5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Cole

"I'm going to regret asking this," Derek says.

When he doesn't continue, I look up from the book I've been pretending to read. "What?"

He smirks and shakes his head, sinking deeper into his chair until he looks like he might slide out of it. It's unusual for him to slouch, and he only ever does it when the two of us are alone. I've never figured out why he doesn't relax with anyone else. "What has you in such a bad mood?"

I knew I shouldn't have stayed as long as I have, but for some reason I didn't want Carissa to think she scared me off. She and her sister were here for hours, both of them charming the pants off my friends, and now I'm missing practice because the Paxton sisters only left an hour ago. I could have left much sooner, but Freya is flying back to Candora tonight so I wanted to soak up as much of her time as I could.

The sun is still high, bathing the two of us on the back patio with more heat than I'd like, but Derek's view can't be beat. And it's kind of nice to take a moment to breathe.

"I'm not in a bad mood," I say .

"Sure you're not."

"I just don't think you should be okay with Bonnie inviting randos to your house."

Yawning, he stretches his arms overhead and clasps his hands behind his head. "They weren't randos."

Of all people, I thought Derek would agree with me. He's too famous to be careless, and the more movies he's in, the worse it gets. He can't leave his house without being recognized, even in the most innocuous places. "She's your ex-girlfriend's ex-boyfriend's wife's sister," I point out. "That feels pretty random."

Derek laughs. "She's a friend of a friend. And part of your team now. Besides, Carissa was nice. I don't see why you were so cold to her."

I could argue that I wasn't cold, but it would be a lie. Groaning, I rub my hands down my face and wrap them around the back of my neck. It's only Tuesday, which means I have four days before the next game. With Freya on her way back home, I don't have anything good to distract me from the fact that in a few weeks Sage is marrying a guy I once called a friend. I should be at practice, but today exhausted me.

I barely spoke to Carissa, and she was exhausting . With the way she chatted so easily with my friends, it was clear she is everything I'm not when it comes to social skills lately, and I can't stop dreading how much time she's going to waste if she starts distracting the guys at practice.

"Freya asked me to give you some homework." Derek says it so casually that I don't register what he says at first, but then he looks over at me, mischief in his eyes.

I gape at him. "Homework," I repeat.

He shrugs. "It's not the first time I've made you do homework."

"No, but the first time, I was twenty years old and failing half of my classes."

Snickering, he lifts an eyebrow at me. "You wouldn't have passed if not for me. "

I hate that he's not wrong, but I'm not about to take this sitting down. Metaphorically. "Big talk from a guy who didn't know how college even functioned."

"Which is why I was wandering around USC."

"You looked ridiculously out of place."

He laughs, shaking his head as if I said the funniest thing he'd heard all week. "Well, I'm sorry I got into acting in high school and never got the chance for a college experience, otherwise I might have fit in better. Why do you think I sat down and started talking to you?"

I lift my shoulders in an exaggerated shrug. "Beats me." And it's true. Of all the people on the campus, I'm still not sure why he went for the jock a few years younger than him and who was too cool to have friends outside the football team.

I was on suspension because of my grades and had no idea what to do while my buddies were all in Michigan for that week's game, and out of nowhere this vaguely familiar guy sat down and started asking me about college life. I didn't recognize him at first, but the other students on the quad did, and we only managed a short conversation before he got swarmed by giggling co-eds.

He asked if he could come by my apartment that night to talk more, and then he started signing autographs.

I'd figured out who he was by the time he knocked on my door that night, and though I thought it was strange to discuss with a Hollywood actor what it was like to be a student athlete, Derek was easy to talk to. Easy to trust. He seemed to pick up on things no one else did, and that was probably why I listened when he said I should spend more time on my classes so the football thing could work out for me because it clearly made me happy.

I got drafted the next year, so I never graduated, but some of the business and finance classes I ended up taking are a big part of why I can afford to play rugby for pennies. Investments have ensured I'm set for life, though I'll never live like Derek does. Some of his lavish lifestyle is out of necessity, like bodyguards and a mansion on its own street, but a lot of what he has is because he can.

The rest of us might be famous in our spheres, but we don't come close to Derek.

"Anyway," he says, still grinning, "I'm supposed to make sure you make friends with guys on your team. So this is going to be as much work on my end as it is on yours."

