Liv avoids my eyes as she takes her laptop out of her bag. “Lara says he’s hot.”
“You were talking to Lara?” If KPT has forgiven Liv for stealing Braden, then that’s one less thing I have to worry about.
“No,” Liv shrugs, her attention focused on her laptop charger. “I just heard.”
Great. Rumors about me are flying all over Greek Row.
“So is he?” she prods.
“Is he what?”
“Is Leo hot?”
I try way too hard to sound objective and neutral. “Um, sure. He’s good-looking.”
Liv snorts and rolls her eyes. “That means he’s hot.” She turns from her desk and rests a fist on her hip. “Just be careful, Betts.”
“I will if you will.”
“About what?”
“Braden.”
“Oh, please.” Suddenly, she’s very busy with her backpack. “We all know what game he’s playing.”
She says that, but does she really? I want to press her on it, but I’m afraid that if I do, she’ll press me on Leo, and I have no idea how to explain that relationship.
To change the subject, I ask her where she was this afternoon.
“Library.” She snatches something off the shelf above her desk. “And look, I left my phone here so I wouldn’t be distracted.”
“Did it work?”
“Like a charm. I gotsomuch reading done.”
As she glances down at the screen, her smile fades. I’m guessingthere’s no message from Braden. She swallows a sigh and with a casual flip of her hair, asks, “Are we going to Henry’s?”
When I answer in the affirmative, she perks up. Two minutes later, she’s running for the showers.
Since neither of us wants to make a meal of wings and beer, we grab dinner at the dining hall before heading downtown. At Henry’s, the guys are playing pool while Jenna and Mia sit on barstools, nibbling onion rings and pretending to pay attention to the game.
Zander lights up the moment he sees me. “Hey babe. What took you so long?”
“We had dinner.”
He greets me with a kiss, enveloping me in his warmth and beachy scent. Only Zander can smell like summer in the middle of November. With an arm around me, he leads me to the table where the guys have left a heaping pile of chicken wing bones as a monument to their gluttony. Zander pours me a beer from the half-full pitcher and is about to do the same for Liv, when Braden suddenly appears and elbows him aside.
“Nuh uh.” He flashes Liv his lady-killer grin. “That’s my job.”
Liv nearly swoons.
Disguising my frown, I whisper to Zander, “How long is he going to keep this up?”
Zander shrugs, unbothered. “Who knows with Braden?”
Jenna joins Liv and me at the table while Mia plays a round of pool with Jake. Apparently, they’re running a double-elimination tournament. An hour and a beer later, I’m bored, restless, and barely tipsy. Compared to the day I had, tonight is as unremarkable as a seventy degree day in San Diego.
Jake and Trevor argue over who ate the most wings and who’s the fastest a racking balls. Jenna and Liv huddle over their phones, scrolling TikTok and discussing cottagecore porch decorations.
