Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
She’s not surprised by the lack of greeting or the fact that my grip on Ace’s suit jacket collar is making him crow-hop or even that he’s in a suit to begin with, confirming that Ace hasn’t been lying about their growing up together.
She knows his shit and then some.
Still holding Ace on his toes with my arm stretched up high because the fucker is taller than Jack with the beanstalk, I hold out my other hand and introduce myself. “Hi, Julia. I’m Finn.”
“Nice to meet you,” she returns with a smile. She’s pretty—so pretty, in fact, that I’m not at all surprised anymore that Ace seems kind of obsessed with her.
“Next time, don’t be so late,” I chastise unabashedly. Maybe two hours ago, I would have had more patience to be less rude, but right now, it’s gone.
A small crimson dot spreads into a circle in her cheek, and her eyebrows draw together. “Late? I thought I was early. Ace told me twelve fifteen.”
“Twelve fifteen?” I drop my hold on his collar instantly and turn toward him. He stumbles a little before laughing and shaking out his jacket.
“You can’t go to a party at ten o’clock, Finn. That’s nerd behavior.”
“I do what I want.”
He laughs again, this time hitting a note so carefree, I almost lose it. “Oh, I know. I can tell you’ve got that quality, a fine gentleman like yourself. That’s why I took matters into my own hands.”
“Ace!” Julia comments, stepping forward to slap him on the shoulder.
He glances at his watch. “Now, we are late, and if you punch me, you’ll fuck up my suit and I’ll have to change again, making us even later, so I suggest we just go.”
What was that I said about liking him again?
“Come on, Ace,” Julia chides, pulling him along like a puppy. “Finn’s patience with you seems to be depleted.”
“She’s observant,” I mutter, and both she and Ace laugh. Remarkably, the sound of it puts me back in a good mood, and we’re on our way.
To a party on Sorority Row to see a girl I have absolutely no business seeing. God help me.
Scottie
Steam filters off the grass in front of the Delta Omega house as some of the frat lackeys hose down the slip ’n slide again with water and bubbles. The air is cool, but the ground is still warm from the sun of the day, and the difference in temperature shrouds the front yard partiers in a cloud.
I let the curtains fall back into place and turn back to the party inside. It’s loud—so much so I can’t even make out the song that’s playing—and there are bodies everywhere. Some people are dancing, some people are chugging beers out of helmets with funnels, and a whole other contingent is playing flip cup on the dining room table.
I shove through a group of giggling girls and head toward the group of cheerleaders that’s congregated in front of the kitchen, glancing back toward where I’ve just come from more times than I’d like to admit on the way.
I am at my first college party, action all around me, and I can’t keep my eyes off the stupid door.
A frat guy snags a stack of pizza boxes from an Uber Eats driver, and two more groups of scantily clad girls trickle through the door on arrival, but still, there’s no sign of Finn Hayes.
“You waiting on someone, Scottie?” Nadine questions, her eyes narrowing on me as I make it to my teammates.
I shake my head. “Just wanted to see what they were doing out there. Two Delta Omegas just did the slip ’n slide together in their bras.”
Nadine laughs at that. “I bet that had the tongues wagging.”
“Come have a drink with me!” Dane slurs as he roughly wraps his arm around my shoulders, fresh from the kitchen with a new drink. His big frame makes me trip over my shoes, and he laughs when my hip bone careens into a nearby chair. So does Nadine.
I wince from the discomfort. That’ll probably leave a bruise.
“Uh-oh…looks like your boyfriend is shit-faced, Scottie,” Kayla, one of the cheerleaders I came to the party with, comments. It could be catty, but from her tone and what I know about her, she seems to be saying it sympathetically.
“Don’t be such a downer, Kay,” Nadine purrs and flashes a wink at my lazy-eyed and loose-lipped boyfriend. “Let the man have some fun.”
“Damn straight, sweetheart! Let the man have some fucking fun!” Dane agrees enthusiastically.
Nadine giggles, but I don’t see the humor. Instead, I stand on my tiptoes to whisper into Dane’s ear. “Don’t you think you’ve had a little too much to drink? Don’t forget you’re in season right now. Technically, we both are.”
Once you make any team at Dickson, you have to sign a contract that pledges you won’t drink or do drugs of any sort while in season. If the university finds out you’ve broken that contract, they’ll kick you off the team. And they’re allowed to test any time they want to.