Chapter 37
Hadley
“What’s going on with them?” I asked as soon as the door was closed.
Savannah sighed, putting down the dishcloth. “Noah’s having doubts,” she said quietly. “It’s understandable, I guess.”
I looked at the door and then back at Savannah. “Is it?”
She gave me a look and then looked away.
“I can see it from their side . . . And I understand why he, or they, would want to step back. It’s scary, Hadley.
This is their future. You think the five a.m. starts only begin in college?
” She shook her head. “They’ve been doing this for years, and it’s a stronger work ethic than most people have. ”
I felt a pang of guilt. “I know, but . . .”
She nodded. “I know. I agree, but I’m not them.
I genuinely don’t have their drive.” She held up a hand to stop me from interrupting.
“We don’t, Hadley. How many times have you hit snooze on your alarm?
How many times have you thought ‘nah, not today’ when it was rainy or something?
Or ‘I can do it tomorrow,’ huh?” She dried a glass.
“They don’t think like that. They’re out there every day, no matter what.
I envy their drive; I know for sure that I don’t have that same level of commitment. ”
I thought about it, understood what she was saying, and recognized she wasn’t making excuses. We both knew players did it because they wanted to. They weren’t seeking sympathy; they simply accepted that this was just how it was.
“I wish I hadn’t had to get to know them,” I admitted softly. “It was easier when they were just players, names on a roster, not . . . people.”
She smiled. “Yeah. And it’s not only those three that are great, but most of the team are also really great guys.” She leaned against the counter.
I thought about Mike. “Yeah, they were mostly decent to me too. Some were typical jocks, but then everyone has the ability to be a complete asshole at times.” I exchanged a look with Savannah. “I still feel cheated, though . . . Noah? I definitely thought it would be Dustin that bailed first.”
Savannah laughed. “I think he has more reason to stick around than Noah.”
I felt my cheeks heat, and I mumbled something I didn’t even understand. Thankfully, Savannah didn’t ask me to repeat it. I pretended to distract myself by picking up my phone.
“What do you think happened to him?” Savvy was looking at Noah’s bedroom door.
“I think he asked us all not to ask.” I pointed at myself. “I, for one, am respecting that.”
“I know but I want to know.” I don’t think she liked the whine in her voice any more than I did.
“Honestly, I think if you want to keep him as your friend, you let it go until he tells you.”
I went back to looking at my phone.
“You’re right,” she conceded. “What are you thinking?” she asked me when she saw me frown.
“I want to go on another drive,” I admitted.
“Me too,” Savannah agreed. “But I promised Dante we would go together.”
“Why?” I wasn’t particularly proud of the fact that now I had a noticeable whine in my voice.
“Because he is part of this, and . . .” She looked guilty. “I don’t want to find Mason without a six-foot-plus wall of solid muscle behind me.”
I thought about it. “We’re strong, independent women,” I reminded her, and she nodded. I gave a shrug. “But fair.” I looked around their apartment. “Noah would be the perfect backup.”
Savannah sighed. “Yeah. No one’s looking at Noah and not looking twice.”
“For many reasons,” I added with a sly grin.
“Right?” Savannah’s eyes gleamed. “I mean serious eye candy.”
“Aren’t you in love?” I teased.
“Oh, absolutely, but I can still appreciate natural beauty.”
I snorted. My phone chimed, and I looked at it. “How many classes did you miss?”
“Today?” Savannah had that guilty flush again. “Two, but I do have a tutoring session soon, and I can’t miss that.” She shot me a sidelong glance. “But that means leaving you alone, and I fear that this might be the worst thing that could happen.”
“I’m offended.”
“You, alone and idle, wanting to do something without waiting for others.” She ticked them off her fingers. “Offended? Or just frustrated we all know you so well already?”
“I’m offended you seem to have figured me out so quickly,” I muttered. “I always thought I had more of an air . . .”
“Of mystery? Yeah, it’s more like a cloud of trouble.”
“Wow.” I didn’t hide my grin, though. “How’s your dad taking this?” It was a random question, but it was worth it to see her flustered, a little table turning, and I felt the ground beneath my feet firm up more.
“Dante? Or this?” She gestured to the apartment.
“Both.” I settled on the chair and waited.
“He’s adapting.”
“He asked me how much you’d told me.”
Savannah didn’t say anything for a moment. “What did he think you didn’t know?” Her tone was casual, but she fidgeted as she waited for me to reply.
