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The one thing I considered a flaw of Natalie’s was that she was really into football. I wasn’t publicizing that I was living with my ex-step brother and his two best friends so she had no idea that I was living with a good chunk of the starting line. She didn’t understand why I wasn’t excited about the football season starting. She was determined to turn me into a fan and her plan involved making me go to a game with her. If only she knew I saw the quarterback, the running back, and a defensive lineman every day and I didn’t think I’d ever be excited about watching them throw a ball around.
The guys had been coming home from practices in various states of sweaty and exhausted. The first time I’d walked into the laundry room and stumbled upon a pile of their clothes, I’d nearly died. My nose still hadn’t recovered. I didn’t think I’d ever recover from a lot of things I’d seen and smelled over the three weeks I’d been living with them.
The only thing I liked about football was how much it kept the guys out of the house. I was practically living alone. I’d barely seen the guys since the day I moved in. I just saw signs of their existence, in dirty dishes and piles of discarded shoes and trash. I couldn’t tell Natalie all of that, or at least, I didn’t want to, so I couldn’t come up with a good enough reason to get out of going with her to the first home game.
The day of the game I didn’t have classes so I spent the first part of the day at home, getting ahead on class work and dreading going to the game. I was meeting Natalie outside of the arena, so I had a while to get dressed and prepared to face a crowd of screaming fans. Around lunch I made my way to the kitchen and sat at the counter, eating ice cream straight from the bucket. Booth had bought so much that I’d been mostly living off of ice cream since moving in. My curves were definitely not slipping away, that was for sure.
I was doing the thing I told myself I wouldn’t do anymore while eating. Scrolling through Billy’s social media, just to see what he was doing. He’d reached out to me a few times, but I was consistent in blowing him off. That didn’t mean I wasn’t curious, though. I wanted to know if he was dating the woman he’d cheated on me with. Had she been someone important? If she was, he wasn’t showing it on his feeds. When he wasn’t posting drunken selfies with his frat brothers, he was vague posting about being heartbroken.
The first time I’d seen one of those sad posts, I’d felt it all the way down to my toes. It hurt. My own broken heart wanted to forget everything and go back to the way things were, but I wasn’t that person. I told myself the pain would fade with time and I was already feeling better. Day by day, it got easier. I couldn’t stop looking through his profiles, though. I just needed to know what he was doing. It made me feel a little more in control.
I was studying a picture someone had tagged Billy in when a massive hand appeared from out of nowhere and grabbed my phone. I screamed and grabbed my chest. “Holy shit!”
Vaughn smirked down at me. “You were really into this picture, huh? I called your name and everything. What are you looking at so closely?”
Fear turned to panic very quickly. I didn’t want anyone to know how pathetic I was being. I also didn’t think it was a good idea for Vaughn to find out who my ex was. I tried to grab my phone back from him and swore when he turned away and held the phone higher. “Vaughn! Give it back!”
He spun back around so fast that I bumped into him and stumbled back into the stool I’d just gotten down from. “Billy Novak? Are you fucking kidding me?”
I felt blood rush to my face and grabbed my phone back before busying myself with putting my ice cream away. “Leave me alone, Vaughn.”
“You were dating Billy Novak.” He shook his head. “You’ve got horrible taste, Cinderella. That guy is a joke. That frat house is a step up from the Roadside Inn. And Billy Novak? He’s the worst of them. The fact that you only caught him cheating once is kind of amazing.”
“Vaughn.” I closed my eyes and blew out a slow breath, trying my best to keep myself together. “Please stop talking.”
“Shit.” When I opened my eyes, Vaughn looked like he was in pain. Or like he smelled something terrible. I wasn’t sure he was all that great at showing empathy. “I’m sorry.”
Surprising us both, I laughed. “I’ve never heard you apologize before. Wow. Billy did one good thing in his miserable life. He made the great Vaughn Adler say he was sorry.”
Vaughn’s grin was quick. “You think I’m great? That’s so sweet.”
I finished putting my ice cream away and dropped my spoon in the dishwasher. “Why are you here?”
“Um. I live here. I’m the guy who told you that you could live with him in his house and this is that house.”
“I mean right now, in the middle of the day. Shouldn’t you be testing out your cups with the rest of the football team or something?” Like an idiot, I looked down at his crotch. When I realized what I was doing, I spun away and pretended I was busy wiping the counter down.
“Did you just look at my dick?”
9
***Ella***
Iscoffed. “Don’t be disgusting.”
The sound of the door opening preceded the excited voices of Booth and Fisher growing closer. They came straight to the kitchen and they both smiled when they saw me.
Fisher came around the island and threw his arm over my shoulders. The weight of his arm and the warmth of his body reminded me how long it’d been since I’d touched another human. “Look who we found. I know that you live with us but I was starting to wonder if you’d left in the middle of the night.”
I looked up at him and rolled my eyes. “Who do you think keeps kicking your shoes under the stairs?”
Booth grunted. “Do you know how hard it is for me to get those out? I’m too big to be crawling into small spaces.”
Stealing a glance at his wide chest and shoulders, I made a sound of agreement. “I’m only sorry that I haven’t had a chance to see it.”
His mouth quirked up on one side. “You’ve got a mean streak, Ella. I like it.”
Vaughn had reached his limit of acting like a normal person. “Knock it off. Get your arm off of her, Fish. Booth, don’t flirt with her. Both of you, keep it in your fucking pants.”
