Capítulo 8

Traducido por Luna Pacheco

ZOEY
No sabía exactamente qué era lo que estaba pasando a mi alrededor, pero no me estaba
tomando mucho tiempo ponerme al día. El hermano de Caroline, el mariscal de campo
estrella, había empezado a salir con una de sus profesoras y había conseguido que la
despidieran por tener una relación con ella. Y obviamente aún estaban juntos.
Yo no sabía exactamente lo que estaba pasando a mi alrededor, pero no estaba
tomando mucho tiempo para ponerse al día. El hermano de Caroline, el mariscal de campo
estrella, había empezado a salir con uno de sus profesores y conseguido la despidió por
tener una relación con ella. Y aún estaban obviamente juntos.
Lo tengo.
Y ahora yo también sabía lo que había sido en ese teléfono celular anoche que había fijado
Quinn fuera.
Mientras arrastraba Cora lejos de la mesa, me quedé boquiabierta después de ellos, no
estoy seguro de lo que tenía que hacer. Siga ellos, o simplemente quedarse aquí? Yo no
quería quedarse porque parecía como si el hermano de Caroline estaba a punto de estallar
una junta. Pero levantarse y salir ahora no se sentía bien tampoco. Además, Caroline se
acercó y me agarró la mano con fuerza, haciéndome saber que necesitaba un poco de apoyo
moral grave.
Mirar Cora y Quinn desaparecen por un pasillo, la novia de Noel se retiró del abrazo y
sonrió con tristeza hacia Noel. "Supongo que alguien simplemente dejar que el gato fuera
de la bolsa, ¿eh?"
I didn’t know exactly what was going on around me, but it wasn't taking me long to
catch up. Caroline’s brother, the star quarterback, had started dating one of his teachers and
gotten her fired for having a relationship with her. And they were still obviously together.
Got it.
And now I also knew what had been on that cell phone last night that had set Quinn
off.
As he dragged Cora away from the table, I gaped after them, not sure what I was
supposed to do. Follow them, or just stay here? I didn't want to stick around because it
looked as if Caroline's brother was about to blow a gasket. But getting up and leaving now
didn't feel right either. Plus, Caroline reached out and grabbed my hand hard, letting me
know she needed some serious moral support.
Watching Cora and Quinn disappear down a hall, Noel's girlfriend pulled out of the
hug and smiled sadly up at Noel. “I'm guessing someone just let the cat out of the bag,
huh?”
“Oh my God.” A pale Caroline let go of me and stumbled to her feet, her gaze
darting between Noel and Aspen. She covered her mouth. “Oh my God. So that...what she
just said...it’s true?”
Noel winced as he kissed Aspen on the forehead. “Care.”
When his voice cracked with apology, her eyes bulged with horror. “Holy shit.” She
backed away. “Oh, holy shit.” Whirling away from them, she stumbled over me and my
chair in her haste to escape.
Okay, now I really felt uncomfortable for sitting through all this.
 Aspen—who actually looked younger than her ex-student—turned worried eyes up
to Noel. “We really should’ve told her.”
“Told her what?” the youngest boy with Aspen asked.
“Nothing,” Noel growled as he grasped Aspen’s elbow to steer her toward the exit.
“Come on. We’re leaving.”
“But I want to stay,” the older boy said. He had dark hair and looked like a younger
Noel. “I’m freaking starving.”
“Me too,” the younger brother whined. He looked more like Caroline, with her fair
hair and similarly shaped face. “I want pizza.”
“We’ll get it delivered.” Noel’s tone brooked no room for argument. When his
fierce gaze landed on me, I moved back in my seat and held my breath, ready for him to
start making threats to ensure my silence. But instead, he asked, “Can you make sure my
sister gets a ride home?”
I was so startled to hear that question, I fumbled at first. “Uh...yeah, sure.” I bobbed
my head, glad to help in any way. “Of course.”
His shoulders eased fractionally. Then he sent me a respectful nod. “Thanks.”
As he ushered Aspen and the two boys from the pizza parlor, I stared after them,
dazed by what had just happened.
I turned toward Ten, who’d slumped into his seat and rested his forehead in his
hand.
What now? I asked him the silent question.
He met my gaze, lifted a brow, and then blew out a breath. “Well…fuck.”
Without saying another word to me, he stood up and walked off.
I remained seated, letting everything soak in. I didn’t stay long, just long enough for
the waitress to return with a tray full of drinks. When she found just little ol’ me left
hovering at the two tables, she paused and glanced around.
“Um…” I sent her a weak smile. “Everyone else had to…go.”
She didn’t seem to know what to do with the drinks. “What do I do with all these,
then?”
