Page 4 of Go Deep (A Bad Boy Sports Romance)
We walked into our favorite coffee shop, the Acadian Cafe, which looked more like a bookstore or library with a cozy, quiet atmosphere. We came here often. It was easy for patrons to catch up without competing over the noise at other campus spots. Miranda slurred out our orders to the barista, who somehow figured it out and just gave us our usual. Grabbing our cups, we found a free table in the corner and took our seats.
After a few sips of the go-juice, I looked up to see if Miranda was ready to talk yet. “So…” I started, staring at her.
“So?”
“Saturday night?”
“Oh, yeah.” She sighed. “You know, if you really want to know what goes on there, you should come with me every once in a while.”
“I’m sure I’m not the only cheerleader who wasn’t there.” Even I heard the defensiveness in my tone. “Besides, this year is not about college football. I’ve got a future to get to.”
“Yeah. I think you’re just scared. You might actually have a little fun. You know, it’s okay to be shallow sometimes, Cassidy. It won’t hurt you. It doesn’t hurt me to take a break every once in a while so I can remember I’m living for today, not just my future.”
I tilted my head to one side so she’d know I wasn’t buying it. “I don’t know about all that. You looked pretty wasted yesterday. Not sure I’d call that living for today.”
She took a sip of her coffee and winked at me.
“So how’d it go?” I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to find out, but I couldn’t help myself. I may not have enjoyed going to the parties, for all the same reasons I didn’t really enjoy cheerleading, but I always wanted to know what happened.
“It wasn’t really that exciting. All the frat boys were there. Youwerethe only cheerleader who didn’t show up, and the team strolled in after everyone else was pretty much lit.”
“Oh God,” I groaned. “Did anything crazy happen?”
Miranda shrugged. “It was the same thing as always. A bunch of girls flocked to the team as they came in. The frat boys tried to get with the cheerleaders. I stayed off to the side and helped them drink as much alcohol as I could. It didn’treallyturn into an orgy. The cops weren’t called. That’s always a plus,” she said with a chuckle.
“Were there a lot of people there?” I asked. It always pained me a little to avoid these gatherings. Part of me craved the social interaction, as much as I hated the party scene.
“Oh, man, the house was packed out the front door and spilled out back. When I left yesterday morning, there were people passed out on the porch and in the bushes,” she said with a laugh. “I didn’t realize there were that many of us there on Saturday night.”
As we finished our coffee, I checked my phone and gathered up my things. “We have to get go going. I have a lecture in fifteen minutes on the other side of campus.”
“What do you have now?” Miranda asked, not getting up.
“Entrepreneurship,” I told her. It was part of my business degree.
“I’ll never understand why you would schedule a class this early,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’m going to nurse myself back to health on this coffee. My first class is in ninety minutes.”
I smiled. “Sounds good. See you at practice?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” She raised her cup to me as I backed out the door, bumping into someone passing by.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I apologized, turning around and putting my hand out to touch the guy’s shoulder.
“It’s fine, doll.” He turned and smiled.
I looked up, recognizing the strong, confident voice. “Slade.” The heat immediately rose up my neck to my cheeks. Dammit. He brought out that reaction every time. I pulled my hand back as if I’d touched something scalding hot. Which I did, but I wasn’t about to let him in on that salacious thought.
“The one and only.” He gave me a tacky mock bow and had a suggestive look in his eyes when he straightened out again. I wondered what he was thinking, but I brushed the idea away quickly. I didn’t want to know what our star quarterback was thinking about doing to me. I was probably the only girl on campus he hadn’t bagged yet.
It wasn’t surprising that girls around here threw themselves at him. He stood almost a foot taller than me, at about six feet, four inches. He had short, messy blonde hair that always had that freshly-fucked look, and the most hypnotic hazel eyes. It wasn’t just the color that got people. There was a charisma behind those eyes that could be very appealing. Again, he was not going to hear that from me.
“Heading to the Entrepreneurship lecture?” he asked, and then I remembered we’d end up in a few classed this year because of my accelerated pace to get out of this hellhole. We’d had a couple of management and finance classes together last year, so I should have expected we’d bump into each other more.
“Yes. I’m on the way there now,” I told him.
“Yeah, me too. Want to wait for me to grab a coffee? I’ll walk with you.”
I hesitated. It wouldn’t have made any sense to tell him I could walk on my own since we were going to the same place. At the same time, he was always coming on to me. He rarely gave it a rest. Honestly, I didn’t want to spend the next ten minutes telling him to keep his paws to himself and that no still meant no.
