Page 124 of Most Valuable Players
“We’ve all made fools of ourselves one time or another. It’s college. It’s fine.” Dakota finishes her bagel and grabs her coffee. “Do you need to get back to the dorm or do you want to hang out today?”
“I need to shower and change, but I don’t have anything after that.”
“You’ll want to shower after, but we can swing by the dorm on the way because you need sneakers.”
“On the way where?” I ask, standing and following them out of the booth.
* * *
I gaspas we jog around the Valley U campus track. “When you said hang out, I was picturing Netflix or mani-pedis.”
“Two more laps and then we switch to speed walking,” Dakota says, sounding far too comfortable talking while jogging.
The Scott pride and competitive nature keeps me pushing on, but when we finally begin walking, I’m a lot more sweaty and tired than these two.
“Do you guys do this often?”
“Three times a week,” Reagan says, sounding only slightly out of breath.
“Why?”
“I like to run,” Dakota says.
“She was on the track team,” Reagan adds. “I let her drag me along because it justifies the really big slice of cheesecake I’m going to have later while I make Dakota watch Lifetime movies.”
“What’s Ava, your roommate, like?” Dakota asks, swiftly changing the subject.
Ava and Trent hadn’t been at the dorm when we’d stopped by, but Trent’s things were still there. I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed tonight.
“She’s really nice. Her boyfriend goes to school at Northern. That’s why I was at Adam’s this weekend. He was visiting, and I wanted to give them some privacy. Hopefully next weekend she goes to his campus because I’m going to need a few weeks while I’m in hiding.”
“You can always crash with us. The bathtub is all yours,” Reagan teases.
“Thanks a lot, jerks,” I say with a smile.
Trent’s gone and Ava’s asleep in her bed when I get back. I shower and then get into my own bed to nap, but last night plays over and over in my mind. Adam and Heath have both texted, but I only responded to my brother and with a quick—I’m fine, it was nothing—that will hopefully keep him from asking more.
A knock at our door gets me out of bed and I’m half expecting it to be Adam. It would be just like him to skip texting back altogether and want to check on me in person, but it’s Heath standing in the hallway.
“What are you doing here?”
He smirks and adjusts the baseball hat on his head. “It’s nice to see you too.”
“Sorry. Hello, how are you today? Great weather we’re having. What the heck are you doing at my dorm? And how did you know where I lived?”
His rough chuckle pulls a smile from my lips. “Good. Agreed. I wanted to see you and…” He leans in closer. “I can’t reveal all my secrets.” He’s full-on grinning at me with a mocking glint in his eyes. “Come on, take a walk with me.”
“A walk?”
“Sure. You got something better to do?”
“I was planning on taking a nap.”
“Sleep’s boring. Come on, am I really having to talk you into this? It’s gorgeous outside and we can stop at the dining hall to feed you.”
“Me?”
“Now that you mention it, I could eat.”
