“Oh, my sweet little Donovan!” Lewis croons as he catapults himself onto my back.
My hero.
He windmills his arms and pinches my cheeks, making baby-voice cooing sounds in my ear. I try to shake him off, but he just clamps on harder and makes a very committed attempt to shove his finger up my nose.
“Jesus—get off!” I yell, laughing at the same time.
Lisa glares at us and turns on her heel.
“Damn. Did I cockblock you, Donny?”
“You’ll pay for that,” I grumble, pretending to be pissed.
Truth is, I’m tempted to thank him for making her run off.
He finally lets go and drops back onto his feet. I haven’t seen him since mid-July. I actually missed this asshole.
“When did you come back from your mountaintop?” I ask, tugging down on my T-shirt.
Lewis spends every summer helping his dad out, building tree houses across the country. Then, he heads off on a two-week break in the treetop pad he made himself in West Virginia. I’ve never been, but apparently, it’s like the ultimate secret man cave.
“Yesterday,” he sighs, raking his hair back. He could do with a haircut. “I’m not feeling it this year, you know.”
Oh, buddy. Tell me about it!
“I mean, just the thought of your dad’s assistant coaching us… I don’t know, it freaks me out.”
“Williams is a good guy. He asked after my dad every week since the heart attack.”
Lewis rolls his eyes. “Whatever, man! I just want Coach back!”
“If everything goes to plan, it should be January.”
“How’s he holding up?”
“He’s the same old pain in the ass he ever was,” I snicker. “He’s got me whipped, and he thinks I’m clueless, too—I know damn well he’s using the court on the sly. You know he even sleeps with his favorite basketball?”
Lewis laughs.
“I’m just glad to be back at our place this weekend,” I add.
“I brought my stuff over to the apartment last night, but you weren’t around.” Lewis squints at me. “You already getting some action?”
I hold up a fist for him to bump. “No point in wasting time.”
Lewis winks at me. He has no idea I’m lying through my teeth. I spent most of the night driving, and it took everything I had not to turn off and head to Washington to confront my sister.
Lewis starts to wave frantically.
“Oh, Loooisss!”
I don’t even need to turn around—I can already picture her cringing at that creepy, high-pitched voice he puts on when he hollers at her.One of these days, he’s going to end up with a hot-pink sneaker up his ass.
Lois dodges a Lewis hug and smiles at me.
“Ready for your last run at the rodeo?” She wiggles her eyebrows. “You’re seniors now—time to start training up the new cohort. It’s the Campus Drivers 2.0 era!”
I shoot her a dirty look. She knows she just hit a nerve. Lewis, Adam, Lane, and I launched the app right at the start of my sophomore year, and the Campus Drivers were born. Four drivers to run SHU students around one of the country’s biggest campuses. It was an amazing idea, and it’s kept us gearheads afloat, that’s for sure. Geeking out on cars is the one thing we all have in common. I met Lewis through the varsity basketball team. He and Adam have been inseparable since birth. And as for Lane… It took us some time to win him over. Getting him to drop his guard was one hell of a challenge, but here we are three years later, four best friends, campus legends, and with the best driving rep in town. Just two semesters to go, and we’ll be out there to fend for ourselves in the wild. Crazy to think about.
