I went into my room, undressed again, and slipped into bed beside my girl. I pulled her tight, her body flinching from the coldness of mine.
I wished I could say I slept easily, but five o’clock came too soon, and I couldn’t bring myself to wake her when she looked so peaceful.
Noah said nothing when he joined practice at six, but he did say he thought she was still sleeping when he left.
Three hours of football practice had never felt so torturous. I watched the clock, the coaches watched me, and Noah and Dustin watched us all.
I skipped the sauna, the massage, and headed straight to Sav’s class. When I got there, the classroom was empty, and I didn’t know where she was.
Panicking, I headed to the shed. I really should have kept her phone. Why did I leave her phone behind? Such a rookie fucking mistake.
The door to the art shed was wide open as I ran toward it. I had visions of her sculpture being destroyed. I stopped dead when I got to the doorway.
Savannah gave me a look that told me I was in deep shit, and the reason I was in deep shit was that the woman beside her had to be her mother.
“Dr. Cole?” I asked carefully as I approached, praying that the flashlight in Savannah’s hand stayed unlit.
She turned — she was Sav in twenty, maybe thirty years. I hoped Sav didn’t inherit her mother’s cold stare, though I could feel the heat of the one my girl was giving me.
“You must be the quarterback.”
“Dante Spence, ma’am.” I saw the arch of her eyebrow. “I mean, doctor.”
She smiled slightly. “See, Savannah? Any man can be trained.”
“Jesus, Mom,” Savannah snapped. “He isn’t a puppy.” She glared at me. “You called mymother? Really?”
I edged toward her. “I know you’re mad, I wanted to tell you before you found out.” I glanced at Dr. Cole, who was studying Savannah’s art project as if it held the answer to the meaning of life, and she didn’t agree. “I didn’t expect her to come here, okay?” I added quietly.
“Where else would I be?” Her mom straightened as she stared at me with the same intensity as she had the windmill feature. “You called me late at night, later for you,” she added, “to tell me that my husband was beingunreasonabletoward my daughter, and that as a mother —hermother — I should know.”
Savannah stared in awe, open-mouthed. “Please tell me you didn’t saythat.”
“Those are the CliffsNotes.” Fuck, this could be bad. “I said it better. I did.”
Doctor Cole lifted that eyebrow again. “This one?” she asked Savannah. “Are you really sure?”
“I will kill you later,” Sav muttered to me. Her gaze flitted to the front of the shed. “Nope, scratch that. We’re both dead now.”
I turned and met the frosty glare of Dean Cole.
Things were about to getreallyawkward.
Chapter 40
Savannah
He called my mom.
He’d called my mom, and apparently, from what I could tell after the shock of seeing her outside my classroom, he’d told her itall.
My mother, who had worked every day of her life to become the best in her field, was told that her husband not only allowed grade altering in the university that he was so proud of and pompous about, but that he knew they were covering up injuries and paying students to keep quiet about it, and that he was using a professor that I trusted to spy on me. And that professor stepped over the line yesterday. After being told all that, she got on the next flight.
Dante Spence must have had a death wish, because right now, he was the common denominator as to why my parents were so pissed off.
He made his way over to me, the back of his hand lightly brushing against mine. I almost pulled away from him because my temper was at an all-time high.
But then I realized he called my momforme.
