Page 71 of Frozen Hearts
“Fun,” Logan quips.
Gray grunts, closing his eyes as he rests his head against the back of the chair.
“What’s been going on here?” he asks after a moment, still not opening his eyes.
“We think Riley is living off campus,” I tell him, filling him in on my sleuthing session.
That gets his attention. His head snaps up, focus intent on me. “As a scholarship student, she’s entitled to free accommodation on campus. Why would she rent somewhere off campus that she’ll have to pay for?”
I shrug, not having an answer for him. “No clue. I’ll stop by the administration building tomorrow and see what I can find out. Martha loves me there. Shouldn’t be too difficult to get answers from her.”
Snorting, he shakes his head.
Hey, it’s not my fault the woman is a huge football fan. She might be sixty and hard of hearing, but she showed up at every single one of our games and screamed like a banshee. I’ve never heard an old lady curse so colorfully before.
Thankfully, she doesn’t know what happened to get me kicked off the team. She also isn’t the slightest bit put off by myfuck offvibes—just like someone else I know—and always stops to chat with me when we run into one another on campus.
“Why wouldn’t she tell me?” Logan whines, clearly still hung up on Riley. The idiot sounds totally put out, although I don’t know why. She didn’t tell him where she worked, or how she earns a living by essentially getting men hard, so why would she tell him where she lives? The girl evidently likes her secrets.
“She, uh, tracked me down after class,” he states hesitantly. Gray and I share a look, waiting him out as he appears to get lost in his thoughts. “Demanded to know why I ghosted her.”
“What did you say?” Grayson asks.
Logan gives a nonchalant shrug of his shoulder. “Gave her some bullshit about how I found out she worked at Lux. Pretended that’s why I’d been ignoring her.”
“You didn’t—”
“No, of course not,” Logan growls, glaring at Gray. “I’m not an idiot. She knew I was heading out with the team on Saturday night, so I told her the truth, that we went to Lux, but I didn’t say anything about you two fuckers.”
“How did you leave things?” I ask.
He glances at Gray, before admitting, “Told her we were done. And I didn’t want anything to do with her. I’m sorry, man. I just fucking can’t. Not yet. I need to get her out of my system for what we have planned. If I think about her the way I have been fucking thinking of her, then I won’t be able to do it.”
“Don’t sweat it, I understand,” Gray reassures, casting Logan a concerned glance. “Like Royce said, we can watch her from a distance.”
Logan’s forehead wrinkles as his brows tug down. “She did say some stuff, though. Made it sound as if she’s been through some shit.”
Gray scoffs, looking disgusted.
“Do you know what her situation was before her mom married your dad? Or what happened to them afterward?” I ask.
“I remember Dad saying when Riley was a kid, they had no money. Think they lived in a trailer park and everything, but when Dad met them, they were living in a house in an alright part of town. Nothing special, but not a shithole either.”
“And after?” I prompt.
“No idea. Didn’t exactly make it a point to keep in contact with them, but with no access to my Dad’s money, they were probably broke. Would explain how Riley got offered a scholarship and why she’s working at Lux—if she needs the cash.”
I nod. Casting Logan a sideways glance, I find him frowning at the floor. “You alright, man?”
“Yeah,” he grunts. “I’ll be fine. I gotta run, though. Got a team meeting before tonight’s game.”
“Gray and I are coming.”
We hadn’t actually discussed it, but the way Logan’s face lights up lets me know it’s the right call. He’s been in a crappy head space since discovering who Riley truly is. I know she went to one of his games… before everything blew up between them, and he hasn’t been playing as well since. Not that he’s been playing badly; there just isn’t the same fire that there was during that handful of games when they were… whatever they were.
“You are? Sweet! I’ll leave tickets at will call for you.”
With a pep in his step, he heads upstairs to change, and I look to Grayson.
