Ed rubbed his palms over his jeans, scanned the road, and settled on Jack. His eyes dropped to Jack’s lips. “I wanted to show you exactly where we stand.”
“But you need that money—”
Ed surged across the console and pressed his lips against Jack’s. The kiss was short, but the shock of it ignited a fire inside his belly. Jack gripped the steering wheel, hope dangerously rising with each passing second.
“I had it to spend,” Ed said. “For your first editions.”
“Ed….”
“You drove us everywhere today.”
“That’s something, but I need to do more.”
“Fine. Buy us brunch tomorrow.”
“More. What else?”
Ed sucked in a breath and caught his gaze. “Bring Marcus along.”
* * *
Sick of the weight of their bet, Jack hunted down Harper to talk it out. Maybe there was a chance they could drop the whole thing.
The door to Harper’s dorm room was ajar. Harper lay on his bed, tossing a soccer ball toward the ceiling.
Jack knocked.
Harper looked over and almost dropped the ball on his face. “Murphy.” He swung off the bed and planted himself in front of Jack. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
Jack ignored the urge to flip him off. He leaned against the doorframe like he would have last year and tried for a casual tone. “Neither one of us really wants to move out if we lose this bet. How do you feel about changing the bet? Loser coughs up two hundred dollars. Or we could drop the whole thing.”
Harper’s eyes gleamed, and Jack cursed under his breath. Coming here had been a mistake. Trying to be reasonable and talk like the adults they were supposed to be was for nothing. Harper held the power now, and it danced in his fucking eyes. “You think you’re going to lose. I knew you didn’t have it in you to bring a date.”
Fuck him for being right. Jack hauled in a breath and went for sincere. “Look, even if you do win, I’m not leaving the frat. My dad went here. This place actually means something to me.”
“You’d cop out if you lost?” Harper’s laugh was dry and disbelieving. “You’d look a fool.”
“I’m sure I’ve looked worse.”
“No. No, that’s not okay. We made a bet, and you should honor it.”
“Fuck, Harper. If you lost, we’d piss you off about it but we wouldn’t force you to leave.”
“If I lost, I would leave to save face. I’m good for my word.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’d make up some excuse why it wasn’t a real loss. You’d use a technicality to keep your spot here.”
“I guess you’ll have to win and find out.”
Jack pushed off the doorframe, shaking his head. “Whatever. I’ve said my piece.”
“If you lose and don’t move out, you’ll regret it.”
“Excuse me?”
Harper shrugged. “You’ve got a bunch of real close friends here. Marcus. Seth. Billy…. I can get them blackballed from all frat parties. I can generally make their frat lives miserable. And Marcus can totally forget about ever becoming class president.”
Jack balled his fists at his side. “Why are you being like this?”
Harper walked up to him, chest puffed, jaw hard. “You took Brittany from me. Let’s see how it feels for you to lose what you love.”
“If you loved her, you shouldn’t have cheated.”
“It was a drunken mistake that didn’t mean anything.” Harper’s voice wavered. “You were my friend; you should’ve had my back.”
“I had her back, Harper.” Jack walked backward down the hall. “You haven’t made me regret that decision.”
Chapter Ten
“Remind me again why we’re up so early?” Marcus pulled on a Harrison hat to hide his barely combed bed head.
“You wanted to meet Ed.” Jack held the door open and stole a last look in the mirror. Satisfied with his choice of clothes, he followed his brother out of their room. “Today’s the day.”
“Right, but later would have been better.”
“You have a game. If we made it later, you wouldn’t get to eat.”
Marcus grunted and zipped up his coat.
“What was that for?” Jack had an idea.
“If he’d come here, we could have gone somewhere closer and I could have slept in.” He paused at the top of the stairs. “Instead we had to get up at O-dark-hundred and drive to east donkey fuck just to get breakfast.”
Jack pushed him, maybe a bit too hard, and followed Marcus down the steps. “It’s only a fifteen-minute drive. You weren’t going to get that much more sleep.”
“Fifteen there, fifteen back….”
“Had you gotten your shit together like I suggested, you wouldn’t need to come back to the room.”
Marcus mumbled.
If he had any idea what it meant that Ed had overcome his fears to meet him…. “If you don’t want to come, stay here.”
“I’m coming.”
Good. This would be good.
Nervous energy had him stuffing his hands into his pockets to stop from fidgeting. He should tell Marcus the truth about Ed not being out. That he liked him, but Ed wasn’t likely to solve their bet problems. That Harper had made it clear Jack would need to leave the frat or Marcus and their friends would pay for it.