Page 2 of Before You (Reckless Love #2)

CHAPTER ONE

JJ

“FUCK, IT’S FREEZING!” I swear, lowering myself further into the ice bath, my knee throbbing from the grueling practice I suffered through, the pink scars standing out against the rest of my tanned skin.

“Kind of the whole point, Walker,” Asher says. I flip my best friend off as he exhales sharply, climbing into the tub next to mine.

“Don’t be a bunch of pussies,” Trent says, shaking his head at us as an athletic training assistant helps him stretch his shoulder.

“I’m not being a pussy,” I mumble under my breath, sore as hell from all the running we did today in the dry California heat. It’s crazy how different the climate is from North Carolina.

“What would you call it then?” Rose asks, pouring more ice into my tub as she flashes a smile. Rose is studying kinesiology and works as an aide with Billy, the head athletic trainer for the football team.

I jolt as the water rises higher on my body. “I think my dick is trying to crawl up into my body for warmth because of how fucking cold the water is.”

“If that’s what you need to tell yourself to make up for your size,” Asher taunts, and I wink at him.

“You don’t seem to complain about my size at night.”

The room erupts into laughter, but Billy sends me a dry look as I smile apologetically at her. She only rolls her eyes, but I think she misses my humor after all the months I spent here rehabbing my knee last year.

I tune out the room, attempting to focus on my breathing so I have a shot of making it through the next eight minutes of hell.

I feel like I’m forgetting something I was supposed to do today, but the headache I can feel beginning to come on is jumbling my thoughts.

I know I have to call Mirabelle to check in and ask if she has an update about Bailey from our parents’ private investigator.

I already know she won’t have one, but I have faith he’ll turn up somewhere eventually.

It’s syllabus week, so I’m sure the team is planning on going out tonight, but I haven’t decided if I’m going yet.

It’d probably be smarter to stay in and ensure I have all the textbooks I’ll need this semester since I actually give a shit about my grades, unlike half the guys on the team who are only here for the hope of going pro.

Was I supposed to go grocery shopping?

Asher taps my hand clenching the rim of the tub, pulling me from my thoughts.

“What?” I ask, my tone sharper than usual.

He ignores it, exhaling as he adjusts in the water. “Did you know Trent has a girlfriend?” he whispers, and if I had to guess, he’s trying not to draw our roommate’s attention. I raise my eyebrows in surprise, waiting to see where he’s going with this. “I guess she’s coming over tonight.”

“Interesting.”

Trent’s decent looking and gets the job done on the field, but it’s his pedigree that makes him a magnet with girls on campus.

His family belongs to the New York elite, dollar signs attached to their last name to match.

It’s news to me that he has a girlfriend, though.

I wonder how long they’ve been together, considering he had a girl over last weekend after a bonfire thrown by one of the frats on campus.

Trent, Asher, Luka, and I share one of the houses designated to upperclassmen on the football team. Luka and Trent are seniors, while Asher and I are juniors.

“She’s a Benson,” he continues, and it makes me miss my sister, Mirabelle. She’d know exactly who Asher is talking about, and my chest pangs with homesickness. I’m the one who chose to attend a college on the other side of the country, so I have no one to blame but myself.

“A who?” I ask, feeling my toes go numb. I should have put on the damn swim socks.

Asher looks at me like I’m stupid, and maybe I am.

“A Benson—you know, like Benson Pharmaceuticals? Her father is the CEO, Hayes Benson, and her mother was a famous ballerina. She’s the heiress set to inherit the golden crown, and Trent was bragging on the sidelines earlier about how she transferred from Columbia to be here with him. ”

“Someone ought to tell her to find a new boyfriend because I’m positive the chick he had over last weekend wasn’t her,” I point out, biting back a string of curses so filthy, I think Mom would smack me. I don’t know how anyone can enjoy the misery that comes from the torturous hell ice baths bring.

“Tell her yourself. You won’t catch me touching that mess with a ten-foot pole.”

