Gold (All that Glitters #2)(79)

“Too bad.”

Bryna smiled at that. She liked this. This was easy. See? She could be normal and flirt with regular college guys. Trihn and Stacia would be proud.

“It would be nice to know someone else around here.”

“Oh, yeah? I’m the only person on campus you know?”

“Well, I have a roommate, Carl, but I wouldn’t say I know him.”

“And you know me?” she asked.

He leaned forward and smiled. “I’m getting there.”

She laughed lightly. “Well, you’ll need more than one class to get to know me. I’m a woman of many mysteries.”

“I’m a pretty good judge of character.” His eyes swept her face. “I’d say you’re only as mysterious as you want to be.”

“Guess you’ll have to find out,” she murmured.

The professor walked up to the front of the room.

“Oh, I intend to,” Cam said under his breath.

Bryna tried to pay attention in class, but it was the first lecture of the new term, and she knew nothing important would happen until the next class. Instead, she tried to figure out what to make of Cam. He was hot—tall, blond, dark eyes. But he definitely wasn’t her type…even though he was a charmer. He had a laid-back attitude that didn’t mesh with her high-strung type-A personality. He was almost a little sloppy in jeans and a T-shirt with flip-flops. He looked like he would be more comfortable on a snowboard or a surfboard than in Las Vegas. Yet that was all a part of the appeal.

She was still thinking about it when the class was dismissed, and he followed her out of the room.

“Well, see you on Wednesday,” she said with a smile.

“Hey, are you free?” he asked. “Do you want to go get something to eat?”

She smiled. It was nice to be treated like any other girl for a minute. No one else in this school did it. And when she had gotten here last year, that was exactly what she had wanted. Strange how much had changed in a year.

“I’d love to, but I have cheer practice.”

“You’re a cheerleader?” He couldn’t keep the surprise from her voice.

“Yeah.”

“Oh. I wouldn’t have guessed.”

“Is that a problem? It’s not like we always carry around pom-poms or something,” she said.

“Not a problem,” he said automatically. His lazy smile was back on his face. “I’ll see you on Wednesday.”

“All right. See you then.”

As she turned away to walk to the sports complex, she smiled to herself. It wasn’t as if she had a date. All he had asked was if she wanted to get food after class. Of course he was cute and seemed interested in her. Maybe if she stopped trying to scheme and calculate his motives, then she could just enjoy the moment.

She walked into the complex, and her stomach turned to knots. This place made her think of Eric. She hadn’t spoken with him yet. She knew she needed to. There was a lot left unsaid between them, but she had wanted to ride out her high for as long as possible.

She hurried to the cheer locker rooms before she could run into him, and she changed into her workout clothes. This would be a good practice. It would clear her mind of everything that kept floating around up there.

And it did just that.

The team had spent hours perfecting sideline cheers, working on stunts with the new girls, practicing dances, and working their bodies into the ground. By the time they were done, Bryna’s muscles were sore, her legs felt like Jell-O, and she was all-around exhausted. She even stuck around to take a shower at the sports complex instead of waiting to go home. She had taken too much time off this summer, and now, she was paying for it.

She threw on a pair of Nike running shorts and a tank top, diffused her hair until it was in loose beachy waves rather than her normal stick-straight look, and then exited the locker room. Almost everyone else had already left, but she could still hear the football players rumbling around outside. This time of year, they would work until there was no more daylight, and then they’d turn on the field lights and keep working.

She rounded the corner and stopped dead in her tracks. She had been hoping to avoid this for another day, but fate didn’t seem to allow it.

“Bri,” Eric said.

His voice. God, his voice.

She kept her face impassive. “Hey.”

Four months. After four very long months without him, she had almost forgotten how hot he was. She had always thought it wasn’t fair that he was gay with those features. Now, her mind had to skip over that assessment she had made so often and remember that he was most definitely not gay.

“How was your summer?” she asked when he didn’t say anything.

He stared and drank her in. “Who cares? You weren’t in it.”

“Eric,” she said.

She shook her head but didn’t look away. His hazel eyes trapped her, even from this distance.

“We can’t do this right now.”

“If I keep letting you decide when we can talk, we never will. You can’t pretend that nothing happened.”

“I’m not, all right?” she said, her voice a little too loud. “I’m not pretending anything. I know perfectly well what happened.”

He stormed over to her. “Then, talk to me. I’m still me, you’re still you, and that means we’re still us. Just the way we were. You can open up to me.”