Chapter Twenty-Six Saylor
Chapter Twenty-Six
Saylor
“So your parents are going to be here this weekend,” I said as Cash and I split a pizza at Stromboli’s.
After the emotional wringer of a day I’d had, the thought of having to pretend for his parents exhausted me.
“It’s the playoffs, and I’m starting—two things my family and I had pretty much given up hope of being able to say in the same sentence.
” Cash folded his slice of sausage-and-jalapeno pizza in half and chomped down a third of it in a bite.
As he chewed, he peered at me from beneath his brows, swallowed, and said, “Plus, the pros are sending some scouts.” He cleared his throat.
“Actually, the scouts will be at every playoff game from here to the National Championship.”
“That old goal you gave up when you transferred here is back in play.”
It wasn’t a question. Saying it aloud turned my dinner to stone in my stomach.
My reaction to his news wasn’t fair at all.
From the start of our liaison, we’d both known we were temporary, two people having a good time together during our last year of college.
Why was the thought of him going pro sitting so heavy in my gut?
“I’ve wanted to throw passes in the NFL since I was throwing Nerf balls in our living room before I was in kindergarten.” Something poignant passed over his features—something like worry or pleading. I wasn’t sure which.
“Well, then”—I forced a smile—“it’s good the Wildcats made the playoffs, so you can give the scouts a show.”
“Saylor.”
“Hmm?” I asked around a normal person’s-size bite of pizza.
The thoughts whirling in his head came through in the intensity of his stare. I braced myself, but he surprised me.
“What did the dean say after everyone had left his office?”
Cash hadn’t been able to wait around until after I finished my private conversation with the dean.
This close to the end of the semester, he couldn’t afford to skip class.
As he’d walked out of the dean’s office, though, he’d whispered he was only a text away if I needed him.
His offer shouldn’t have brought me as much comfort as it did.
“He apologized for dragging his feet on my harassment complaint.” I sipped my beer. “Then he wanted to know if I wanted to amend it to include the bribery scheme since it shows a pattern of behavior targeting me.”
Cash narrowed his eyes. “What’s the catch?”
“I could become a target for powerful people in the business when Barry gets kicked out of another program, especially this close to graduation. Pullman wanted me to know that could happen.”
“So he’s still trying to put you off filing your complaints.” He fisted his hand on the tabletop.
“He wanted me to be sure I understood the risks.” I shrugged.
“I reminded him that if he didn’t back me one hundred percent, that video we made in his office would be presented to the president of MSC.
Dean Pullman’s academic career would be over, which would be a bummer, since no doubt Barry’s dad will pull the plug on financing his movie the second my complaint hits the faculty council.
” I sat back against the cushion of the booth. “But I hedged my bets.”
For the first time since we’d sat down to eat, a tiny smile tipped up the corner of Cash’s mouth. “Of course you did.” Leaning his forearms on the edge of the table, he asked, “How?”
“After I left the dean’s office, I called Olivia Carter. I gave her the short version of recent events and asked for her advice.”
That tiny smile bloomed into a massive grin. “You did damage control before Barry could do any damage.”
“Got it in one.” I reached across the scarred wooden tabletop to fist bump him. “She wants to see my senior project since it’s a mockumentary of a touring band. From what she hinted, I have the idea she might produce it for a bigger audience than my cohort at MSC.”
“That’s my girl. While the idiots are underestimating you, you’re busy running the end-around and tearing upfield for the touchdown.” He reached his hand palm-up across the table.
After a second, I laid my hand in his, his heat and strength seeping into me, warming me in all the places I’d been trying so hard to keep from him.
“You’re so fucking impressive, Saylor.”
Those words in his raspy baritone arrowed straight into my chest where they took up residence in my heart.
It was too much.
Tugging my hand from his, I reached for my beer.
“Yeah, well, a lot can happen between now and the end of the semester, no matter that finals are next week. Barry has already proved he’s willing to sabotage me.
If even one person lets out the barest hint of what’s coming to him, it’s hard telling what else he’d do to have his way and save his ass. ” I shuddered at the thought.
Out of nowhere Taco and Dalton slid into the booth beside us.
“Hey, you hardly saved any for us,” Dalton complained as he reached for one of the last two slices of pizza on the pan.
Cash’s hand flashed out like a bolt of lightning, smacking Dalton’s away from our food.
Dalton rubbed the top of his hand with a pout. “Ouch! Is that any way to treat your favorite roommate?”
“It is, because one, Dally is my favorite roommate, and two, you have no business inviting yourself to steal our dinner.” Cash slid the slice Dalton had reached for onto his plate and shook a liberal layer of parmesan over it before folding it in half and shoving a massive bite into his mouth.
Taco laughed. “He has you there, buddy. How are you, Saylor? Ready to cheer us on in the big game this Saturday?”
“Always.” I smiled. “Though I’m going to ask AJ if we can have hot toddies at the SCR tailgate since it’s supposed to snow.”
