“Caddy,” I mentioned, and he grabbed it off the floor just as someone walked in.
It was a deer in headlights moment when David stopped short at seeing me. His face lit up, but that quickly changed when he looked me over and saw the bruises on my torso.
“Fucking hell, blondie.”
Julien was standing right behind me, and I could feel him tense. David hadn’t noticed he was there.
“I’m good. I stopped by your room last night when I got back but you were out.”
Julien went from tense to rigid. Well, shit.
“With the guys watching a game.”
I slid to the side and took the caddy from Julien. David’s eyebrows arched. It was a very awkward thirty seconds as we all just stood there. David’s eyes pinged between Julien, me, and the stall we just walked out of. He saw the hot shower sex written all over my face.
Eventually, Julien stepped forward. “Hey, man.”
He offered a fist bump in greeting. I took that reprieve and went over to the wall of sinks to brush my teeth.
“Your man has been haunting the halls, waiting for you. Glad to have you back,” David told me.
He and Julien must’ve run into one another a few times since Julien had been sleeping in my room every night I was gone. Something Ash never mentioned once in his texts. We were going to talk about that the next time I saw him.
I rinsed my toothbrush, added more toothpaste, and handed it to Julien, then swiped deodorant on.
“Glad to be back.”
And I was, despite what happened.
I rushed through my morning routine, trying to avoid the blatant interest I was getting from David. That was something else I’d need to deal with. It hadn’t been obvious to me when Ash first mentioned it, but it was clear as day now. David knew I was with Julien, but something told me he didn’t care.
“Babe, time check,” Julien said, showing me his watch.
We only had ten minutes before I had to get to class. Since Julien was coming with me, we needed to get dressed and haul ass across campus.
David started undressing, pulling the shirt over his head. “Catch up with me later. I mean it.”
“I will. I promise,” I said as Julien hastily pushed me out of the bathroom.
“I wanted to pass something by you.”
Fallon looked up from his phone. We were sitting in the stands, watching Julien and his teammates go through their drills. The day had gone much smoother than expected. No weird looks during class. No uncomfortable questions.
“Shoot.”
Someone blew a whistle, and the players on the field started sprinting suicides. I had been forced to run suicides. Our PE teacher at Highland loved to torture us with them at least once a week.
“Teach me how to fight.”
“You already know how to fight. You kicked Marshall’s ass.”
“Teach me how to fight likeyou,” I emphasized.
His shrewd blue eyes took me in. “You sure?”
One thousand fucking percent.
“Yep.”