“Oh!” I popped to my feet and grabbed my purse. “I can pay for them. I’m so sorry
for your trouble.”
Still confused, she continued to hesitate. “So…you just want me to take them
back?”
I bit my lip. Seeing as everyone had left, yeah, I pretty much wanted her to take
them back. But I didn’t know how to say that without sounding condescending. “Well…” I
glanced around. No one from my group was in sight anywhere. “I don’t think they’re
coming back.”
They definitely were not coming back.
“That’s just lovely.” Huffing out a moody breath, she spun away and stalked off,
returning the tray full of cups to the kitchen. When she came back, I was standing at the
counter, waiting to pay.
She couldn’t seem to stop glaring and sighing out her disgust, so I apologized again,
but she just blew me off.
Once the bill was taken care of, I clutched my purse to my chest and glanced
around, wondering how I was going to find anyone. I glanced down a hall that led to the
bathrooms and didn’t spot anyone there, so I pushed my way out the back exit. When I saw
Ten’s back as he rounded a corner, I hurried after him. No idea why I followed him. But he
was the only person here I somewhat knew, and I was kind of stuck here until I found a ride
home, plus I needed to find Caroline. So I darted after him, only to realize he’d just found
her.
I was going to approach, but after the tender way he touched her back to get her
attention…I don’t know…I held back.
“Hey.” His voice was soft. “You okay?”
Caroline spun around and looked up at him a good ten seconds before she nodded.
The tears filling her eyes probably told him she really wasn’t okay, though.
“I just...” She wiped at her cheeks and sniffed. “I knew she was a teacher, and I
knew she was looking for a job, but I...I had no idea she was his teacher, or that she’d
gotten fired because...oh my God. She never let on that anything like that had happened.
Neither did he. They just...they’ve been so supportive and strong, helping Colton, Brandt,
and me settle in and adjust. I didn’t even...I had no idea. She doesn’t look old enough to be
a university professor.” Her wet eyes looked extra blue and pleading as she stared up at
him. “Why didn’t they tell me?”
Ten shook his head slowly. “I’m sure they didn’t want to worry you with it. You—”
When he reached for her cheek, she jerked back and gritted her teeth. “But I’m
going to be going to that school on Monday. I’ll be attending the same college where
they...” She gulped. “What if I heard some rumor, or...I don’t know. Why wouldn’t they
want me to be prepared for that? What—”
“Hey. Shh.” Ten caught her arm and hauled her in for a hard hug. “Your brother
wasn’t expecting you to hear any rumors. You might hear about an English teacher losing
her job, maybe even speculation of why, but very, very few of us know it’s actually
because of Noel.”
She sniffed and burrowed deeper into his chest. “You’d think he’d know he didn’t
have to protect me like that anymore. I’m eighteen.”
Ten smiled. “Doesn’t matter how old you get. You’ll always be his little sister. He’ll
always want to protect you.”
“And I’m sure I’ll always want to knock his head off for it, too.”
With a soft chuckle, Ten began to stroke her hair. “I bet.” When he closed his eyes
and buried his nose in it as if he was smelling her, something tight wrapped around my
chest. He liked her. I mean, he really, really liked her. I slunk an inch in reverse, feeling
like a voyeur. But I didn’t know where else to go. So, I just...stayed and watched.
“Is there really a naked picture of Aspen going around?” Caroline asked, lifting her
face.
Ten stopped moving his fingers through her hair as his gaze touched hers. “Yeah,”
he said. “It’s what got her fired.”
Caroline shook her head. “That doesn’t make sense. How could a naked picture of
just her get her fired?”
“It had Noel’s arm in it.”
This time, I shook my head, confused, though no one saw me doing so from my
hiding spot. Geesh, I was doing a lot of hiding and eavesdropping on couples today.
“I still don’t get it,” Caroline spoke my thoughts aloud. “If all they saw was his arm,
then how did they know who she was with? It might not have been a student at all—”
Ten lifted his forearm to point out something I couldn’t see from where I was
standing. “About a dozen of us football players got this very same tattoo last year. It did
end up in the picture of her, so the university knew it had to be a current ESU football
player she was with.”
Caroline studied the tattoo and slowly ran her finger over it. I don’t think she
noticed how doing that made Ten close his eyes briefly and then slowly reopen them.
She finally looked up. “So, for all they know, it could’ve been you who’d been with
Aspen.”
His lips spread with amusement. “It wasn’t me.”
Her fingers kept lingering on his tattoo while her gaze stayed fastened to his. “I
can’t believe they’ve been going through all this, and I didn’t even have a clue.”
Ten shook his head. “You had plenty else to worry about.”
