“There’ll be another one next month. There won’t be another lecture on the life history of dinosaurs from birth through adulthood and reproduction by Professor Glover.”
This was one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for him. The fact Coury had zero interest in the lecture made it even sweeter.
He frowned. “Did Beckett put you up to this?”
“Seriously? Do you even know your brother? First, how would he know about the lecture? And if he did, do you think that’s what we talk about?”
Liam laughed. “If you tried, he’d change the subject.”
“Exactly, and even if I managed to get out ‘guest lecture on dinosaur reproduction on a Friday night,’ do you think his first thought would be, ‘Hey C-man, how about you take Liam to that?’ Really?”
Liam rolled his eyes. “Another good point. Whyareyou asking me?”
“Because you’d like this more than a frat party.” His eyes twinkled with mischief. “And it still counts toward keeping the Lionheart’s streak alive.”
Liam shoved him with his forearm. “Shut up, dork.”
“Hey, if I’m a dork, so are you.” Coury bumped shoulders. “You want to go?”
Fuck. Liam hadn’t expected Coury to be this nice. “If you’re sure you don’t mind.”
“Awesome. I have therapy this afternoon, so how about you meet me at the house? We can grab something to eat before we go.”
If it got any more like a date, Liam was going to explode. “Sure. What time?”
* * *
Liam sat on the fraternity couch, a beefy frat brother standing before him, hiding him from sight. Around Mr-So-Large-I-Block-The-Sun, he caught sight of Coury bursting through the door, heading for the stairs.
“Yo, Henderson,” the frat brother called. “Your boyfriend’s in here.”
Heat rushed to Liam’s cheeks.
“What? I don’t have—” Coury’s gaze snagged on Liam and brightened.
Liam smiled sheepishly and waved.
“Tom, you can be an idiot sometimes.” He motioned for Liam to follow him, and Liam leaped like a puppy at his command. “This is Beckett’s brother. You know, my friend who kicked your ass at beer pong last weekend.”
Tom grimaced. “I saw you two hanging out last weekend and when he came asking for you, I assumed . . .”
Liam walked up to Coury, wanting to hide.
“Sorry,” Tom said.
“Go-the-fuck away, Tom.” Coury half-laughed, half-growled.
Tom hitched a thumb over his shoulder and walked away.
“We play baseball together,” Coury said as he led them upstairs. “He’s a good guy. Just a bit dense at times.”
“I probably confused him.” Distracted by Coury’s text saying he’d be late, he hadn’t had time to consider his word choices. “I said we were going out tonight. I didn’t mean it in the ‘we have a date’ way, but it might have sounded like that.”
“My fault. Ihatebeing late.” Coury rounded the bannister and swept his gaze up and down Liam. “You look nice.”
Liam flushed and shrugged. It had taken way too long to figure out what to wear. “Thanks. I figured if we weren’t going to a frat party . . .”
Coury eyed him again and smiled. “NowIknow what to wear.”
