The Perfect First (Fulton U, #1)(12)

“Are you sure you’re okay? Just because you put up the ad doesn’t mean you have to go through with this. You don’t have to do it.”

She straightened her shoulders and stared at me. This time her gaze didn’t waver. Her entire body transformed from trying to fold in on itself to I mean business. “Yes, I do. I apologize again. Enjoy your meeting.” That was some scary-ass determination, and she was in way over her head.

Rebecca had grabbed a table on the other side of the coffee shop, but I motioned toward the one directly behind Seph’s. I sat facing the door, and Rebecca sat facing the direction I’d been facing before.

“Is everything all right?” She opened one of her many folders.

“It’s fine. There was just a mix-up with who I was meeting.”

A couple minutes after three, the first guy strolled into the shop. Dude couldn’t even show up on time? Rebecca handed over a couple packets of information and I half listened to what she was saying about them. She dug around in her bag, looking for more papers.

I made eye contact with the guy who’d walked in. He spotted me and froze.

Maybe he was admiring my shiny white kicks.

Maybe it was the way my hands balled up the piece of paper in my grip.

Or maybe it was the face-melting glare I gave him.

We’ll never be sure, but his gaze darted from me to Seph in the booth in front of me. I gave him one hard head shake and jabbed my finger toward the door. His eyes got wide and he took a stutter step closer.

I rose halfway out of my seat and his sneakers squeaked on the floor as he spun around and bolted for the front door. A parade of guys made their approach toward Seph, but I headed all of them off at the pass. At one point, I excused myself, got up, and went outside to the line of douchebags that had formed.

“Listen, under no circumstances are you to enter this shop looking for the girl from the ad, do you hear me? She’s the sister of one of my teammates. She put it up to give him a hard time. If anyone touches her, you’ll be answering to the whole football team. Do you understand?” I crossed my arms over my chest. My word was law.

The mouth-breathers who stood outside looked at me and back at the door. “Why would anyone even answer an ad like that? It sounded too good to be true and was probably a one-way ticket to ending up in a sting operation with your face plastered all over the news.”

The frightened little bunnies nodded before running away. I went back inside.

Seph’s hopeful look devolved into pink-cheeked disappointment when her gaze landed on me. Should I have been offended?

I stopped by her table. “No takers?”

“There’s still time. I thought there might be a few, but most guys have come in, taken a look at me, and rushed right back out.” She folded her hands in her lap, pursing her lips like a Sunday School teacher.

“Maybe it’s for the best.” I dropped my hand onto her shoulder. My fingers brushed along the exposed skin on her neck, and her pulse jumped under the tips.

She stared up at me, her pink lips glistening in the setting evening sun coming in through the windows.

“Reece.” Rebecca’s voice sliced through the connection. “We have a few more things to go over.”

I went back to my table and glanced over the papers she gave me while also keeping an eye on the door. The bell jingled over and over. Every time, my blood pressure shot through the roof. A guy strolled in. He’d been in my freshman seminar my first semester. His name danced on the edges of my memory, but I’d never forget his face, mainly because of the smug-ass grin he’d given me when our first papers were handed back out, his with a nice, big, circled 98 and mine with a 75. We’d never hung in the same circles, and his feelings toward student athletes had been loud and clear back then. Graham.

He walked in and didn’t even glance in my direction. His face lit up like a kid on Christmas when he spotted Seph. I slammed my hands on the table.

Rebecca jumped and stared at me, wide-eyed. “We’re almost finished. I’ll give a full report to your coach about how great you’ve been about all this.”

I sat back in the seat while trying to x-ray vision my way through her body and the seat across from her to see what exactly they were talking about.

“…and once you’re able to give a good response to these basic questions, it will really help you with handling the press in the future.” She stared back at me expectantly.

I nodded and plastered on a smile. “Thanks a lot for your help. I’ll go over everything as soon as I get home.”

“Perfect.” She gathered up all her stuff and tucked the folders back into her bag. I flashed her a tight smile and got up from the seat. As I rounded the edge of the table, Graham got up and shook Seph’s hand. She looked up at him like he’d just invented notecards. Not that guy. He’s a pompous asshole. The door closed after him and that stupid jingling bell finally stopped.

“How’d it end up going?”

She jumped and her head snapped up when my shadow fell over her.

“It went okay. Not the reception I expected, but I’m new to all this.”

“Do you think you found your person?”

Her eyebrows scrunched down a little and she nodded. “I think so, but I need final confirmation and my pro-con list.”

She was going to sleep with Graham. Why did that piss me off? I barely knew the guy. I didn’t know her, but she might have been covering for the fact that she was dying like in that movie my little sister had made me watch a few summers ago. She’d cried for about two days straight afterward.