“She had her first day of physical education,” Rachel stated with a wicked grin my way.
“Why didn’t you tell Noah?” Remy asked exasperatedly.
“We could have seen him before we came here,” Drake added taking his glasses off to clean them.
I sighed. “Honestly, I forgot. I’m sore, but you forgot that I’m used to pain,” I tried to joke, but neither one of them seemed to be amused.
“Must be nice to have a healer at your beck and call,” Rachel muttered. “They’re worse than my older brother’s,” she added with a tilt of her lips. “It’s as if…” she trailed off and looked at all three of us suspiciously.
“Brother’s huh?” I asked truly interested and trying to distract her musings.
She was a hard worker and together we had knocked out a lot of the boxes of tables. The boxes were quickly emptied and piled next to the front doors.
“Nope, not talking,” she said shaking her head. Clearly, the topic was off limits.
I sighed. She was a hard nut to crack. One minute she was outgoing and engaging, and the next she was quiet and pensive. “Let’s get back to these tables, we’re almost done,” I said to her, walking to our assembling area. “I’ll see Noah when I get back to the dorm.” I promised the boys as I walked back to the tables.
“I’ll have him meet us at the dorms,” Drake said.
“Okay,” I said uncomfortably. They really needed to stop acting so protective of me.
Remy really liked Rachel’s work ethic and offered her a job helping at the new location every time Drake and I went there, and when there was nothing left for her there a position at the restaurant right off campus. She could catch a trolley there when she began working there.
She had gladly accepted, especially after Remy handed her two hundred dollars for the six hours of work we did that day. I told him to give my money to Will. He knew he wasn’t going to win this battle after our stare down.
I was pleasantly surprised when he hugged me goodbye. It had only been a few days since I had seen him, but I already missed his touch and the way he played with my hair. I promised to be back on Wednesday.
Rachel thanked Drake for the ride back to the dorm and I leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek. “See you later?”
He smiled and squeezed my hand. “You know it.”
I got out of the car and followed Rachel to our dorm. I was pleasantly surprised to see Noah waiting for me in the lobby.
“You are in need of my services,” Noah asked with an impish leer.
Rachel giggled, and I rolled my eyes. “Let’s go, sweet talker,” I told him as we walked towards the elevators, There were a lot of students still milling around, and I didn’t need them to see that I was too weak to handle a little pain.
Some people called out to Noah as we passed. He took it in stride, obviously used to the attention.
“Congrats on getting into the music program,” Noah murmured as we entered the elevator, he draped an arm around my shoulders and squeezed me close. Rachel looked at us with a raised eyebrow, and I could see her wheels turning once more. I would have to tell the guys to be more discreet with their attention to me.
“Thank you,” I beamed at him, wincing slightly as his body jostled against mine when the elevator car jolted to a stop.
Noah frowned, noticing my look. “What happened?”
“Phys ed and we busted our tails at We 7,” I explained as we walked to my room.
He nodded. “I’m sure you could have told Remy you weren’t ready to start today.”
I shrugged. “It was no big deal, plus I need to pay Will back.”
He sighed, obviously thinking I was being ridiculous for insisting on paying Will back, when it was clear he was well off and what ‘little’ money he spent on me wasn’t anything to him.
Rachel grabbed her towel when we got back into the room. “I’m going to jump in the shower. If you want to join me you can,” Rachel winked at Noah.
I barked out a laugh at her forwardness. Noah, for once, looked dumbfounded for a moment. Then he gave her a crooked smile. “As tempting as that is, I have some homework to finish tonight.”
She gave him a saucy grin and closed the door behind her.