Page 13 of Relentless (The Titans of Founder's Ridge 2)

Con walks back to us and hands Ivy her schedule after scanning it himself. “You’re taking all the advanced math classes,” he says.

“Yeah, numbers are my thing,” she replies.

I grab her schedule from her. I whistle and raise my eyebrows at her reading off her courses, “Trig, Statistics, Chemistry, Asian Geopolitics, Feminist Theory, English Lit, Water Sports, and study hall. Ives, I knew you were a beast in the pool and cute as fuck, but you’re smart too?” I wiggle my brows at her. “You’re the whole package.”

“Shut up, you moron.” She rolls her eyes, but she’s also blushing. She snatches her schedule back and looks at Griff. “Can you show me where my classes are?”

He looks at me with amused glint in his eyes before they walk off together toward the building her seminar class is located. An uncomfortable feeling rises up from my belly watching her walk away from me with someone else. It’s stupid because it’s Griff and I know it’s nothing more than him being nice.

“What’s going on with you two?” Con asks.

“What do you mean?”

“Playing dumb isn’t going to work. Your dad and Jennifer might be oblivious, but Griff and I are not.” The crowd parts for us as we walk toward our first class.

“I don’t know what you mean.” I decide to deflect by changing the subject. “Did Margaux finally get you to fuck her Saturday?”

“I’d stick my dick in a woodchipper before I’d go near her pussy.” The glare he hits me with would make anyone else whither, but I just chuckle and pick a seat in the back. He grabs the seat beside me and tosses his bag in the one in front of him to save it for Griff.

“Ivy’s nice,” Griff says when he comes in. “Oliver Abbott was looking very interested, by the way.”

Great, just what I don’t need, the British captain of the soccer team sniffing around her. I’ve never been good at sharing her attention. My thoughts drift back to the first time I chased boys away from her. I was mad at my dad for making me give up basketball at camp and wanted to escape.

I’m walking through the mess hall with my cabinmates when I see Ivy sitting at a table with all the swimmers. She’s surrounded by dudes on every side, and I’m annoyed. Instead of dropping my tray down at our usual table, I walk over to where she’s sitting.

“Hey Ives.” I toss a leg over the bench between her and some pimple-face guy who looks a few years older than us. “Mind if I sit with you guys today?”

“I do.” Pizza face says.

“Don’t care.” I puff my chest out. This kid is probably thirteen, and I’m already bigger than him. “Maybe you should look into Proactiv for that.” I rudely point at his face. I am a jerk; I know this, and I don’t care. Pizza face backs down but doesn’t run away, so he earns a tiny bit of respect from me. Now that I’ve asserted my dominance, I turn to Ivy.

“That was so mean,” her pretty gray eyes are narrowed to slits. “Why are you over here, meat head?”

“Meat head?” I smirk.

“You are clearly lost, you big, dumb jock.” She points at the table where my friends sit. “Your friends are over there.”

“We’re all jocks. This is a sports camp.” I hold my hands up. “Plus, I thought we became friends last night, when I saved you from the bottom of the pool.”

I don’t know how I expected her to react, but it wasn’t to throw her head back laughing. She laughs until she snorts and a tear runs down her tan cheek. “You’re an idiot. You mean when you ungracefully belly flopped into the pool needlessly and disturbed me from my time to think? I didn’t need you to save me last night, and I never will.” She rolls her eyes while she swipes the tear off her face.

“Never say never.” I wink.

She blinks.

She blinks again.

“Whatever,” she sighs as picks up her apple and takes a bite. “Seriously, why are you over here?”

“Just thought I’d mix it up.” Truthfully, I want distance from anything related to football. “See how my new best friend is.”

Her friends all look at each other start getting up. “See you in a few.” One of the guys says to her.

“You scared my friends off.” She says not really sounding mad about it.

“Good.” I tear into my pasta. “Let’s hang out again tonight.”

“Really?” She side eyes me.

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