Page 7 of End Game

“Split three ways it’s not so bad. Like a hundred and sixty bucks or so.” Dollar shrugs. “The money we save from not going out to eat all the time will pay off in the long run.”

“He’s right,” Coop adds quietly. I turn to look at him, remaining quiet because I want to hear his opinion, which I respect more than Dollar’s. “If she feeds us three days out of the week, in the end, we’ll be better off, money-wise.”

“We’ll have to pay for the food,” I point out.

“And it’ll still be a significant savings over going out all the time.”

“How do we run a credit check on her?” Dollar asks.

“If we’re going to do this, we should at least ask her for a deposit. Like five hundred bucks. She can Venmo us,” Cooper says. “And we charge her nine hundred dollars for rent up front. What do you think?”

This is crazyis what I want to say. Again. We don’t know this woman. What if she’s a complete psycho? Unfair of me to think, but hey. It could happen. The idea of having a stranger move in with us—a female stranger—and change the dynamic in this house ...

Can’t lie. It makes me uncomfortable.

“I don’t know—”

Cooper cuts me off. “I’m all for it.” I send him a questioning look, and he shrugs. “I’m tired of rooming with dickfaces who bail on us like Sampson just did. I agree with Dollar. Let’s rent her the room.”

“We don’t know her—”

“We can get to know her,” he says, interrupting me again. “Maybe she prefers to keep to herself. We won’t be around much, anyway. Football is going to keep us busy the entire semester.”

“Think she’ll lose her shit over us being on the team?” I’m repeating myself, but I don’t care. We need to make sure we’re not getting tricked. “Or maybe she already knows we’re on the team and this is all a ruse for her to move in? She could be a clout chaser.” Saying it out loud sounds ridiculous, but hey. Weirder shit has happened.

“Doubtful. She seems pretty oblivious about who we are. Even a little naive.” Cooper shrugs. “I’m thinking she’s probably a transfer student from who knows where and has no clue who we are.”

“I don’t care if she knows who we are or not. I say we just do it,” Dollar says.

A ragged exhale leaves me as I scrub my hand along my jaw, rubbing the stubble that’s already growing there. “I’m getting outvoted on this one, huh?”

“Yes,” Dollar and Cooper say at the same time.

“Fine.” I drop my hand. “Let’s go tell her.”

We exit the bedroom, entering the living room to find her—Jesus, we should at the very least know her name—perched on the edge of the couch, wringing her hands together with a stressed-out expression on her pretty face.

The chick is clearly sweating over our decision.

“Before we give you an answer, we need to know one thing,” I say, making her sit up straight, her wide blue eyes meeting mine.

I immediately feel like a shit for doubting her. For thinking she’s a psycho or a clout chaser or anything like that. Her expression is downright angelic, with an ounce of fear added for good measure.

That’s the part I don’t like. The fear. I’m a big guy. So are all my friends—and teammates. But she has nothing to fear from any of us. Well, Dollar always crushes on random girls, so that might become an issue, but he’d never harm a fly. He’s a little too persistent and annoying about it, but that’s it.

“What is it?” she finally whispers.

I flash her what I hope is my most disarming smile. “What’s your name?”

Chapter Four

EVERLEIGH

“Oh.” My shoulders sag with relief. I thought they wanted to run a criminal background check on me or something. They might still want to do that. I don’t know. “It’s Everleigh.”

“Everleigh?” Nico frowns and I sit up straighter. “Interesting name.”

“Everleigh Olmstead.” I jump to my feet, catch myself wringing my hands, and immediately make myself stop. “So did you guys discuss it?”

---