“Chicks and flicks, just like you bro, but I did it a hell of a lot better.” He plucks a beer from the fridge and pauses once he spots Baya. “Hey, kid, you’re back, too.”
Baya cuts a glance over to me. I can tell it frustrates her when he treats her like she’s twelve. Of course, my body can attest to the fact she’s all woman, perfectly functioning in every capacity, sweet as sugar in all the right spots, and now I’m hungry for more.
“Yeah, well, I’ve been here for a while. Thanks for noticing.”
Cole tilts his head as if he’s ready to call bullshit. He looks back at me and over to her as if he’s doing the math, and I pretend not to notice.
Fuck.
“What the hell’s that thing in the corner?” He nods over to Lucy, our overstuffed lovechild. “It looks like it’s getting ready to attack.”
Baya bites down over her lip as if she’s holding back a laugh.
“I got lucky this weekend.” She lets her words linger in the air, and I drink them down, enjoying the hell out them right to the dregs in front of her pompous brother of all people. “I won it in a raffle. I guess I can donate it if you hate it.” She gives me a quick wink.
“No, it’s fine.” Cole seems pleased that Baya brought a toy to the apartment thus firming up his theory she’s the mental equivalent of a thirteen-year-old. “It’s kind of cute. Does it have a name?”
“Lucy.” Her pink tongue twitches between her lips when she says it, and my dick perks to life, wagging in her direction—begging her to come out and play. If my dick had a mental age, it’d probably be about thirteen too, not that Baya is. She’s miles ahead of me in that department. Why the hell can’t Cole see her for the intelligent person she is? I really don’t get it. It’s not like I’m busy coddling Annie.
Cole takes a seat on the stool with a bowl of cereal under his chin as if it’s always been there. “Aubree Vincent dropped by.” He narrows his brows into her. Cole has the big brother intimidation factor down to a science. “She said they had a couple of dropouts last minute, and you were eligible to rush.” He swallows hard. Cole looks hurt, vulnerable, and, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why.
“Really?” She looks to me as she considers this. “Maybe I will.” She glances back at her book. “Maybe I won’t.”
“Well, you can’t stay here.” Cole drinks down his milk from the side of the bowl. “You’ll finish your back off sleeping on that thing, not to mention what you’re doing to the couch.”
“Gee, thanks.” Baya pinches her lips to the side. “I guess if you really don’t want me here, I can always go back to Jeanie.”
“Speaking of Jeanie—I put a complaint in at the dorm.” Cole gets up and dumps his bowl in the sink like it’s no big deal and grabs another beer from the fridge.
“Youwhat?” Baya jumps off the couch and springs over to his side, good and pissed. “What the hell did you do that for? She’s going to hate me now.”
“Relax.” He darts around her and heads to the couch. “She doesn’t even know who the hell you are. Besides, it’s not cool that she’s disrespecting you like that. EvenIhave the decency to shut the door.” He raises his beer at me.
Baya boils over. “Cole, you can’t just do things like that behind my back. I can fight my own battles.”
“Oh yeah?” He bears into her stern as shit. “Then why are you here?”
Baya sucks in a breath that tells him to fuck off far better than words can.
“You’re nothing but an asshole.” She picks up her purse and storms out the door.
“Baya!” he shouts after her, but she’s long gone. He looks over at me visibly pissed. “What?”
“Go easy, will you?”
“I can’t dude.” Cole blows a breath through his cheeks. “She’s been lying to me.”
“What do you mean she’s been lying to you?” My gut flinches like I just got sucker punched.
“There was no fucking book club weekend getaway. When Aubree came and I told her where Baya went, she said she went over to the dorm because she wanted to drop in on them and tell her the good news herself. She came back in less than fifteen minutes to let me know there was no book club. She asked if she was seeing anyone—trying to insinuate that Baya was hiding some guy.” He shakes his head.
Fucking Aubree. My blood pressure skyrockets as my adrenaline kicks in. She knew exactly where the hell Baya went, and she decided to start shit. A part of me wants to storm off and shake her, and, yet, the other part, the part that still has a foot in the past will never forget the day she looked me in the eye and said,You did this—you took away my best friend.
“Anyway”—Cole flops on the couch—“so, I went over to Prescott and found Jeanie bent over her desk with Stuart Saunders of all people.”
Stuart was our third roommate a few years back before we found out he was helping himself to our wallets. He’s damn lucky to still have air in his lungs, let alone the equipment necessary to bend Jeanie over.
“It’s no surprise. That girl has always had bad taste.” I snap a water bottle off the counter and take a seat across from him. “She slept withyoudidn’t she?”
“You, too if I remember correctly—on multiple occasions. Anyway, turns out, Baya wasn’t lying about Jeanie. I tried to see if they could pair her with a freshman, but Prescott’s full. If she doesn’t get into Alpha Chi, we’ll be stuck with her the rest of the year.”
I shake my head at the thought. Little does Cole know, I won’t mind one bit.
I’m hoping to be “stuck” with Baya Brighton for the rest of my life.