“Maybe I will,” I reply. If some douchebag ever pulled that shit with Mirabelle, no one would be able to find the body. It’s a good thing her boyfriend, Henry, is as obsessed with her as she is with him. I’m not sure why respect is such a hard concept for some people to understand.

Asher nudges me again. “When are you going to ask Rose out?” he asks, and I shake my head.

“Why?”

“Because she’s into you? Why else?”

I glance over to where she is watching Billy, and Rose is pretty, but I don’t feel anything when I look at her.

I haven’t felt anything toward another girl since Marley.

“We’re just friends,” I say. In the nicest way, everything about Rose is wrong for me.

Instead of the caramel tresses I once had my hands tangled in, Rose’s hair is an inky black color, and her eyes are dark brown as opposed to the cerulean blue I find myself searching for in the ocean sometimes.

No matter what way you spin it, even if she’s here and available, Rose isn’t Marley.

“You’re not seriously still pining for your mystery girl, right?” he asks.

My body involuntarily shivers from how fucking cold I am. “What does it matter?” I ask through clenched teeth. The only reason Asher knows about Marley is because I was plastered at a party freshman year, and he was curious why I hadn’t hooked up with any of the girls throwing themselves at me.

“You’re never going to see her again, so maybe it’s time you move on, JJ. There’s plenty of girls who would jump at the chance to be with you.”

My head is starting to throb behind my temples. “Leave it alone, Ash.”

“Fine.” Asher puts his hands up in self-defense. “Shit, it’s cold in here.”

“Kind of the whole point,” I mimic, repeating his words. I crack a faint smile, trying to lighten the mood, because I know it seems dumb to him I’m holding out for a girl I met two years ago, but he doesn’t understand she’s the girl. She’s worth waiting for. I just have to find her first.

~

“So the private investigator hasn’t found anything new?” I ask, clicking through the syllabus for my number theory class this semester.

Mirabelle sighs on the other end of the phone, and I hate how defeated she sounds. “No. At this point, I’m wondering why I’m paying him when it’s been seventeen months, and he hasn’t found a single damn thing.”

Our younger brother, Bailey, ran away the day after almost lighting our family’s home on fire for a second time.

He stole cash out of our parents’ room, left anything we could use to track him on his bed, and our security cameras saw him leave with only a backpack.

All of his social media accounts were cleared and locked out with no way for us to access them.

“I haven’t heard from him in over two months, Mira. He usually calls by now,” I say, rubbing my temples.

According to the last conversation Bailey had with Mirabelle and Henry, he called everyone a liar . . . except for me. The first time Bailey called me after he left, I dropped the phone out of shock. It was five weeks after he ran away, and he’s never called anyone else.

Hunter’s coping by throwing himself into football, and Mirabelle calls the private investigator every week, hoping for new information.

Mirabelle, Henry, and I are the only ones who know he was behind the fire at our home in Charlotte.

Our parents were already so upset about him leaving, we didn’t know how to tell them the severity of the situation. They’ve been blaming themselves ever since for not taking him with them on their trip, and we agreed there was no reason to break their hearts even more than they already were.

I sleep with my ringer on every night in case Bailey calls, and the only time I don’t have my phone within reach is during football. The last time I talked to him, he told me he was safe. He’s careful to never slip up, but without knowing where he is, can he really be safe?

“Do you think Bailey will come home?” she asks the question I’ve been asking myself ever since he left.

“I hope so,” I say, clearing my throat. “How was the flight?”

“It was good. Henry’s unloading the car now, but I’m excited we were able to get away before the craziness of the season begins,” Mirabelle says, laughing. “I’m really looking forward to having his full attention for a few days.”

“Oh, I bet,” I tease, and she laughs. What she doesn’t know is Henry’s proposing while they’re there.

He wants it to be a private moment, and ever since the pictures and recording of them hit the internet my freshman year, the cameras are never far behind.

The only reprieve they get is when they’re in France.

“Shut up. I meant not having to share Henry with all the sponsorship deals he’s been at since returning from training camp. I feel like I’ve barely spent any time with him.”

“I think it’ll be good for you guys to get away.”

