Hopefully, this would be another in-and-out meeting so I could go do literally anything else. Maybe hit the library before my last class to write my economics paper or text James or think about James instead of writing my economics paper. Ooh, James as a sexy librarian…goddamn it.

“Carter.” Coach Miller tented his fingers, furrowing his brow. “I’d like to talk to you about the game the other day. Tell me about the hit you made on that Morrison kid from Callingwood. The one where you got a charging penalty.”

Well, this wasn’t good. Last thing I needed was to get benched for our next game against Callingwood because Miller thought I was a liability.

I mean, I probably was. But I didn’t need him to know that.

I kept my expression neutral, my tone to match. “What do you mean?”

Dodging the Bullet 101: When sensing trouble, keep the other person talking to determine what, exactly, they know. Thus avoiding incriminating oneself.

Learned this one the hard way. Several times.

“You’re lucky they didn’t call a major penalty on you for that,” he said. “You went way out of position to hit him. Why?”

“Got carried away, I guess.” I shrugged.

“You never get carried away.” He narrowed his eyes, studying my face with the intensity of someone reviewing game tapes. “Don’t think I missed your verbal altercation with him beforehand. That hit was clearly personal.”

“Off day,” I said. “Won’t happen again.”

The lie detector determined: that was a lie.

He harrumphed, leaning back in his reclining desk chair. “Make sure you keep your head on straight out there. Your game was a little uneven too.”

He wasn’t wrong. The rest of the team wasn’t pulling their weight, either, but that didn’t excuse my lapse in performance.

“Noted, Coach.”

* * *

BAILEY

After the night with Chase, I spent the following day in a total daze. I’d phoned it in for my classes, squealed over the new developments with Zara and Noelle at the Callingwood Daily office, and thought about him way too often.

Then I had to meet Siobhan to discuss which apartment to go with and pretend like I had my brain together.

I did not.

And like I’d thought about apartments.

I had not.

Roughly speaking, I was about 90 percent ecstatic and 10 percent terrified. I had no reason to be terrified. No excuse for feeling that way. Things had been nothing but amazing. And that’s what scared me.

Being so high meant there was so much farther to fall.

“So,” Siobhan smiled at me expectantly across the table, “how are things?”

Heat creeped up my neck. Suddenly, the cafe felt like a sauna.

“Good.”

“Things with Chase, I mean.”

“Really good.”

She grinned. “Dallas wanted to bring people back to the house last night, and I told him no way.”