Page 7 of Call the Shots (For The Arena #1)

JUNE

MOOSE AROUND AND FIND OUT

King helped me with my storage unit, and I said my tearful, private goodbyes. I went from my adorable blue house with a shining garden, to the athletes’ dorm—Roman Villa. Known as the Dorm of Shame or Whorin’ Villa.

Most of my friends on the football team, King included, lived on the higher floors but with a glance at my paperwork, I grimaced. “Ugh. Is second floor good or bad?”

“I don’t think anybody lives there during the summer. It’s…quieter?” King shrugged, pushing the cart full of my stuff. “When are you moving back to your house?”

“In the fall,” I replied, which wasn’t a lie, I’d do anything to get my house back. But I didn’t want to talk about that . “Give me more news about your girl.”

An instant blush spread across King’s face. I giggled at his expense and giggled even more when he abandoned me on my new floor. “I’m gonna grab some more stuff. I’ll be back.”

“You’re avoiding me teasing you—that won’t happen!”

His sigh was so loud in the elevator, I burst into laughter. It was wonderful to see him finally getting out of his comfort zone. I couldn’t wait to meet her.

I pushed the cart down the hallway. After my house, this was a step down, but I was already attached to a losing hockey team for the summer. This was rock bottom. Seriously, it couldn’t get any worse. I slipped the key into the lock and pushed open the door to?—

A TV blaring with some kind of shooting video game?

The guy sitting on the couch lurched to a standing position, wearing nothing but a pair of moose-print boxers, stamped with Moose Around and Find Out!

I could see everything . His wide shoulders, his arms, thick with muscle, the chest hair. The dip of hard, abdominal muscles, and…

My eyes widened as I took in the outline, curved against the fabric. If that was his cock, he gave a new definition to the word— hung .

Bear stared at me, mouth agape. “ June?! ”

I stumbled back, ditching my cart like a coward. This was a nightmare I needed to wake up from. Racing down the hallway, I whipped out my phone, calling Cleo. I practically saw my ex’s brother’s dick—was it that big? Soft?!

The call went through, and my words jumbled together. “I-went-to-my-dorm-and?—”

“Did you meet your roommate?”

“ Roommate? ” I sucked in a breath. “It’s Bear! He’s Bear!”

“I didn’t know who they’d put you with.” Cleo sighed. “I tried to get you your own room but there’s so many restrictions on your account?—”

“Restrictions?” There was only one person to blame. “Why does Xavier want me to room with his brother?!”

“Um…I think he just doesn’t want you to have your own dorm.”

The door swung open, Bear hobbling out in a pair of basketball shorts and a North Dakota shirt, hurrying to throw it on. “What the fuck?”

“I’m trying to fix this?—”

“Fix what? ”

I held up my room key. Bear made a strangled noise.

“We’re not rooming together,” I told Cleo. “If I would’ve known I had to live with him, I wouldn’t have signed anything!”

“Did you do this on purpose?” Bear demanded.

“Did you hear anything I just said?!” I glared at him.

Cleo sighed. “June, this was me pulling favors. You’re welcome to live with Miles and me, off-campus, but it’s a drive.”

I rubbed my temple, trying to mentally block out the headache pounding behind my eyelids.

I had to be on campus for my classes and to repair the damage I brought upon…

everybody. And myself. If I pushed for other housing, Xavier could catch that I found a loophole with the hockey team.

What if he locked me out of campus housing for good?

“There’s nothing else?” I asked, my voice small.

“I’m so sorry, June.”

My stomach sank. My next call could’ve been to my parents but what could I say? Back in high school, I disappointed them when I let everything slip off its axis. I wouldn’t let that happen again.

I let the bitterness wash over me before I pushed past Bear.

“Where are you going?”

“Our dorm.” I pushed the door open again. “It’s okay, Cleo,” I whispered. “Thank you.”

I gazed around the man cave. Laundry on the floor, dishes piled high in the sink, on the counters and on the stove. The place was perfumed with the sharp smell of what had to be a broken bottle of dude’s cologne.

The door shoved open. “We’re not living together.”

“Bear, I’ve accepted the death sentence. You should too.”

His dorm— our dorm—opened to a kitchen and the living room, with separate rooms to the left and the right. Two bedrooms. I stalled between them. “Which one’s yours?”

“There’s nothing that redhead can do?” he said, voice flat.

“If there was, I wouldn’t be here.”

His sigh stretched. “My bed’s to the right.”

Which meant the left was mine. I found what I should’ve expected. A couple of chairs covered in laundry, leftover dishes on the ground, some hockey trophies, candy wrappers, fast food wrappers— does this man collect wrappers?

“We’re not living like this.” I swiped a pair of jeans with the heel of my sneaker. “You haven’t even lived here that long, what’s up with the laundry?”

He started collecting damp towels off the floor. “I’m waiting for my first check to find a dry cleaner.”

“You don’t do your own laundry?” I asked, genuinely confused.

“Bear, the football team gets the actual royalties. You don’t have a jersey for sale right now.

