Page 17 of Playing Dirty (Leighton U #4)

Theo

January

“There he is, the man of the hour!”

Glancing up, I find Phoenix and Wyatt both dropping their lunch trays down on the table across from me.

Wyatt’s wearing a shit-eating grin, looking like a kid in a candy store while he stares at me.

Phoenix, on the other hand, simply watches me silently in that assessing way of his while they both take their seats.

It’s impossible for them to know what happened with Madden up in New England just from looking at me—I’m fully aware of that—but part of me can’t help feeling like there’s a flashing neon sign over my head that’s drawing all kinds of attention.

Questions I’d rather not answer, mostly because I don’t have any for the ones I’ve been asking myself.

And that is exactly the reason I take a long drink of water and completely brush off the comment .

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“He’s playing coy,” Wyatt muses, looking at Phoenix before moving his gaze back to me. “Don’t do that. You’re too smart to try getting away with that shit.”

Phoenix smirks and glances over at our captain. “Damn, Wy. All this power’s really starting to go to your head.”

Wyatt ignores my roommate entirely, keeping his gaze deadlocked on me like I’m a genie about to grant him a wish. A ridiculous notion only made more ridiculous by me knowing exactly what it is he’s planning to ask me.

“So. Tell us. How was sleeping with the enemy?”

I choke at the wording of the question, coughing and sputtering on the water that never managed to make it all the way down my throat.

I haven’t told a soul about what happened over break: not the bed fiasco, not the hot tub incident, none of it. So while Wyatt’s word choice was completely his own, the accuracy—in more ways than one—is a little too on the nose for my liking.

“Jesus, Wy. Are you trying to kill him before he can debrief us?” Phoenix chides before turning to me and slamming his palm on my back a couple times. “Don’t go toward the light; we still need you.”

I shoot my roommate a glare and flip him off while still trying to clear the water from my lungs. Of course, it only makes the dickhead laugh even more, and when I glance at Wyatt for a little backup, I find him sporting one of those hellish grins from across the table.

In fact, both of them look pleased as punch while they wait for my coughing fit to subside, and it really grates on my nerves.

“Now that you’ve got almost dying out of the way,” Wyatt dramatizes, “it’s time to spill the tea. I, for one, have been parched. ”

Rolling my eyes, I mutter, “There is no tea.”

“What’d I tell you?” Phoenix says, motioning toward me. “I’ve been grilling him since he got back from break, and he’s been saying the same exact thing.”

He has. Incessantly. And it’s starting to wear my patience down.

Then again, maybe because every time he asks, my brain instantly goes back to the hot tub and that entire night I’m desperately trying to forget.

Wyatt’s eyes are hard and assessing, like he’s trying to figure out a difficult math equation, before he pushes again. “You spent an entire week with the captain of Blackmore’s baseball team. You’re telling me you got nothing out of him? Penny Play or otherwise?”

A lot of sexual confusion, a fuckton of barbs and digs…

“Nope” is all I say, popping the P for emphasis.

Honestly, it’s not exactly a lie. Nothing from the trip will help us with the Penny Play, which is the information they’re asking about. And everything else that happened? Well, it doesn’t involve them. My unwillingness to fess up to the growing tensions between Madden and me is irrelevant.

The sexuality part would be neither here nor there for the guys to know, but the fact that he’s a Falcon? And their captain, no less?

Yeah, I think I’d rather walk barefoot on LEGOs for the rest of my life.

Wyatt sinks back in his chair, appearing defeated and too stunned to speak, before he shakes his head. “Damn, he’s good. How is that possible?”

Well, that would be because I didn’t even try. I was too busy having a grade-A meltdown over my sudden desire to make out with my stepbrother, making it clear I’m not as straight as I thought I was.

I glance between my teammates, both of whom are staring at me like I’m about to tell them the cure for cancer. And somehow, I only manage to feel the slightest bit guilty for doubling down on my omission .

“Look, I told you I wasn’t gonna get any information out of him. We aren’t close, we’re basically strangers, so I don’t know why you’re acting surprised I came back empty-handed.”

Phoenix lets out a little laugh. “It’s called hope, Theodore. I know you’re not familiar with the term, but the two of us still like to cling to it from time to time.”

“Then you set yourselves up for disappointment,” I rebut before motioning toward Wyatt with my fork. “And you’re the captain too, you know. You’re telling me you wouldn’t be able to hold out for a week if the situation was reversed?”

“Of course I would, but I don’t consider any of those Falcons to be nearly as strong-willed as us. Plus, there’s always the off-chance of letting slip the smallest piece of information, even if it doesn’t seem relevant.”

Nodding, I concede to his point, though it’s still rather moot. “Well, nothing school related came up at all, so I doubt that’s the case.”

“Well, shit,” Wyatt murmurs, drumming his fingers absently on the table top. “Guess we’re gonna have to go about it the old-fashioned way: search and destroy.”

