Page 69 of Study Buddies

22

TORI

After the meetingwith my advisor, I walked slowly across campus to the parking lot Kyle used. I didn’t want to think about my mom, and I sure as hell didn’t want to think about Doug.

Instead, I replayed the baseball game in my mind, focusing on the fun parts. Laughing with Jayden in the stands. Seeing Kyle run the bases and do that very cool flip as his teammates congratulated him.

I hadn’t seen him since the game yesterday. The team had probably spent the rest of the afternoon and evening celebrating. I was already in bed when I heard him come home. Whenever I heard him in the other bedroom, it felt kind of intimate. Like the wall separating us might somehow come down.

I liked being in the house with Lucas and Jayden too, but Lucas slept out in the living room, and I couldn’t hear him from the bed. Jayden had set up an air mattress in the basement. Sometime this week, he and Kyle were going to go get the queen bed he’d put into storage at the beginning of the summer.

The basement was by no means finished, but after some hard work over the weekend, there was enough space for him down there. Now we just had to find a place for Lucas to sleep. I’dtried to get him to take his room back many times, but he turned the offer down every single time. Even when things were a little awkward between us. It was baffling.

As I neared the parking lot, laughter came from my right, and I saw a group of students just outside the Economics building. There were four guys and two women. Kyle was right in the middle of the group.

I stilled, feeling a little bashful. The other guys talking and joking with him were tall and muscled. I had a feeling they were on the team, too, though I didn’t recognize any of them. They’d kind of all looked the same in their uniforms yesterday, except for Kyle.

The two women were pretty—one a blonde, and one a redhead. The blonde hung on the arm of a tall guy with light brown hair. And the redhead was standing close to Kyle, touching his arm and laughing with him.

My stomach sank. Did he have a girlfriend? I’d never thought to ask. It was okay if he did, but just seeing the way she was looking at him—and the way he was looking back at her—was a bit of a shock. Was she perhaps the reason why he’d never followed up on that date he’d made me agree to?

She laughed at something he said, and she placed her palm lightly on his flat stomach. I knew how sculpted his muscles were, and my fingers ached to touch him.

Kyle clearly wasn’t looking for me—I wasn’t even sure he remembered I existed—but I ducked behind the edge of the building, anyway. There was a tree in front of me, and it was a good place to see but not be seen.

I shook my head, chiding myself. I wasn’t a stalker. There was no reason I couldn’t just walk up to Kyle. He’d offered to drive me, after all. But it was too intimidating with his good-looking friends all there, talking loudly and laughing.

And with the redhead who appeared to be hanging on his every word.

After a few minutes, the vibe changed in the group, and it was clear they were saying goodbye. I felt relieved for reasons I couldn’t quite identify. Or perhaps didn’t want to identify.

I waited for a few moments after his friends walked off, the redhead going with them, thankfully.

Kyle scanned the area, hopefully looking for me. My plan was to pop out when he was facing the other direction, so that it didn’t look like I’d been spying—even though I had been.

But that plan went up in flames when I spotted something else flame colored. The redhead had circled back.

Crap.

She called his name, and he turned, one eyebrow raised in that arrogant way of his. It was a look I knew well. The redhead sidled up against him and slid her arm around his waist. Kyle’s went around her shoulder. She angled toward him, her face tilted up, inches from him.

Were they going to kiss? If so, I didn’t want to see that. But I somehow couldn’t look away. She reached her free hand up and grasped the hand he had slung over her shoulders, basically assuring he wasn’t going to let her go anytime soon. How did she know how to do that? Or how to gaze at him with such intensity. If it had been me, I would’ve flushed and looked away by now.

They looked good together. Comfortable. Lucas had always hinted that Kyle would go after any woman, and it seemed like maybe it was true. Then again, I didn’t know their history and how serious he was about her.

My stomach twisted in knots, and I wondered if I should just text Jayden or Lucas to see if they were still on campus. Kyle was clearly occupied. I’d spent so much of the past week or two sneaking peeks at him that I could read his body language pretty— Wait.

I squinted, trying to ignore the redhead and just focus on him. His face. His tall, ripped body. On the surface he looked like his normal cocky self. Shoulders back. Chin up. The ever-present smirk.

But he was tense. The signs were subtle but there. His free hand clutched the strap of his backpack tightly, his knuckles white. His shoulders were slightly raised. And mostly importantly, he had his body, his feet, angled away from her. Or as much as she would let him—she was clinging to him like a barnacle.

Maybe they weren’t together, although the redhead hadn’t gotten the message.

I slipped out of my hiding spot without conscious thought and walked toward them.

“There you are! I thought you’d stood me up.” I gave a light, breezy laugh as if that couldn’t possibly be the case.

“Never,” he said. There was a question in his eyes, but he seemed ready to go with the flow. It actually reminded me of how he looked on the field when he played shortstop. He’d stand between second and third looking ready to pivot in either direction in a split second.

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