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  “Are you for real?” Stacia asked. “Did you bet on me?”

  Bryna shrugged. “It was harmless, S.”

  “And what was the bet?” Stacia demanded.

  “How long you’d last, living with him, before getting together,” Bryna told her.

  “You two are assholes.”

  “Maya was in on it, too,” Trihn accused.

  Maya put her hands up. “I bet you’d last less time, for the record.”

  “Can’t trust anyone nowadays,” Stacia said, tugging down the plaid skirt to her Catholic schoolgirl costume. Her white button-up was knotted under her breasts, and she’d even put her hair into pigtails.

  “Okay, so give us the details,” Trihn said. “What happened? How did it happen?”

  “Wait,” Bryna cried. She scrunched up her nose and looked disgusted. “Not all the details. It’s still Pace.”

  Stacia laughed. “You don’t want to know about how good he is in bed?”

  Bryna gagged. “I could have gone without the mental image.”

  “Relax. It wasn’t like that.”

  All eyebrows rose.

  “Okay, it was like that but not at first. We…talked. And we just had some issues to work out. Everything that happened last year was just wrong. We were both wrong. He thought I had slept with Marshall when he slept with Madison, and I thought he’d cheated on me for no reason. What he did was wrong, but should I hold that over him forever when, in the first place, I had been the one who let him think that I would leave him for Marshall?”

  Bryna and Trihn shared a look that Stacia knew all too well.

  “What?” Stacia asked.

  “Just…be careful,” Trihn said.

  “I know my stepbrother. He’s conniving. I don’t want there to be some simple answer to your problems, and then it turns out that…it’s just Pace being…Pace.”

  Stacia cringed. “Well, it wasn’t like that. He didn’t even know my side of the story. He was just as shocked as I was to hear his.”

  “All right. I believe you, S,” Bryna said with a smile. “I just want to look out for you, too.”

  “I’ll be careful, but in the meantime, can you be happy for me?” Stacia asked. “I mean…I haven’t been laid in months.”

  “Oh God,” Bryna cried. “Bleach my eyes, someone, please.”

  All the girls laughed and then took some Jell-O shots before the party got started.

  Pace wasn’t dressed up when he arrived an hour later, but Stacia wasn’t surprised. He didn’t really get into dressing up. But it was so nice to be out at a party together as a couple again. And, just like the rest of the girls, no one seemed to be surprised that they were together again. Actually, as far as Stacia could gather, everyone had thought that they were already together—or at least had been fucking the entire time that they were living together. So, the big night that they’d decided to come out as a couple was for nothing. Everyone had known, even before them.

  Halloween morphed into an incredible few weeks where Stacia was sure that everything was right with the world. She was passing her classes and doing better on every assignment. Her friends were all together. Their love lives were perfect.

  Stacia felt so confident about the whole thing that she invited all the girls to drive to LA with her for the big rivalry game with USC. She wasn’t exactly looking forward to Pace playing against Derek and her father. But she missed home, and so far, LV State was undefeated. Seemed like the perfect time to celebrate. Not to mention, Bryna had insisted on trying on wedding dresses that same weekend. Even though they all knew she was going to get something handmade by a famous designer.

  They piled into Stacia’s Mercedes SUV and drove the four hours to Stacia’s house. They had all ditched their Friday classes to spend some extra time in the city. Thankfully, Whitney had agreed to take notes and fill Stacia in on any assignments she’d miss. This was one of the last times she would do something like this with her friends, so she thought it was worth it.

  With appointments at various boutiques planned all day on Friday, the girls piled out of Stacia’s SUV and went inside Stacia’s house. The girls were spread out in the two guest bedrooms and Derek’s room since he had promised he wouldn’t be staying there when Derek, Jordan, and Woods strolled in the front door.

  “Derek!” Stacia cried, jumping up and hugging her brother.

  “Whoa there!” he said. He held her at arm’s length. “Everything hurts from practice.”