” I slid across more laundry with my shoe.

“The Gladiators don’t even win games. You’ll receive royalties, but they depend on how popular the team is. ”

His eyes dropped to the rest of the crap on the floor. “ Fuck. ”

“Until the Gladiators can turn things around, you need to do things yourself.”

There was a knock at the door and Bear headed off before I could beat him to it. When he opened it, Bear glanced back with the weirdest expression. “What’s your ex doing here?”

“Oh, King’s my?—”

I stopped myself.

Why would I tell Bear my personal business? Xavier didn’t break his NDA to include Bear, so why should I? If he thought King was my ex-boyfriend, fine by me. Maybe it’d even keep him in check.

I paused. “How’d you know he’s my ex?”

Bear opened his mouth and snapped it shut. “Elijah told me.”

“Stop discussing my relationship history.” I rolled my eyes and gestured for King to come in. King was silent and gave Bear a short look.

“How’d you date her for years?” Bear called after him. “Without checking into a psychiatric hospital?”

King’s eyes narrowed, and I put a hand on his arm. “Ignore Bear. I do.”

“He doesn’t speak?” Bear taunted. “Is that how your relationship worked?”

“You need a certain IQ to understand him.”

“Ha. Funny,” Bear muttered until King left again to get more stuff from my car. Then Bear thumbed towards the closed door. “What’s up with him?”

“He only talks to people he wants to,” I explained. “Something I should’ve learned.”

“What if I throw something at him? Will he talk then?”

“If you throw anything at him, I’ll match it with a brick, and you’ll wake up in the hospital.” I seethed, hands balling into fists. “Don’t even think about it.”

“What is he, your fuck buddy now?”

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”

“Does he know you’re on hookup apps?”

My face was edited out of those profiles for a reason. If my parents found out I was on those apps, I’d never hear the end of it. I froze. “How did you…?”

“Give me a break, June,” he scoffed. “I know that’s you.”

We stared at each other, and I knew this would be the worst part about working for the Gladiators. My ex’s brother living with me, only one bathroom between us.

Now, it couldn’t be worse.

Unless it meant I’d see my ex too.

“Bear? I don’t want Xavier in here.”

“He’s my brother?—”

“I don’t care. He’s not allowed.”

“What if I want to bring him over for a gaming session?”

Bear might as well have said ‘what if I want him for a crab fishing expedition’ and that would’ve made more sense. “Xavier hates video games,” I said, genuinely confused. “He banned Minecraft from the student Wi-Fi, he considers gaming a waste of time.”

“He doesn’t like video games?”

“No.”

Bear hesitated. “Really?”

I thought about how often Xavier complained when it came to Bear. Xavier’s disappointment, his mood swings, his rants in the car, about how often Bear flaked out on plans, leaving me to deal with the fallout. I dealt with that for years, but I didn’t understand. Why was Bear so out of the loop?

How much of what Xavier said was true?

“In January, you were supposed to go to a party in Oklahoma with Xavier,” I said.

“Uh, no I wasn’t.”

“Xavier said you were there for a game.”

“Oklahoma isn’t part of the USAC?” he explained, equally as confused. “I mean, I’ve played there before but that was for juniors—why would Xavier be in Oklahoma?”

“For our work trip—you really don’t know anything about him, do you?”

A beat passed between us.

Bear pushed towards his room. “I don’t have time for this.”

Fine. I had my part of the man cave to deep clean anyway.

While I sorted through cleaning supplies, Bear emerged, hands shoved in his pockets. “Do you know what a DNP is?”

“Yeah, I worked in housing.” I paused. A DNP was a do-not-permit, a person who wasn’t allowed in someone’s dorm, no matter the circumstances. There were two packets of paper to sign and weren’t used very often. I set aside the cleaning wipes, pushing to a sitting position on my knees. “Why?”

“I have two DNPs and they can’t come in. Even as a joke. Wade and Paisley Kérouac—Xavier doesn’t have to be here, but they can’t be here either.”

I blinked. “What’d they do that was so bad it warranted a DNP?”

“Ha. Funny.” Bear ended the conversation, heading to his room. “Fucking hilarious.”

I knew how he saw it. His brother’s hookup, demanding personal answers, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I arranged my plants on my desk, pondering the DNPs. Xavier never mentioned anything about the Kérouacs. If they were family friends, I would’ve met them.

It took me a couple of tries to figure out how to spell the last name but eventually I found them online. Paisley had private social media accounts; Wade was much easier.

The first picture was a shot of him and Bear on the ice, bumping their helmets before a game. There was a video of them at a jersey signing, drawing their signatures on each other’s backs, and one of them making snow angels in knee-deep snow, yelling and laughing about how cold it was.

I gazed down at my phone, at a congratulations video of Bear pulling Wade in for a hug, saying something unintelligible over a cheering crowd.

Wade Kérouac was Bear’s hockey captain in North Dakota. The more photos I swiped through, the more my frown deepened. They used to be so close.

So why was Wade banned from Bear’s dorm in Texas?

What happened?