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Chloe sighed and glanced around the room again. “It wasn’t my first choice, or any of my choices. My parents pay my expenses, so they gave me the option of TU or taking a break from school to work. Since I’m not ready to move back home permanently, I picked the lesser of two evils.” Her eyes flashed to me, and she continued softly. “I love D, but I hate living in his shadow.”
She’d told me the unvarnished truth, more than I’d expected, and it warmed a part of me I didn’t want to focus on too closely.
I reached across the couple of inches that separated us and took her hand. “When I look at you, I don’t think about D.”
Chloe held my stare, and the air between us thickened with unspoken words. A crash in the depths of the shop made her jump, breaking the moment. She pulled her hand away to wrap her fingers around her paper cup.
Her lips quirked. “Weird. When I look at you, D is all I can think about.”
My dick perked right up, but I managed not to react. Chloe flirted the same way she drew breath—instinctively. She wouldn’t follow through on the offer. Hitting on me was her way of creating distance. If she treated me like everyone else, she didn’t run the risk of another rejection.
But damned if I didn’t want to give in to the temptation and call her bluff.
I looked away and gulped down my lukewarm coffee in a desperate attempt to think about anything else. From the corner of my eye, a familiar blonde head caught my attention at the counter. I glanced over to see Eva glaring daggers at the guy taking her order. If looks could kill, he’d be bleeding out on the floor.
Unlike when he’d interacted with me or Chloe, his eyes were trained on Eva. He looked vaguely amused, and I assessed him as someone who could handle her rule the universe vibe. She offered him a tight smile and spun on her heel, causing her hair to flare out around her.
Eva was nothing if not committed. She made it one whole step into her dramatic exit before she spotted us and dropped the attitude.
“Noah,” she squealed, making a beeline for our table. “Chloe!”
The other students who hadn’t given me the time of day moved out of her way as if she were parting a body of water. Eva had that effect.
She plopped down in my lap, and I thanked the coffee gods my dick had calmed down after Chloe’s comment—and the noise she’d made over the cinnamon roll. With the reminder echoing in my mind, I shifted Eva to one leg just in case.
She looped an arm around my neck and waggled her eyebrows at us. “What’s going on here? A secret rendezvous?”
Chloe laughed, back to her usual carefree vibe. “Not quite. I ran into Noah after class, literally, and forced him to buy me coffee.”
Eva nodded as if the story made perfect sense. “Good choice. This place has the best coffee in town.” The guy she’d been trying to murder with her mind called her name, and she scowled over her shoulder at him. “Unfortunately, it has the worst employee.”
Chloe’s lips curved into a slow smile as she eyed the people behind the counter. “I don’t know, the cashier is hot in an angry fuck kind of way.”
Bitter jealousy rose in my throat, and I had to swallow hard to keep from setting Eva aside to take a shot at a guy wearing cat ears. If I hadn’t been staring intently at Chloe’s face, I might have missed the heated glance she cast my way.
Eva jumped up with a scoff. “Too bad his personality ruins it.”
Chloe waited until Eva returned with her coffee to pounce. “So you admit he’s attractive.”
“I’m not blind—I’m picky. That’s why I’m taking Mac to the athlete alumni dinner.” Her sly expression should have warned me, but I was too busy trying not to add “angry fuck with Chloe” to my extensive list of fantasies. “Who are you taking, Noah?”
I blinked up at her, but I wasn’t fast enough.
She tapped her chin with a finger and smiled wide at Chloe. “I have an idea. Since Noah doesn’t have a date yet, you two should go together. D and Nadia are coming back for the evening, so it’s perfect. You can see your family, and I get another lady friend to help me coerce RJ into going dress shopping.”
I frowned at her, trying to regain some control in the conversation. “Who says I don’t have a date already?”
Eva sent me a pitying look. “You put off getting a date every year until the last minute then pick some horrendous airhead who I’m forced to endure while you ignore her in favor of talking football with the guys. Sound familiar?”
She wasn’t wrong, but I had the distinct feeling I’d been set up. Chloe pursed her lips, and I couldn’t tell if she was considering the idea or trying to come up with a way to refocus Eva.
“It’s not my fault they require my attendanceanda date,” I muttered.
I avoided as many public appearances as possible. TU liked to prance their championship athletes in front of the donors and the press, claiming they were preparing us for our futures in the sports world. I hated it.
Unlike some of my roommates, football wasn’t my life. I loved playing, but in the end, the game offered me access to the future I really wanted—and an escape from a past I wanted to avoid.
Chloe and I had that much in common, though her past clung to her like colorful wings and mine stayed mostly hidden in the dark.