“I don’t know, he was pretty accepting that it was something, and I didn’t push.”
“Why?” She looked surprised. “That’s not like you.”
“I always find meetings with the dean to be tense affairs.” I pulled a thread from the sleeve of my sweater. “He holds the power to keep me here, or see me out. I like to stay on his tolerance side.”
“His tolerance side?” She gave a light laugh. “Not his tolerant side?”
“Nope. I don’t think I’m on it; I’m at a level of tolerance that might get me there, but not quite yet.”
Savannah considered it. “In that case, I may be there too.”
“Hey, Savvy, can I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“Are we actually going to stay in their apartment, or are we going to snoop?”
She met my look and grinned. “I’m trying to be good.”
I stood with a flourish. “Fuck good, this is what I was born to do.” I gave her a conspirator’s grin. “You want to come to the paper archives with me?”
“Am I allowed?” she asked skeptically as I headed to Dustin’s room.
“Who cares! It’s called research.”
“It’s called being a nosy bitch,” she corrected, following me quickly.
“To-may-to, to-mah-to!” I stood in his room, checking I had everything. “You want to come?”
Savannah nodded. “I’m ready.”
“This is why we’re going to be great friends,” I told her with a wide smile, and we set off together to snoop.
They were already home when we returned. Dante looked between us, reading the defensive line.
“What did you do?” he asked.
“What—” Savannah was going to deny it.
“We utilized the resources that are available to us,” I told him.
He gave me a flat stare. “You went looking for more?”
“Of course.”
He glared at Savannah. “You both went looking for more?”
I rolled my eyes. “You left us here. What did you think we were going to do? Did you think we would lie in your beds and masturbate when you weren’t here? I mean, we’re researching a story.”
Noah gave a sharp burst of laughter. “My tissues are by my bed for that reason,” he said, heading to his room. “If you ever need to, you know,” he added with a wink.
“She will never need to ‘you know’ on your bed,” Dustin huffed indignantly as Noah closed his door, cutting off his laughter.
I couldn’t keep my face straight.
“And are you allowed to be wherever you were, researching?” Dante asked coolly.
“Technically—”
“So no?” His whole attention was on Savvy. “What were you thinking?” He sighed. “I thought you’d be smarter than this.”
Savannah looked pale. He walked past her and closed his door, making it clear he wasn’t in the mood to talk.
Dustin looked at me and shook his head. “Seriously? Today? Fuck me, you don’t disappoint, Hadley.” He went into his room, and his door was closed.
I exchanged a look with Savannah. “Sensitive.”
She hastily wiped her eyes. “I have a tutoring session to get to.” She picked up her purse. “Walk me?”
She looked like she was about to cry. I groaned. “Yes. But don’t you want to yell?”
“No.”
To heck with that. “Well, I do.”
I rapped my knuckles hard on each closed door. They all opened their doors more or less at the same time. I met two scowls and a mildly amused look.
“You left your girlfriend and her reporter friend in your apartment. We looked. We have a story to uncover. To do that, you need to do work. You know, actual investigative work. That’s what we did.
” My sharp glare cut off whatever Dustin was going to say.
“We weren’t noticed, and we didn’t find anything. No harm done.”
I met Dante’s heated gaze. “You’re a control freak, I get it. It’s why you’re a QB. But you need to apologize to Savvy. You’ve upset her, and she didn’t want to go along with it. It was my idea.” I made a face. “So be pissed with me, I know how easily it comes to you.”
“You scare me,” Dustin muttered. “You know that, right?”
I pointed at Noah. “He isn’t.”
Dustin frowned. “What?”
“Noah — he isn’t pissed or scared. In fact, I’d say he thinks it’s funny.
But you three have had a rough afternoon, your dynamic feels off, so he can’t laugh because he’s unsure if he’s allowed.
Meanwhile, you all immediately go all super possessive.
That’s why Savvy and I think Noah’s the best one of you three. ”
Dustin’s eyes were wide as he stared at me. “Then why are you dating me and not him if he’s so great?” He flushed.
“No idea,” I told him, crossing my arms. “Noah? Why didn’t you ask me out?”
He was grinning. “Because you were already taken,” he said with a smile. “And you’re too much for me, Hadley. I’m just a simple man.”
I winked at him. “Darn.” I jerked my thumb at Savannah. “And Savvy?”
“Savannah is mine.” Dante’s tone dared any of us to tell him differently.
