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T he last thing I expected after the dramatic dinner with Reece’s grandmother was for him to double down on our deal. He’d gotten what he wanted—captain. It would have been easy for him to start backing away, especially when his hockey workload increased with his new responsibilities.
Instead, I spent almost every night at his place. Boo was an easy excuse, but he wasn’t the main reason. Reece wanted me there. He wanted to see me every day, even the ones that were hard. I loved it.
What I didn’t love was Toby’s continued vendetta against me. His play suffered after he lost the captain position to Reece, and for every bad game, he had three reasons why it was my fault which he broadcast all over social media. I even got a voicemail from my mom scolding me for the way I’d been treating him.
They’d had away games the last few weeks, so I hadn’t seen Toby’s slow implosion personally. Amanda helpfully informed me whenever I went back to the house though.
According to the TU gossip, her and Toby had gotten close over the last month, and I loved that for him. They were perfect for each other since she seemed completely accepting of his constant rotation of other women as long as he came back to her in the end.
By the time Thanksgiving break passed and we moved into December, I had too much going on to worry about petty squabbles. My group project was still in shambles, and we all needed a good grade to pass the class. I couldn’t handle any more time than necessary living at the sorority house, so I couldn’t afford to fail a required course.
Plus, I’d never gotten less than a B in my life. Failure was never an option. Part of me wondered if my group was sabotaging me thanks to my stupid reputation, but they all seemed ambivalent the few times we’d met.
The week our presentation was due, I barricaded myself in my room to bang out the rest of the project. As much as I loved staying with Reece, him and Boo were huge distractions. I figured even if no one else did any work, my presentation would be flawless. Our professor was an understanding lady. I hoped she’d give me full credit for what I’d done.
After two days of delivery and my own stench, I had to take a break. I was almost done—with one day to spare—but I needed coffee to power through. Instead of taking my chances in the kitchen, I picked a close local coffee shop. Sunshine and caffeine would do the trick.
When I got back, I was so lost in my plan for the last section I almost walked right past the two campus security officers in the living room. “Mackenzie Booth?” one of them asked.
I stopped and blinked a couple of times, trying to reorient myself to the scene in front of me. The two men moved forward, revealing Amanda behind them. My heart sank as I watched the three of them approach. Nothing good could come of this.
“Yes?”
“We’re here because we’ve had a complaint of theft, and we need to search your room.”
“No.” I may have been raised as a people pleaser, but I knew my limits. I hadn’t stolen anything, ergo, no need to disrupt me when I just wanted to get the damn project done.
Amanda blocked my path when I turned to go back to my room. “You don’t get a say. Your housing contract allows us full access to your room at any time. The sorority president approved the search.”
I frowned. “Then why are you waiting for me?”
“Courtesy,” she said sweetly.
She gestured for the security personnel to follow her and led them to my room with me trailing after. Normally, I’d be annoyed but accommodating, but with Amanda involved, I considered calling my family’s lawyer.
Campus security weren’t necessarily police, though some of them were. At Easton, the university wanted to handle any complaints in house before they got the actual authorities involved, so I assumed the same here at TU.
They opened my door, and I cringed at the mess inside. Since I hadn’t really been staying here, I hadn’t bothered cleaning much, especially in the last two days. “If something’s missing, isn’t it our house policy to ask if anyone has it or has seen it before escalating?”
Amanda lifted a wadded-up cardigan off the top of my bed with two fingers. “We discussed it at the house meeting you chose not to attend this morning.”
I vaguely remembered a note stuck to my door about the house meeting, but I’d been so focused on the project I’d forgotten it was today. The security officers started sorting through my things.
“I tracked my phone to this location,” she insisted. “And I was wearing the necklace the day my phone disappeared. Kenzie’s jealousy has been a problem all semester. I just never thought she’d resort to stealing.”
What the actual hell? Amanda thought I’d stolen her stuff because I was jealous? The assertion was so far from reality I could hardly believe she’d said it. Kiki sidled up next to her with a pinched expression.
Amanda leaned against the doorframe as Kiki pulled out her phone and hit a button. A high-pitched tinkling sound came from my dresser. The quiet officer poked through a stack of bras I’d left there, then pulled out a phone in a pink sparkly case followed by a necklace with a gold four-leaf clover pendant.
“Are these yours?” he asked me just as the tinkling sound came again from the phone in his hand.
Amanda rushed forward and took both items from him. “Those are mine.”
I shook my head, a tight ball of anxiety forming in my stomach. “I’ve never seen the necklace before, and the phone is Amanda’s.”
“See, she admits she took them.”
“Whoa,” I held up a hand. “I admit nothing. I recognize your phone because we’ve been living together for months. I didn’t steal anything. You could have left those things in my room at any time.”
The officer who’d spoken before sighed. “Do you keep your door locked?”
