Chapter 38
Dustin
“Every time I think I have that woman figured out,” I told them when I walked back into the apartment, “she turns it completely around, and I’m left scratching my head.”
Dante chuckled, pouring himself some cereal.
“Why are you eating cereal?” I asked curiously.
“Hungry.” He took a spoonful and chewed. “I like that she keeps you on your toes.”
“Yeah? Well, you didn’t like it earlier, so don’t look so smug.” I flopped onto the couch, eyeing Noah, who was playing single-player Madden. “Hey,” I nudged him with my foot. “What am I? Invisible?”
“No,” he said with a sigh. “I can still hear you.” He quit his game and handed me the other controller.
“I don’t like this,” I told them both, my hand waving between them. “It’s bad enough that Hadley has me on edge. Can you both be more . . . you?”
Noah turned to me, looking exasperated. “What do you want to happen? Are you playing or not?”
I gave him my flattest glare. I’d used it on Naya all her life; I had it down to a tee. “I know it sucks sitting on the sidelines today, but we’re your friends, remember.” I watched him. “Unless you want out of that too?”
Dante chewing his cereal was the only sound in the apartment.
When Noah didn’t speak, I handed him the controller back. “Single-player mode it is.” I stood up and walked over to Dante. “C’mon, you need proper food, that’s just going to make you hungry later.”
He hesitated, his gaze on Noah’s back. He never turned around, just started another game.
“Yeah,” Dante murmured.
We left him behind and walked over to the cafeteria.
“This sucks,” I told him when the silence was getting to be too much.
“It does.”
“Why aren’t you Dante-ing him?”
He looked at me quizzically. “What’s that?”
“You know, your Dante mind tricks. You need to give him the pregame warm-up speech that’s just for him. Motivate his ass back into this friendship.”
“He’s a twenty-one-year-old man, he can motivate himself,” Dante said, not hiding the bitterness well. “He just needs space to adjust.”
He had a point. I dragged a hand down my face. “When I told him I missed the strong, silent type, I didn’t mean it,” I grumbled.
“Give him time.”
“Fine.” I pulled open the door to the cafeteria. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
We stood in line for dinner. “No,” Dante said with a sigh. “It does not.”
We ate in silence, our once bubble of three very much a bubble of two. I hated it even more, and as I ate my dinner, I realized this was exactly why Dante was opting for cereal in the apartment rather than sitting here, miserable.
Savannah texted Dante after dinner to say she was done with her tutoring session and was going home to her dorm. He lasted maybe three minutes, then he pushed his chair back to go meet her.
“You coming?” he asked me.
“To Savvy’s dorm?” I asked in surprise.
“No.” He gave me a ‘you’re crazy’ look. “But it’s on the way to Hadley’s.”
That made more sense. I got up and followed him out. Hadley’s or the dorm with the reluctant Noah — there was no contest, really.
“You know what really pisses me off?” I asked him halfway to Savvy’s.
“With you?” Dante smirked. “Could be anything.”
“That social media girl, Briar. I’m sure she took that picture, and I haven’t been able to find her since.”
Dante looked thoughtful, and then he grimaced. “You haven’t exactly looked. You’ve been with Hadley or on the field.” We kept walking. “But it’s a valid comment. We’ve been too caught up, we’ve missed obvious things.”
I slowed to a halt. “I think we need to find her, no?”
He looked thoughtful. “Yeah. Where do we start?”
“When it comes to stalking?” I grinned. “With my girlfriend, of course.”
Dante laughed. He texted Savvy to say we were going to Hadley’s; she replied with a “meet you there.” I texted Hadley to let her know we were coming, and she said she’d crated Milly so she could air out the apartment for Savannah.
I climbed the stairs, amazed that it had only been this morning that I’d been running down them to get to practice on time. “It’s been a long fucking day,” I muttered.
“It has, hasn’t it,” Dante agreed.
Hadley yelled that the door was open, and I pushed it hesitantly, just in case I had to catch a three-legged escapee. I needn’t have worried. Milly was in a blue cat carrier, glaring at us all.
“Hey,” Hadley waved. She was shaking a cover out of the window, airing it. “Does it smell like cat?” She glared at me. “Do not make one sex reference!”
Dante couldn’t hide his grin as he took a seat, looked around, taking in the pale blue walls, darker blue drapes, and the compactness of it all.
“Where’s Noah?” Hadley turned her attention to Dante. “Is he coming?”
His expression didn’t change as he considered his answer. “Noah’s in the dorm.”
Hadley watched him. She didn’t buy the simplicity of his answer, but she let it go. “Cool.”
There was a rap at the door, and Savannah was given the same “it’s open” that we were.