  “Don’t be such a baby,” Woods said, poking Derek in his bicep.

  “Good to see you again,” Jordan said with a genuine smile.

  “You, too.” Then, she gave him just as big of a hug as her brother.

  As the guys wandered in, Stacia made introductions to her friends, and soon, they were all lounging around the TV and hanging out. Stacia suspected this was what high school should have been like. Too bad this hadn’t been her experience. She would have had much happier memories of it if it had been like this.

  “How is the roommate situation going?” Derek asked later.

  Bryna snorted. “Roommate situation is one way to put it.”

  Derek’s eyes rounded. “You’re back together?”

  “Thanks, Bri,” Stacia muttered. “I was going to tell you, Derek. Just happened recently.”

  “A month ago,” Maya muttered under her breath.

  “We’re talking about Pace, right?” Jordan asked. “The nice guy who let you move into his house after the apartment was vandalized.”

  “Yes. We started dating,” Stacia told them.

  “After he slept with Madison last year?” Derek asked. “You tore into her this summer about that.”

  Woods’s head popped up at the mention of Madison’s name.

  “Yes. But it was a big misunderstanding.”

  “Wait,” Woods snapped. “When was this?”

  Stacia cringed. “After you two broke up.”

  Woods’s jaw tensed, and he balled his hands into fists. “That right?”

  “Yeah. I thought you broke up with her.”

  “I did,” he said. “Because she cheated on me.”

  “The plot thickens,” Bryna said.

  Stacia smacked her with a pillow. Trihn shook her head in dismay.

  “What the fuck, dude?” Derek cried. “You never told me that.”

  “Yeah. Well, it happened, so I ended it. Then, she ran right to this guy, Pace. He was probably the dude she’d been fucking,” he said bitterly.

  “Uh…no. It was only that one time,” Stacia insisted.

  “How the fuck do you know that, S?” Woods asked.

  Stacia sat completely still as everyone turned their eyes to her. She didn’t know how she knew that. She just wanted to believe that. Pace had said that he and Madison had consoled each other over their breakups. Or the breakup he had thought had happened. He couldn’t have slept with Madison before. What reason would he have had to sleep with Madison when everything was fine with she and Pace as a couple before that? He definitely couldn’t have slept with her before that night. He just couldn’t have.

  “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “I never thought about it before. But I don’t want to believe that Pace had anything to do with your breakup, Woods. I don’t want to think that he cheated on me for no reason.”

  “Well, if I ever meet the son of a bitch, I’m going to fucking ask him,” Woods told her.

  “Or we could just ask Madison,” Bryna piped up.

  “No,” Stacia said. “We should ask Pace. I don’t trust Madison. She’d lie to my face to get what she wanted.”

  “Pace has done worse in the past,” Bryna gently reminded her.

  “Stop judging him for the person he was three years ago. He’s not the same person, Bri.”

  Bryna gave her an appraising look and then nodded. “Okay. Then, ask Pace.”

  “I don’t care who we ask,” Woods said. “I just want the truth. Madison ran straight to Pace after I dumped h
er. A little too convenient for me.”

  Stacia swallowed and nodded. Seemed a little too convenient to her, too.

  Come wish me luck?

  STACIA STARED DOWN AT THE TEXT MESSAGE in her hand. She was standing in the middle of a packed arena in Los Angeles for the annual USC versus LV State rivalry game. It was set to kick off in just under an hour, and he wanted to see her now?

  She had been certain that he wouldn’t be able to get away to see her before the game. She had really thought it was for the better, considering what Woods had revealed last night. Not that she wanted to think about the fact that Madison had cheated on him or that Pace could be the culprit. Since he had been so mad when he thought that she was sleeping with Marshall, she didn’t want to believe he could be capable of doing that. But, sometimes, it was a guilty conscience that made people accuse others.

  The crowd cheered all around her, filled to the brim with at least eighty percent USC fans, while she stood on the sidelines with the girls. The band was rallying for cheers from the students and alumni. Cheerleaders were being thrown into the air. All around them was an atmosphere of excitement as two of the biggest teams of the year faced off against each other.

