Page 81 of For Emery

“I’ve got class in about an hour.”

He nodded. “I know. I’m gonna drive you back to your dorm and walk you to class.”

“I appreciate that, but you’ve got your own classes and football to worry about. It’s broad daylight with thousands of people around. I’m not nervous. I’ll be okay.”

“I know. But maybe I want to spend time with you. Do things for you. Be seen with your hot self.”

I rolled my eyes.

“What? I’m serious.”

“Seriously crazy.”

“Never claimed not to be. But now I’m crazy about you. So deal, woman.”

I shook my head. This sudden switch in our relationship was going to take time to get used to. Being in the dark, with our bodies wrapped around one another was one thing. But in the light of day, with all the outside factors at play, I needed to figure out how we worked. How to act around him. How to be the new us.

Forty minutes later, Jordan waited in my dorm room to take me to class. He’d showered at his house and changed into basketball shorts and a T-shirt with a hat pulled down low. I threw on jeans and a T-shirt, slipped on my flip-flops, and tried to twist the strap of my bag across me, but Jordan grabbed it from me.

The walk across campus with Jordan was…different. Lots of guys held out their fists for him to bump and multiple girls stared as we passed by. But regardless of their looks, he kept my hand in his and his eyes on me.

“Grady,” a girl called.

He stopped, holding me back with him.

A beautiful blonde stopped in front of us. She looked questioningly to him, like he should know what she was thinking.

“Em, this is Sabrina,” he said with a grin, alleviating any fears I may have had that she was an angry ex or one-night-stand. “Sabrina, this is Em.”

“Nice to finally meet you,” Sabrina said with a smile. “Anyone who can put up with his shenanigans is a good person in my book.”

I laughed. “Yeah, someone’s got to do it. And since I’ve known him since he was eleven, I think I’m up for the challenge.”

Sabrina laughed. “Challenge is definitely the word I’d use for him.”

“Hey, I’m right here, ladies. And I’ve yet to hear anything about my glowing personality or killer body.”

Sabrina and I rolled our eyes, both pretending not to be amused by him.

“And for the record,” Sabrina said to him. “We were friends before the hot body.”

Jordan threw his head back and howled in a way I’d never heard him do before. “Did you hear her, Em? Not only did she admit we’re friends, she also said I have a hot body. All in the same sentence. I never thought I see the day.”

Sabrina pointed right into his chest. “If you tell anyone, I will kill you.”

“Em’s my witness,” Jordan said.

Sabrina grinned and shook her head. Then she said to me, “When he’s not around, we’ll have to grab a coffee and you can fill me in on what you see in him.”

I nodded. “That would be nice.”

Sabrina walked away without so much as a backward glance.

“She was interesting,” I said, unsure what to make of their exchange.

Jordan started walking again. “Yeah, she wants to hate me, but she just can’t seem to do it.”

“Why?”

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