“The window’s open,” she told Savvy. “So, hopefully, you’ll be better this time.”
“I took an allergy pill,” Savvy said, walking in and closing the door behind her. “What’s happened now?” she asked us. “Do I need to be sitting down?”
“Wow, how fucked up are we?” I looked between us all. “In a matter of a few weeks, we’re all completely jaded and trust no one.”
“With cause,” Dante reminded me. He moved to let Savvy sit beside him, his arm automatically going around her shoulders, and kissed her softly.
I eyed Hadley. Should I have done that? I’d walked in and sat on her bed, remembering that last time, the couch only fit the two girls, or in Dante’s case, him and Savvy, but he didn’t mind being up close and sharing her personal space.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Hadley demanded suspiciously.
And that was why Dante gave his girl a hug and a kiss, and I kept my distance from mine.
I was never sure what I was going to get with Hadley.
I grinned at her as her eyes narrowed on me with suspicion, and I realized this was one of the reasons I might just be crazy about her.
Her unpredictability would keep me on my toes.
“Are you going to speak, or smile at me all evening?”
I started to laugh. Yep, she was definitely going to make it worth the effort.
“We need to find Briar,” I told her, loving her reaction to the fact that I never told her why I was grinning and knowing it would piss her off.
“As I said, I saw her after, well, you know, the incident, and she walks around most of the time with a camera or her phone in her hand. I think it’s too much of a coincidence not to put two and two together. ”
“Oh, I had someone to reach out to about her,” Hadley said, coming to sit beside me. “I hadn’t got to that yet.” She looked over at Savvy. “I was drafting my piece about you. Is there any chance I can see your work shed?”
Savvy looked apprehensive and failed to hide it. “My sanctuary?” she squeaked uncertainly.
“Is that what you call it?” Hadley asked, leaning forward. “Interesting.”
“Is it?” Savvy turned to look at Dante. “Is that interesting?”
“Calm down,” he soothed her. “You can say no. Hadley will understand.” The look he shot Hadley told her that she would understand whether she wanted to or not.
“I wasn’t going to touch anything,” Hadley grouched. She leaned into me, and I wondered if she knew. My arm went around her, and I squeezed her waist.
“You never mess with a place someone describes as a sanctuary.” I gave Savvy a wink, and she smiled back, the tension easing in her shoulders. “One thing at a time. Can you ask your contact what we need to know about Click-Happy Briar?”
“Remember, she could be innocent,” Dante murmured.
“Do we find Briar first, or go to Chattanooga first?” Hadley asked us all. “They’re both very important, and I’ve thought about it until my head hurts. Which one is the priority?”
“The one sending me images of you on your knees,” I growled. “Not acceptable, not at all.”
She turned to face me. “Are you worried about my honor?”
Yes. “Hell no, I’m worried they didn’t get your good side.”
She went to slap me, and I grabbed her hand, kissing the back of it. “Shh, stop.” I leaned into her, dropping my voice to whisper in her ear. “Only I should get to see you like that, baby.”
Her eyes searched mine for an untruth, and when she didn’t find one, she leaned forward to brush her lips against mine. “I might keep you,” she murmured against my mouth.
“No might about it.” My kiss was firmer.
“Do you think this is why Noah’s avoiding us?” Savvy asked suddenly. “We’re all . . . couple-y.”
“Well, fuck that,” I said, taking my arm off Hadley. “I’ve got a rep to protect.”
She pulled my arm around her again. “Trust me, Slater, no one would want to protect the reputation you have.”
They all laughed, and I gave her a mock glare. “I think that was harsh, Dante — was that harsh?”
“You hit on Brooke within an hour of meeting her.”
“Brooke was his ex,” I explained to Hadley, “who cheated on him, so really, I was trying to do him a favor.”
“Asshole.” He wasn’t pissed off, though; he was smiling.
“Reach out and find out more about Briar,” I instructed Hadley. I turned to the others. “Chattanooga is just over an hour away. Who wants to skip tomorrow and look for Tiffany and Sterling?”
Hadley looked up at me with excitement. “I do!”
Savannah looked torn. “I missed classes today . . .”
I waited.
“But . . . I really do want to go looking,” she continued.
“I can skip,” I told Dante. “You?”
He looked as indecisive as Savvy had, then he nodded. “We go together or not at all,” he conceded. “Majority wins.”
“Isn’t democracy great?” I told them, my eyes on Hadley, watching how satisfied she looked knowing we were finally acting. She quickly typed an email on her laptop and closed it. “What time do we leave?”
There was a discussion about what time practice finished, after we brought them up to speed on how our afternoon training had gone. Dante told Savvy that Noah needed some space, and she gave a sad nod of acceptance.
They got up to leave, which left Hadley and me.