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I guess they heard the ear bashing he got in here.
"So, you know my Dante, Briar?" one of the women at the table asks, and Penn snickers under her breath.
I turn to the woman who looks almost identical to Penn’s mom and nod. "Yeah, I met him in the City before the summer. I had no idea he was Penn’s cousin until the first football game."
She smiles warmly at me, but I swear I can see the cogs in her mind whirring. I open my mouth to tell her that we’re just friends, but Penn stomps on my foot beneath the table and shakes her head, so I keep my mouth shut.
The chatter starts up again, and Penn leans in close. "You try to say you’re just friends, and she’ll have the two of you married off before the year is done."
I choke on a laugh. "Oh yeah, cause that hasn’t happened enough already this year."
She looks at me, confused, and I realize that in trying to keep with acting normal, I didn’t fill her in on the events that happened at Thanksgiving dinner. I give her a super quick run down, avoiding any mention of Crawford, because the last thing I want to do is drag her into that mess too.
"We’ll be right back," Penn announces, but no one really pays attention as she drags me from the table. I follow without much choice as she pulls me down the hall, up the stairs, and into what I assume is her bedroom. "Spill, in much more detail, right the hell now. Engaged?!"
I let out a deep sigh and sit on the bed, picking at the skin by my thumbnail while I try to settle my mind enough to give her the full rundown of everything. By the time I finish, her jaw is agape, and she’s looking at me like I have two heads.
"So, you’re really engaged? Rich people trip my mind the fuck out," she exclaims as she drops onto the bed beside me.
"I have no idea, but I’m going with no. I didn’t accept anything, and I’m not letting Chase dictate my life to me. I’d rather he took away everything he has given me than let that happen. I haven really had time to talk it over with Cole yet either, but I intend to."
"Girl, you live with him, you’ve had time, you’ve just stuck your head in the sand."
If only that were true, but I’m not about to tell her the truth of it all.
"Penelope! Dinner!"
The cry from downstairs has Penn on her feet in an instant, and she giggles. "I wonder if that fear ever really leaves."
I look at her, confused, not understanding why she’d be afraid of being called for dinner. She pulls me to my feet and loops her arm in mine, still laughing softly. "Come on, I’ll take you down, and then you’ll see."
CHAPTERFIVE
BRIAR
"Are you sure you've got this?" Sawyer asks as he pulls the car up to the curb.
"I’ve got this as much as I'm gonna have it, so I might as well just get on with it. There's nothing I can do to change what happened. And if we've got to pretend like nothing's changed, then that's what I've got to do," I say, letting out a deep sigh.
Nobody else can know what happened. I'm very aware of that, and Travis has made it perfectly clear that I'm sworn to secrecy until the day I die. Because obviously, I’m some foolish idiot about to go and spill my guts to the world. "I know you guys did what you did to protect me. So I'm not about to ruin everything for you guys or what I have here."
My words, hopefully, sound more convincing than I feel because I’ve been a whole bag of nerves and anxiety since I woke up this morning.
"While I know that Professor Crawford chose to attack me—even though we don't fully understand why yet—I do know that what happened is not entirely my fault," I tell him, and I'm slowly coming to grips with that, thanks to Asher constantly drilling it into my head over the last couple of days.
Sawyer smiles sadly at me. "I checked his house from top to bottom and didn't find anything to do with you. So at least there are no traces for anybody to pick up there. It's on my to-do list today to break into his office on campus to make sure there's nothing in there that could lead back to you, and Asher sent an email from his account to the dean to say that he needed an extended break. So we should be in the clear for a while."
I take a deep breath, nodding at his attempts to reassure me, and open the door to exit the car. I move to climb out, but Sawyer grabs my forearm and pulls me back into my seat. "You think you're getting away from me that easy?" he asks mischievously, before pulling me across the center of the car and kissing me, stealing my breath.
My toes curl as my hands ball in his t-shirt. I swear, every time he kisses me it’s like he fills me with his own brand of sunshine and all I see are fireworks. It’s cheesy but it’s true.
When he pulls back, he's grinning at me, his eyes sparkling with mirth. "That is how you start a morning. Now you can go to class," he says with a cheeky smile while brushing his thumb across my lips.
I shake my head, trying not to laugh too hard at him. "It's definitely one way to start the morning."
I grin before trying once more to climb from the car, successfully this time as I try not to think back on the way I actually started my morning with him and Asher. Now is definitely not the time to be thinking about that.
Once I close the door, he pulls away, heading off to wherever it is that he's off to this morning, and I pop my AirPods in as I make my way across the quad to the coffee station that I know Connor will be working at. I might have already had a coffee this morning, but it’s been drilled into me that I need to act like everything is normal, that nothing has changed, so that means hitting the coffee cart first thing this morning, which is something that I do most mornings before class. Any deviation from my routine just isn't acceptable right now.
