“I’m not sure yet. I just curled it.”
“Can I do it?” she asks.
“Knock yourself out. It’s thick and uncooperative.”
“I’ll make it work,” she assures me. “How are you doing with your classes?” she asks as she starts working with my hair.
“Okay. I’m keeping up for now, but I worry about when we start traveling for games.”
“It’s definitely an adjustment, but if you use your time wisely when you travel, you’ll be surprised how much you can get done. Slater and I use most of our travel time for getting caught up on assignments.”
“I’m surprised you two get anything done, sitting next to each other,” I tease.
She grins. “Well, it’s definitely not by choice. I’d much rather sit and talk or make out, but...” she sighs. “Duty calls.”
I laugh. “I’m so glad you get to travel with him.”
“Oh me too!” She stops what she’s doing so she can look at me. “Do you know how many girls try to make a pass at him? Even with me right there, it’s bad. I can’t imagine how bad it would be if I wasn’t there. It’s ridiculous! I want to bash all their crazy heads with a stick.”
I laugh. “Violent much?”
“When it’s my man they’re after? Yes.”
I grin. “You’re so great for Slate, Tessa. I’m so glad you guys found each other.”
A blissful smiles fills her face. “Me too. I love him so much.”
“He loves you too; it’s so obvious,” I say in return. “It’s almost sickening.”
She waves the brush at me. “Look who’s talking? Reid is way worse.”
I scoff. “No, he’s not.”
She laughs. “Oh, he is. Evie and I picked up on it right away last year.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah. Do you know he watches you like all the time? He never takes his eyes off you when you’re in the same room as him. Even before you knew about the mating bond, he had eyes on you. It was adorable, especially because you had no clue.”
“Yeah. I really had no clue. You know, we used to be close,” I tell her.
Her eyes meet mine. “Yeah?”
I nod. “Yeah. Reid, Zane, and I used to do everything together. Well, Zane never wanted me around; but Reid always convinced him to let me tag along. Reid and I were pretty close back then.” I think back to those days. “And then one day, he wanted nothing to do with me.”
Her eyes meet mine, and I see the compassion there. “Was that after he found out you were his mate?”
“Yeah. Of course, I didn’t know that. I just thought he was eighteen now and wanted nothing more to do with me.”
“That must have been difficult,” she says softly.
“It was. He was my best friend. I don’t think I realized how much we did everything together until he was gone. I mean, I had other friends outside the pack. But inside the pack, we were really close. I struggled with it for a lot of years,” I admit.
“I’m sorry, Riley,” Tessa says, dropping a hand to my shoulder.
“Well, in the end, it all worked out because now he’s my mate,” I offer.
“How come you guys haven’t bonded yet?” she asks and quickly follows up with, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
