Chapter 2
Dustin
“We could have told him a different way, you know?”
I wouldn’t say I was sulking in the corner of the kitchen, but I was definitely feeling sullen. Dante had gone to his room to call Savvy and tell her he hadn’t found Hadley; Hadley had found me.
Him gone meant I could have it out with Noah.
Noah looked over at me. “You told him. I just encouraged you to do the right thing.”
“I didn’t want to do the right thing,” I whisper-hissed. “I wanted to not mention it to Mr.-I'm-too-wound-up-right-now-to-react-like-a-normal-person.”
“Well, he took it well.” He wiped his hands across the back of his jeans. “What’s the hang-up?”
“You know what your trouble is?” I asked Noah.
“You think you know him. A bar fight, sticking up for each other in practice, I see it. I do. You think you have him figured out. But,” I glanced over my shoulder, seeing the door still closed, “he’s not this mellow guy you’re seeing.
He’s a tightly wound control freak, and he will overreact about this. ”
Noah was unconvinced. “Wouldn’t he have done it already?”
“You think I’m making it up? The guy in there?” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder toward Dante’s bedroom door. “He’s crazy. Ugh, I shouldn’t have opened my mouth.”
“Or stuck your tongue in hers,” Dante said from behind me.
“How—” How had he even opened the door in that tiny window between me looking over my shoulder and back to Noah, without making a sound? I shot a pointed look toward Noah, because this exactly proved my point, but he didn’t react at all.
Fuck me, they were too similar for my liking.
“Mistakes happen,” I snapped at him as he leaned against his door, all cool and calm like. “You’ve made a few of your own recently, Spence, don’t get high and mighty with me now.”
Dante took a deep breath. Centering himself, bringing back the focus for both of us before either of us said something we regretted.
“Mistakes happen because of carelessness,” he countered softly. “You’re right, I’m not the one to preach here. But after everything that’s happened, I just really wish it hadn’t been the reporter. Know what I mean?”
“I told you, I didn’t know who she was.”
“I know.” He gave a nod, but I knew he had more to say. “Can I suggest you start asking your hookups their names?”
“Names complicate things.” I shook my head. “That’s the point of not asking their names.”
Dante gave a look, and I shook my head slightly.
“Fine. You’re right. This time. Not knowing her name complicated this,” I conceded. “Point taken. She knows nothing about me. Or you.”
“But she knows a lot about the program.” Noah was all about being talkative and helpful this evening.
“Say more helpful things,” I muttered resentfully.
“Does this need to be an argument?” Noah looked between us both. “Everything in the open, no more hiding things, we learn, and we grow.”
Even Dante turned to look at him. “What the hell?”
Noah flashed us both a smile. “Heard it on a podcast. Not the right time?” When he didn’t get a reply, he sighed. “Okay, how about you both sleep it off, and if you still feel pissed tomorrow, I’ll make you both my targets in practice.”
“How is you hitting us going to help?” I asked him.
“Because then you’ll both be pissed at me.”
And he said his brother was the clever one.
Dante smirked at Noah as I looked between them.
The Dante-Noah thing was real. I’d watched it develop over the last few weeks — the shorthand, the mutual reading of rooms, the way they moved in the same direction without consulting each other.
I knew what that was. I’d built it myself with Dante, over two years, one rep at a time. Noah had done it in weeks.
I wasn’t sure I liked it.
I’d been with Dante since day one at this college. This bromance needed to chill the fuck out.
Fuck, I sounded like my little sister, Naya, when she was in middle school and her playground drama ended up being my after-school hell.
“I need a beer.”
They both looked at me with identical expressions of ‘do you think this is wise?’
“I’ll go to a different bar.” I was already getting my jacket. They could come or not. I saw Noah start to speak. “No,” I cut him off. “I don’t need company. I just need a beer.”
“We’ll all go,” Dante said smoothly. “I haven’t been back since we were fighting. I need to see if they’ll still serve me.”
“You’re the starting quarterback, QB10. The infamous Dante Spence,” I told him sourly. “They’ll have no customers left if they refuse you.”
