If Rose was awake, she’d probably smack me in the back of the head and then hijack my cell. But I needed to know. I was risk averse and I didn’t have time to risk my heart. My mother had been married to a guy who’d been physically and emotionally abusive to her. She’d had Beau, my brother, with him. They’d divorced and she’d gotten away from him. A few years later, she met my dad, who was a good guy. I loved him. Mom loved him. Beau hadn’tkilled him when they started dating, so he approved.
While I never met Mom’s first husband, he had an impact on me. Mom always told me to never be completely reliant on a man. While it could be the strongest bond of love, a woman needed to be able to support herself in a career she liked and was good at and be able to support herself if she had to. Mom had neither money or a career when she divorced him and struggled hard when Beau was young.
She didn’t want me to repeat that, which was a good lesson. I was going to be a teacher. Nothing was going to stop me, especially not a boy. I didn’t want to blow my semester by getting my heart broken either. I had to be smart from the start.
Why? Because you’re smart. And so fucking pretty.
Say you’ll come see me after the game.
I wanted to go. I did. So much. If Rose found out I said no, she’d stop being my friend. She’d probably even move out. I bit my lip. Thought of Zeb smiling at me across the table in the library.
And took a chance.
OK
Good girl. And sweetheart, wear my sweatshirt
I set the phone down and couldn’t help smiling. Studying was going to be impossible so I gave up. I switched off the light, climbed beneath my blankets, and thought about Zeb as I slipped my fingers into my panties and whispered his name when I made myself come.
6
CAMMIE
“Thanks for coming with me,”I said as we made our way through the underbelly of the stadium, swarming with fans. The game finished fifteen minutes earlier. We won, of course. The crowd’s excitement had been contagious and I got into it as much as Rose, Angela, and Faith. While we were seated way up in the stands, it didn’t take me long to spot Zeb down on the field. The way he moved, his size, and well… Angela pointed him out. Since then, I toggled between watching the field and the jumbotron where they had close up replays.
I’d never thought a football player, in his tightpants and padding, was hot before, but Zeb made me change my mind. I had no idea the rules of the game, but I knew every time Zeb threw the ball to his teammate or ran it toward the opposite end, he was doing it really well.
The score had been close, and in the last thirty seconds, everyone was on their feet. Our team had the ball and Zeb got it from the crouching player in front of him, jogged backward, arm cocked, looking… looking… looking, then threw. The ball arced through the air for what felt like forever as a player ran and–
Caught it! The guy ran the remaining few yards into the end zone. They won! We hugged and cheered along with thirty thousand other fans. I hadn’t felt this excited or exhilarated about sports in my life, but I could see why everyone came.
On the field, they were bro hugging, slapping each other on the helmets and then meeting the other team in the middle of the field to shake hands. TV cameras swarmed around Zeb. No wonder everyone said hi to him. No wonder girls were brushing up to him in the library.
He was… amazing.
Fans were wearing university sweatshirts, game jerseys, face paint. They went all out. I was wearingZeb’s sweatshirt and I tipped my face down into the loose neckline and smiled. Breathed in his scent.
I got a hell of a lot of looks, but being with the girls had made me feel less conspicuous.
Turned out, the sweatshirt was what was needed to get us into the back areas of the stadium. Rose had spun me around at each security guard so they could see Zeb’s name on the back as we went deeper and deeper into the facility and they’d waved us on.
It seemed a girl wearing a guy’s sweatshirt did mean more than she was cold.
“You’re thanking us? You think we’d give up a chance like this?” Rose asked.
“You’re Zeb Wilder’s girlfriend, Cam,” Angela added. “We’re going where you go.”
“Even if it’s the library?” I poked.
“That’s where you met Zeb, so maybe Faith and I need to up our studying game,” she continued.
Both of them were good students. They had to be to remain on the volleyball team.
The crowds thinned out, but there were still tons of people milling around. The walls were painted cinderblock, the floor concrete, the ceiling high. Voices echoed.
“Let’s get a picture!” Faith said. “The rest of the team’s going to freak when they see it.”
A group of cheerleaders came by in their white and red outfits and we moved out of the way. “Stand over here,” I offered, pulling out my cell as they shifted to the side.
