“I mean it. I don’t care what happens on campus, but they must never know. Coach and I figured out a way to prevent them from finding out about the pictures. They’ll remain clueless.”
“If that’s what you want, I won’t say a word.” I motioned a key and lock on the side of my mouth. Then, I pretended to throw the key in the garbage. Yes, I knew I was acting like a five-year-old, but it made him give me a half-smile.
“I’m going to head out. I haven’t talked to the guys yet. I need to.” His hand twitched in my direction but fell to his side. “I’ll stop by soon. I shattered my phone, so I’ll get another one tomorrow.”
“Be safe, Ronnie.” I bit down on my bottom lip, feeling helpless. “We can do this.”
“I hope so. My future is on the line.” He looked at the ground, dragging one of his large feet back and forth over the doormat. “I owe you forever.”
“Knock it off. I already agreed to it. Don’t keep saying shit like that. It’s happening.” I patted his face. “Go home, boy-toy.”
His lip twitched ever so slightly and he turned to leave. I watched him disappear into the night and wondered what the hell I’d signed up for. I’d wanted an adventure the week before, and I knew deep down this was going to be a hell of a ride.
Chapter Four
Aaron
“You’re going to fuckingpretendto date Greta for six months? And she agreed to it?” Tanner spat out his drink when I told him. “Have you lost your goddamn mind?”
“Most likely,” I replied without emotion. Jeff and Zade exchanged a look, probably worried about what would happen. “I trust none of you will tell a soul. If you do, the entire thing blows up.”
“We won’t ruin it. That goes without saying, man.” Jeff put his hand on my shoulder and gave me a brisk nod. “There is nothing else Coach can do? He came up with this idea?”
I scratched the back of my neck, preparing myself for their questions. Only Greta would have agreed to something without knowing all the facts. “His cousin worked for a PR firm in Hollywood and he called him before I came in. I guess faking relationships and creating staged promotions are normal. Professional athletes have to do publicity stunts all the time to appear boring or tied-down.”
“You’re telling me you won’t sleep with anyone for six months?Sixmonths, Aaron.” Tanner slammed his fist on the table. “You won’t be able to.”
Zade jumped in, defending me. “He doesn’t have a damn choice and we’ll support him. He can use his goddamn hand every day and we’ll buy him some spank magazines. Shit.”
“Thanks, man.” I raised a fist to Zade. He had my back and it felt good.
“I know your concern is for Greta, but we need to be supportive.” Zade gave Tanner a scathing look. “I want to look into this bitch more. Who is she?”
“She doesn’t use her own name. It’s an alias.” I’d already spent hours trying to find out who she was and had come up empty. “The pictures were taken over the past two years. Different dates. Times. All screen-shotted from Snapchat.”
“Has she gotten any other athletes in trouble?” Jeff asked, already pulling out his laptop and typing away. “Is Coach overreacting to this?”
“No. She has local media attention. The last one was a football player, Antonio something. He got suspended for half a season because he was photographed doing cocaine.”
“At least you didn’t do that.” Jeff gave a half-assed laugh. “I don’t think any of us will argue, but can we vote no more parties here for a while?”
“Agreed.”
“Same.” Tanner eyed me, an odd expression crossing his face. “I want to add that no strangers or one-night stands here, either. I know that cramps on your style, Jeff, but I don’t want anyone taking pictures of him. Or us. We could be next.”
“Dude, I’m with ya.” Jeff held up his hands. “I’m good with that. We’ll take a semester off from partying. Hell, Coach will be happy as hell.”
“Hah. Yeah. It’s true.” I took a swig of beer and felt a wave of emotion bubble up. These guys were my family. They’d helped raise money for my dad all last year, had my back when I went off the deep end, and now they were standing with me.Fuck.It was too much. “Thank you all. You’ve all been a hell of a friend the last couple of years.”
“Anyone would do the same. It’s part of being a team.” Zade raised his beer. “We’ll get through this. We’ll find out who this girl is and destroy these pictures.”
“Like, breaking and entering? No way. I can’t have a scandal or I’m out.” I tightened my grip on the bottle.
“I’m not beneath that. I’m not fucking joking,” Zade added and scooted over to look at Jeff’s laptop. “I know a computer hacker. I’ll reach out to her.”
“What? How?” Jeff turned to look incredulously at him. “You and computers? No way.”
“Yeah. My sister’s roommate wants to write code for video games. She’s awesome. But with coding, she once told my sister and me she hacked into her school’s grading system to change her grade in art class. This chick knows her shit and maybe she can find something out.”