“Yes,” I gritted out. “But we have extra keys to all the doors in the office for emergencies.”
The two men shared a look, and the quiet one left, ostensibly to check the keys in the office.
I took a deep breath to calm my racing heart and tried to respond reasonably. After all, it wasn’t their fault Amanda was a conniving bitch. “I’m sure this is all a misunderstanding. Things get misplaced all the time here, and as you could see, it was in the clean laundry I hadn’t put away yet from the washer and dryer we all share.”
Amanda scoffed. “Why would my phone be in your clean laundry?”
I raised a brow. “Why would I steal something you could easily track back to me?”
The officer held up both hands as his partner returned with a nod. “Ladies, since the property has been returned, this is now a matter for the mediation team. I’m glad we could help you retrieve your items, ma’am. A report will be sent to your student address.”
Both men walked out without another word looking relieved to be done with us. I couldn’t blame them. The entire situation was a ridiculous waste of their time.
After campus security left, Amanda’s smile turned smug. “Since you skipped this morning’s meeting and we found stolen goods in your room, I’m going to have to ask you to move out at the end of the semester.”
“You can’t kick me out without a vote.”
“We voted this morning. The consensus was termination of your contract if the necklace was found in here. You have two weeks to vacate this room. Any damage or cleaning fees will be added to your balance. An official notice will be provided in no more than two business days.”
Helpless rage curled my hands into fists, and for the first time in my life, I considered punching another person. Why was she so hateful? I’d done absolutely nothing to her, but my existence was enough to spur her into manipulating my eviction.
Kiki glanced down the hallway, sent me an apologetic smile from behind Amanda, then skittered off. Seconds later, Toby appeared in the doorway and put his arm around Amanda. I’d heard the gossip and wondered, but now I had definitive proof. Toby was manipulating my sorority sister. I knew she hadn’t come up with this scheme on her own. Why couldn’t he just move on?
He tsked, shaking his head. “Kenzie, I’m really disappointed in you. What would your mom say?”
Instead of murder, I closed the door in their faces. Part of me hoped it would bounce off one of their body parts, but it clicked closed. I turned the lock and stood there, hands clenched, trying to get a handle on my breathing.
I wasn’t happy here.
At the heart of everything, I wasn’t happy in this sorority house, with these women, with my family. Reece and Boo and the Ball Bunny Book Club made me happy. I liked lying in bed on a Sunday morning talking to Reece about whether geese had teeth. Playing hide-the-treat with Boo and Sunny. Arguing with Avery about rom-coms versus dark romance.
I had friends and a safe place and a guy who encouraged me to explore my weirdness. Why was I clinging to the sorority my mom insisted I join at the school my ex-boyfriend insisted I transfer to.
Shit. Mom. I jumped into motion, shoving my hair out of my face and grabbing my tote bag. My parents paid for my college expenses, including housing, and Mom was going to be pissed I’d been kicked out of the house. I’d always lived at the sorority house, so I didn’t even know what other options I had for a single semester.
I stuffed my laptop, my notes, and a handful of clean clothes into the bag and zipped it shut. After knowing the girls had voted me out that morning, I didn’t want to stay at the house another minute or I might light something on fire. At least then they’d have a real reason for getting rid of me.
With rage powering my movements, I started walking.
Despite being told several times I didn’t need to knock, I pounded on the door of Reece’s house. The physicality felt good after holding myself back at the sorority house, and I really needed to pee after walking for the last thirty minutes.
Cole opened it, and his brows shot up. He turned to yell over his shoulder without taking his eyes off me. “Reece, get down here.”
I smoothed my hair, realizing I probably looked like a hobo.
Seconds later, Reece appeared at the top of the stairs staring down at two rolls of sport tape in his hands. “I told you I was almost ready—” He stopped talking when he spotted me, then he sped down the stairs two at a time. “Kenzie?”
“I’m fine.”
He gripped my arms and looked me over. “Did you walk here?”
“Yes. Can I come in? I think Mrs. Lipnicki is watching us, and I need to use the bathroom.”
Reece glanced past me and nodded at his neighbor before ushering me to the powder room. Sunny chittered at me from her nest of clothes in the corner, and I took a minute to crouch down in front of her. She rubbed her face on my leg, then wiggled her butt. The sweet little duck caused a crack to form in the wall of anger I’d created.
Tears threatened to fall, so I decided to sit on the toilet until I’d regained some semblance of control over my emotions. Sunny abandoned her post to sit between my legs and stare at the door as if she were protecting me.
“You’re a good duck,” I whispered, sniffling.
From outside the bathroom, I heard a familiar meow, and a black paw poked under the door. Boo must have realized I was home. He took it as a personal affront if I went to the bathroom without him.
I let out a watery laugh and accepted my fate. “Okay, you guys win. I’ll deal with the hard stuff.”