They weren’t to be deterred, so five minutes later, the three of us were walking across campus to the bar for a beer.
Our heights were all different, with Noah being the tallest, and then Dante, and then me, with my six-foot height, somehow the ‘small’ guy in the group. Just three teammates heading to the bar for a beer.
Not two roommates supervising me because they didn’t trust me.
The bar wasn’t as busy as it had been, and we got a booth more easily than I thought. I slid into the booth and then clocked how I’d ended up against the wall, Dante beside me. I could’ve moved. I didn’t.
“Are you pouting?” Dante murmured as Noah went over to the bar to order and then to talk to some of the defense who were playing darts.
“Fuck you.”
Dante smiled at my response.
“It’s not about not trusting you, Dust, you know that.” He looked out over the bar, his outward persona relaxed and casual. “You think with the shit I pulled on you two over the last few weeks, I can cast judgment on anyone? You already called me out on it tonight.”
I felt my shoulders relax slightly. “Well . . .”
He huffed out a laugh. “Exactly.”
“So . . . why are you here?”
“I want a beer.” He glanced at me, one eyebrow arched. “I had a shit few weeks just like you. I found out everything I’d thought about this place was a crock of shit, and I potentially made it worse for myself. For my friends. So why am I here? I need to get drunk.”
He met my look, and I started to grin.
“When does that happen?” I teased him, feeling more relaxed now than I had the whole evening.
The server arrived with four bottles of beer and two sodas, one for me and one for QB10. We weren’t twenty-one yet, but she didn’t bat an eye when Dante reached for the beer, everyone knowing the soda was just for show.
“Thanks,” I murmured as she left.
His bottle was on the tabletop, his thumb rubbing over the opening. He hadn’t even taken a drink. “Me, drunk? I think it’s been a while.”
We settled into a comfortable silence. Dante looked over at Noah a few times, checking that he was okay. Other than that, it was just him and me, and it was . . . good.
Like old times. I settled in to enjoy it.
I saw her before he did.
Hadley sat at a table across the bar with a few other girls, her back to us.
She’d turned in her seat to talk to one of her friends, and I studied her profile.
Her long brown hair was pulled over one shoulder, her fingers stroking through the ends.
Her olive skin looked warmer in the low lighting, hinting at a mixed heritage I wanted to know more about.
She wore simple leggings and an oversized beige sweater with the sleeves pushed up.
“Sav does that,” Dante told me quietly, pulling my attention from Hadley back to him. I saw he was also watching her. “She runs her fingers through the ends of her hair. She does it when she’s nervous.”
I looked back at Hadley, who was in a deep discussion with her friend. “She look nervous to you?” I commented, then took a swig of my beer. She looked perfectly at ease.
Dante sucked his teeth as he turned to look at me.
“She may be smiling, but the person she’s talking to is not comfortable.
” His fingers drummed on the table. “Look at their posture. They’re sitting ramrod straight, there’s no fluidity there.
Their hands are clenched in front of them, and they’re struggling to make eye contact with her. ”
I watched Hadley and her companion as Dante spoke. He was right. The other person did not look at ease. “She’s interviewing her.”
Dante nodded. “Looks like it.” He sat back in the booth. “I can see the attraction, though,” he conceded. “She’s got the looks. If you tell Sav I said that, I will deny it.”
“You can compliment a woman on her looks,” I reasoned. “How many times has Savvy told Noah that he’s hot?”
Dante pursed his lips. “True. Make sure you let Sav know I said the reporter was drop-dead gorgeous.”
I laughed just as the music dipped and Hadley turned her head, our eyes meeting across the room like a bad intro on an eighties rock video.
“Damn it.” I breathed out as she looked over at us with a sly smile. “Looks like we’re going to another bar after all?”
“No need,” Dante replied smoothly. “You have a bigger problem.” He was looking to the doorway, and I followed his gaze as my little sister Naya strolled into the bar like she wasn’t three years shy of twenty-one.
“What the fuck is she doing here?”
Dante was already getting out of the booth. “Let’s go find out.”
