Page 67 of Go Deep (A Bad Boy Sports Romance)

“About the second week of school.”

“And you’re only telling me now?”

She shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a vault. Anyway, the landlord owns a restaurant, and told Slade he could either work off the cost of the repairs or the fraternity would probably get kicked out.”

“So he was working all this time?”

“Yep. That might be why he can’t always get back to you. Cut him some slack, Cassidy. You don’t know everything…Anyway, I’m hungry. I’m going to see what I can round up from the vending machine down the hall.” Miranda grabbed her wallet and left me sitting on my bed questioning everything.

My phone buzzed a minute after she left the room. I fished it out of my pocket, and just as I was about to swipe to ignore the call, I saw Shawn’s name at the top of the screen.

“Hey, Cassidy,” he said. “It’s good to hear your voice.”

“You, too. I was just talking to Miranda.”

“Me too.”

“She’s grabbing something to eat. So…are you doing okay?”

“I’m good. Hey, there’s some stuff I need to say.”

“Okay.”

“I’m sorry I haven’t gotten back in touch with you before now. I didn’t take the news about you and my brother well, and it didn’t help to see you and him…well, you know how that went. I’ve done a lot of thinking lately, and I was wrong for cutting you out like that. I’m sorry. I owe our friendship a lot more than that.

“Thanks.”

“Slade on the other hand, I’m still gonna duke it out with him over Christmas.”

“Geez. Remind me to keep a solid ten feet away so no one knocks me out this time.”

“Yeah, that was not cool that we hurt you like that…Hey. I want to say something else about Slade… Slade is an ass. A huge, epic dick, but he would never do anything to hurt you. He’s cared about you for a long time…I was the selfish one.”

It was ironic. Everyone had been telling me how horrible he was, and now that he’d screwed up and left me looking like a fool, everyone changed their tune. Now, Slade was the good guy. He was just misunderstood.

Shawn continued. “I know he has a reputation, but with school and sports, he’s a closet over-achiever. He doesn’t like people to know that he’ll bust his ass when it comes down to it, you know?”

Crap.

Where was Shawn to set me straight two months ago, or even two hours ago?

I laughed. “Yeah, I figured that out.”

“I have to go, Cassidy, but if you and Slade are a thing, you have my blessing. Talk to you soon.”

I put my phone back in my pocket after he hung up.

What the hell was I supposed to do now?