Page 198 of Faking the Goal

"Bossy."

"Trouble."

"I know." She sighs, but some of her usual bite slips back into her voice. "I'll tell you."

I nod, even though the knot in my chest doesn't loosen. There's still fear sitting behind her eyes, no matter how hard she's trying to act like there isn't, and the last thing she needs tonight is me giving her another dozen reasons to be afraid.

"We'll figure out the rest tomorrow," I tell her. "For tonight, stop thinking about him and try to get some sleep."

She gives me a look. "Oh, sure. Why didn't I think of that?"

"You know what I mean."

"I do." She pulls her legs up onto the couch, wrapping an arm loosely around them. "I just don't think I can sleep right now. Every little noise has me checking the door, and the second I close my eyes, my brain starts coming up with all the ways this psycho could somehow get inside." She gives a small, humorless laugh. "Which is super fun, by the way."

I hate hearing her say it, mostly because I can tell she's trying to make a joke out of something that genuinely scares her.

"I can stay until you fall asleep. If that's okay with you."

Her brows lift, and something about the way she looks at me makes it seem like I've offered her a hell of a lot more than a few hours on her couch. "Really? You'd do that for me?"

"Of course."

A small smile pulls at her lips. "Okay. But if you murder my couch with your giant hockey-player body, you're buying me a new one."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say."

Truth is, she could give me a list of conditions a mile long and I'd agree to every fucking one of them if it meant she'd let me stay tonight.

*****

The locker room is still loud by the time I finish showering, half the guys talking over each other while someone's shitty playlist blasts from the speaker near the showers. I pull a clean shirt over my head and reach for my jeans while Luke and Liam argue about something I stopped listening to five minutes ago.

"We're going to La Playa tonight," Liam says, suddenly directing his attention at me. "You coming?"

"Can't," I tell him as I pull on my jeans. "I'm meeting Taylor."

Luke immediately groans. "Of course you are. Fuck, man. Remember when you used to have friends?"

I glance at him while fastening my belt. "No."

That gets a laugh out of Liam, but Luke only shakes his head. "This is what happens when a guy gets a girlfriend. Suddenly the rest of us don't exist anymore."

Cody snorts from a few lockers down. "It's not like anything really changed. Kent barely went out with us before Taylor."

"Yeah, but it's worse now," Luke argues. "Before, he'd at least show up occasionally and spend the entire night looking miserable while the rest of us had fun. Now we don't even get that. Half the time we barely see him outside practice, and I don't think he's properly stayed at the dorm in weeks."

I zip my duffle and give him a flat look. "I've been there."

"For what? Ten minutes to grab clothes?" Luke asks, grinning now. "Seriously, tell us the truth. Are you and Taylor already living together?"

"We're not living together," I mutter.

Luke's grin only gets wider. "Then why are you never home anymore?"

I sling the duffle over my shoulder and raise my middle finger in his direction. "Stop acting like any of you assholes notice when I'm gone. Every time I walk into that dorm, one of you has some girl hanging off you or sitting in your lap."

"That is not the point," Luke says.