Naya saw us as we walked over, and she gave me a wide smile. So nothing was wrong, then; that was a good thing. I looked her over, the big brother in me showing in my frown.
“Dustin,” she greeted me, reaching in for a hug. She stepped back once I hugged her and eyed me critically. “You look tired.”
“I look tired?” I ignored my roommate’s chuckle beside me. “Why are you here?”
Naya rolled her eyes, her arms already crossed, her hip jutting out like she was ready to be cast in the next teenage drama. “You have such negative energy,” Naya scolded as she smiled at Dante with a look my little sister shouldn’t have on her face. Ever.
“Do not flirt with Spence,” I grumbled, taking her arm and heading to the door. “I will kick your ass if you do it again, and he’s got a girlfriend who will definitely kick your ass.”
“Oh really? Cool.” Naya looked at him with disappointment before turning back to me. “Anyway, what are you? The sex police? I’m almost eighteen, Dustin. I’ve had sex.”
I dropped her arm like she was toxic. “Do not ever say shit like that to me again!”
“You’re such a hypocrite! You had sex when you were even younger than I am!”
“Do we need to know what age anyone was when they had sex?” Dante asked reasonably as the three of us went outside and moved away from the main door. “Or can we talk about how nice it is to see you, Naya. Unexpected but nice.”
The flat stare I gave him as my sister practically swooned made the fucker wink at me.
I turned back to Naya. “What he said — why are you here?”
“You never listen to me. I told you at Christmas I would be here for two days with the debate team.”
“Christmas was months ago.” How was I supposed to remember that? “So why are you dressed like that for the debate team? And why is the debate team in a bar?”
Naya’s hands dropped to her hips. “Dressed like this? What’s wrong with how I’m dressed?”
“Don’t answer,” Dante murmured beside me.
“You look . . .” Like you need to put clothes on? Nope, can’t say that. “Cold.”
“Jesus, man,” Dante muttered, shaking his head.
The bar door opened, and Noah walked out. He looked at Naya. “You’re Dustin’s little sister, Naya, right?”
If she swooned for Dante, she practically fainted for Noah. “You remember me?”
“You bat your lashes at him one more time, Naya Slater, and I will trash every pair of fake lashes you own.” I looked at my two roommates. “You both go back inside, I’ll talk to this one out here.”
“Out here? I thought I was cold,” Naya sassed me.
“Quit it,” I growled as Dante and Noah walked back inside, fighting their laughter. Assholes. I turned my glare to Naya. “You can’t call first?”
“Mom told me to find you. I need money for food.” She looked around. “So give me money.”
“So give me money?” I was already pulling my phone out of my pocket. “Do I look like an ATM?” I dialed my mom and had a quick conversation with her about why my sister needed money. When I hung up, I met her guilty look. “You used your trip money for a concert ticket?”
“It was a really good concert.”
“You’re such a spoiled brat.” I looked past her into the bar. Dante and Noah were sitting back in the booth, Dante was facing me, watching. I saw the small smile; he knew I was bailing. This wasn’t the first time I’d dropped stuff for my little sister. Exactly why he and I were the tighter friends.
I sounded like a possessive dick. Or obsessive. Either way, it wasn’t a good look for me. Naya might be the fresh break I needed this evening.
“Come on,” I said as I slung my arm over Naya’s shoulder. “Let’s get you fed.”
Movement at the door caught my attention, and I looked over to see Hadley watching us. Her nose wrinkled with distaste — either she hadn’t noticed the family resemblance, or she simply disapproved of me in general.
She’d already looked away — smart woman. I filed it away. The way she’d clocked me, assessed, and moved on. No lingering. No obvious interest. That was either genuine indifference or very good discipline. I suspected the latter.
Either way, it made it easier to push the ‘hot girl from the bar’ out of my mind.
Dante and Noah would call that a good result at least.
Maybe it was. The smart play was to walk away, take the out Naya had handed me, and stop thinking about a woman who was going to be a problem no matter what angle I came at her from.
I kept walking, and I didn’t look back.