48

Adam

The Last Person In The World I Want Pity From

Something touched my back and I jerked up, whipping around to see Kassie.

Goddammit.

"Hey, we're talking about something right now," I told her, as quietly as I could, but out of the corner of my eye, I could see Piper shake her head.

"No, we're not."

If anything, I could use Kassie's advice. How was I supposed to convince Piper that I could retrieve her stuff? By force or without, it really didn't matter to me. Thomas had it coming to him.

But the expression on Kassie's face made me stop my question. She had a pained look like a nerve had been pinched and she couldn't do anything about it. Quickly, she shook her head. "Adam? Can I grab you?"

"What is it?" I asked but with a look beyond her, I saw Ryan in one of the private rooms, with his arms folded over his chest, facing the wall.

Ah, shit.

What did I do now?

Before I left, I made sure to get my babysitter's attention. "We're talking about this later."

"Your grades?" Piper made a face at me. "Yeah. We are talking about them later."

I rolled my eyes but followed after Kassie. Somehow, I had to figure out a way to get Thomas to shut the fuck up and stop bothering Piper. On the way to Ryan, I mulled over different ideas before I landed back on why I was following Kassie in the first place. What did I do? I honestly couldn't think of anything. I'd been putting in a hundred and ten percent. I even stayed in the gym when Piper needed to go to a coding workshop.

Kassie wove around the tables with me but kept close. "Hey? Adam?"

"Yeah?"

"You know I adore you, right?"

"Damn, you've gotten so sentimental." I sighed. "What happened to you, Kassie?"

"Adam…"

I paused. "What is it?"

"Nothing," she said quickly. "I mean—you and Ryan should talk. I'll watch the door."

Shit .

Did Elijah Contractor squeal? I signed up his personal number for a clown college course, but I was pretty sure he didn't know that I was the one who did it. Unless Ryan was calling me over about the Clemenza. But even then, wouldn't it be Coach Lawson?

I pulled open the door and my eyes flickered back to Piper, sitting at our table. I knew she was keeping an eye on things. An eye on me.

"Hey." Ryan greeted, his voice low. He sat on one of the chairs and motioned me inside.

I closed the door. "Why do I feel like I'm getting called to my execution?"

"Coach called," Ryan said, in the classic Ryan way of starting a hard conversation by barrel-rolling into it.

"What did Lawson call about?"

Ryan rubbed his jaw. "Not Lawson."

Oh .

The room was a private study room, but there were still windows showing everything inside and I was all too aware of those gray, sparkling eyes from the table. I rolled back my shoulders, straightening my stance. I didn't need Piper to see anything.

"Got it," I said as casually as I could. "What did he want?"

Nice that he called you before calling me .

I fought the wave of jealousy threatening to rear its ugly head. Jealousy and I didn't mix. I was a professional linebacker at a university where I made royalties off my own name. Technically, I had it better than ninety percent of the student-athletes out there. We just won the Birchwood Bowl. I was Adam fucking Russell. Being jealous didn't make sense.

But back in high school, I was the kid who got scratched off the football team because I pussied out. And Ryan was still the star quarterback while I was trying to walk again on the treadmill.

Our high school coach never let me forget who his top pick was. I thought I pushed past that.

"I said no, I'm saying that first," Ryan started and my stomach sank. "But Kassie found some discrepancies with my trainer. I don't know how, but I guess word got back to coach that I was looking for a new one and he gave me a call. He wanted to know if the job was available."

Piper's watching. I can't lose my cool .

"Understood," I said.

Ryan wasn't telling me so we could laugh about it together. My captain was telling me in no uncertain terms that he had my back. That he didn't think about any other option, he didn't hesitate to say no.

It was more than jealousy that hit me. I was grateful that Ryan did it for me and I was angry that he needed to, and I was weirdly pleased because I knew our old coach probably lost his cool over it. Yet all I wanted to do was go back to the table with Piper. All I wanted was to hunker down with the only person I wanted to spend the rest of my day with.

"I'm sorry, man," Ryan said and I held up a hand.

"Don't worry, captain. Boss. Boss captain." I managed a grin. "Come on, man. Brothers, right? I appreciate it."

"Are you…?"

"Yeah, you know me." I popped open the door and held it open for Kassie to come back inside. "Fucking killing it. Nothing stops the Marrs Manwhore."

Ryan hesitated, but he nodded just the same and before he could give me any more emotional crap, I closed the door just as quickly and strode around the tables, back to our table. Back to the only person in the world that I liked spending time with who didn't sidestep me when they were talking about certain shit.

Piper pushed out my chair for me. "What was that about?"

I'd rather get a daily kidney stone for the rest of my life than have you find out .

"Same old shit." I plastered a grin on my face, quickly piecing together the lie. "Ryan's birthday is at the end of the semester and they said no to naked girls jumping out of a cake. Can you believe that?"

She giggled. "And you thought that would…work?"

"Thought is a strong word."

"Hoped?"

I gave her a thumbs-up. "There we go, ice princess. You nailed it."

Piper grinned but went back to coloring in the door decorations and I slipped her headphones over my ears, turning back to the chapter. Now that she knew how much I had to get done, I needed to get on it. And while I typed up the next line of notes for the assignment, I knew one thing for certain.

My RA would never know. I didn't give a shit about the sympathy speeches from everybody else but she was the last person in the world that I wanted pity from. I'd do anything to keep her from finding out what happened.