Tutoring the Player (Campus Wallflowers #1)(81)

Jane clears her throat behind us, and Jordan sets me down.

“Hey, ladies,” he says. “Booze is in the kitchen.”

“Then that’s where we’ll be,” Violet says.

Jordan returns his attention to me. His eyes twinkle with excitement, and his smile is all charm. “Fuck the Dealer?”

“I was thinking power hour and maybe some dancing.”

His brows raise. “Are you going to need me to carry you out of here tonight, sweet Daisy?”

“Who says I needed it last time? Maybe it was all a ploy to get you back to my room.” I flutter my lashes.

He tips his head back and laughs. “The white cotton panty seductress.”

My face heats.

With a wink, he juts his chin to my friends in the kitchen. “It doesn’t look like your friends need any more liquid courage.”

Jane pulls the bottle stashed in her bra and starts filling shot glasses. Dallas walks into the kitchen for a beer and lingers until they offer him one. In seconds, five more guys are crowding around.

Jordan leads me to the dining room table. Liam smiles as Jordan pulls a chair out across from him and guides me down on his lap.

“Hi.” I wave to Liam. The guy next to him I recognize from the parade of trucks last week. He was the passenger in Liam’s truck.

“Daisy, this is Cole.” Liam rests an arm around the back of the guy’s chair.

Cole leans forward and adjusts the ball cap on his head. “Nice to meet you. I’ve heard lots about you.”

I stare at them a beat. “You too.”

“Doubtful,” he says with a grin he tosses at Liam.

Liam brings the hand resting behind him up to his neck. His fingers tenderly ruffle the reddish ends curled around his hat. It’s a simple gesture, quick, but unmistakable and intimate.

“I meant it was nice to meet you.”

Cole nods and sits back. Liam’s arm goes around the back of the chair again.

Jordan circles my waist and places a kiss on my neck. “So, I figured out why Liam was so distracted at the beginning of the season.”

I turn in his arms.

He offers me a sheepish grin.

“He was seeing Cole this whole time?”

Nodding, Jordan stares at me like he’s waiting for me to be disappointed. I steal another glance at Liam. He looks happy. I hope he is. I am.

“You went to all the trouble to keep us apart for nothing.”

“Nah. Not for nothing.”

His mouth descends on mine, and he kisses me like he can’t get enough. I guess that makes two of us.

“I love you,” I say as I bring my hand up to his face and trace my thumb along his lower lip.

His mouth stretches into a big smile aimed right at me. “That’s my line.”





37





DAISY





ABOUT TWO MONTHS LATER





“Are you sure it’s okay that I’m coming?” Violet asks as Jordan drives us up the winding road.

It’s a rare weekend he has off from practice and games, and we’re camping on top of Mount Loken. Liam and Cole are meeting us there. Jenkins, too, with a girl he just started dating, Taylor. I haven’t met her, but Jordan says she’s nice and that I’ll like her.

“Yes,” I say for at least the third time since we left.

“I feel like I’m intruding on a couple’s getaway.”

“It’s going to be a blast,” I promise.

Jordan looks at her in the rearview mirror. “Jenkins has an extra tent.”

“Good because, no offense, but I don’t want to hear you banging my cousin.”

“None taken.” He looks back out to the road. “I plan to bang her a lot. Loudly.”

Vi scrunches up her nose, and I give Jordan a playful smack on the arm.

Our friends were all busy this weekend. Dahlia had a golf tournament and Jane flew home to visit family. Violet decided camping was a better option than staying at home by herself. But just barely.

We’re the first to arrive at the campsite. Jordan pitches our tent while Violet and I unload the rest of the stuff.

Liam and Cole show up next, and then Jenkins arrives. From the passenger side, a girl who I assume must be Taylor gets out, and then the back door opens. I yelp.

“What?” Violet asks.

I stare at Gavin unfolding himself from the small car and stretching. He scans the campsite and spots us.

I can’t make words come out of my mouth, but when he waves, I lift my hand to reciprocate.

Violet swivels around, and I watch her expression slowly morph from confusion to shock to anger.

“What the hell is he doing here?”

“I don’t know,” I say quickly. “I promise. I had no idea he was coming. Jordan said he had a date or something.”

Her eyes blaze with uncontained frustration. “Lucky girl. She dodged a bullet.”

“Do you want to go? I can ask Jordan to take us back, or maybe Uber comes up here.”

She shoots me a doubtful look. We’re more than thirty minutes from Valley, and reception is sketchy.

“It’s fine,” she says, and goes back to moving stuff out of Jordan’s SUV. “He isn’t running me off. I was here first. I’ll just avoid him for the next forty-eight hours.”