“Soon, babe. I promise.” All at once, the noise level on her end picked up again, and Sofia said, “Gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow!”
“Bye,” Jack replied, but she’d already gone.
He scrubbed a hand down his face, his rough stubble scratching at his palms.
As a college athlete, Jack had less time than most to conduct any sort of social life that didn’t heavily involve his teammates, but when he could barely get his own—girl? friend? girlfriend?—whatever to spend time with him, something was definitely wrong.
Was she pulling away from him? Was there someone else? Was she simply no longer interested in him anymore? Had she ever been? These were the thoughts that endlessly plagued him.
Next weekend, Jack would be commencing his fourth season with the Spartans, and he’d started all but three of the sixty-eight games he’d spent in the green and white over the course of the first three. Hockey wasn’t as big of a deal at Michigan State as football or basketball, but it was still one of the big three sports, and that meant he and his teammates were considered celebrities on campus. They routinely showed up on The Green, Michigan State’s online version of a gossip rag, and always had people clamoring for their attention when they went to the bar. And Jack, as the Spartans’ starting goalie, tended to garner more attention than most.
Sofia had introduced herself to Jack at Dublin during Welcome Weekend. Typically, he and his roommates preferred Rick’s. It was less pretentious, more relaxed. That particular night, however, Luke had suggested Dublin, claiming he wanted a “change of scenery.” Since Luke never asked for anything, and was usually content to go with the flow, Jack and their other roommates—Aiden and Asher Rhodes—decided to humor him.
Jack had been standing at the counter off the dance floor, waiting for the bartender to return with his tequila soda, when a warm body pressed into his arm. He’d glanced down to find an ebony-skinned girl, her peculiar caramel eyes glinting in the lowlights of the bar.
“Buy me a drink,” she said.
Jack raised an eyebrow, then extended his hand. “Hi, nice to meet you. I’m Jack. And you are?”
The girl tipped her head back and laughed, then gripped his hand in her own. “Sofia. Now buy me a drink.”
Jack opened his mouth to protest, then thought better of it. Sofia was beautiful, with her deep skin, those compelling eyes, and legs that went on for days, which were showcased in a pair of pale denim shorts with frayed hems. A slice of her taut stomach was visible between the waistband and hem of her bright pink tank.
The bartender delivered his drink, sliding it over to him with a wink, but Jack withdrew his credit card from his pocket and passed it over to her. “I’ll get hers, too”—he pointed at Sofia—“and you can keep it open.”
Bewilderment warred with something that looked a lot like jealousy on the bartender’s face, and Jack bit back a laugh.
The problem with being a division one college athlete was a lot of people thought Jack owed them something simply for existing, but he’d never felt compelled to hook up simply forthe sake of doing so. This bartender had no right to be jealous, because Jack had given her zero signs that he was interested.
“What can I get you?” the bartender asked Sofia, her tone clipped.
“I’ll have a vodka cranberry, please.”
With a nod, the bartender was gone again, and Jack turned fully to Sofia, taking a long sip of his drink as he further studied her.
“You’re awfully bold,” he said.
She shrugged. “I saw something I liked. I went for it.”
“The drink or me?”
A mischievous grin bloomed across her face. “Both.”
Jack returned the smile, and the bartender dropped Sofia’s drink unceremoniously in front of her. Sofia reached for it, and Jack extended his.
“To going after what we want,” he said, and she nodded, clinking her glass against his.
And that was that. They’d been hanging out—and hooking up—for the past few months. But there were times when Jack wondered if Sofia only stuck around because of his status on campus. On top of being in a sorority and planning to get her master’s in marketing research after graduating in the spring, she was also the social chair at her sorority and an Instagram influencer.
All that to say, she didn’t need Jack to get noticed, but he wryly admitted his presence in her life certainly hadn’t hurt matters. Her social media following had grown exponentially in the two months since he became a regular feature on her profile, and he knew her followers were begging for more content featuring Sofia’s “hot goalie.”
To be fair, hewashot, and hewasa goalie, but he didn’t enjoy being viewed as a cash cow.
Chances were high he was reading too much into it. This season would pass, and things would go back to normal before he knew it.
With a sigh, Jack shoved his phone into his pocket and stepped out onto the patio once more.
“Where’d you go?” Asher asked.
