Chapter 30 #2
Most of the guys in the house aren’t like Rob and his shitty little group. I know that. But I can’t get past the gross behavior of Rob and his idiot friends. I was so wrapped up in my own shit I had no clue of the damage being done.
But I do now. At the end of the month, I’ll be dropping.
And I will tell them exactly why I am.
A light breeze drifts across us, and I get a whiff of roses from the bush next to me, and I push thoughts of the fraternity aside. I put our joined hands on my thigh, and I can’t get over the contentment that washes over me. As soon as I’m with Grace, it’s like everything makes sense.
It’s right.
“I have a lot to tell you,” she says, interrupting my thoughts. “So much happened tonight!”
“While you were making vision boards?” I ask, confused. “Like how is that possible? Did girls drop the gloves over scissors?”
Grace looks around, and then draws her lip between her teeth, as if she’s debating something in her head. I zero in on that lower lip, wishing it were between my teeth instead.
“Okay, I take it back. We can’t talk here,” she says.
“We could go back to my house,” I suggest.
She narrows her eyes. “No. You need to study later.”
I snort. “You seem awfully confident that I’ll spend hours making out with you.”
Grace blushes. I bring her hand to my lips and kiss it, and she playfully pulls it away, but I quickly reclaim it. “Come on, Gracie,” I say. “Let’s go take a walk on campus. I’ll get you a coffee at the union, and you can give me all the good drama.”
“Okay.”
I stand up and pull her with me. We begin our descent down the long zigzagging sidewalk, and as soon as we’re away from Phi Mu Phi, Grace begins to talk. “So tonight started out fun. I was with my friends, and we were sharing our visions for this school year—you’re on my board, by the way.”
“Yeah?” I ask, turning to look down at her. The streetlight illuminates her profile, and once again, it hits me that this girl is mine. This gorgeous girl—who put me on her vision board—is actually my girl.
Un-fucking-believable.
Grace smiles shyly. “Yeah. I want to go to all your home games this year. I—I even thought about designing a couple of shirts I can wear to them. Things with your name and number.”
My heart is about to burst. Both at her being there, cheering for me, and because she wants to make special shirts to show everyone I’m her guy.
“I like being on your board,” I say as we turn toward campus.
“Oh! I have a favor to ask you, but if you don’t want to do it, please don’t hesitate to say no.”
I lift a brow. “Sounds dangerous.”
“No, it’s not, but you might not want to do it.”
“Do what?”
Grace pauses for a moment, as if gathering up her courage. “Would you be willing to pose for a Phi Mu Phi fundraising calendar?”
“What?” I ask, chuckling.
She blushes. “We’re looking for hot guys to be in our calendar. The proceeds go to local food banks.”
“Gracie girl. Of course I’ll do it. Just give me the details when you have them.”
“Thank you!” she cries, leaning up on her tiptoes and brushing her lips against my cheek.
“My pleasure.”
“Do you think your roommates would do it?”
I decide to tease her. “Do you think my roommates are hot?”
“Not as hot as you, obviously.”
My ego loves that answer. “Sebby will one hundred percent do it. Austin is probably a go. Not sure about Nolan, he can be shy about that kind of stuff.”
“Oh! Speaking of Nolan, I found the perfect person to help him with his online-dating bio. As in perfect. It turns out McCall has a whole secret side hustle writing dating-app profiles for people!”
“Really?” I ask. “That’s a thing?”
Grace laughs. “That’s what I said. But not only is it a thing—she makes good money doing it. So she’s offered to help Nolan for free if he wants.”
I grin. “He needs it. I read his attempt at his bio. It’s trash. Nobody would slip into his messages after reading how boring he sounds.”
“Wrong. If he has ‘hockey player’ anywhere in that bio, girls will slip in.”
I snort. My girl isn’t wrong about that. With all the popularity of hockey romances on BookTok and hockey reels and social media, a lot of girls like hockey players.
“Tell me I’m wrong, Wy.”
“You’re not wrong,” I concede.
“Well, tell him McCall is willing to help him.”
“I will, but so far, this vision-board session doesn’t sound dramatic. I’m disappointed.”
“Hold on, I’m getting to the drama!”
“Sorry.”
“McCall said there are terrible bios on Slip, and she was going to pull up some to show us. When she filtered by athletes, she found Thad. As in Maddie’s asshole situationship Thad.”
“Shit.” I wince.
Grace nods. “Maddie didn’t believe her at first, but McCall made her look at it. The profile was active. Not like active and forgotten about, left in an app wasteland, but it had active messages on it.”
“Did Maddie finally believe it?”
“Yes. She asked if I needed to be in the room right away, and I said no, I had plans with you, and then she excused herself. I don’t know if she’s calling him or not, I hope she’s telling him off. The look on her face told me she wasn’t going to be accepting any more bullshit excuses from him.”
We enter campus, and suddenly I have an idea. “Before we get coffee, I have to do something. Let’s go somewhere more off the path. I’ll tell you what it is when we get there, okay?”
“Okay,” Grace says, trusting me.
I lead her to one of my favorite places on campus.
Before long, we’ve reached the OCU koi pond, a quiet spot with trees, water lilies, and bridges you can walk across.
Nobody is here right now, and I stop Grace when we reach the bridge that crosses over the pond.
“Pull up your Snapchat. I want to send a snap to Maddie,” I say.
“What?”
“I want to tell her she can do better.”
Grace’s expression goes soft. “Best. Boyfriend. Ever.” She puts her hands on my face, draws me down toward her mouth, and kisses me. She parts my lips, her tongue slipping inside my mouth and slowly tangling with mine. I’m breathless when it’s over, and she retrieves her phone out of her pocket.
I absently brush my fingertips over my mouth, wishing her lips were still there, while she taps things on her phone. “Here,” she says, handing it to me.
I take it, and Grace has already pulled up her Snapchat for me.
I hold the phone up in front of my face and hit the record button.
“Hey, Maddie, it’s Wyatt. Gracie told me what happened tonight and I want to tell you I’m sorry.
There are guys who play games like that, but I want you to know it’s nothing to do with you and everything to do with him.
I promise you, you can find a guy who will be what you need.
Who will mean what he says and you’ll be everything to him.
This guy isn’t it. But that guy is worth finding, and you will find him, okay? ”
I find Maddie’s name, then hit send. When I look up, Grace is staring at me with a look I can’t quite read on her face. “A-plus?” I ask, handing her back her phone.
“How good are you at Strategic Management?” she asks suddenly.
“I have an A. Not an A-plus.” I grin.
She slips her phone back into her pocket. “Then I think we have time to go back to your house and make out for a bit before you need to study. Am I right? You can still earn that A-plus.”
“In Strategic Management or boyfriending?” I ask, moving my hands around her waist.
“You know your grade in boyfriending. And I have full faith you’ll study after you take me home.”
“You mean after I kiss you until your lips are swollen and my scruff has left burns on your face?” I playfully rub my face against hers.
“Stop!” She giggles.
I stand up, excited that I can do those very things to her now that I have this golden opportunity.
I let go of her waist, taking a step ahead of her, and playfully wiggle my fingers to let her know I want her hand.
Grace immediately reads my language and puts her hand in mine, and she can’t see the smile that spreads across my face, but it’s because I love that she understands what I want.
And that’s her.