“Bribes. He wanted in to a party and I guaranteed it if he answered three questions. The dude was a prick who cared more about partying than about my prying. To tell you the truth, he’ll probably kill any brain cells drinking than remember our conversation tonight.”
She snorted and adjusted her hair—causing her sweatshirt to lift and exposing the soft skin of her midriff. Blood surged south and I had to clear my throat to get the lust out of my voice. “I’m sorry.”
She shrugged and let out the deepest sigh, looking at the floor with the posture of someone who’d given up hope. I had seen that body language a million times on the field after strike outs and instead of cheering her up with a high-five or an ass slap, I figured she would want something different.
I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her shoulders, waiting until she relaxed against me. She leaned into my hug and I rested my chin on the top of her head. She fitted against me well, but I shut that part of my brain off and focused on her. I would never admit it to her, but her insistence that her uncle was innocent had me hoping that maybe he was and we’d figure out someone else involved in all this. But it wasn’t happening. While my coach was a mentor, he wasn’t a familymember I had known my entire life and it still tore me up thinking he was involved in something like this.Poor Amber.
I didn’t have to ask her what she was thinking. She spoke on her own in muffled voice with her face pressed against my chest. “He took me here when I was a freshman to do my interview with the dean. I’ve always known I’m average—my family doesn’t let me forget it—but knowing he might’veboughtor lied my way into this school is killing me.”
Those words were like a fist reaching into my chest and squeezing around my heart, causing a continuous dull pain in there, and I had no idea how to stop it.What does this mean?
14
AMBER
The news should’ve surprised me more than it did, but the hurt still was enough to render me completely vulnerable to Jeff—the one person who I didn’t want to admit my faults to. But he held me tight against him and ran his hand up and down my back in such a comforting way I let myself be weak for a minute. Okay, maybe two. It felt nice to have strong arms around me offering support and I wish it could’ve lasted longer. One more squeeze and one more whiff of his cologne then I broke our hug apart. “Thanks. I needed that.”
“Do you need another one?”
His offer made me smile. “I’m good.”
He still stood close to me, close enough our noses were inches apart, and he looked at me with…tenderness? That made no sense. “I don’t know how deep or what role he played, but there’s a chance he’s not the mastermind behind this. We need more information before anything is confirmed.”
“Yeah, you’re right, but with his half-answers Saturday and this kid recognizing him, it seems naive to defend him anymore.” I sucked my lip into my mouth and embraced the disappointment. It was the karma of my life, punishing mefor making poor decisions all those years ago. The one family member who had my back was involved in something shady and had probably involved me. If I thought about it too hard, I’d break down and retreat into a dark mindset, not unlike the one I got every time my mom talked to me. Jeff stared at me with his intense and beautiful gray eyes and my knees almost trembled at the attention. When was the last time any guy had ever looked at me like that?
Never. That’s when.“Look, I should probably get back downstairs.”
He nodded for a second but put one hand on my shoulder, gently brushing his thumb back and forth on my exposed skin. My insides turned into a flurry of butterflies at the contact and I barely heard what he said.
“Wait, what?”
He smiled, showcasing one perfect dimple, and repeated, “Do you want to go over next steps for the investigation or anything? I know you like plans. Or if you want to hang out up here and talk about anything else, I don’t mind.”
I ran my fingers through my hair and weighed my options. Watching rom-coms with my roommates and some friends wasnoton my agenda with my mindset and knowing Laney, she’d want to gab about it and I wasn’t in the mood. But…she’d have a lot of questions if I was up here with Jeff alone all night. “It would look suspicious if we hung out up here the rest of the night, wouldn’t it?”
“I really don’t care.” He shrugged and gave me another warm look. It was so similar to the warm looks I’d observed others receiving but never me.Wait—is it pity?“I feel responsible for being the bearer of bad news so it kinda feels like my responsibility to make sure you’re okay.”
Definitely pity.
I shrugged his hand off my shoulder. “Don’t feel guilty. Honestly, I think I want to be alone right now.” I moved to my dresser and started picking up some necklaces I’d left out and shoving them into drawers. After I’d tidied up about five, I moved on to my desk. He remained in the same position when I glanced over, but his face had transformed into an expression I hadn’t seen on him. His eyebrows were drawn together so deeply they almost looked connected in the middle and his jaw had tightened so hard that I saw each movement he made with his teeth. He turned and faced me.
“Trust me, being alone sucks sometimes.” He twisted his mouth into a grimace and moved to sit down on the wooden chest at the end of my bed. He was so tall that he still almost matched my height. “You knew I played baseball overseas last summer, right?”
His voice changed into a different, undemanding tone. It was soft and vulnerable…and dangerously like honey. That got my attention. “Yeah, that’s when Kenzie lived in the baseball house.”
I moved to sit on the edge of my bed, sitting criss-cross and leaning against the wall. His posture changed from the confident guy I knew well to one less confident… I would even go as far to say defeated. “Why do you bring that up?”
“I don’t talk about it much to anyone but it kinda sucked.” He laughed, but not with humor, and leaned over the bed railing to rest his head on his arms. “I had never felt so alone in my life. It was practices and games constantly and when there were off days, everyone on the team had family or friends to hang out with. I had no one. My off days were spent in hotel rooms watching stupid TV.”
“I thought you loved it over there.”
“That’s what I said to people.” He sighed and his breath had a hint of beer on it. “I was goddamn lucky to get the opportunity to play in Japan for three months and earn some money doing it.I couldn’t complain about it, right? That would make me sound foolish and entitled.Hey, the guy who got offered the spot is a whinerdoesn’t have a good look.”
“You can be grateful for something and still not enjoy every aspect of it. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Damn, I’m sorry.” He had an odd look cross his face before he stood. “I wanted to stay to comfort you, not talking about me. Fuck, sorry.”
“No, it’s okay.”Maybe I don’t want to be alone anymore.“Tell me more about your time over there. It’s distracting me from my own thoughts.”
