Page 55 of Endgame

Lila stifled a laugh as they both settled into their seats. King had arranged it so that she was sitting next to him.

They all made small talk until it was time for kickoff, and then they all got caught up in the game. Lila pointed out Knight, Bear, Demarcus, and their other friends on the team, and Layla seemed to have a better grasp of the game than Lila had when she first started coming.

Lila more than made up for that now. “Come on, Knight!” she yelled when he held onto the ball and ran instead of passing it and swerved away from a potential tackle. When he crossed into the end zone, they all jumped up to cheer. King watched as she took a video of Knight’s victory dance and then furiously started typing as she sat back down.

He did the same, right as she looked up and noticed that he was watching her and gave him her eyebrow face. “I’m sending it to Wren,” she explained, and then her focus shifted back to her phone.

“So they’re still talking?” King couldn’t help but be curious. Normally he and Knight could talk about everything, but this was one instance where, beyond what they’d initially talked about, Knight was acting like Fort Knox with his version of events.

Lila hummed. “I plead the fifth.” Then she shifted her gaze to his. “Honestly, I’ve mostly been staying out of it, so I don’t really know. All I know is that she doesn’t get mad at me when I do this kind of thing.”

“As long as she doesn’t hurt him again.” King’s tone came out harsher than he’d intended. “Because he was a mess.”

Lila wrinkled her nose. “Who do you think got rid of all of those takeout containers?”

King glanced at her in surprise. He hadn’t realized she’d been the one to clean his room. He should have, though. It made perfect sense, because that was just the kind of thing that Lila would do.

“Also, and I’m saying this because we’re friends now, you don’t know shit about what happened. They’ve each got some demons, and they both have to figure it out.”

King felt appropriately chastened. “You’re right, sorry. That came out harsher than I meant it to.”

“Thanks. And I get it. It’s Knight, and he’s the best. For what it’s worth, I think the universe will find a way of working things out. If that makes sense.”

“Not really.” King mimicked her eyebrow face. “But I’ll take your word for it.”

“Smart man.”

“Not always.” He couldn’t help the feelings of remorse that crept in when he thought about how poorly he’d treated her. How he’d had this wonderful woman who was intelligent, beautiful, kind, and sexy as hell, and he thought it was a good idea to push her away. Twice. He didn’t know what the future held for them, but he knew with a sinking certainty that he’d regret what he’d done for the rest of his life.

“You got pensive all of the sudden.” Lila nudged him with her elbow. “Doing okay?”

“Just regretting how awful I was to you last year,” he confessed. Her eyes widened in surprise. “It just hits me all at once sometimes. The regret.”

“Not everything about last year was awful,” Lila murmured as she turned her head to look at him. “In fact, some of it was wonderful. A lot of it was wonderful, actually.”

“Hard agree,” King said, nostalgia hitting him right in the gut.

Lila shifted her focus back to the football field. “When I decided to accept your apology, I made the decision to hold on to the good and let go of the bad. Otherwise our friendship would have never had a chance.”

“I’m glad you gave us a chance, La.”

“Same. I guess it’s a good thing that you’re pretty great at apologizing.” She lowered her voice so only he could hear her. “Plus, you made me come twice my first time. I’m pretty sure you get major brownie points forever just for that.”

“Did you just…” King was speechless. Also turned on.

“Bring up the fact that we’ve spent sexy naked time together? Yup. I mean, it’s a thing that happened, so it’s silly to pretend it didn’t.”

“It is definitely a thing that happened. Many times,” King managed to grind out even as he tried to surreptitiously adjust himself.

Lila just smirked and turned her attention back to her sister. “Want a soft pretzel, sis? Maybe a churro? I’m hungry.”

Chapter 30

King glanced over the syllabus for the gothic lit class that he’d basically had to use all of his connections to get into with heightened interest. Lila had talked about the class last year, and he thought it actually sounded interesting. Since it was only taught once a semester, a spot in this class guaranteed that he’d be in it with Lila, which was his main motivator, if he was being totally honest. Dr. Danger (yes, that was her real name) insisted on doing everything old school, so the syllabus was printed on paper (sorry trees), its multiple pages stapled together. Word on the street was, Dr. Danger also preferred her students to handwrite notes because laptops were “distracting.”

He was prepared with all of the things, just in case.

The class was tiny, only 15 students, so their seats were arranged around a conference room–style table, with Dr. Danger lording over them like a CEO. Personally, King respected the flex.

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