“It will help me, trust me.”
He was so ridiculous. I smiled even though it felt wrong, but Dante beamed at me.
“Where’s my savage?” Dante teased me, pulling me close. Tilting my head back and kissing me. “You are not stupid.” He kissed me again, lightly. “You are amazing. We’ll find a new shed. They’re not going to beat you. You won’t let them, I know you won’t. You still with me, Sav?”
I nodded slowly, seeing his absolute faith in me. His belief. It was what I needed.Hewas what I needed.
Was I still with him?
I was.
Chapter 39
Dante
My girl was breaking in front of me, and then she wasn’t.
Her back straightened, she took a deep breath, and I watched her pull it all in and steady herself. No matter how much I watched her, and I watched her alot, her strength just fucking floored me.
“Can we get out of here?” Sav asked.
“Yeah, let’s go back to mine. Sound good?”
She pushed her hair off her face, glancing around, her face hard. “Yeah, I need a break.”
When we walked into the dorm room, Dustin and Noah were at the breakfast counter, both eating food. Dustin took one look at us and put his fork down with a sigh. “What now?”
“It’s nothing,” Sav said with a smile that a blind person could see was forced. “Everything’s fine.”
“What she meant to say was that her art professor has been reporting everything to her father. And made her uncomfortable enough today that she needed a mallet in her hand.”
Noah’s eyes widened. “Fuck. That isnotnothing, Savvy.”
“Are you okay?” Dustin asked. His eyes flicked to me once, and I shook my head slightly. “Did he hurt you?”
“No, not physically anyway,” she murmured with a shaky, more honest smile. “I don’t want to burden you guys with this—”
“He hit on you?” Noah asked her.
“No . . . not really, it was moreimplied.”
Dustin shuddered. “I think that might be worse.”
“Yeah,” Noah muttered. “We taking care of that?” he asked me, and I gave him a ‘what do you think’ look.
“We’re going to my room,” I said instead, with a shake of my head to Noah not to say anything else. Catching Sav’s hand,I pulled her with me. “You guys think about what I said earlier, right?”
When I closed the door, Sav was watching me. “What now?” she asked with a sigh.
“I might just want some alone time,” I countered.
“The way this last week or so’s gone? Not happening, not in our world.”
I couldn’t even argue.
“What did Beau Jones want?” She sat down on my bed, her legs crossed underneath her.
“You want to talk about that now?” When she nodded, I told her. “When practice was finished this morning, I had an office meeting with my coaches and Beau.”