  “I’ll be right back!” Stacia yelled to Bryna. She jotted out a text to Pace to let him know she was on her way.

  “Wait, where are you going?” Bryna asked, grabbing her sleeve.

  “Pace wants me to wish him luck.”

  “You’re going to see him now?” Bryna’s gaze drifted around the stadium. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea after last night.”

  “I’ll just kiss him and then be out of there. Five minutes, tops.”

  “Okay, but be quick,” Bryna told her. Then, she yelled after her, “But don’t make it a quickie!”

  Stacia laughed and then jogged down the sideline and into the tunnel. She flashed her all-access pass to the security at the entrance. She knew her way around the USC stadium even better than the one at LV State. She had grown up here and spent more hours than she could possibly count in practice and at games with her father. It was the first team she had really cheered for since it was one of the few schools they had stayed at for more than a year. College football coaches would travel an unreasonable amount of time if they didn’t catch a break early.

  She located the entrance to the visitor’s locker room and waited outside for Pace to exit. She tottered from foot to foot in anticipation. All night, she had been worrying about the shit that Woods had said. Having to face Pace so soon made her even more anxious.

  “Hey, Pink,” Pace drawled as he left the locker room and walked straight toward her.

  Her breath caught as she got a good look at him in his full uniform. Fuck. Football uniforms were such a fucking turn-on. Between the incredible tight pants that showed off his ass, the extra few inches the shoes gave him in height so that he towered over her, and the bulk of his shoulders and arms from the padding, Stacia felt faint from just looking at him.

  “You here to wish me good luck or to just stand there and stare?” he asked.

  Stacia laughed an uncomfortable short laugh as she came back to reality. “Yeah, sure.”

  “Yeah, sure?” he asked in confusion. “Since when do I get a ‘yeah, sure’ from you?”

  She brushed a hand back through her tangled blonde hair and smiled weakly. “Just nervous for the game, is all.”

  “You sure?” He appraisingly eyed her up and down. “You seem…out of it. And your texts have been few and far between since you left with Bri and the girls. Everything okay?”

  “Yeah, yeah, everything is fine.”

  But, apparently, she wasn’t convincing because he stepped up to her and raised her chin to look into her eyes. “Are we okay? What happened?”

  “Pace, you don’t need to stress about anything before this game. Get your head in the game. You’re playing one of your biggest rivals.”

  “What are you now—my coach?” he asked with a gruff laugh.

  “Damn straight,” she breathed, hoping that she covered everything.

  He bent low and dropped his mouth down on top of hers. In a split second, the kiss intensified, each of them anxious to be back in the other’s arms. Her heart was beating in her chest, as fear that this might be ripped apart after the game pushed her to desperation.

  “Larson!” Boomer shouted, appearing in the doorway.

  Pace and Stacia hastily jumped away.

  “Get your ass in here.”

  Pace glared at Boomer but nodded. He turned back to Stacia. “I’ll see you after the game.”

  “Definitely,” she squeaked.

  He frowned. “You’re sure you’re fine?”

  “Uh-huh,” she said with a forced smile. “Good luck.”

  He glanced back at her one more time before following Boomer back into the locker room, and Stacia blew out a rough breath. Fuck. That had not gone as well as she had thought it would. For most people, she could bluff her way through a conversation like that. After years of acting like everything was fine and pretending to be the dumb friend, she should have been able to handle it. But Pace had seen straight through her.

  Stacia jogged back to Bryna just as the Gamblers came out for their warm-ups.

  “How’d it go?” Bryna asked.

  “Fine. Like I said, five minutes.”

  Bryna gave her a knowing look. “You don’t fool everyone as well as you think you do.”

  “For everyone’s sake, let’s hope that I do,” she whispered.

  But she hadn’t.

  It was as clear as day as soon as the game started.

