Faking the Play (Hot Mess Harems #2)

16. Logan

Chapter sixteen

Logan

I considered myself a fairly patient person, someone who kept their head under pressure. Those were two of the qualities that made me a great quarterback. They were also two of the reasons Ethan and Ryan tended to let me take the lead in most things. Except I wasn’t at the head of the pack when it came to this thing with Amelia.

Ryan fucked her in the mountains. Ethan got her off at a party. Both of them had been on dates with her.

I’d kissed her.

And I’d been jerking off to that memory ever since.

The guys and I hadn’t discussed how or when we’d switch from Ethan taking her on dates to me, and it had been days since I’d seen her. And even then, she was on a date with Ethan, so I hadn’t spent a lot of time talking to her. Today, the minute I learned that one of my classes had been canceled, my first thought was of her.

Which was why I was headed to Newsom Hall, hoping to catch her in her room so I could see if she wanted to take a walk or go get a coffee or something. We wouldn’t even have to make it a date. Just two friends hanging out.

I didn’t think about texting her first until I’d already knocked on the door, and the moment it opened, I wished I had. A slender woman with short, white-blonde hair stood on the other side, staring up at me with wide eyes. I assumed this was the roommate, Megan, and while I had my own thoughts about the sort of person she was, I planned on being polite.

Until that walking asshole, Jason Hunn, came up behind her and put his arms around her waist in the sort of possessive manner that said he was staking a claim.

“What do you want?” he asked belligerently.

“I’m looking for Amelia,” I said.

“Well, she’s obviously not here,” Jason said. “So why don’t you fuck off?”

“Jason.” Megan patted the hand resting on her stomach. “We don’t need to be rude to Logan.”

“You know this clown?”

I could practically see the green in his words, like he’d caught me kissing his girl instead of just knocking on a fucking door.

“He’s Logan Carter.” She shook her head. “CSU’s star quarterback who’s got like three NFL teams drooling over him.”

Technically, I had five that I knew were interested, but I didn’t feel the need to correct her.

“Oh. You’re a jock.”

Jason gave me the kind of look I’d been getting from assholes like him my whole life. The big guys who bullied the shit out of me when I was a scrawny kid, barely coordinated enough to ride a bike. The muscle-head athletes who thought humiliating the new kid on the team somehow made them look better. And then the non-athletes who thought I was all brawn and no brains, expecting the world to give me everything on a silver platter, including grades and girls.

Jason was the last one. The one who would’ve bullied a weaker kid, but because he knew he couldn’t push me around, he relied on trying to act superior. When that didn’t work, he’d blame me for anything shitty that happened in his life.

I really didn’t want to be here any longer than I needed to, but if they knew something that would save me some time, it was worth asking one more question. “Do either of you know where Amelia is?”

“We’re not her fucking parents,” Jason snapped.

“Is she supposed to be tutoring you or something?” Megan asked. “Because you might want to find someone else. You know she completely stole Jason’s work to convince Dr. Isenberg to hire her.”

“I don’t tend to believe rumors about people,” I said. “Especially people I’ve known since we were kids.”

“Really? She never mentioned you,” Megan blurted out, her cheeks turning pink.

Ouch. Three years of being roommates and Amelia hadn’t talked about me or the guys once. I supposed we deserved that.

“Anyway, they’re not rumors,” Megan rushed to continue. “I mean, Jason saw the paper she presented to Dr. Isenberg and recognized it as his work. So you’re not just hearing secondhand. He can tell you himself.”

Jason shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his eyes darting around. “Yeah, as soon as I saw that opening paragraph, I knew it was mine.”

“But it wasn’t the same one that you turned in for that job, right?” I asked, my gut telling me that there was something more here than just Jason lying about Amelia. “Because Dr. Isenberg would’ve seen that and wanted to talk to both of you. Find out why they were the same.”

“That’s why she slept with the professor,” Megan cut in. “Isn’t that right, babe? Because he knew she stole the paper from Jason, and it was the only way she wouldn’t get kicked out.”

“But he didn’t accuse you of plagiarizing her paper?” I asked, my eyes narrowing. “Because if they were the same, someone had to be copying, and he’d need to point the finger somewhere.”

“Well, maybe it wasn’t that paper,” Jason stammered. “I’ve written lots of papers for my classes. It’s hard to keep track of all of them. It might’ve been one I wrote for another class. I just know it was mine and she pretended it was hers just so she could get the job I deserved.”

Something about the way he said it, the way a thin trickle of sweat slowly made its way down his cheek, had me thinking that maybe Jason Hunn wasn’t as smart as he made everyone think he was. And not just because he’d let an amazing woman like Amelia go. He was an entitled bastard, and he was hiding something more than just the secret that he’d lied about his ex.

That was something to explore some other time. Right now, I needed to find Amelia.

“Do you know where Amelia is or not?” I directed my question to Megan. She might’ve been a shitty friend, but I trusted her to at least tell me the truth about this.

“I think she’s in the library,” Megan said. “That’s where she’s been going most of the time she’s not in class, anyway. Hides away in one of those little cubicles, pretending she’s studying.”

“You got what you wanted,” Jason said. “Now go away.”

He slammed the door shut, but I could still hear him asking Megan why she’d been so nice to me. Shaking my head, I made my way back downstairs and then over to the library where a helpful librarian pointed me in the direction of the study room Megan used most of the time.

The first one was empty, but the door to the second one was closed with a sign on it that said “occupied.” Without any windows, I couldn’t see who was inside, so I knocked on the door. After a minute, I knocked again.

“Occupied!”

Even from that single word, I could tell it was her. I grinned. I couldn’t help it. She sounded pissed, and a part of me found that adorable. She’d always been fairly quiet, but there was a fierceness to her that came out from time to time, and I’d always loved seeing that.

I knocked again.

Like I hoped, she yanked the door open, eyes flashing as she prepared to yell at whoever wasn’t getting the hint that she wanted to be alone.

Her eyes widened. “Logan!” She clapped her hand over her mouth, flushing. “Sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t realize it was you. Is everything okay? Do you need something?”

“I just wanted to see you,” I admitted. “If you’re busy, I’ll go.”

She shook her head, glancing down the hallway. “It’s just a good place to hide from people.”

My smile vanished. “Who’s harassing you?”

“Shhh, Logan.” She grabbed my arm.

“Did someone here say something?” I knew my voice was too loud, but I didn’t give a damn, not if someone was bothering her.

She made a frustrated sound and yanked me into the study room, closing the door behind me. “You can’t be that loud in the library.”

“I’m not going to just sit here and let someone harass you,” I argued as she gave me a little shove toward one of the chairs. I sat down, but I wasn’t going to apologize for protecting her.

“Be reasonable,” she said. “You can’t be with me all the time.”

“It didn’t matter in high school.” The statement popped out before I realized what I was saying.

“What do you mean?”

Shit.

I ran my hand through my hair. I’d never planned on her finding out, but my only options right now were to lie, try to change the subject, or tell the truth. And if I really wanted to be with her, the first two just weren’t going to cut it.

“I might’ve looked out for you during high school even though we weren’t really talking,” I admitted. “Made sure the guys left you alone, and that the girls knew they’d hear it from me if they went after you.”

Amelia stared at me and I waited to find out if she’d yell at me for what I’d done back then or thank me for it.

She did neither.

Instead, she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me.