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“Me too. Me too.”
Logan smacks my back.
The girls return. “Thanks for having me. I need to get my clothes.”
“I’ll run up and get them for you. Or do you want to change?”
Her eyes dart around. “I should change. My neighbor might wonder who I was studying with in pajamas.”
“Nicole? Does she have a little boy named Martin?”
Her eyes widen as she stammers, “How do you know Nicole?”
“He babysat for her in the summer,” Harper chimes in.
“Correction, I helped her build a raised garden and some other handyman-type things.”
Brooke’s eyes narrow. “She had an emergency and needed me to stay with Martin for a few hours.”
“Oh, small world.”
Something changes in Brooke’s demeanor. I’m not quite sure what it is so I follow her upstairs. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I really need to go.” She pulls off her pajamas and changes back into her jeans and sweater.
I grab her knit cap and put it on her like I did the other night. “Our first hangout isn’t ending on a lie. Tell me.”
She shifts her weight, spies a spot on the floor, and says, “Nicole gets around. I know it’s none of my business.”
“Stop. I never had sex or anything else with Nicole. I hadn’t received any NIL deals when I first got here. I put up a sign in the student center saying I would do odd jobs. That’s it. I promise.”
Her shoulders relax, and she looks at me with her expressive eyes. “Really?”
“Really.” We chip away at the distance between us, and she lets me taste her lips and explore her mouth. “You taste like cream cheese icing now.”
She shoves the pajamas in her purse luggage as I call it. When we get to the kitchen, Adalee hands her a plastic baggie full of cookies. “These are for Caleb.”
I swear Brooke’s eyes tear up. My roommates never mentioned her being a single mom during our game night. But Adalee has had her share of needing a family and is a genuinely nice person. She hugs Brooke, and then it’s Harper’s turn.
“Thank you. I had a great time. He’s a sweet connoisseur, so he’ll love them.”
I mumble, “Sweet, funny.” I grab her hand. “I’ll walk you out.”
When I return, the firing squad, otherwise known as my roommates, have shit-eating grins on their faces.
“What?”
“Cookie’s boyfriend? Even Logan isn’t that cheesy.” Hagan laughs. “I’m not sure I want to know why you call her Cookie.” He wiggles his eyebrows. “I think I’m still in shock that you’re in a relationship, much less with your coach’s daughter. You must have a death wish.”
“It’s not ideal, but I’ve dealt with worse, and she’s worth it. Thanks for tonight. It was exactly what we needed… to have fun together… take the sexual part out and see if we had fun together. Which we did. It means a lot to me that we can hang out here without anyone knowing until we’re sure we want to move forward.”
Harper says, “Roomie hug.”
“That’s not a thing,” Hagan replies.
“It is now. And she couldn’t stop staring at Reed all night. We’re going to triple date all the time.” Harper extends her arms, and we appease her. She’s pregnant, cute, and glowing, which makes her pretty hard to resist. “And did you see how Roscoe lay beside her? I think he smelled her little boy on her clothes.”
All I can do is smile. It’s been the best day of my life except yesterday and the day before. And the other days Brooke Sweet was in my presence.