  Something was off.

  Everything was off.

  The team that had come out and easily handled big opponents was absent for this game. Pace threw incomplete passes left and right. Handoffs were muddled. He got sacked more in this one game than the entire season. Without a quality defense showing up for LV State, they would have had their asses handed to them. And, by the end of the game, the coach, the team, and all the fans were feeling pretty demoralized.

  And Stacia was afraid it was all her fault.

  “Shh,” Trihn said as Stacia tried to hold back tears. “You did not do this!”

  Stacia nodded. “Okay.”

  “Hold your chin up,” Bryna told her.

  “Yeah, don’t let anyone see you hurting,” Maya told her. “You don’t want rumors to spread, okay?”

  “You’re right. I know. I just feel bad.”

  “So, he had a bad game. It happens,” Bryna said. “I’ve seen it happen. Breathe. Just breathe.”

  Stacia nodded again and waited as everyone cleared out. After all the players had showered and changed and the press had left, finally, Pace reappeared.

  “Hey,” she whispered. “What a game.”

  “Not my best,” he admitted.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I could use a beer—or ten, to be honest.” He shouldered his backpack and reached for her.

  She stepped into his embrace. “I could see that.”

  “You going to tell me what’s really up with you?” he asked.

  Stacia sighed. “Can I tell you in a minute?”

  “So, something is wrong!” he said. He yanked her away from him and stared down at her. “I knew it.”

  “Nothing’s wrong exactly, Pace. Just something I heard. I didn’t want to mess with you before the game, but I guess I fucked up your play anyway.”

  “That wasn’t you,” he insisted. “It was just a bad game.”

  “Sure.”

  “Well, tell me what’s going on, so I can stop wondering,” he insisted.

  “Actually…I kind of wanted to introduce you to my dad first.”

  Pace’s eyes rounded. “Right now? After I just lost to the man?”

  “Um…yeah. Should we do it some other time?” she asked.

  She felt like an idiot for even asking. Of course he wouldn’t want to meet her dad right now. But she had asked her dad abou
t it last night. She hadn’t thought that LV State had a chance of losing. Plus, she wanted to make sure her dad was aware of what was going on before he found out from the press first.

  “No, it’s fine. Let’s go. It must not be serious if you want to introduce me to your dad,” Pace said with a rough laugh. “God, I need to get my head on straight.”

  Stacia walked him around the stadium to where her father’s office was. She could feel Pace tense next to her. She was sure this wasn’t easy for him. Meeting her dad was bad enough, but after that game, she kind of felt like a horrible person, letting this go on.

  She grabbed him before they went inside. “We don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

  “Stacia, I do want to,” he confirmed with a tense smile.

  “Okay,” she murmured before knocking on the door.

  Derek opened the door with a beaming smile. “Stacy!”

  “Derek,” she groaned. “We talked about this.”

  Pace laughed. “Stacy?”

  Stacia’s cheeks heated. “Unfortunately, that is my name. Though I had it legally changed at eighteen before coming to college.”

  Pace’s eyes widened. “Damn, this whole time, I had the wrong name.”

  “No! The right name. But I can’t get Derek or Dad to change.”

  Derek shrugged. “Guilty as charged.” He turned to Pace and held out his hand. “Good game, man.”

  They shook.

  “Thanks,” Pace said.

  Then, Derek disappeared down the hallway.

  “Come on in,” her dad, Curt, said, standing and walking around his desk.

  “Hey, Dad,” Stacia said with a practiced calm she didn’t feel. “I know that you know Pace Larson, but I just wanted to introduce him to you as…my boyfriend.”

  Pace stepped forward and stuck his hand out. “Nice to officially meet you, sir.”

  Stacia breathed a sigh of relief when he reached forward and shook Pace’s hand.

  “Good to meet you, too. Now, I know you’re an excellent football player,” Curt said.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Just want to make sure you’re treating my daughter just as well.”

  “Only the best for Stacia,” Pace confirmed.