Teaching Tucker (Face-Off Legacy/Campus Kings 3)

“You hooking up with Sam?” Romeo asks me.

I shake my head. “Nah. She’s just my tutor.”

“Yeah, right,” Professor says, laughing. “That’s what Finch said before he got wifed up with Ella.”

Shawn Finch graduated last year. He was the star running back for the football team and a member of Delta Sig. At one point, Professor shared a bedroom with him. Finch was in a similar situation as me. He was failing, so his coach forced him into tutoring, and he ended up running off with his tutor. Now, he plays for the Philadelphia Eagles. I’m not going to be like Finch. No fucking way.

“No one is getting wifed up,” I shoot back, cracking open another can of beer. “Especially not me. Assholes.”

Romeo chuckles, his gazed fixed on Professor. He mutters something I don’t hear over the obnoxious sound of my phone dinging. It’s a desperate sounding text from Trent asking me to come home as soon as possible.

“He’s so dramatic,” I mumble and shove the phone back into my pocket.

“Is Parker riding your ass again?”

I chug half of my beer. “No. Trent.”

“Dude, ever since you and your brother got caught switching places, they haven’t gotten off your ass.”

He’s referring to my friends and brother who never seem to let up. They constantly nag me. Tucker, you need to do this, you need to do that. Blah, blah, blah. I avoid my house as much as possible because of it, but I can’t run away from hockey.

“Parker thinks he’s my dad…” I growl in frustration, “… and Trent is just worried about me.” I finish off another beer and drop the aluminum can on the table in front of me, sliding my legs to the floor. “I better go see what Trent wants, or I’ll never hear the end of it.”

Romeo grunts, before bringing his fingers to his lips to whistle at the sorority girls walking by the house. He beckons them forward with his finger, and they stare at us, giggling. Professor gets up to lean over the porch railing and tells the girls to come and keep them company.

When I stand, I have to hold out my hand to maintain my balance. So, maybe I’m a little more drunk than buzzed.

“I’ll stop by later,” I promise, hoping Trent doesn’t have other plans for me.

Drinking on the porch is about the extent of what I had planned for my Friday night. I had asked Sam to come to a party with me this weekend, and she shot me down. That girl is driving me fucking crazy. The more she resists, the more I want her. She’s crawled under my skin and found a place for herself in my mind. I can’t stop thinking about her. No amount of liquor can get her out of my head.

Romeo slaps me on the back. “Later. Don’t forget the theme for tomorrow night.”

I smirk. “It’s so fucking lame, how can I forget?”

He shakes his head and laughs.

By the time I stumble into the house I share with my teammates, I can’t walk a straight line. Hours of drinking has finally caught up to me.

“You okay, Tuck?”

I glance over my shoulder to wave off Drake. “Yeah, I’m good.”

Drake is curled up on the couch with Bex’s friend, Taylor. Preston is on the other side of the sectional with Bex in a permanent lip lock. Since when did I sign up to live with a bunch of pussies? Or should I say pussy-whipped assholes?

“You smell like a bar,” Preston says between kissing Bex. “At the Delta Sig house again?”

“For fuck’s sake, not now, Prez,” I counter, ignoring him to climb the stairs to my bedroom.

At the end of the hall, I stop in front of my bedroom and reach up to grab the doorframe, looking at Trent from the entrance. “What’s so important I had to come right home?”

He crosses his arms over his chest, an irritated expression on his face. “Where were you?”

Does it ever end?

“With Romeo and Professor.”

He rolls his eyes at me. “You hang out with those guys too much.”

“Whatever, Dad,” I groan. “Get off my ass.”

“Get in here and close the door. This is important.”

I shoot him a confused look and sit across from my brother on my bed.

“Jemma is pregnant,” he blurts out.

My eyes and mouth widen in shock. “You knocked her up? Get the fuck out of here. Dad’s gonna flip the fuck out.”

“There’s a possibility it could be yours. That’s why I’m telling you.”

No fucking way the baby’s mine.

I narrow my eyes at him. “Is that what she told you?”

“No, she says it’s mine, but the timeline fits either of us.”

“I used a condom.”

“So did I,” he admits. “I’ve never had sex with her without one.”

“Have you considered it’s not yours either then?”

He shakes his head. “It’s one of ours, Tuck. You know as well as I do that Jemma’s not like that.”