Page 25 of The Sweetest Return

His smile widened like he had been waiting for that exact sound.

One of the girls behind him stretched his name into three sweet, syrupy syllables.

“Dreee.”

I looked past him.

She was beautiful.

Then I looked at him again. “You travel with a full production?”

He laughed. “I don’t know them people.”

“Mmmhmm.”

“I’m serious.”

“You’re standing in the middle of them.”

“Circumstantial.”

I bit the inside of my cheek.

He was funny.

That was unfortunate.

“What you studying?” he asked.

I held up the book. “Consumer behavior.”

“For fun?”

“For a degree.”

“I figured that part.”

“Then why did you ask?”

His eyes narrowed slightly, but he looked more amused than offended. “Okay. You like giving people a hard time.”

“I like good questions.”

One of his teammates called his name from farther down the breezeway. Dre lifted a hand but did not look away from me.

I noticed that.

More importantly, he had not introduced himself like I was supposed to be impressed. He had not led with his name, his number, or whatever amount of campus attention already trailed him. He simply stood there holding my attention like he was curious what I would do with it.

“You always study out here?” he asked.

“Sometimes.”

“That means yes.”

“That means sometimes.”

“You got a name, sometimes?”