Caroline opened her mouth, but then she shut it before speaking. It took another
moment for her eyes to widen with horror. “Oh God. You know. About me.”
She tried to pull away, but he caught her shoulder and tugged her back. “Wait.
Where are you going?”
“I don’t know.” Keeping her back to his chest, she lifted a hand in a helpless
gesture. “To crawl under a rock and die of humiliation.”
“You have nothing to be humiliated about.” Taking her elbow, he turned her back
around to face him.
“How do you know?” she asked. “Did Noel tell you?”
“No. I was there when you told him, remember? It was kind of impossible not to
hear every word through those thin walls.”
Her face drained of color. Shaking her head, she once again turned away, but he
held her waist and pressed her back to his chest again as she bent slightly at the waist.
“No. Caroline...don’t do that. Don’t turn away.” He closed his eyes and pressed his
forehead to the side of her neck.
More tears trickled down her cheeks. “You must think I’m a—”
“I don’t,” he cut in intently, spinning her around and forcing her to look at him,
cupping her cheeks in his palms. “I absolutely don’t think anything bad of you at all.”
She blinked and one last wet drop slid from her lashes. Ten caught it with his thumb
and wiped it away. Caroline’s chest heaved as she drew in a breath. The entire time they
continued to stare into each other’s eyes, I held my breath as I waited for what would come
next.
Caroline was the first to move. She lifted her chin and arched up onto her toes to
kiss him.
But he stepped back, turning his face aside. “Don’t.” His voice was low and
strained.
Covering my mouth with both hands, I could actually feel Caroline’s rejection
pierce my own chest. And, ouch, that had to have stung. She slowly moved back, then
curled her shoulder in before whirling away.
As she ran off, Ten stared after her, gripping his hair. Torment creased his face as he
closed his eyes and mouthed something I didn’t catch.
When he opened up, he stepped forward as if he wanted to follow her, but he caught
sight of me instead and skidded to a halt.
His eyes narrowed. I cowered a step back and clutched my purse close. “Uh...” I
tried to explain my eavesdropping presence, but yeah, nothing came out.
He sauntered toward me, giving off a lethal kind of vibe. “Well, look who’s nothing
but eyes and ears tonight. You learn a lot in the past hour, Blondie?”
I took a step back and shook my head intently as I gulped. “I didn’t—”
 “See anything?” he asked with an arched eyebrow. “Hear anything?”
“No, I...I didn’t see or hear anything,” I agreed.
“No,” he murmured softly as he studied me a moment longer. “You didn’t, did you?
Because you’re not a loud-mouthed cow like your bitch of a roommate, are you?”
My mouth fell open. I couldn’t believe he’d just said that about Cora. Cora was
everything bright and bubbly. Why would anyone call her a—
He hitched his chin to the right. “Why don’t you go find Caroline and make sure she
gets home safe and sound?”
He sounded so concerned about her; it gave me the courage to ask, “Are you going
to apologize to her?”
Ten snorted. “Fuck no.” Gritting his teeth, he scowled at me. “In fact, I’m going to
have to change up my game around her so she never forgives me.”
Spinning away, he stalked off without explaining himself.
I stood there a moment longer. This was definitely turning out to be one of the
strangest days of my life. But for some reason, I felt exhilarated. It was so far and beyond
anything my father would approve of. I secretly relished having been a minor part in it.
I turned in the direction Caroline had run, but no sooner did I get a few steps than
Cora, hand-in-hand with Quinn, veered around the corner.
“Zoey?” Cora asked in surprise. “What’re you doing out here?”
Concern knit Quinn’s brow. “Everything okay?”
I nodded, though I had no idea if anything was okay at all. I motioned vaguely
toward the entrance of the pizzeria. “Everyone left. Except Caroline. She ran that way,
upset, and Noel asked if we could make sure she got home.”
While Cora scowled at the idea, Quinn immediately nodded. “Sure. No problem.”
“What?” Cora glowered at him. “I don’t want to babysit Noel Gamble’s little sister.”
As she sniffed in disgust, both Quinn and I gaped at her.
“Cora!” he scolded, as I gasped out, “We can’t just leave her here by herself.”
She scowled between the two of us. When she must’ve realized she was
outnumbered, she sniffed. “Whatever.” Folding her arms over her chest, Cora spun away
and started off. “I’m going to wait in the car.”
I stared after her, wondering where all the attitude had come from and why she’d
been so snotty. The Cora I knew never acted that way.
“She’s mad at me because I didn’t tell her about Noel and Aspen before,” Quinn
said, answering my silent question.
I looked up at him and instantly felt awful. He looked guilty and crushed. So I
shook my head. “It wasn’t your secret to tell.”
