Watching the jock put his arm around her was tolerable at first. But once the seemingly simple posture turned to shoulder touches, I had to fight the urge to log into the grading system and drop his average below what his coach requires to skate on his ice.
Only two things stopped me. One, I’m a benefactor of the Warriors and ultimately want to see the hockey team bring home the Frozen Four for the first time in almost a decade. And two, everything we have already gone through to get to this point with Emery will have been for nothing if Thayne finds out I tampered with Romeo’s grades to keep him away from her.
Hudson retakes his seat and scoops up the cards, shuffling them for this next deal. “Do you know if she has opened the notebook?”
Xavier shakes his head.
Hudson simply stares at him, waiting for more. Since the weekend, Xavier has fully retreated back into himself, even further than before we met Emery. It’s concerning, but right now, we are fine to let him be.
We agreed that asking him about the weekend in any further detail than what he showed us about his past is not something we need to initiate right now. Whatever this…mood he is in right now, we’ll let it sit until it starts to turn into something more. As long as he is smiling when he texts with Emery or when he is watching her on his feeds, we figure he’s okay.
Well, as okay as Xavier can be.
Eventually, he looks up from his phone, having been scrolling through something. He makes a noise of annoyance before offering a little more information. “The notebook is on her side table.”
“And?” Hudson asks, pushing his luck.
I hide a smile behind my glass as I take a sip of my drink.
“And you made me promise to not touch the notebook,” Xavier shoots back, clearly offended by Hudson’s insinuation.
Hudson chokes on a laugh. “I didn’t think you would actually abide by that.”
“You threatened San Diego,” he mutters, breaking eye contact and going back to his phone.
I can’t contain my laughter at Hudson’s chuffed look. “You didn’t.”
“I did,” he replies with more than a hint of self-satisfaction, which morphs to chagrin. “In my defense, I didn’t think that was the reaction I would get. I’ve never seen a grown man move like that or so quickly in my life.”
Ah, yes. That memory is definitely one I bring out when I need to remember that Xavier is not some sort of emotionless robot.
“You know—” I start, but am interrupted by Darcy returning from the bathroom and dropping down into his seat.
“What did I miss?”
Hudson starts dealing, and we put out the requisite small and big blinds.
“William has left her dorm. Emery has the notebook Hudson sent her. We don’t know if it has been opened,” I cheerfully respond.
“And why don’t we know if it has been opened? That seems like something we would want to know, right?” Darcy asks, curiosity lacing his words as he looks at his cards, folding them almost immediately.
Hudson raises my big blind, doubling the amount required. I’m confident he hasn’t checked his cards, but that little smirk on his face makes me want to second-guess myself. I won’t. But the urge is there.
“A threat was issued,” I reply as Xavier tosses in his cards over his small blind.
Without looking at my cards, I call the raise, not letting him push his weight around just because he has managed to accumulate most of tonight’s chips and is currently the dealer, arguably the best position to be in.
Hudson deals out the flop. King of hearts, three of clubs, three of spades. A rainbow flop—all different suits—but one that is definitely interesting.
I don’t look at my cards and toss out a bet. “Two thousand.”
Hudson doesn’t even look and calls my bet immediately before picking up the cards to deal the turn.
Six of diamonds. A dead card, unless one of us has at least a six in our hands.
“Pot,” I state, which triggers Xavier to reach into the center of the poker table and stake the chips into piles for counting.
“Six and a half,” he announces once he is done.
