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Vaughn

You laughed anyway. Admit it.

Never.

Vaughn

Never admit it out loud you mean.

I started typing but stopped. Then I started again and stopped again. I wanted to tell him about my dad. Ask what he thought might be going on. But I also didn’t want to scare Vaughn off by acting like he was my boyfriend. Or whatever.

The way things were between us right now was good.

Really good.

The best thing in my life aside from football.

I didn’t want anything to fuck that up.

I gave up and closed my phone before slipping it back into my pocket. As soon as it settled against my leg, it buzzed again.

Vaughn

You okay, babygirl?

I stared at the message while Mario hopped in the kart and started freewheeling again.

After a minute, I blew out a breath and typed a response.

I will be when I see you.

Vaughn

Give me 45 mins.

I smiled the entire way back to the dorm…

Where I found Arden lying in wait in front of the door.

She looked like shit. Her face was strangely puffy like she’d gained a little weight. Her eyes were red-rimmed and ink-smudged like she hadn’t been sleeping. And her shoulders sagged like she was carrying the weight of the world on her back.

“I really need you not to blow me off right now, Bett. It’s important.”

Suddenly, my stomach dropped with the thought of her telling me something awful like… like she was pregnant. But then I remembered we hadn’t actually had sex since early July, and there was no way she was that pregnant and still model-thin.

I blew out a breath and nodded, knowing at least I only had to listen to her for forty-five minutes before Vaughn showed up and came up with an excuse to get her to leave. “Come in.”

We moved into the room, where she took a seat on my bed. Miraculously, it was fully made up with fresh sheets and an unrumpled duvet. A little warm spot opened in my chest when I realized Vaughn had done this for me after I’d left for the game.

The entire room had been tidied, and as I turned to close the door, I caught sight of the whiteboard, where he’d replaced the numbers with messy script.

VAUGHN: nobody’s business

BABYGIRL: my business

My chest filled with helium that nearly bubbled up my throat. He was so damn cute. I wanted him here right fucking now.

I shook my head and forced myself to focus on Arden, taking a seat in Vaughn’s desk chair to keep plenty of space between us.