didn’t see it…but it makes sense.” I’m so busy defending myself I don’t consider why he got so protective, until… “Wait, did other assholes do that?”
He shakes his head, but it’s more of a don’t go there than a denial, and I fucking hate whoever did that to her.
“I have to go find her, because she’s going to leave, and I need to make sure she doesn’t walk home alone.
Because her brother would kill me, or anyone who hurts her,” he says pointedly.
“But she’s also the closest I have to a sister.
People treat her differently when they know, and it messes with her head, so if you’re about to be one of them… ”
“I won’t. I promise.”
Parker looks at me like he isn’t sure he trusts me anymore before he leaves and I stand there like an idiot for about a minute, going through everything Savannah has said…but she clams up and switches the subject whenever we get too close to her siblings. Now I know why.
Who the fuck knew there was a Dallas in Georgia as well as Texas?
I sigh, not sure if I want to go back to the punching bag or get another drink, but then I remember Parker said he sees her like a sister. Not as a love interest. And she needs a ride home.
“Savannah?” I say with my best impression of surprise when I get to the front porch and find her talking to Parker, seemingly arguing about whether she can walk herself home.
“Noah, I…you know Parker?” she asks, and any thought I might have had of alluding to her brother, to show her and Parker I’m not an asshole, dies at the absolute fear in her eyes, like her world is about to come crashing down around her.
“From around the athletic center…and all the posters with his face.” She smiles, but she’s still nervous, less and more so when someone steals Parker from her, and it’s just the two of us.
“You heading home?” I ask instead of a question that would lead to her lying to me.
I’m sure she has, but now that I know, I really don’t want her to.
“Yeah, parties aren’t really my thing.”
“The things you’ll do for research,” I tease, and she visibly relaxes at the general statement that both gives her an excuse for being here, and saves us from more lies. “Can I walk you?”
“It’s out of your way,” she argues, but I get a smile, and that’s all I need to keep going.
“Something you should know for your book is that all the guys I know, on any of the teams, wouldn’t let a girl walk home alone after a party in the middle of the night.”
I look back to Parker, who is talking with friends but watching us with the look I’d have if someone tried to wander off with Izzie, but I mouth, I’ve got her, and he reluctantly nods.
“I’m not drunk,” Savannah says, as if her stumbling was my fear.