Just as it wasn’t my secret to tell him what was happening to his girlfriend...even if I
thought he should know.
He shook his head as if brushing aside his issues with his girlfriend and lifted his
gaze, his blue eyes full of pain. “Do we know where Caroline is?”
I made a face. “Kind of. She ran that way after she tried to kiss Ten.”
When Quinn’s eyes widened, I slapped my hand over my mouth. “Oh, no! I can’t
believe I told you that. I promised Ten I wouldn’t tell anyone what I saw.”
I blinked, but he waved his hand. “It’s okay. I won’t let him know you told me.”
Then he winced “Did he kiss her back?”
“No. He stepped back, warding her off, and said, ‘don’t,’ so she ran away, crying.”
He blew out a breath and ran his fingers through his hair. “Wow. I can’t believe he
restrained himself. That’s so…not like him. But it’s good that he had some self-control.
Noel’s warned him away from Caroline more times than I can count.” He released his hair
and glanced around. “What a mess.”
When I nodded in agreement, he sent me a small smile. “How about I go this way,
looking for her, and you go that way?”
I agreed and we set off in our different directions. I found Caroline a few minutes
later, sitting on a bench across the street from the pizza parlor under a streetlight. She didn’t
say anything or acknowledge me as I approached, but I knew she knew I was there.
Silently, I sat beside her and waited.
She stopped hugging her knees and set her feet slowly back on the ground. “I tried
to kiss Oren, but he pushed me away.”
I swallowed, almost wishing I wasn’t her confidante because I wasn’t sure just how
many secrets I could contain for other people. “I saw,” I said.
She glanced at me. “You did? Does he know that?”
I nodded. “Yeah. He didn’t want me to tell anyone about it.”
“Well...I guess that was nice of him to help me keep my mortification private.”
Tucking her hands under her thighs until she was sitting on them, she waited another few
seconds before she look at me again. “You probably think I’m pretty pathetic, huh?”
With a shake of my head, I said, “No. Not at all. I...actually, I thought you were
really brave.” Across the street, I caught sight of Quinn as he spotted us. Instead of crossing
the street to us, though, he slowed to a stop and respectfully let me have a moment alone
with Caroline. “Having the courage to go after something you want…I’ve never had that
kind of strength before. I’d think it’d be amazing, though.”
She sniffed as tears filled her eyes. “I’m pretty messed up right now, is what I am.”
I smiled. “Then I guess I’m pretty pathetic, because I was just wishing I could be
more like you.”
Her laugh was self-derisive. “Trust me, you don’t want to be like me.”
Shrugging, I tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. “I guess we’ll have to agree
to disagree on that.”
She didn’t answer for a while. Then she blew out a breath and said, “Or maybe
we’re just messed up together.”
A grin tugged at my lips. “Maybe.” I pushed to my feet. “Come on. I think our
ride’s waiting.”
Brows furrowing, she looked up at me. “Ride?”
I hitched my chin toward Quinn and explained how her brother had already taken
the rest of her family home. She nodded in resignation and followed me back across the
street. But before we reached him, she tugged me back a step to say into my ear, “Hey.
Thank you.”
I hadn’t done anything very life altering, but I nodded and grabbed her hand,
squeezing it warmly before letting go.
Quinn didn’t appear annoyed about having to wait on us. He remained low key, his
hands in his pockets but worry in his eyes. “Ready to go?” was all he said.
His reaction was so unlike what my father would’ve done, it was kind of startling
how cool he was about the entire situation.
I nodded, answering for both Caroline and myself as I ignored the strange urge to
step toward him and hug him. His body was huge and bulky and looked really hard, but I
had a feeling a hug from him would be comfortable and safe. Maybe it was because I knew
he smelled so good, or because his T-shirt looked so soft and well worn, or maybe it was
because he exuded a protective aura I just wanted to burrow into. In either case, it freaked
me out how close I wanted to get to him. So I made sure to keep Caroline between him and
me as the three of us walked quietly back to Cora’s car.
The trip home was quiet and tense, mostly because an angry silence radiated from
Cora throughout the car. In the backseat, Caroline and I didn’t talk either. All she
whispered to me was, “Good luck,” after Quinn pulled into her drive to let her out. There
was nothing I needed luck for, but I appreciated her concern, anyway.
As soon as we parked in the parking garage to the high rise, Cora shoved the door
open and marched off, slamming it behind her. Quinn breathed out a long, loud sigh as he
watched her go.
“She’ll be fine,” I felt compelled to say. “Cora never stays mad long.”
He twisted in his seat just enough to glance back at me. A small smile lifted his lips.
“Yeah,” he agreed, but he still looked miserable as his gaze slid back to his girlfriend who
was being let inside by Henry.