“What’s wrong?” Levi asked when Julian still hadn’t moved.
Julian continued to sit there, staring at him with his meal forgotten. “What’s his name?”
“I met him through Johns Hopkins. His name’s Nathaniel—very formal. He’s part of the give-back program from the alumni. It’s a mentoring program. He’s been helping me get everything in order for when I return,” Levi explained and went back to finishing the quick message before hitting send.
“Nathaniel graduated from Johns Hopkins?” Julian asked.
Levi lowered the phone to the table and turned more fully to Julian. “Yeah. Why? Do you know him?”
Julian looked away, scooted the rest of the way up to the table, and started to take a bite, but stopped with the fork midway to his mouth. “Do you know him?” Julian finally asked, turning back to Levi, looking every bit as confused as Levi felt.
“Sort of. He seems fine. Like a normal guy. Why’re you being weird?” Levi asked.
“Why aren’t you being weird?” Julian shot back, studying Levi.
Julian made no sense. Levi scrunched his face, mimicking Julian who looked genuinely confused. Levi could only shake his head, feeling like he was missing something monumental as Ricco came to the table and set his plate down on the other side of Julian.
“You better get up there, Red. The rolls are running out.”
Levi had earned that nickname Friday night when one of the guys had noticed how much the brown lowlights had begun to fade in his hair. It certainly wasn’t the first time he’d been called that name, but it was the first time it had taken hold so quickly. He’d been Red ever since. Ricco left his plate on the table and headed back toward the buffet as Levi pushed out of his seat.
“Do you have a picture of Nathaniel?” Julian asked, turning his head, tracking Levi as he started to walk away.
“No. It doesn’t really work like that. If you have other social media accounts, they’ll link, but he doesn’t do social media.”
Julian seemed so concerned that, when Levi started to walk away, he backtracked to the table, coming to within a foot of Julian’s chair. Whatever the guy knew, he needed to just tell him. They stared at one another while Julian held a look of utter disbelief.
“Huh,” Julian muttered, finally looking away, before taking a bite.
“What’re you thinking?” Levi couldn’t let it go, but Julian just shook his head and took another bite.
“Go eat.” His boss waved a hand over his shoulder, dismissing him.
“He’s just turned out to be a pretty good friend, that’s all. He helped me with my housing issue and put a bunch of student services in front of me that I didn’t know about,” Levi said, staring at the back of Julian’s head.
“It’s good to have someone on the inside,” Julian said, nonchalantly, without looking back at him. Levi still just stood there. He was clearly missing something big. Maybe it had to do with Julian’s accident…
“You’re acting like you know something,” Levi finally muttered.
“I know enough. Now, go eat.” Julian waved his fork toward the buffet as Ricco came back, followed by Chase, taking a seat on the other side of Levi’s chair. Still unsure what had just happened, Levi finally took off toward the food line, looking back over his shoulder at Julian one last time.
Chapter 20
Friday evening
Bacon. Okay. Everything had bacon.
Furrowing his brow, Levi quickly scanned the menu, reading over the names of all the entrees. After the hasty run through, he guessed the name of the place made sense now. They’d called it the Baconator, after all. Not the play on words he’d originally imagined. Levi refocused at the top of the one-sided menu and started over, reading from top to bottom again, trying to find anything remotely healthy to order.
Yeah, it wasn’t going to happen. Even the condiments were loaded with bacon. Huh. All right. The Friday night crowd hadn’t thinned out much. The place was packed, and they’d waited an hour to get their table. No way would he dare suggest any place else after that long wait.
Levi glanced over the top of his menu and studied Luke. His brother looked so excited, studying the selections with meticulous care as if he were doing some complicated trig problem where he had to get each step exactly right. Even with Levi’s arteries clogging from just the thought of digesting all the greasy bacon, his brother’s look of pure enjoyment made everything worth the effort.
Logan’s girlfriend, Alison, sat in the seat directly across the table from Luke. Logan sat right next to her without as much as an inch of space between them. They read from the same menu, quietly talking about the different options. Levi shared a knowing glance with Linda who sat next to Logan. She’d spent more time with his brothers and Alison. She saw this caring, loving side of Logan, but this was a first for Levi. His own personality seemed more like Luke’s, an introvert who was a little awkward around new people and new situations. Logan was the exact opposite. His brother was kind of a stud in instinctually knowing how to treat his girlfriend right. Levi had needed to see Logan so taken with someone who seemed just as over the moon with him. He’d worry less now.