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“So, he saved you?”
“Yes,” Payton said, brightening a little. “He really did. Then Jonas…I think you’re right about him being a little off, by the way.”
Arms folded, I straightened. Not once had I ever brought up Baby J to her, and I wouldn’t have.
“His room is right across the hall, and he just shows up while that bitch’s pit bull is right there insulting me…”
“Wait, back up… pit bull?”
“Dix?” She made a face. Dix. I knew that name. That was the prick taking her to clubs. What the fuck was he doinghere?
RJ was one problem. Now I had this Dix?
I fought the need to crack my knuckles.
Payton must have taken my silence as an acknowledgement as she pressed onward. Which was good, because I needed answers.
“Anyway, Jonas just comes over and invites her to move in with him. I thought he was going to offer it to me, to get me out of there.” Why the fuck would she think that? Jonas couldn’t stand her. A point he’d made clear whenever she tried to sleep over in our room.
Thankfully, ‘cause it made it easier to shove her ass out the door, but that wasn’t here or there. But he invited Ace to move in?
Relief tangled with irritation, but I ignored both for the moment. Now I knew where Ace was. I hadn’t even known she was supposed to be rooming with Payton before.
“She agreed. Rams didn’t like it either, but neither of them listened, and they just moved all her stuff across the hall. I’m still stuck with her bandmate, but I never see her, so that’s something I suppose.”
So just Ace and Jonas in the same suite?
Well, well, little bro? Color me impressed. I straightened, picking up my trash. I’d been looking for Ace all wrong.
“Where are you going?” Payton called, but I just lifted my hand in a half-wave after I tossed my trash. I had somewhere to be and it was Saturday morning. Jonas usually had studio time on Saturdays to work on music, which meant there was a solid chance that Ace was on her own.
I had a key to the room from the previous year. Hadn’t bothered to turn it in. Planned to share the room again this year when I came back, but Jonas got all butt hurt at the end of last year and it was probably safer for both of us if we weren’t occupying the same space.
My girl being there, though… that changed things.
Saturdays on campus in the early autumn term were fantastic. It was still warm enough that everyone was outside. You could find pick-up games. There were horses in the stables on the far side of the campus if you wanted to go riding. The indoor and outdoor pools were still open. Thankfully they warmed both, ‘cause warm and warm enough to swim in were two different things.
This was my favorite time of year, usually, but I had a hard time focusing on anything beyond where Ace was and how she was doing. Even the news reports on her condition had been banal as fuck. She was released from the hospital.
That was it.
What the hell kind of report was that?
I held the door for a couple of girls as they came out and then continued inside and up the stairs. By the time I got to the fourth floor, the mixture of female and male voices coming from each of the floors as students came and went was amusing.
Why couldn’t they have burned the dorm down last year when I was still a senior? Maybe I could be rooming with Ace.
I damn near missed the last step at that thought. Pulling my key out, I continued down the hall, tapping the card against the door lock and letting myself in.
While I’d been hoping to find her working or lounging in the front room, it was empty. Music filtered out of the bedroom.
My old bedroom.
Oh, that was even better. Ace was sleeping in my room. I liked that. The door to her room was also open. Jonas’ was closed, but it was after ten.
He wasn’t here. He booked the studio every weekend and vanished for hours at a time. That had to be where he was. It helped that one of his clubs involved musical theory.
I cleared my throat as I shut the door to the hall and made my way across the living room. At the door to her room, I paused at the flash of leg as she danced around on the far side of the bed. She was dressed in an oversized t-shirt that hit her mid-thigh, and while I didn’t see any shorts, that didn’t mean she wasn’t wearing them.
