Page 21 of For Crosby

She laughed, reaching behind the seat and grabbing a blanket. She handed it to me.

“Thanks.” I took it and wrapped it around my waist before climbing inside the truck.

She shifted the truck into gear and pulled away from the sidewalk. “You know I’m gonna have to ask.”

“It was a joke.”

“I work for the football team.” Her eyes jumped between me and the campus road. “Guys can be tough on the rookies. It’ll get better. Just don’t be an ass and provoke them.”

“I see why you and your buddy are friends. You both tell it like it is, huh?”

“The truth will set you free.” She laughed. “Okay, so maybe not as free as you are right now.”

I laughed and pointed to the building coming up on our left. “My dorm’s right up there.”

“Oh, yeah? Sabrina and I live right behind you.”

“Sabrina? That’s your friend’s name?”

My driver laughed. “You didn’t know her name?”

I shook my head.

“So, the two of you have been pushing each other’s buttons since you met and you’re just learning her name? That’s hysterical.”

“I call her Ice Queen. It seems to fit.”

“Yeah, maybe with you. But she’s actually pretty awesome if you get to know her.”

“If you're forgetting, she left me naked and tied to a tree in the middle of the night.”

“She said you were mean.”

“I was fucking cold.”

She laughed, but the memory churned my insides.

I’d been through hell that night. Humiliated. Overpowered. Pushed too far. “I’m not here to make friends. I’ve got a pro contract with my name on it and then I’m outta here.”

She pulled her truck to a stop in front of my dorm and turned to look at me. “A word to the wise. Everyone needs friends.”

Not in the mood to be lectured by some chick, I pushed open the passenger door. “Thanks for the ride. And the blanket.”

A sad smile flashed across her face as she glanced to the blanket wrapped around me. “You can give that back after Thanksgiving. We’re in room 325.”

I tried to ignore the hollow in my chest as I stepped out of the truck. I’d put Thanksgiving out of my mind since I knew what I’d be doing over the long holiday weekend and it sucked. I glanced back to my driver. “Thanks again.”

“Finlay,” she said.

“What?”

“My name’s Finlay.”

I nodded my understanding and closed the door. I watched Finlay drive off before strolling to my dorm like I didn’t have a blanket tied around my damned waist.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Sabrina

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