Page 152 of The Trouble With Bad Boys

“I’ve been busy,” she fires back.

“Give me a break, Ava. You’ve been blowing me off for weeks. At first, I understood, with dance and work, and I have football. Now I find out you’ve been hooking up with one of my teammates?”

“Former teammates,” I retort, and Alec narrows his eyes on me.

“What is this to you anyway? Some way of trying to get under my skin after I bailed on the team?”

“Excuse me,” I turn to face him. My blood is boiling now.

“Don’t act like I don’t know how you and your buddies are. I’ve heard the rumors about how you bring a new girl back every weekend. I’ve been to the parties you guys have at your place.”

I clench my jaw, and my nostrils flare.

“I don’t know what you think you’ve heard about me, but I can tell you right now that’s bullshit.”

“So you’re telling me your roommate isn’t hooking up with Hallyn?”

I glance down at Ava, not sure how to respond. It’s not my place to speak on Beckham and Hallyn’s relationship, and I don’t know how this has turned into what they’re doing.

“Listen, like I said, I don’t know what you’ve been hearing or who is feeding you this shit, but I can assure you it’s all wrong.”

Ava steps between us, holding her arm out to stop both of us.

“I’m sick of you trying to interject yourself into what I do with my life. Growing up, all you and Dad did was try to control every move I made, having an opinion on every person I saw or what I did. I’m sick of it. I told myself when I came to Braysen, I wouldn’t let you hold me back anymore. You want to know why I’ve stopped answering your calls and responding to your texts? It’s this, right here. You think I give a shit, Alec, about what you think about my relationship with Colter? I don’t. Not anymore. I want to make my own choices. Even if everything goes to shit and blows up in my face, at least I can learn on my own. I don’t want to live your life. I would think at least you would understand.”

She exhales a heavy breath and shakes her head, nodding toward my truck.

“C’mon, Colter, let’s go.”

Ava moves around the side of the truck, and I reach for my door handle, but I stop before I open it, turning back to Alec.

“If you don’t want to ruin your relationship with your sister, I think you should listen to her. If I were you too, I’d spend more of my time checking on how my best friend is doing after his breakup than questioning Ava over what she’s doing.” Alec’s brows narrow, and I add, “Ask him if he had anything to do with Hallyn and Ava’s apartment getting broken into a few weeks ago.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

I nod. “If I find out it was him, he’s gonna have a bigger problem on his hands. I can promise you that too.”

Without another word, I climb into the truck. Ava slides across the seat and loops her arm around mine, leaning her head against my shoulder.

“I’m not feeling up for going out tonight. Can we pick up a pizza and watch the game at your place instead?” she whispers.

I nod. “Anything you want.”

* * *

Reed mentioned during practice that he heard Alec had been asking around for my number. So when I head out to my truck a few days later to see him standing next to mine, I’m not even surprised.

“If you came to start shit like you did the other night, you can save it and get the hell outta here.”

Alec shakes his head. “Listen, I wanted to apologize for what happened the other day?—”

I hold my hand out between us. “I’m not the person you need to say sorry to. It’s Ava.”

“I know, and I will. I shouldn’t have come in the way I did. I’ve been thinking about what you said. I had no idea about what happened at Ava’s apartment. I’ll make sure Tanner leaves them alone, all right?”

I nod, shrugging my gym bag on my shoulder. “If that’s the case, then we’re good.”

“What’s going on with you and my sister, though? I mean, are you serious about her, or is this some hookup because I?—”

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