“I think so too,” she agrees, and Asher pokes his head in.

“Trent’s girl is here, and she brought her roommate. I think I’m in love with her,” he says, grinning, and I grab a pen off my desk, prepared to throw it at him.

“I’ll be down in a minute. I’m talking to my sister,” I say, regretting it immediately as his face lights up.

“Dude, can I talk to her?” Asher asks, and this time, I actually throw the pen. “Mira! If you can hear me, there’s still time for you to leave Henry before I’m off the market.”

“Get out.” I groan as Mirabelle laughs again, and Asher wisely decides to exit, shutting my door behind him. One of his favorite things to do since we were roommates freshman year is hit on Mirabelle during our conversations. “I don’t want to go down there to meet this poor girl dating Trent.”

“Why not? I thought you liked Trent?” Mirabelle asks, and I close my laptop.

“I tolerate Trent. He’s an egotistical ass who flaunts how rich his parents are. He’s also cheating on his girlfriend, knowing she apparently transferred here from Columbia to be with him.”

“If you tolerate him, then why are you living with him?”

“Because he’s on the team,” I say, because it explains everything there is to it.

“I hope you’re planning on telling this girl her boyfriend is cheating on her, regardless of him being your roommate and teammate,” Mirabelle says, and I feel bad I haven’t decided what my plan is.

It’d be awful of me to tell this girl I don’t even know that her boyfriend is cheating on her, but I think she deserves to know.

“I’ll let you know what happens. I gotta go, but have fun, and eat some pastries for me, okay?”

“I will, JJ. Good luck. I love you.”

“I love you too,” I say, hanging up to walk downstairs for some form of my own personal hell. How am I going to get the girlfriend alone to tell her Trent’s cheating on her?

There’s a girl I don’t recognize on the couch, but since she’s talking to Asher, I’m guessing she’s the roommate.

“All done jerking off, JJ?” Luka teases, and I roll my eyes.

“I was talking to my sister, asshole,” I retort, sitting in the recliner.

He laughs, shaking his head. “Whatever you say. Ash, stop flirting and introduce JJ to Bria.”

The girl I’m assuming is Bria waves at me. “Hi.”

I lift my hand in greeting. “Nice to meet you. I’m JJ.”

“Bria. I’m Marley’s roommate,” she says, and I straighten at the name, but Asher steals her attention again by saying something to make her roll her eyes.

Is it . . . No . There’s no way it could possibly be her.

“Is he finally done shooting his load?” Trent asks, walking back into the living room.

“Sure,” I respond as Luka chuckles. Do they really think I’m up there jerking off all the time?

He turns to where I am, distracting my attention from the girl behind him. “Finally. This is Marley Benson, my girlfriend,” he says, wrapping his arm around her shoulders to press a kiss to her cheek.

She laughs, the sound music to my ears as she pushes him away. “Trent, come on,” she says, a soft lilt to her voice making my heart race. She turns, her smile faltering as we make eye contact.

I jolt to my feet, staring at the girl I’ve been dreaming of for so long. It’s her.

Her hair is longer than when I met her, but it’s the same rich color, falling over her shoulders in waves. Her eyes are the exact shade of blue I’ll never forget, standing out against her golden complexion.

She’s here.

“What’s wrong with you?” Luka asks, but I refuse to tear my eyes from Marley. I’ve waited this long to find her, I’m not letting her out of my sight.

“Nothing.” I clear my throat, wiping my palms on my pants, walking toward Marley as my heart flips and leaps in my chest. “It’s nice to meet you, Marley,” I say, offering her my hand to shake.

Her beautiful eyes are wide as she stares at me in disbelief. “JJ,” Marley whispers, slipping her hand into mine. My name sounds like heaven coming from her lips, and I nearly drop to my knees as the same electric feeling jolts through me—the same one I felt all those months ago.

Trent clears his throat, and I look at him in surprise, remembering there’s other people in the room. “Do you know each other?”

My heart drops, realizing what’s happening.

Fuck.

Marley is Trent’s girlfriend.

My Marley . . . except she’s not mine.