Page 23 of Draft Pick

Sloane shook her head, still trying to process what she thought was crazy talk, saying, "Honestly, I can't believe you got him to spend all day combing the beach for trash."

"We weren't looking for trash," I said, although we did manage to clean up the section of the beach where we were looking, which I considered good karma for me. Not so much for the litterbugs out there. People were so rude nowadays. How hard was it to 'Pack it in, pack it out'?" Still, I assured Sloane, "He had fun."

Sloane blew on a shrimp, holding it carefully by its tail. "But you haven't heard from him since?" Sloane's dubious question poked at my insecurity.

"We hadn't set up a plan to talk," I said, defending Cason's lack of communication. "Honestly, I wasn't expecting him to show up with pizza and beer that night. He was just one-night-stand, remember?"

"Yeah but then he spent the night, returned and spent the night again. One-and-dones aren't allowed those privileges."

"True, but it seemed rude to turn him away when he went to the trouble to bring me a pizza," I said.

"You wanted to see him again," Sloane called me out with a knowing grin. "Just admit it."

"Okay, yeah, I wasn't mad about it when he showed up, but I wasn't planning to sleep with him again," I told her, trying to clarify how it all went down, though saying it out loud didn't make anything sound better.

"But you did. And he spent the night —again— then you guys took your metal detector out for the day," Sloane summarized.

And had sex on the beach. Thank God I'd had the foresight to grab a blanket before heading out. Otherwise, I'd be scraping sand from places it didn't belong.

But Cason's ensuing silence created a bubble of insecurity that I didn't like. "Anyway, it doesn't matter that I haven't heard from him since Sunday. I had zero expectations from him. I was even considering offering him a FWB situation before he showed up that night."

"Did you?"

"No, we didn't get to that."

"Before you started humping each other like bonobo monkeys out in the wild," she finished for me.

"Um, no comment," I said, dipping my shrimp into the creamy coconut dipping sauce. "But yeah."

"Hmm." Sloane's troubled expression didn't bode well.

"It's whatever. Honestly, I don't even care that he hasn't called," I said, playing it off like it was no big deal because I loathed the idea of being seen as that poor girl who got ghosted by the hot guy, but Sloane seemed wise to my act.

"Honey, guys like Cason aren't the kind you get to hold onto, not that you'd want to. They're all liars and cheaters. Plus, he's on the pro-athlete track, which makes him doubly unsuitable for anything serious. I hope you used protection because that man has been around, if you know what I mean."

"Of course, we did," I assured Sloane, keeping quiet about how I'd remembered the blanket and Cason had remembered to grab napkins for our beignets, but we'd both forgotten the condoms.

But he'd pulled out at the beach, so it was fine. It wasn't even the right time in my cycle, so I wasn't too worried.

Not entirely.

"What do you mean, he's been around?" I asked, despite myself. "What have you heard?"

"Oh, just the usual gossip. Mostly from Lark. She's more connected to the same circles because of her dance and cheer days. You know Lark was a Wolverines cheerleader her freshman and sophomore years, right?"

"Yeah, I guess I'd forgotten about that," I admitted, adding, "Me and Lark didn't become close until last year and by that time she'd already quit the team."

"That's true but she's remained in contact with a few of the girls on the squad and after you left with Cason at the bar, she asked around. I wasn't sure if she should tell you but maybe I was wrong. Seems he's still living up to the stereotype."

I didn't want to believe that. Cason had seemed far more genuine than I expected. I didn't want to think he was so good of an actor that he faked how well we gelled together. And I wasn't just talking about the sex, which was something out of this world.

"What did she hear?" I asked, cringing at how desperate I sounded.

"You really want to know?"

"Don't worry," I assured her with a fake laugh. "I don't even care. I'm more curious than anything else. I'm not immune to a bit of hot campus gossip. My roommate Danielle remembered he dated a friend of hers, someone named Kenzie? Is that who Lark was thinking of?"

"I don't remember a Kenzie but he and his Wolverine buddies have practically run through the Kappa House."

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