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I’d never get tired of hearing those words—or having the privilege of saying them back. “I love you too.”
Tomorrow we’d make the drive back to campus, and for one more day, I’d enjoy the chance to be with Parker in the open.
* * *
“What the fuck?How can you still be sleeping?” Mac’s annoying voice jerked me out of a dream I didn’t fully remember.
Parker and I had arrived back at the apartment in the early morning, exhausted after taking turns driving. Judging from the sun streaming through the window, we’d slept through our alarms. I flung an arm over my eyes to block the glare and poked Parker’s rock-hard abs.
“Mac is in your room.”
“Our room,” he mumbled, apparently still on his kick about me moving in with him.
He’d brought it up before we left his parents’ house, but I needed time to think about it. The apartment had three bedrooms. There was no reason to assume I was sleeping with one of the guys living here.
Except that I was, and I didn’t want to cause any rumors about team orgies. I sighed. No matter how hard I tried—how “perfect” I behaved—people were still going to talk shit. Maybe Gina had the right idea to hire a PR person, if I could find one who’d work for next to nothing.
“I can’t believe you guys slept through this shit.” The underlying panic in Mac’s voice finally broke through my hazy thoughts. I moved my arm in time to see him toss his phone at Parker’s midsection.
“What shit?” Parker mumbled.
Mac’s dark eyes shifted back and forth between us, but it was his hesitation that made me sit up, pulling the blanket with me. He was never at a loss for words.
“Mac?”
“Dammit,” Parker cursed softly next to me.
He tilted the phone toward me, revealing a close-up picture of us outside the apartment. Kissing. Or nearly kissing.
I squinted at the screen as my stomach dropped out. The picture had been taken at night, and I was in Parker’s arms, staring up at him. The angle reminded me of the cameras Mac had installed over the doors.
Even with Parker’s body blocking most of the shot, I could feel the heavy tension between us. The first night he’d taken me to the camper, when he’d hugged me and told me my mom was an idiot. When he’d started calling me Lorelai.
Parker scrolled up so I could see the headline from a local Dallas paper. I snatched the phone from him to do a quick Google search. Yep. The news had made it to national coverage, but at least only the gossip rags had picked it up.
College football players sleeping with each other apparently wasn’t front page news.
An icy brick lodged in my gut. Several pictures of me and Parker made an appearance, none of which we’d known about. Most of the shots were only interesting because of the context—us at practice or walking to lunch or getting in his car.
The one with him holding me was the worst. Our feelings for each other were on display for the soulless journalists to pick apart, well before we’d admitted them. My stomach clenched at the violation.
That moment was for us, no one else, and now we had to share it with people who would cast judgement without a single shred of understanding.
Fury melted some of the cold distance, but not enough. I handed Mac his phone. “How did they get that picture?”
He shook his head slowly. “I’m a dumbass.”
“How so?” Parker growled.
“The door cam. We have access to your feed. Near the beginning of the semester, I got an email—”
Parker groaned. “Tell me you didn’t click any of the links.”
Mac frowned at him. “Nah, man. Well, just the one, but it went to the right website. Said I had to change my password. Standard security measures.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Except now I’m thinking maybe it wasn’t legit. I’m sorry, RJ. I was only trying to keep Eva safe.”
“Mac—” Parker started, but I held out a hand to stop him.
I ignored the blatant invasion of privacy, choosing to let Eva deal with it, but I didn’t understand how they’d known about the door cams in the first place.
