Page 10 of Matched By My Rival
Not the top receiver ranking on the field, with all the attention it brought. Not the girl, who I’d only intended to be a friend.
And I sure as hell never wanted Simon to lose football.
Maybe Simon would always hate me, but I signed up for his frat’s charity project because I wanted him to know…
I never meant to ruin his life.
* * *
SIMON
When I got back to the frat after classes Thursday afternoon, some of the guys were hanging in the game room and shooting the shit while they played Madden on Xbox. I peeked in, even though I really needed to hit the books before my extra shift started at Tracks. I was in for eight hours when I usually endured only five, and unlike Rhett, I rarely managed to flirt enough for decent tips.
Still, at least the job was off campus. It allowed me to escape for a few hours and forget all about football and failure.
“Hey, wanna jump in?” Linc had noticed me loitering outside the room. He raised his controller. “I should head out.”
“Nah, I’ve had enough football to last a lifetime.”
Not quite true. I still ached, a great gaping hole inside where my passion for football had always resided. But I couldn’t let anyone see that. It made me feel too pathetic, the grief that welled up when I thought about what I’d lost.
“Sorry, man. We can switch the game.”
“That’s okay. I have to work tonight anyway.”
Cooper, our de facto leader now that the frat president had graduated, set his remote aside. “You got a minute to talk?”
“Sure.” I followed Cooper a few feet down the hallway. “What’s up?”
He stuffed his hands into his pockets and rocked on his feet, a sure sign he was nervous. “I’d like to visit Trace this weekend. He’s driven up the last three weeks, and he has a life of his own, you know? I want to give back a little.”
“Yeah, sure. That must be tough.”
I couldn’t imagine maintaining that kind of long-distance relationship. Cooper’s guy lived about a six-hour drive from Hayworth. He and Cooper had connected when he’d come up for an alumni speech. The fact he was an old friend of the dean—Cooper’s dad—couldn’t make their relationship easy either. They kept going strong, though, always willing to make the sacrifices to stay together.
“The thing is, House Pledge needs the most supervision on the weekends,” Cooper continued. “So that makes it hard for me to get away.”
I nodded. House Pledge was a charity project that Cooper had started on behalf of the frat. It’d helped the fraternity compete for funds, which had in turn allowed them to create a scholarship and save my ass. In other words, Ilovedthe hell out of House Pledge.
“You want me to help you out?”
Cooper exhaled. “Would you? I know you’ve got your hands full with a job too. I hate to ask too much—”
“It’s cool. I wouldn’t even be here without the frat’s generosity.”
“Nah, it’s not like that,” Cooper said with an emphatic head shake. “You’re not beholden to us or anything. We barely made a dent in your tuition.”
“You gave me a free room too,” I pointed out. “It was a huge help. I don’t mind repaying the favor a little.”
I hadn’t always given one hundred percent to the frat, and they’d been pretty cool about understanding I was an athlete first and a frat brother second. But my brothers had my back when my life went to hell. They had my full loyalty now. Whatever they needed, I was their man.
“Well, like I said, you don’t owe us anything, but if you think you can swing it, I’d really appreciate it. Now that we’ve got actual grants, we especially have to take the work seriously,” Cooper said. “We’ve got a budget and a timeline and outside volunteers coming in. Lincoln has been helping out with some of the paperwork, but he’s young, and I don’t think anyone will really listen to him.”
“Yeah, sure. I’m at the work site every weekend anyway. I can step up, no problem.”
“That’s a huge load off my mind. Thanks.”
“Anytime. I know that long-distance shit can’t be easy.”