“Exactly.” I refused to look at Dustin. “So we all cleared up?” The three of them looked at me — one amused, one pissed off, and one ready to wring my neck. “Alright. I’ll see you later.” I spoke to Dustin, not looking at him. “Savvy, you ready? You have your tutoring session.”
“Yeah, I’m ready.” She headed to the door.
Dante had a hold of her arm, said something too low for me to hear, and kissed her in front of us all, holding nothing back. When he pulled back, she was a little bit breathless, but wary.
“I’m sorry. We had a tough practice, emotions are high, and I should’ve known you and Madam Menace over here wouldn’t sit and do nothing.” He kissed her again. “I’m sorry.”
Savannah looked up at him once. She bit her lip, looking between him and me, then she nodded. “I want to know how this afternoon went, but I really will be late . . .”
He didn’t let her go. “Sav?”
“It’s fine, we’ll talk later.” She gave me an appraising look. “Madam Menace? It’s perfect for you.”
I pulled the door open, Sav briefly kissed Dante one last time, and I gave them all a half-hearted wave. Noah cheerfully said he’d see us later.
We were halfway down the stairs when Dustin came after me.
“I don’t get a goodbye? I don’t get a chance to tell you why I’m worried?”
Savvy murmured something about me catching up to her and kept going. I turned to look at him over my shoulder.
“You can tell me later.” I kept going down the stairs.
“Peterson!”
I stopped, cursing myself for doing so.
“Get your ass back up here.”
I almost resisted until he said, “Now.”
You are a strong, independent woman, Hadley. I’d always thought that was true. Right until Dustin used that tone, and I became some submissive who needed to please her guy. I didn’t think I’d respond to being told what to do. I’d been wrong about that.
“Hadley, I won’t ask again.”
I trotted up the stairs like a dutiful puppy, the feminist in me resisting every step.
His hand cupped the back of my neck, a gleam of triumph in his eyes. “My good girl,” he praised. His lips caught mine, and he kissed me so thoroughly, so completely, that I was glad he was holding me up. “Don’t do it again,” Dustin said when he drew back.
“You need to lighten up.”
His fingers squeezed, and I met his look with one of defiance.
“You can’t—”
His head cocked slightly to the side. “I can’t what, baby?”
“You can’t control me,” I bit out in a hurried whisper.
Dustin smiled broadly and happily, dropping a lingering kiss on my lips. “Watch me,” he whispered in my ear. He squeezed my ass. “I’ll be over later. I need to sort those two out.” He kissed me one more time. “You going to be good?”
“No.” I was so confused. “I’m not.”
The gleam in his eye was anticipatory. “Thank Christ.” He patted my ass, and then he walked back to his apartment, and I was pretty sure I’d just been beaten at my own game.
Asshole.
I was still smiling when I caught up to Savannah. She took one look at me and barked out a laugh.
“I’m glad it’s not just me who becomes an idiot.”
“I have all the power,” I whined. “Then he calls me a ‘good girl,’ and I turn into some simpering fool.”
Savannah snorted. “Correction. You don’t lose power. You temporarily outsource it for recreational purposes.”
I shot her a look. “That is not comforting.”
“It should be,” she said brightly. “You’re still the one unraveling a corrupt athletic department. He just happens to make your brain short-circuit while you do it.”
I exhaled, some of the sting easing. “I hate that he knows exactly which buttons to push.”
She smirked. “You hate that you installed them in the first place, you mean.”
I groaned. “Why are you suddenly the one with all the answers? Why are you like this?”
“Because,” she said, linking her arm through mine as we walked, “I can be both wildly competent and extremely into my boyfriend. Those things are not mutually exclusive.”
I glanced at her. “You didn’t turn into a puddle.”
“Oh, I absolutely do,” she said cheerfully. “I just refuse to pretend it means I’ve stopped being exactly who I am.”
That made me laugh — real laughter, the kind that loosened the knot in my chest. “Good,” I said. “Because I don’t plan on stopping either.”
Savannah squeezed my arm. “You won’t. Men can kiss us breathless, Hadley. They just don’t get to rewrite who we are.”
I smiled, thinking of the look in Dustin’s eyes when he’d walked away — not victorious, not smug. Interested. Engaged. Maybe even a little undone.
“Yeah,” I said. “I think he knows that.”
“And that,” Savannah said with satisfaction, “is why he’s in as much trouble as you.”
We kept walking, heads high, smiles sharp — two women very aware of exactly what we were stepping into.
And exactly how hard it would be to stop us.