“It wasn’t romantic. It was pity.” I groan and bury my head in my arm on the table for a second. When I lift it back up, they’re both smiling at me. “It’s too bad. I liked Heath. Now I’m going to have to avoid him until I can look at him without wanting to disappear into the ground.”

“Are you a drama major like this one?” Dakota asks and points her bagel toward Reagan.

“No, why?”

She smiles and I toss a crumpled napkin at her. “Ha. Ha. Very funny.”

“We’ve all made fools of ourselves one time or another. It’s college. It’s fine.” Dakota finishes her bagel and grabs her coffee. “Do you need to get back to the dorm or do you want to hang out today?”

“I need to shower and change, but I don’t have anything after that.”

“You’ll want to shower after, but we can swing by the dorm on the way because you need sneakers.”

“On the way where?” I ask, standing and following them out of the booth.

I gasp as we jog around the Valley U campus track. “When you said hang out, I was picturing Netflix or mani-pedis.”

“Two more laps and then we switch to speed walking,” Dakota says, sounding far too comfortable talking while jogging.

The Scott pride and competitive nature keeps me pushing on, but when we finally begin walking, I’m a lot more sweaty and tired than these two.

“Do you guys do this often?”

“Three times a week,” Reagan says, sounding only slightly out of breath.

“Why?”

“I like to run,” Dakota says.

“She was on the track team,” Reagan adds. “I let her drag me along because it justifies the really big slice of cheesecake I’m going to have later while I make Dakota watch Lifetime movies.”

“What’s Ava, your roommate, like?” Dakota asks, swiftly changing the subject.

Ava and Trent hadn’t been at the dorm when we’d stopped by, but Trent’s things were still there. I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed tonight.

“She’s really nice. Her boyfriend goes to school at Northern. That’s why I was at Adam’s this weekend. He was visiting, and I wanted to give them some privacy. Hopefully next weekend she goes to his campus because I’m going to need a few weeks while I’m in hiding.”

“You can always crash with us. The bathtub is all yours,” Reagan teases.

“Thanks a lot, jerks,” I say with a smile.

Trent’s gone and Ava’s asleep in her bed when I get back. I shower and then get into my own bed to nap, but last night plays over and over in my mind. Adam and Heath have both texted, but I only responded to my brother and with a quick—I’m fine, it was nothing—that will hopefully keep him from asking more.