Page 14 of The Baller

Meg glanced up from looking at her phone and blending in as best she could, nodding and bringing her wrist to her lips, “Bookstore and Brontë are heading out. We’ll route them back to the dorm.”

She waited for Ethan to reply from his position outside, via the wireless transmitter she had in her ear, and the second Millie and I heard “copy”, we followed the path she took toward the exit.

Millie flung her arm over my shoulder with a grin. It looked innocent enough, but I knew she was only doing it to keep her body between me and anyone walking past.

I sighed heavily. What was this life?

My eyes stayed fixed on my footsteps, as always. I knew the eyes of most people in here were watching as we passed, but somehow, the only one I could feel washis.

I calculated it was thirty-seven steps from the bar to the door. For thirty of them my heart was thumping a steady rhythm which sounded a lot likedon’t look, don’t look, don’t look.

But I have no self-control.

Millie yanked me to the side and pushed me through the exit before I walked into the archway. “Radley, watch where you’re going! You’re going to end up with another bump to the head.”

I walked out into the cooling night air with one thought.

If I wasn’t me, if I didn’t have regrets and hadn’t made mistakes, that guy – that insanely hot guy with a smile that ignited something in my chest and set my heart beating a steady drum against my sternum, that guy who helped me not once, but twice today, would now be holding my number.

FOUR

LUX

Ace lookedup when I arrived back at the table where Tanner and Parker were now arguing between Cabo and the Bahamas.

“Did you get her number?”

“Working on it,” I replied, placing the bottles in front of them.

“Did you get her name?”

I sat down, picked up my beer, and took a long draw. Getting rejected by a beautiful girl is thirsty work. “Nope.”

“So, you’re no better off than you were before you got over there?”

I shook my head. “Not true. I stopped two guys from taking a picture with her…”

“Regular Superman right here,” drawled Tanner, thumbing in my direction. “Must be why neither her nor the hottie she’s with have stopped looking over since you left them.”

I slowly placed the bottle back on the table. “Really? She has?”

“Yep. Who’s the hottie?”

“The best friend.”

“And is she single?”

My eyes closed and I attempted to rub away the pressure building in my temples while I figured out my plan of action, because one way or another, I was getting her name and number. Tanner was still staring when I opened my eyes again.

“What?”

“Is she single?”

Thankfully, Parker interrupted before I got dragged further away from the point I was trying to get to in my head – namely her number in my cell.

“Why did they want her picture?”

I frowned. “I don’t know that either.”

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