Page 164 of Forever Relentless

Dante shrugged. “He was the only one I knew you’d listen to.”

“What?” I gaped at him. “You knew he wouldn’t call?”

He put on his sunglasses, then took them off to polish them on his shirt. “Guessed it.” He saw my look. “C’mon Noah, you were never going to listen to me, Dust, or anyone else. So I took you to an academic professional who would tell you bluntly and from a position of authority.”

He started walking back to campus.

“So what was all the eyeballing and challenging?” I asked him.

Dante grinned. “He pissed me off with the comment about asking for his blessing, and then the smartass remark about ‘parental supervision is still needed.’ Cock.”

I pulled his arm to make him stop. “Wait a minute, you took me there, to the dean’s house, on a Sunday, so I wouldn’t go to Texas and possibly make things worse, and then you just pissed off the dean because he pissed you off?”

Dante put his sunglasses on and grinned at me. “Pretty much.” He tapped my arm lightly with his fist. “You’re welcome.”

“Why do you think I should thank you?” I asked him in bewilderment.

“Because I solved the problem. You see the reasoning now and know Tate’s school actually did him a favor. Plus, Brock will see how lightly Tate got off and know he’s getting no sympathy.” He resumed walking. “Now, let’s go fix this social media mess you created.”

He was right. I hadn’t thought past the anger. I’d been ready to fly to Texas and kick someone’s door in, when Tate had actually gotten off light.

I wasn’t sure I liked the way he handled that. Wasn’t sure whether to thank him or punch him, but Dante hadn’t given him a speech. He’d found a better way to get through to me. He wouldn’t say that out loud.

I followed him back to the dorm, thinking one thing only. There was no way I was stopping the social media posts; I didn’t give a fuck how clever he thought he was.

Chapter 31

Noah

Practice the next morning ran as it always did.

There was still the buzz from the spring game. Some of us had already been given the nod to say we were first team. I was one of them.

I remembered what Coach said; he couldn’t change it even if he wanted to. The crowd wanted to see me. And while I could obviously be benched, he was still the coach, and he’d catch a lot of crap for doing it for no reason.

Didn’t mean I could relax. The crowd brought me back. Sutherland would remember that.

Popularity was all well and good, but I was popular on the team because I played well. To keep the crowd on my side, I needed to keep playing well and improving.

The only way to do that was to play.

Dustin was still giving me the side-eye, but I let him beat me at Madden, and I’d listened to the lecture about ‘protecting Hadley’ twice. Twice. Like I was too stupid to know what he was saying the first time.

And to top my Sunday off, I’d told Tate I’d tried to help him and failed, and he had asked me what I thought I could possibly do? So . . . it seemed in the world of academia, where Tate ruled, and seemingly along with anyone else who had more brain cells than me, I was the only one thinking I could fix administrative thinking.

My brother had been very gracious in his thanks for thinking of him. I wasn’t sure if that made it worse.

I hadn’t seen Briar again. I’d phoned, but she hadn’t answered. I’d texted once, but she hadn’t replied.

I planned to remedy that next. That I could fix.

So, this morning, while running routes, I was watching the sidelines, waiting for her to arrive.

I could give her space. She was pissed at me, and she was the only one who hadn’t had the chance to yell at me like I was sure she wanted to. But I would not allow her to blank me.

She’d been in that bed with me. She felt what I felt.

She wasn’t writing us off so easily.