“I’ll walk you guys out,” Nathan offers.

Sydney stops. “You aren’t sleeping over?” she asks me.

“Oh.” I look to Nathan for help.

He wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me to him. “I’ve got early morning practice. How about I come by your dorm before class and we’ll grab coffee?”

I nuzzle against him awkwardly and nod. “Sounds great.”

God, he’s good.

The walk back is uneventful and quiet. Well, except Sydney. She’s been recapping the whole night for us, but by the silence from everyone else, I think it’s safe to say we’ve all tuned her and her constant chatter out.

“And, wow, Chloe. Damn girl.” My name out of Sydney’s mouth grabs my attention. “The way Nathan looks at you.” She looks up toward the sky and holds a hand to her heart.

“How does he look at me?”

“Totally smitten. He fell hard and fast.” I stare at her in confusion, and she rolls her eyes. “He’s in love with you. Which is crazy, since you’ve only been dating for such a short time.”

“That is crazy.”

Emily nods. “Crazy but true. It’s pretty obvious.”

I look to Bri for her take, knowing she won’t bullshit me, but she stays quiet. She doesn’t dispute my fake boyfriend’s fake love though so I’m calling that a win.

11

NATHAN

“We suck.” Joel sits next to me on the sidelines, watching the team do a passing drill. His words are the nice version of what I’d been thinking as Datson and a freshman we’ve not so cleverly nicknamed Fresh, somehow collide. It’s a disaster.

He looks to me when he speaks again, “We’ve gotta do something before Coach sees just how bad it is.”

It’s a captain’s practice, which means Coach Daniels and the rest of the coaching staff aren’t here. Regular season practices don’t start for another week, but Joel is right. If Coach sees this, we’ll spend the first week of real practice doing sprints until we get our shit together.

Joel stands after another bad pass goes flying out of bounds. “Come on, guys. It’s passing the damn ball. Not that fucking hard.”

He walks out on the court firing instructions. Joel is a natural leader. The guys respect him, and they listen. He’s a good captain. I haven’t provided a lot of value to this point. I’m more like the silent partner who nods in agreement so we’re a united front. I hardly feel qualified to hand out advice when I’m one mistake from being tossed myself.

After our morning practice, I shower and head to Freddy. I call Heath on my way to campus. With the time difference, he’ll be up. And if he’s not, well, he should be.

It’s not Heath who answers though.

“Hi, Nathan.”