CHAPTER TWO
Sabrina
“You wanna grab lunch?” Finlay asked.
“Sure.” I tossed down my phone and stood from my bed, smoothing out my white down comforter. “Where?”
“I told Caden we’d meet up with him at the dining hall. He’s flying solo today. Forester apparently went home for his actual birthday.”
I closed my eyes as the images from the previous night brought upon a body quaking cringe. Who pushes a totally hot guy toward another woman? This girl. I was hopeless. And in no condition to be told there were other fish in the sea. I saw what’s in the sea, in the form of a guy tied to a tree, and if guys like that were the alternative, I’d rather be alone. “So, you expect me to be the third wheel again?”
“You know it’s not like that.”
“Says the one in love with Caden Brooks, superstar quarterback who only has eyes for her.”
She groaned. “Would you stop? Caden likes having you around. He thinks you’re hysterical.”
“Oh, yeah. I’m just full of humor.”
She tossed back her dark waves and laughed at my bleak tone. “I didn’t tell him about your…experience last night.”
“Why not? I thought you two share everything?”
“I wanted to hear you tell it again.”
“So, I’m your entertainment today?”
She shrugged. “Something like that.”
I grabbed my hoodie from the desk chair and walked to the door. “Fine. But I expect a captive audience.”
“You got it.”
* * *
“He said that?” Caden asked, wiping his mouth with a napkin.
I popped a small piece of a soft pretzel into my mouth. “Yup.”
“While she was trying like hell to get him free,” Finlay added, as if she’d been there.
“You guys see this?” a gruff voice asked.
I turned to find Grady, the football team’s right tackle, sliding into the booth beside me. His big body pressed against me.
“What the hell, Grady?” Finlay snapped, beating me to it. Grady made her job as team water girl hell last year and she wouldn’t let him forget it.
“See what?” Caden asked.
He held out his phone toward them.
Finlay’s mouth dropped open before her eyes cut to mine. “You weren’t lying.” She grabbed Grady’s phone and held it up for me to see. The picture filling the screen was a very naked hockey player tied to a tree. The only difference was he was there in broad daylight.
Caden glared at Grady. “Dude? You think I want you showing my girl pictures of some naked guy?”
“You feeling inadequate, Brooks?” Grady asked Caden.
“Is he still there?” I asked, stopping Caden from jumping across the table and beating the crap out of Grady.
Grady shook his head. “The fire department showed up to free him when I was doing the walk of shame.”
“Serves him right,” Finlay said.
Grady’s eyes jumped between Caden and Finlay. “You know him?”
“Sabrina does,” Caden said.
Grady looked to me. “Any idea what he did to piss someone off?”
I shrugged, not wanting to spread rumors about the hockey team. “How many people saw him?”
“Half the campus. People were posting pictures everywhere. You had to see the hordes of sorority girls showing up. Some were even posing with him.” Grady grabbed a handful of Caden’s fries and shoved them in his mouth. “The guy didn’t stand a chance,” he said with a mouthful. “He looked like he wanted to kill someone.”
“How long did it take to get him free?” I asked.
“Don’t know. The show ended as soon as they covered him up. Not too fun watching him get untied while covered up.”
Finlay’s brows shot up. “You prefer your guys naked, Grady?”
“Whoa. Retract the claws. I thought we had a truce?”
Her head recoiled. “Said who?”
Grady looked to Caden who shrugged.
“What the fuck?” Grady grumbled as he pushed his large body to his feet. “I’m outta here.”
Once he was out of earshot, we all broke into laughter. Grady was one of the most unlikeable guys on campus. And even though he’d initially been an asshole to Finlay, we’d heard he wasn’t the prick he wanted everyone to think he was. Finlay and I were still waiting for him to prove it, though.
“So, are you happy the dick got what he had coming?” Caden asked me.
“Yeah,” I said, glancing out the window. The leaves on campus had begun to change color. Some had already fallen on the paths. Had Mr. Hockey noticed them as he stared out at the early morning campus before his world had been turned upside down even more?
* * *
I flew out the front door of my dorm and hurried toward my chem class. I picked up the pace as I trudged uphill, hoping like hell my professor hadn’t sprung another surprise quiz on the class. I may not have been the most conscientious student—or declared a major yet for that matter, but I still cared about my grades and worked damn hard to make my parents proud. I was an only child which meant I needed my parents to see all their hard work raising me and carting me around to all my activities wasn’t for naught. I wanted to be someone they were proud of.
Within minutes, I climbed the steps in front of the science building and rushed through the vacant foyer, taking the stairs two at a time. The sound of my Chucks echoed in the empty stairwell as I climbed the four flights to my classroom.
The squeaking of a door in the stairwell above, along with descending footsteps, stopped me in my tracks. I gasped, toppling back a few steps as Mr. Hockey nearly slammed into me as he rounded the corner, glaring like I’d done something wrong.
“Good to see you got yourself free,” I said with as much snark as I could muster.
“No thanks to you.”
“Seriously? You still can’t see I was trying to help you? What’s wrong with you?”
“Me? I didn’t leave someone tied to a tree in the middle of the night.”
“I think you’re forgetting I tried to help you.” I held up my calloused fingers. “Got the blisters to prove it.”
“Right,” he said doubtfully.
“Ever think the real reason they tied you to that tree wasn’t because you took a stupid position, but because you’re an asshole?”
His eyes narrowed.
The door in the stairwell above us slammed shut and footsteps bounded down the steps. The girl who was descending gave Mr. Hockey a salacious once-over. “Loved your pictures.”
As if her attention erased the argument we’d been having, his entire face softened. His clouded eyes were now replaced by a vibrant blue. The angry creases around them eased, and the smile on his lips—a God damned smile—showed almost perfect teeth, aside from a tiny chip in his bottom front tooth. An obvious run-in with an angry puck. “Where you headed?” he asked the girl, his voice so smooth you could glide right over it.
“Back to my sorority house.”
One of his dark brows arched. “Those the girls who came out to see me?”
She nodded.
“Then lead the way. I’d liked to meet them with my clothes on this time. Or…we could make it even and have them strip down.”
She giggled, and everything about their exchange made my skin crawl. She moved by me, giving him just enough distance to check out her ass. And he did. Of course, he did.
Without another word, he glared at me, purposely bumping into me on his way down the stairs.
Their footsteps echoed in their wake as I stood alone in an empty stairwell hating Mr. Hockey more now than I had that night.