"Ha." I roll my eyes. "When did you and Freya become my parents?"

"Come on, you know it's not like that."

"Sure feels like it. I'm not doing homework."

"There are consequences if you don't." Derek hops to his feet and comes to stand in front of me, backed by the sun and looking like some sort of avenging angel with the way it makes his hair glow. He hasn't played one of those in a movie yet, but clearly he should. I'm mighty tempted to remind him that he's human by kicking him in the gut. Lightly. Those abs of his are valuable, and he's in the middle of shooting a movie. "Maybe don't refuse until you know what's in store if you do," he says.

That feels mildly threatening, so I stand to match him. "What sort of consequences?" I've known this guy for eight years, and I've seen plenty of his flaws to know he's not nearly as perfect as the world thinks. He's generally untouchable, but I know his pressure points if I need them. "I'm not afraid of you."

"Are you afraid of Freya?"

"Terrified."

"As you should be. And if you don't try to make friends with your teammates, she's going to force you to go to Sage's wedding."

Instead of me kicking Derek, I feel like I'm the one who just got a heel in his gut. I drop back into my chair, dizzy and nauseous, because a threat from Freya Alverra is not something to take lightly. Sage's wedding? Is she serious?

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Derek says, folding his arms as he looks down at me. "It sounds extreme, and it is, but frankly I'm in agreement with her. You've got to get over this funk Sage has put you in. She's controlling your life as much as she did when you first met her."

My eyes jump up as anger flashes through me. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're letting what she did to you affect every aspect of your life. You're always stressed. You complain about practice all the time. You're angry. You rarely hang out with us, and when you do, you're not really here." He sighs and shakes his head. "I've been trying to give you time and help you through gentle nudges, but my way clearly isn't working. And I miss my friend, Cole. Don't let Sage destroy the man you were."

I clench my jaw, hating the way emotion rises in my throat, choking me. "She isn't—"

"I liked Sage because you loved her," Derek says, narrowing his eyes so his expression turns hard. "But you and I both know she wasn't good for you. Why can't you admit that?"

Thoughts that have been on repeat for the last seven months flicker across my mind, but I try to ignore them. It's not easy, given the uncertainty building in my chest. You're pathetic. I've wasted the last eighteen months waiting for you. You're not the man I wanted you to be and never will be.

Swallowing, I push myself to my feet, desperate to get away from this conversation and the feelings of inadequacy that have been following me for I don't know how long. Since before Sage dumped me. "All that, and you want me to go to her wedding?" I growl. "To the man who used to be one of my best friends? "

Derek's expression doesn't shift. "I want you to take back your life, Cole. I want you to stop letting her ruin another relationship with your team just like she did in Oregon."

It's a solid blow and leaves me feeling hollow as my mind drifts back to my time with the Badgers. The friends I left behind along with a life I loved. "Leaving Oregon had nothing to do with Sage," I mutter, knowing I shouldn't say anything at all.

Derek puts his hand on my shoulder, clear pain in his eyes. He doesn't often show that kind of vulnerability, and it's the only reason I don't shift away from his touch. "Then why did you leave? Why won't you tell me?"

"It's not that I don't want to tell you," I say, my voice thin. I desperately want to tell him why I left football. He's my best friend, and keeping this from him for the last two years has been killing me.

Derek's expression hardens once more, turning into the mask he wears more often than not lately. "I know," he says gruffly. "You can't."

I really can't, and I can't even explain why because it's not like I'm under oath or contract or anything except my desire to be a decent human. There are so many things I wish I could say right now. My team was corrupted. Players were being paid to rig games. I almost agreed to do it too. But I can't say any of that.

"Right now," Derek says carefully, "I don't think going to that wedding is a good idea, but like I said, I'm with Freya on this one. So you'd better start trying harder with your team, or this is going to get ugly."

I want to tell him that nothing has to turn ugly if he and Freya back off, but I know better. They are looking after me, and they're both too stubborn to back down without a good reason. I don't think I don't want to go is going to cut it. So I slip from his hold and mutter, "I'll try to make friends," because I have no other choice. Freya can and will force me to go to Sage and Javi's wedding, though I have no idea how. She wouldn't make an edict like this if she didn't have some sort of leverage over me. And going to that wedding would be disastrous in so many ways, so it looks like I have to play nice with my team.

It would be a whole lot easier if they would play nice in return.