When I came out, Boo wound between my legs, and all three hockey players sat on the couch staring at me.
Reece jumped up from his spot on the corner to come over and rub my arms. “You’re pale. You should sit down.”
“I’m just a little thirsty.” I hadn’t thought to grab my water bottle before I left, and I wasn’t regular with any kind of exercise.
He shared a look with Cole, who hustled to the kitchen. “What happened?”
“How do you know anything happened?” Guess I was still clinging to denial.
He gave me a knowing look. “You told me you needed a couple of days to finish your project and to—I quote—keep my magic dick to myself. Yet here you are one day before the end of your deadline with all your school stuff in a bag.”
Mase snickered, but Cole shushed him before handing me a very full glass of water.
I hung my head, letting it thunk onto Reece’s chest. “Amanda accused me of stealing her phone, campus security got involved, and the sorority kicked me out of the house.”
“Fuck Amanda. Campus security can’t do shit. And clearly you’re moving in here. Now sit down before you collapse at my feet.”
I straightened to glare at him, and he relented.
“Please.”
Mase laughed again, but I took my water to Reece’s corner spot on the couch. “I have to move out when the semester is over, and it’s not totally horrible, but I still have to finish this stupid project. The presentation is tomorrow. I just needed to get away and I wasn’t thinking so I started walking and now I’m here.”
“What can we do to help?” Cole offered.
“Can I use the dining room table to finish up?”
“Of course,” Reece answered. “If you don’t want to go back, we’re happy to go relieve Amanda of your presence and all of her silverware.”
I snorted out a laugh. “Thanks, but it’s not necessary. Besides, don’t you guys have practice?”
Mase crossed his arms. “I can clear a room in an hour if I need to. Say the word. We have plenty of space here for one room of stuff.”
“I can’t put you guys out like that. I’ll figure something out in the next two weeks.”
“The hell you will,” Reece exclaimed. “You’re not putting us out. Mase is right. We have the space for you to have your own room if you’re not comfortable in mine.”
I took a long drink of the water and forced myself to examine my reasons for saying no. My default setting assumed I was an inconvenience, but Reece had spent the last few months showing me there were people out there who wanted me around. Boo leapt into my lap as if he could sense my thoughts.
Amanda had triggered my deep-seated habit of making myself small, but I didn’t let those patterns control me anymore.
“The truth is I was already considering moving out, but I hate letting Amanda make this decision for me.” I shook my head. “Stealing her phone and stashing it on my dresser? How dumb does she think I am?”
“Look at it this way. She could have planted drugs, and then I’d be bailing you out of jail instead of trying to convince you to move in. She did you a favor with her incompetence.”
“It wasn’t just her. Toby was there, lecturing me about how my parents will be so disappointed.”
His demeanor sharpened. “Kane was there harassing you?”
I eyed him, determining he was only about thirty percent likely to drive over there and beat Toby to death. “Yes. He showed up after campus security were gone, though I suppose he could have been there the whole time. I went for a walk, so I wasn’t even there when the alleged theft happened.”
“Did he bother you?”
“No. I closed my bedroom door in his face, and he left. I ignored them all when I walked out, so I have no idea if he’s still there.”
Cole grinned at me. “I bet that felt good. Kane hates being ignored almost as much as he hates sharing the puck.”
Reece kissed my forehead. “Get your work done. I’ll take the animals upstairs so they don’t harass you. Cole, Mase, let’s go.”
Mase snorted. “I’m not following you upstairs, and neither is my duck. Let’s go, Sunny girl.” He stood and headed for the basement with his duck trailing behind him, but he turned to me at the last second. “Say the word.”
Cole shook his head as Mase closed the door behind him. “At least he’s on our side. Kenzie, let me know if you need anything. I’ll be upstairs harassing Avery to ignore her study session and come over.”
When Cole started up the stairs, Reece scooped Boo out of my lap and gave me a sweet kiss. “This isn’t over.”
I smiled, feeling better. “I know. I look forward to battling with you about my living arrangements.”
“Can’t wait.” He grinned and lectured the cat about personal space on his way up the stairs.
Finally calm enough to try to finish the stupid project, I opened my laptop on the dining table. At first, I didn’t know what I was looking at. I’d left my project files open when I went to get coffee, but the only thing on my screen was my background. Nothing open, nothing saved.
No project files.
No amount of searching found the files I’d worked tirelessly on for the last two days. Even my own part of the presentation was missing, though I’d logged mine into the classroom drive, so I knew I could recover it.
My first thought was I must have hit something when I haphazardly packed everything up, but then I remembered Toby’s smug smile as he patronized me. I’d thought it was about the housing crisis or the theft accusation, but he’d never cared where I lived—and he’d been far too happy.
That asshole had deleted my work while his evil girlfriend hid her stuff in my room.