Chapter 8
TYRELL
If you’d asked me when I first got to Nolan U if I’d be sitting in the living room of Football Frat watching a nearly three-year-old perform her version of ballet in a pink fairy costume, I would have told you, “You’re crazy, man.”
But here I am, with my ass stuck in this chair, smiling like this is the cutest damn thing in the world.
Because it is.
She’s just started singing too, and her sweet little voice—pitchy and off-key—is hilarious.
Grady starts to quiver beside me, biting his lips together and trying not to laugh out loud as Zoey’s voice crescendos into the room.
I have no idea what the words mean. I think she’s just making this up on the spot.
She finishes with an enthusiastic twirl that makes her fall over, then jumps up, raising her arms in the air and saying, “Thank you, everybody. Thank you.” Then she bows, letting us know it’s time to clap.
And we deliver.
Zander and Wily are the loudest of the lot as we cheer on our little girl.
Damn, I’m gonna miss her when I leave, but the ones to feel the biggest hole will be Carson and Grady. Carson complains about living with a toddler, but I glance at his face now, and that adoring way he looks at her… yeah, he’s gonna be a wreck when she goes.
We still have no idea where Zander and his little family are gonna end up. The draft can’t come fast enough.
“Okay, we’re out. Good job, Zoey Bird.” Carson raises his thumb, and she waves excitedly while he wraps his arm around Nylah’s waist and leads her from the room.
“Time for bed, lil’ missy.” Zander stands and is rewarded with instant protests from his daughter.
“I’m not tired!”
“Fairies need their sleep.” He picks her up. “Especially dancing fairies who can sing as well as you can. If you don’t sleep, your body doesn’t have time to get its energy back, and then you won’t be able to dance and sing at all.”
Her eyes bulge, her soft gasp damn adorable as she rests her head on Zander’s shoulder. “Zoey sleep now.”
“Good idea.” Zander rests his cheek on her head, sharing a smile with Sienna before walking out of the room to the converted garage out back.
Sienna jumps up to follow them, and I move to the couch, knowing I should be getting my ass upstairs to study but really not loving that idea.
Finals are mere weeks away, and I should get my ass in gear, but my brain’s foggy after an intense day, and I just don’t feel like it.
What I need is the perfect excuse to get out of it, but I doubt I’ll get any from this lot.
Wily and Satch are already moving to the dining table for a study session. They’ve had to start working downstairs because they get too “distracted” in his room, and Satch is worried that Wily won’t be prepared enough for his final exams.
“I’m gonna go get the dishes done.” Blake stands up.
“Bee, you’ve been cleaning all day.” Grady tries to snag her hand and stop her.
“I know, but you have studying to do, and I don’t want to get in your way.”
“But—”
“The sooner you get that done, the sooner we can…” She gives him a heated smile, and he bolts off the couch, racing for the stairs while Blake laughs and smacks his ass when he passes her.
Okay, living in Love City is seriously starting to get old.
Rising from the couch with a soft growl, I traipse up to my room and force my tired brain to concentrate on engineering shit.
It’s an effort, and I end up doing that thing where I review my notes from today’s classes in ten-minute bursts before getting distracted or doodling shit on the paper I’m supposed to be writing on.
Thank God my phone rings an hour later to end my misery.
Lifting it out of the charging cradle, I glance at the screen, then do a double take.
It’s Dani.
She’s calling me.
Why is she calling me?
My gut twists into a pretzel as my thumb hovers over the screen.
Slide to answer, brah. Slide to answer!
Clearing my throat, I hesitantly answer the call just before it cuts off. “Hey, Dani. What’s up?”
She sniffs, and for a second, I think she’s crying. What the fuck?
“Dani?”
“Hey, Ty.”
Oh shit, she is crying!
“Dani? What’s wrong?”
“I just…” She sucks in a breath. “I’m sorry to call you like this I…
I’ve just had a really bad date, and I didn’t know who else to talk to.
It’s my first one since Atlas, and it took so much courage to go, you know?
And it was… it was a total shit show.” Her voice breaks and she starts sniffing again while my stomach pretzel turns into a rock.
“What happened? Was he a sleaze or something? He didn’t touch you when you didn’t want him to, did he?” Anger fires through me, hot and fast.
“No, he was just… ugh! I can’t even. It was a horrible date, and now I’m walking home in the dark and I—”
“What?” I bark, heading for the door. “You’re walking in the dark? Where?”
