Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 114337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
“Yes,” I said.
Her head tilted, and her smile was shy. She was pretty sure I felt the same way she did, but it was still a big deal to say it, and it took her a moment to work up the courage.
“I love you, Colin.”
I launched forward, sliding my hands into her hair and whispered it just before I crushed my lips to hers. “God. I love you, too.”
When we met Jack at the coffee place in the union, he was sitting at a table meant for two. His eyes brightened when he saw Mads, but he looked less happy to discover me alongside her. It was like I’d disrupted his plans.
Good.
I grabbed an empty chair from a nearby table and dragged it over, making the legs scrape loudly across the floor.
“Sorry.” Jack’s tone was insincere as he looked up at her. “Didn’t realize you weren’t coming alone.”
As she dropped down into the chair across from him and I took my seat beside her, all I could think about was the last time I’d seen him. He’d told me she’d never be mine, that she wouldn’t go for a guy like me.
I grinned at him. How you like me now?
He barely glanced my way. All his focus was on her. “Thanks for meeting me.”
She nodded but didn’t say anything. This was hard for her. It was the first time they’d talked since the break-up more than a year ago. When she’d asked me to come with her, at first I’d thought she done it to make me feel better, but I realized it was the other way around.
She wanted me there with her for support.
Jack’s gaze dropped to the cardboard cup on the table in front of him, and whatever he wanted to say, he was reluctant. My impatience got the best of me, and I cleared my throat, ordering him to get on with it.
“I’m sorry about Germany,” he said. “I shouldn’t have left you.”
Oh, wow. Ballsy of him to do this right in front of me.
Mads didn’t react. “I think what you meant to say is, I’m sorry I cheated on you.”
“Yes,” he said quietly.
“And I’m sorry I lied about it to my frat brothers and told them it was you.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed with a hard swallow. “Yes.”
“Okay,” she said simply. “Thanks.” Her voice was flat. “Did we need to get together for this?”
His gaze flicked to me, and I saw it all. None of this was going the way he’d wanted it to. I wasn’t supposed to be here, and he had hoped his apology would have made a bigger impact. One that might have created an opening he could use to wedge his way back into her life.
He frowned. “There’s something else I need to tell you.” He set his arms on the table and leaned forward. “The Sig seniors are doing these presentations at the pregame party on Friday. If you made a PowerPoint, they told us we could upload our files to the frat’s Dropbox, and when I went to add mine . . . I accidentally clicked on Riley’s.”
The tension in his voice dropped a stone in my stomach.
“He doesn’t know I’ve seen it,” Jack continued. “We’re not supposed to because it’s a competition over who has the best one.” His gaze moved from her, to me, and back again. “There’s a video of the two of you in there. Where you’re”—he struggled to find the right word—“together.”
Horror filled her face. “He’s planning to show one of our videos to the entire frat?”
Thanks to Riley’s posts, everyone we were friends with knew we were putting out adult content, but most of them had only seen a tame screenshot. This was way worse.
“That motherfucker,” I growled. “That’s why he invited us.” Because she’d told me about how he’d cornered her earlier this week and tried to convince her to come to the party. “He wants us there so he can see our faces when he plays it.”
“Obviously, I’m not going to let that happen,” Jack said. “My first thought was to delete it, but then I realized—this idiot uploaded porn to a school server. Once I report it, they’ll have no choice. They’ll have to kick him out of the house, and I’m sure the school will discipline him too.”
“What the fuck is his deal?” She crossed her arms over her chest like she felt vulnerable, and I put my hand on her leg, wanting a connection to her. “He made those posts, tried to ruin our lives, and we didn’t even retaliate. We did nothing to him.”
Jack sat back and ringed a hand around his cup of coffee. “Look, everyone knows what he did was not cool. He’s been getting a ton of shit around the house ever since we got back. There was even some discussion the first week about kicking him out for doxing you guys, but Colin’s not a Sig anymore, and social media is a gray area.”