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“A little. She’ll be all right, though. I’m keeping watch.”
Jacinda’s smile falls a bit. “Still?”
“Well, she...”
I go quiet, unsure how to explain, but it’s nothing she hasn’t heard before.
“I’ll let you get back to your watch,” she says, stiff and polite. “It was nice seeing you again, Connor.”
“You too, Jacinda,” I say, exhaling hard as she walks away, leaving me behind.
Well, that didn’t feel great.
Shaking it off, I look into the sitting area that... is now empty. I lurch forward, scanning for Dana, but she’s gone, her adoring public having moved on to a drinking game on the table involving playing cards.
I head into the crowd of Northies, determined to find her. She couldn’t have gone far.
“Ben!” I call his name over the music, having found him leaning against a doorway, chatting with a girl emblazoned with Theta Zeta stickers. “Have you seen Dana?”
He shrugs without looking away from her. “No. Why?”
“She’s gone.”
“Maybe she’s taking a leak?”
I grunt, leaving him to find my way around the house. Taking the stairs to the second floor, I reach the balcony overlooking the entryway, getting a vantage point of the living room and sitting area. Plenty of blondes, but no Dana.
I return to the first floor, angling down the hallway toward the back of the house. Maybe she went outside for fresh air? Or maybe I should check the bathroom, like Ben said. She has been drinking a lot, her red cup constantly full of Princess Punch, whatever the fuck that is.
Dana.
A halo of blonde hair shines through the kitchen windows. She’s on the deck, casually leaning against the railing. Her cheeks, pink and claimed by stickers. Her smile, wide and sweet and... not for me.
For him.
A guy stands beside her. He raises a red plastic cup to his lips, the back of his hand claimed by a single golden Alpha Delta Xi sticker.
My stomach drops.
Emerson Floyd.
CHAPTER 13
DANA
“Hello, princess.”
Emerson Floyd smiles at me. I sober a bit. When my brothers told me he was going here, I told myself I’d never see him. It’s a big campus with plenty of places to hide. Surely, he’d wouldn’t bother me again.
And yet,here he is.
And princessis exactly the kind of thing he’d use against me.
He raises his hands in surrender, my face betraying my reaction to him. “I’m not here to be a dick. I just...” He lowers his hands back down, clearing his throat. “Can we talk?” he asks.
“We’re talking right nows,” I say, nervously slurring my words.
“Right, but I was hoping for someplace private.”