“Um… I can’t see the street sign from here, and I still don’t know Nolan well enough to tell you.
I know I should get an Uber, but…” She sighs.
“I needed a minute to gather myself before walking in the door and getting questioned by my roommates. They’ll no doubt be desperate to know how it went, and they’ll take one look at my face and… ” Her soft whimper makes my chest hurt.
“I’m coming to get you.” I thunder down the stairs, plucking my keys out of the bowl and shoving my shoes on.
“You good, man?” Wily calls from the dining room.
“Gotta go out” is the only answer I can manage before bolting out the door. “You got me a street name yet?” I say to Dani.
“Ty, you don’t have to come get me. I’m sure you have better things to do with your time.”
“I’m comin’. I hate the idea of you wandering around at night by yourself.”
“I have pepper spray in my bag.”
“That’s not the point. I’m sure you can defend yourself just fine.” I hop into my SUV and start the engine. The phone changes to car audio as I reverse out of the driveway.
From memory, Dani had some definite fight about her.
I remember her scrapping with a girl in high school once.
We were at a party, and this chick made a play for Atlas, even though she knew the guy was taken.
Dani was furious and tried to get her to back off.
The girl got handsy, and Dani staked her claim like a freaking ninja.
Atlas just stood there in awe while I waded into the fight and broke the girls apart before someone lost a chunk of hair. Girls fight mean. They don’t seem to have the same unspoken rules as guys do. They just go for it.
Dani came away with scratches on her face, and the other girl was sporting a bloody nose and a fat lip.
Now that was a shit show.
I’m really curious to find out what tonight’s shit show looked like. It better not have been anything like that, because if that asshole laid a hand on her, he’s gonna have to pay the price.
“I’ve just reached the corner of Tenth and Cedar,” Dani cuts into my thoughts. “Do you know where that is?”
“Yeah.” I turn left from my street and head her way, probably going a little too fast, but there’s this urgency to reach her quickly.
She’s crying.
It’s dark.
She’s all alone.
I’ll take care of her, Atlas. I promise.
She sniffs again and I cringe, hating that she’s so upset.
“So… he wasn’t sleazy. I’m hoping like hell he wasn’t handsy.”
“No.” Dani calms my nerves. “He didn’t even kiss me goodbye.
Not that I would have wanted him to.” She makes a noise, and I can picture her shuddering.
“He was just… Look, some girls might like having dinner with a guy who talks nonstop about himself and how great he is, but it’s definitely not my thing.
We didn’t have a conversation. He spoke, and I was forced to listen. And then…” She huffs.
“Then what?”
“He didn’t offer to pay for dinner. He handed me the check and asked if I wanted to split it or if I was going to pay the whole thing since I asked him out.”
“Aw, hell no,” I bark. “He did not fuckin’ do that.”
“He did.”
“Please tell me you split it.”
“No,” she whines. “I paid the whole thing because I was so pissed off, and I just wanted to get out of there and away from his clueless ass. I’m not being old-fashioned expecting the guy to pay, am I?”
“No. He should have at least offered, and then it’s up to you to say if you want to split or pay or whatever.”
She lets out a sigh, and I press the accelerator a little harder.
“It was made so much worse by the fact that he’d spent the whole dinner talking about investments and how well he was already doing and how he’s gonna be a multimillionaire by the age of thirty.
” She scoffs. “Then he doesn’t offer to pay for dinner?
He’s probably got way more money than I do. ”
“Yeah, because he makes the girls he dates pay for his fucking meals!” I growl, slowing to negotiate the corner, then picking up my pace again and gunning it to Dani.
I arrive less than a minute later, my heart hurting the second I spot her.
She looks so small and vulnerable, standing on the corner with her arm wrapped around her waist and the phone pressed to her ear.
The second she hears me coming, she spins and hangs up the call.
“Hey, Ty.” She gives me a watery smile as she slips into the car.
“Hey.” I rest my hand lightly on the wheel, taking her in with a gentle smile. “You okay?”
“I feel better already.” She sucks in a breath. “Thanks for coming to get me.”
“Anytime. Where do you want to go now?”
“Can we just sit for a minute? Then I’ll get you to take me home.”
“Sure thing.” I cut the engine and settle back in my seat, angling my body to face her.
She brushes a tear off her cheek before digging a tissue out of her purse and blowing her nose. I let silence reign for a minute while she cleans herself up, dabbing her eyes and cheeks before finally looking at me.
“Am I pathetic?”