“T’s right. You do play way too much Call of Duty, dude,” Phoenix says with a laugh.

I chuckle, finally starting to relax with the change of subject. “Seriously. All those video games are gonna rot your brain right outta your skull.”

“And let’s be real. You’re not seriously suggesting we do a blind search of their entire campus to find this thing,” Phoenix rebuts. “There’s no way we can cover all that ground before the rivalry game, even if the entire team went over there every night to look.”

Annoyance briefly crosses Wyatt’s features before he quickly snaps, “I don’t see either of you two coming up with any winning ideas, all right? So bite me.”

“I’m good with my chicken, thanks,” I retort, holding up the piece of poultry speared by my fork before popping it in my mouth.

“Yeah, and I’m pretty happily taken, so I’ll pass,” Phoe shoots back with a playful smirk.

“You’re not exactly my type either,” Wyatt mutters with an eye roll before glancing down at his watch. “But speaking of someone who is , Lexi’s gonna be out of class in fifteen, and she’s all the way across campus.”

Phoenix blinks. “Okay? And your girlfriend can’t walk herself back to the dorm?”

“Oh, she would probably prefer that; she’s too independent for her own damn good. But it’s the only time I’ll have to see her today, so I’ve gotta make it count.”

“Well, let her be independent today, ’cause we’ve gotta start planning raids to Blackmore to find this pennant,” Phoenix retorts, tapping on the table for emphasis.

Wyatt shakes his head. “I don’t think my relationship should suffer because our so-called Man of the Hour failed to dig up any dirt over break.”

“Again, I literally told you that would happen,” I remind our captain, who’s now rising from the table with his tray in hand. “Not my fault you didn’t listen.”

“I’m the captain. You’re the one who’s supposed to be listening to me. ”

Chuckling, I shoot him a wry, “Maybe in your dreams.”

After shouldering his bag, Wyatt flips me the bird with his free hand, but it doesn’t stop me from tossing one right back at him.

“So insubordinate,” he gripes playfully. “Tomorrow then. At morning lifting, we’ll start planning.”

“Well, I guess since the captain has spoken,” Phoenix mutters sarcastically before lifting his hand in a mock salute. “Tell Lex we said hi.”

He waves us off, laughing as he crosses the dining hall toward the exit. Phoenix and I share a knowing look, smirking as we watch him take off in a dead sprint the second he’s out the doors.

“He’s got it bad for the little sophomore,” Phoenix says with a laugh, turning his attention back to his lunch. “Who would’ve thought he’d practically disappear the moment he got a girlfriend?”

I snort, pointing my fork full of food at my roommate. “You’re one to talk. I swear, if I didn’t live with you and your boyfriend, I’d never see either of you.”

Phoenix rolls his eyes. “That’s a bit overkill.”

“Is it, though?”

All I get is another eye roll and a baby carrot chucked at my face, which I deflect with ease, before he asks, “All jokes aside, how was your break? And the trip?”

Keeping my eyes trained on my plate, I offer up the most basic description I can think of. “Uh, it was…uncomfortable.”

“Yeah, I’d imagine so after Thanksgiving,” he supplies, a little grin on his lips. “Is there anything else?”

“Nope,” I lie, forcing a tight smile. “That just about sums it up.”

Recounting the events of Vermont holds no appeal to me. If anything, I’d love to shove it to the farthest recesses of my mind and forget any of it happened. That’s all I’ve been trying to do since I got back, but with little success.

Clearing my throat, I flip the topic of conversation to him instead.

“How about you? Everything all good down in Nashville over break?”

“Yeah, it was fine. Pretty typical, all things considered. My sister was ridiculously spoiled by everyone, Holden included.” He starts picking at his food without meeting my gaze, and I can tell there’s something else on his mind before he mutters, “It was just weird not having Kason there. He’d always spend Christmas with my family. ”

My stomach twists at the mention of Kason.

Nothing will ever compare to watching my parents rip each other to shreds during their divorce, though a close second to it has to be helplessly watching the fallout of Kason and Phoenix’s friendship last spring.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad Phoenix and Holden found each other. They’re what each other needs, and apart from Oak and Quinton, I’ve never seen two people fit together as seamlessly as they do, even if it was messy to get there.

It sucks that Phoenix lost his best friend in the process though.

“You’ll get back to it eventually. You know that, right?” I offer, but I doubt it’s nearly as reassuring as I intend it to be.

“Here’s hoping, because I fucking miss him.” A tight smile tugs at his lips, but he’s quick to shove it away. “But enough of the heavy crap; we’ve got something a lot more exciting to think about. Like the pre-season party at the Kappa Sig house on Friday. You’re gonna be there, right?”

“Absolutely,” I reply instantly, my mood starting to lift again.

A party is good. Normal, even. Not to mention it’s the perfect way to push away all the things I wish I could forget.

Even if just for a night.