“I love playing in the snow, especially against some sissy boys from the southeast conference who’ve never seen it.” Taco’s grin was positively wicked.
Dalton shot him a look. “You’re from Florida. Before you came here, had you ever seen snow?”
“Nope. But I acclimated like a boss because I’m just that awesome.” He stole a drink of beer from Cash’s mug and set it back on the table with a smirk. “I hope it snows a foot between now and kickoff.”
The other three of us rolled our eyes in unison. When the server came to take their order, Cash paid for our meal, and we left them in the booth.
Back at my apartment, Cash made himself at home on my couch as I busied myself with putting away my coat and my backpack, deliberately avoiding sitting beside him because I sensed certain unspoken currents that had flowed between us at dinner were about to surface.
Just as deliberately, he patted the cushion beside him, and at last, I had no choice but to give in to the inevitable.
“We need to talk about it, Saylor,” he said.
Raising my brows in feigned confusion, I said, “What ‘it’?”
“Us. Our relationship. The second I brought up the pro scouts, you went board-stiff. I didn’t need to be sitting next to you to notice.”
As though emphasizing his point, involuntarily, my body went tight all over.
“Uh-huh. Exactly like this.” He feathered his fingertips over the top of my knit leggings, his touch both soothing and arousing.
Marginally, I relaxed.
“We’re more than a good time, babe. I know it, and as importantly, you know it, even though you try to pretend we’re only casual.” The conviction in his gorgeous voice was almost enough for me to go along with him.
A memory of filming a live Balefire show in Denver last summer flitted through my head, reminding me of how much I wanted to pursue my dream.
If we were a thing, yet both on the road all the time for our careers, how did we stay together?
That was one scenario I couldn’t picture no matter how hard I tried.
“I’m graduating this semester,” he began.
“I’m aware.” Even though he’d be finished with classes, he was staying on campus to participate in MCAT prep courses for his med school test in the spring. I was thinking we’d be doing what we were doing until I graduated in the spring.
With the pro scouts circling, maybe not.
“Bax’s dad has connections from his days in the pros, so Bax, Callahan, and Finn have a trainer coming here to help them prep for pro scouting camps.”
“At the risk of sounding stupid, so?”
“They don’t have to leave here to go to Denver or LA to prepare for the next level during spring semester.
” He leaned back and slid his arm around my shoulders, drawing me close.
“They’re staying in town because their girlfriends are here finishing their degrees.
” Raising his brows, he silently asked me to finish his thought.
When I didn’t, he said, “I can prepare for the next level both for med school and the pros while you’re finishing up your undergrad.
We don’t have to be finished now—or ever. ”
Though he said that last part under his breath, I heard it loud and clear.
“I’ve always been a monogamous guy. I can count on one hand the number of women I’ve slept with and have a finger left over.
” Touching the pad of his index finger beneath my chin, he demanded I look at him.
“No one I’ve ever met has done it for me the way you do.
From the second I saw you at that party at the SCR house, I’ve wanted to spend time with you.
Then we made out in the hallway, and I was all-in. ”
I cleared my throat, but he kept talking.
“Yeah, I dated some other girls while I waited for you, but I didn’t sleep with any of them. Wanna know why?”
In spite of myself, I nodded.
“Because the fire of those first kisses told me we were right for each other, that we were made for each other. The SCRs on the team warned me about you, about how you never stay with anyone for more than a minute. But we’re at six months, Saylor, and you haven’t opted out.”
“Well, yeah, because we’re having a good time.” I plucked at the top of my legging. “Plus, we have until graduation before the world splits us up.”
“Why would we let the world split us up?” Though the tone of his question was gentle, an unmistakable undercurrent of challenge lingered in his words.
“Come on, Cash. If you go to the NFL, which you should because you’re such a great player,” I hastened to add.
“You’ll go wherever the league sends you be that LA or New York or Tampa or Seattle or twenty-eight other cities in between.
If I’m lucky, my job will take me around the world.
However would we make that work?” Giving him pleading eyes, I said, “If we commit to spring, we can enjoy each other and then let each other go so we can chase our dreams without either holding the other back.”
“Here’s the thing, babe. Kissing you goodbye in an airport while you fly away to Asia or Europe or wherever for three or four months is never going to be on my top-ten list. That won’t stop me from kissing you and cheering for your success on whatever tour you’re filming though.
” As if to emphasize his point, he brushed a kiss over my temple.
“When I leave town to play in some other city, I’ll only be gone a few days—a week at most. Then I’ll be home.
” He kissed me again. “Sometimes, depending on the circumstances, we can be together at each other’s events, support each other in person.
” A grin stretched his lips. “If we’re dreaming really big, maybe somewhere in the next few years you’re filming the artist at the halftime show of the Super Bowl I’m playing in. Wouldn’t that be a kick in the ass?”
“Cash.”
He pressed a finger to my lips. “As you said, we don’t have to make decisions right this minute. But I’m going on record that I don’t want us to be over—ever.”