“No.” I shake my head. “You’re brave. For putting yourself out there. First date since Atlas. That’s huge.”
And surprising, to be honest. Atlas died years ago now. I figured she would have found her feet and moved on.
But she got stuck.
And now she’s trying to get out… and her first date was shit.
Damn, that’s so fucking unfair.
“I really wanted it to go well.” Her voice is croaky.
“He seemed so nice when I met him at the bar last night. My expectations were obviously way too high. I just wanted this to be easy. But it’s not.
” She shakes her head, her eyebrows wrinkling.
“It’s not gonna be easy at all, and it’s tempting to crawl back into my cave and forget it. ”
I brush my fingers lightly down her arm, trying to comfort her but having no idea what to say.
“But if I do that… I’m gonna die an old, lonely cat lady.”
A soft snicker punches out of me. “That is not gonna happen to you. You don’t even like cats, do you?”
She sniffs and nods, her eyes glassing over as she lets out a whimpering laugh. “Yeah. I mean, they’re not all bad, but cats can be assholes.”
I nod because they can, although my Rook is an angel, if you ask me. If you ask my mom, she’s a demon from the underworld.
“I guess I’ll die surrounded by parakeets or something. I don’t know.” Dani’s voice cracks.
“That’s not gonna happen to you,” I repeat. “You’ll meet someone, you’ll fall in love again, and it’ll be great.”
“You don’t sound like you believe that,” she murmurs.
I lean forward, hoping my expression is emphatic enough. “I do. You’re a great girl, Dani. Any guy would be lucky to have you.”
Her smile is sad, her brown gaze aching.
“I only ever wanted him. I mean, I wasn’t even looking.
I was fourteen… nearly fifteen. He came into my orbit and took over my entire world.
And that’s exactly the way I wanted it. I loved him.
I loved him with all I had.” She lets out a shuddering breath.
“And then he was gone, and for the last couple of years, I’ve just been floating out in space, you know?
Tethered to nothing. No one. And…” She shakes her head.
“I don’t want to live like that anymore.
I miss him.” Pressing the back of her hand to her mouth, she fights tears for a minute, and I just sit there, once again having no idea what to say.
Shit.
I wish I was better at this stuff.
Atlas always had the words. He was the mouth, and I was the silent partner, the guy who had his back.
Until you didn’t.
I snap my eyes shut, hating myself. Hating that I wasn’t there to stop it. Hating that it’s hurt way more than Atlas. Dani is suffering too, and I can’t help but take the blame.
“It’s more than that, though,” she whispers, and my eyes pop open.
“I miss being someone’s partner. I miss having a special person.
A man who makes me feel like I’m the most important.
Like I’m their one and they’re mine and…
” She threads her fingers together, shaking her hands in the air.
“I want that again. I pine for it… but I have no idea how to find it.”
Aw man, me too.
Although there’s no again for me. I’ve never found a girl to make me feel all of those things. But I want it. Seeing all my friends get it has only intensified this feeling for me.
“Am I being a romantic sap or—”
“No, of course not.” I wrap my hand around her interlaced fingers and give them a soft squeeze. “I want that too. I get it. And it’s not just about romance. It’s about partnership. There’s nothing wrong with wanting that.”
She looks right at me, the streetlight coming in through the windshield making her face glow. “So, how do I get it? How do I find that again?”
I sigh, about to tell her that I have no idea… until a thought hits me.
Holding my breath while I quickly run it through in my head, I finally let out a rush of air, then tell her, “I’ll help you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m gonna find you the perfect guy.” I grin. “I’ve been here for four years. I know plenty of people in Nolan, and all of them are better than that jackass you went out with tonight. Let me hook you up with a decent date.”
She gapes at me for a second, then starts to laugh. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah.” I nod. “Let me have a think about who’s worthy of a date with you, and I’ll set something up.”
Her expression crumples into an uncertain frown.
I grin at her. “Come on, Dee. You trust me, right?”
“Yes.” She nods without hesitation, then bites her lips together.
“What?”
“I don’t know. It’s just… scary? Or… something.”
“Hey.” Leaning toward her, I rest my fingers lightly on her shoulder. “It’s gonna be okay. I won’t set you up with anyone who’s gonna treat you bad, I swear.”
“I know.” She nods. “I know you’d never do that to me.”
I smile at her, shifting away and nestling my shoulder into my seat, trying to think of who I could ask.
There are plenty of guys on the team who are pretty decent. But are any of them good enough for Dani?