Page 17 of Out of the Shadows
She looked at me with a big grin on her face before turning to Hailey. “You have to let me in on all your secrets! How did you land a guy like that? I mean, not that you’re not drop-dead gorgeous, but I’m already dreading all the frat boys.” She pretended to shiver. “I need to find a man who looks at me like that too.”
Looks at her like what?I guess my eyes wandered to Hailey on their own. Fuck. I quickly averted my gaze to my feet.
“I’m n—”
“To be honest, Ella … I have no idea how I landed him. But you’re right, lucky me.”
What the hell was she doing?My stomach tightened, my cock was already pressing half hard against my zipper again, and I hadn’t the faintest idea what to say to that.
Hailey stepped into the room and dropped her bag next to the bed Ella had ushered me onto.
“Well, I’d say let’s get to work.” She turned back around, giving me a fantastic view of her ass, which was conveniently right in my line of sight, and walked toward the still-open door. As she looked over her shoulder, I wished I could capture the sight for eternity.
“Whew” came from the other side of the room, and I looked over to see Ella fanning herself with her hand. “Turn down the heat a bit, would ’ya?”
I felt my cheeks flush as I stood up, feeling a little embarrassed. Hailey didn’t seem to mind much, just giggling and saying, “Come on, Colt, my stuff is still down in the car. Ella, I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to catch up later, but I need to get my stuff in here first.”
“No problem. Don’t let me hold you up. I’ll be in and out myself.”
Hailey took off, and I lumbered down the hall behind her, acutely aware of the stares from the other people in the hallway. Unfazed — or maybe just unaware — she sauntered to the stairs and glanced back over her shoulder at me again before heading down. Even though the stairwell wasn’t narrow, my broad frame was hindering some people carrying their stuff up.
A familiar face came into view, and I suppressed a groan. Knox Bradshaw, one of our wide receivers, popped up in front of me, smiling mischievously. I liked Knox. We spent little time together, but he was a decent guy — and unfortunately for me, one of the team’s biggest gossip mongers.
“Well, well, well. Who do we have here? Michaels! What’s up? Whatcha doin’ here?” He peered around, his eyes passing over Hailey in front of me before moving on, as if he wasn’t quite sure what he was looking at.
“Bradshaw. How’s it going? I’m helping, uh … Hailey with moving in.” I tilted my chin in her direction as she doubled back to us and positioned herself at my side. “What about you?”
His eyebrows rose slightly. Like I said, I liked him. “Mycousin just moved in here, so I’m going to go pick him up so we can have lunch together.”
I gave a nod, but my shoulders were tense. The urge to get away from here was overwhelming. I realized Hailey must look like a delicate, immaculate doll next to me, and I knew questions were bound to arise, to which I had no fucking answers to.
“So, Michaels … who’s your lovely companion?”
My hands clenched into fists, my forearms flexed. Why did she have to be so beautiful that every motherfucker gawked at her? “This is Hailey. She’s—”
Hailey cut me off.Again. “His girlfriend. Hi! Nice to meet you.”
I froze in place. Not a single muscle moved, I wasn’t evenbreathing. What the actual fuck? Knox’s reaction wasn’t so subtle. His eyes nearly popped out of his skull, and he disguised a deranged burst of laughter extremely poorly as a cough and looked from Hailey to me and back again.
Maybe I didn’t like him as much anymore.
She raised an eyebrow, and her lips thinned. “Problem?”
I still had said nothing. Still wasn’t moving. No idea if I ever would again.
Knox cleared his throat and shook his head frantically. “Nope, no problem. Just … Michaels, why didn’t you tell us? Good for you, man.”
I already knew he’d whip his phone out as soon as this conversation was over, and half the team would know about this turn of events within five minutes.
Fuck. I suppose I should probably try to do some damage control, but I just couldn’t get my mouth to open. I was so shocked I couldn’t speak, and Hailey beat me to it again. “Oh, it’s still pretty new. That’s probably why he hasn’t told you yet, right, Colt?”
I nodded.Why the hell was I nodding!?
“Well, um, I’m Knox. I’m also on the football team with this big guy here. And hey, I guess I’ll be seeing more of you.”
“Probably, since I’m one of your cheerleaders. I’ll be at your games at the very least.”
Excuse me?! Holy fucking shit! How manymoreunexpected turns would this day take? Hailey had been a cheerleader in high school, but I wasn’t aware she would cheer here too.
