Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70294 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70294 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
But I’d never considered that someone like Gray would probably see something like that and run absolutely wild with alluding to it in the article.
I didn’t want that happening.
It wasn’t that Coach was such a perfect guy. I didn’t support his affair at all, and it disgusted me that he would do that to his wife.
But it didn’t need to be blasted out into the school paper.
Just keep your head down and stay out of it, I told myself.
You’re here to play football.
And to fucking crush it.
“Two! Fucking! Touchdowns! Baby!”
I heard Luke screaming it at the top of his lungs even before I hit the endzone. I was running like my life depended on it.
My quads burning. My core like a Mack truck, headed straight for that line.
And when I actually did cross it?
The crowd collectively lost their goddamn minds.
“Two touchdowns in four fuckin’ minutes!” Luke was bellowing again as I slowed to a halt, my heart pounding like a war drum inside me.
Within a moment, the rest of the Tempests were crashing in around me, erupting into cheers and hollers of celebration.
The last ten minutes of the game hadn’t just been good, they’d been some of the best football I’d ever played. I had to work for the touchdowns, but they came quick and fast once I took each pass.
“That’s how we do it, boys,” Coach said from the side, a huge smile on his face. “Peachel, you’re our man. You are our man.”
The rest of the team kept showering me with compliments as we made our way off the field. A couple of groups of students shouted down at me from the stands, a couple of guys saying I was the best thing that had ever happened to TNU football.
It was more pressure on me to keep performing.
And also what I was made to do.
Gray still looked the same as he had all night, standing up and sliding his notebook into his shoulder bag.
“Yo, Gilman!” Luke said, walking toward him. “You’re coming with us tonight.”
“You don’t have to listen to him,” I said as I walked over.
Luke was giddy after the win. He turned to me, wrapping his arms around my shoulder and pressing a big kiss to my cheek.
“Bullshit, Peachel,” Luke said. “Gray, you’ve got to come with us. Party at the frat house, and there are plenty of whiskey shots with your name on them.”
“I’ll be there.”
Luke smiled at me. “You’ll never guess who else is coming.”
“Who’s that?”
“Danny himself.”
My chest went cold.
“Danny?”
“He’s in town from Nashville for the week. You didn’t hear Coach talking about it?”
No.
Guess I missed Coach Ennick saying his son was back in town.
The same son I used to fuck, until he broke my heart.
Danny had graduated this past spring, and after spending the summer here in Bestens he had moved to Nashville for a job, only a week after I’d caught him cheating.
Tonight would be the first time I’d seen him since the incident.
As Luke turned to talk to some of the other guys, Gray gave me a look.
“Don’t come to the frat party,” I said.
“Luke just likes kissing you on the cheek, huh?” he said. “Not a bromance at all?”
“No,” I stressed. “And I mean it. You don’t need to come to the frat party. It’s going to be a sloppy shitfest.”
And my ex who knows my secret is going to be there.
Drunk.
Possibly leaking info to you that I can’t have public.
“Oh, I’m coming to the frat party,” he said. “Luke insisted, after all.”
I wanted to smack Gray in the face right now.
Or sock him in the face.
Or fuck that self-assured attitude right out of him.
“Get your ass in gear,” Luke said as he returned to my side. “Shower off. We’re fucking raging tonight, boys.”
Goddamnit.
Within another thirty minutes, all of us had walked across campus to the frat house.
My ears were two antennae as we walked.
Constantly listening for anything the guys said that Gray might try to spin in his article.
So far, the guys just traded jokes about the game, talked about how much beer they were going to drink tonight, and laughed through the campus streets.
We got the music bumping in the house as soon as we arrived, and the boys had double shots in everyone’s hands within five minutes.
When Danny Ennick walked in, wearing fancier clothes than I’d ever seen him in, I felt a tight spring coiling in my chest.
Danny had dark hair that I used to like, but he’d buzzed it all off.
He looked different.
Or maybe I just felt differently about him, now that I knew he was a cheating bastard.
And that he knew I punched his boytoy.
He gave me a curt nod, then headed into one of the back rooms where some of the other guys were playing a game of pool. I saw Gray glance over at Danny, but luckily I didn’t think he knew Danny was Coach’s son.