Page 45 of Body Checked By the Defenseman

“True,” she agrees.

I draw my brows together. “What is going on, Annie?” Something isn’t adding up.

“My high school boyfriend is transferring to Riverside starting next semester,” she says as if it explains everything.

“So?” I ask.

“So…” She winces. “We were together for three years and it was a really messed-up relationship.”

This is the first time she is mentioning him.

“What do you mean?” Briar asks.

“You guys remember how things went with Chase?” she asks, reminding us of the guy she dated in freshman year, who was a douchebag she kept taking back.

“It’s hard to forget,” I reply, and Briar agrees.

“Well, my relationship with Ford was kind of the same. I think I’m broken. Like I can’t find a good guy.” She frowns. “Ford was older and handsome as hell. I just kept taking him back. He was attending Harvard. Who the hell switches out of Harvard law?”

“Riverside has just as good as a reputation,” I remind. “And you aren’t broken. You’ve just had bad luck. You shouldn’t talk about yourself that way.”

The guys walk back over to the booths, which are side by side.

Cade walks up to Annie. “Am I supposed to thank you?” he asks, touching his lips.

“I would say so,” she responds, and she’s blushing again.

“Thank you,” he grins. And just like that their interaction is over.

We all get back into our lanes and throw some axes. No one talks about the crazy situation and Cade seems to be doing okay.

I walk over to the little table at the end of our booth and take a sip of my beer. A guy walks up to the booth.

“Hey, you’re the girl from the track team. I saw you running the other day,” he says, and he isn’t shy about checking me out.

Since he didn’t ask a question, I don’t really know what to say.

“You want to come to the bar? I’d love to buy you a drink,” he offers.

Before I can blink and say no thank you. Macklin is beside me. “She isn’t interested. Get lost.”

“What?” the guy asks confused. “Who the fuck are you? The boyfriend?”

“None of your business. Now leave,” Macklin insists.

They’re both big guys and this is making me feel uneasy.

My brother walks over. “Everything good here?” he asks, looking between Macklin and the guy. It’s like he is sending the message that Macklin has backup.

“Whatever,” the guy says, and he walks away.

Hayden then turns to Macklin, looking very unpleased. “What the heck was that?”

“What?” Macklin asks, feigning innocence. “We watch out for Ruby. That’s what we do.”

“The guy was just offering her a drink. Ruby knows how to say no if she wants to,” my brother answers. Damn, he’s being very chill about this. Macklin, on the other hand, was acting like a jealous boyfriend. Just because we run off to our spot at the library almost every weekday does not give him the right to get all protective of me. I know how to defend myself, and I know what I want. It was not that guy.

“You’re right, bro,” he says to my brother and then looks at me. “Sorry, Ruby.” He gives me a sheepish grin, but he can barely look me in the eyes. This is how it’s been since we started hooking up. There is a change between us, which I guess was expected.

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