Page 113 of Rivals

“Did you and Daphne really try some kind of takedown of Gabriella?”

She nodded, surprised Daphne had told him about that. “I know it sounds absurd, but I wasn’t sure what else to do. I was about to lose my financial aid.”

“You should have talked to me,” Jeff said emphatically. “I could have fixed it, much faster than—”

He broke off, but Nina could finish the sentence for him. Much faster than he’d fixed it now.

“Jeff. Are you the reason my financial aid got reinstated?”

He flinched, suddenly anxious. “I’m sorry if I overstepped. I tried to talk about it with you last week, but you clearly didn’t want to bring it up!”

So that was what Jeff had meant, when he’d looked at her with that searching gaze and asked if there was anything she wanted to tell him. Maybe Nina should have just shared the whole story then and there. Like her mamá always said, she was too stubborn for her own good.

Come to think of it, their inflexible pride was another thing that she and Daphne had in common.

“I didn’t mean to snoop,” Jeff went on, “but I was talking to Dr.Hale about on-campus housing for next quarter—”

“You’re going to live on campus?”

“I want to. Now that the League of Kings is over and Beatrice is heading back to the palace, I can be a normal college student,” he explained. As if he could ever be normal.

“I asked Dr.Hale if there were any rooms available in a building near yours. Not because—I mean, I didn’t assume that we would be…” He cursed under his breath and tried again. “I didn’t want to walk across campus every time I wanted to see you. I swear I wasn’t jumping to any conclusions about whether we would be, um…”

“It’s okay,” she cut in. His confusion was kind of endearing.

“But when Dr.Hale pulled up your student file, she saidyour enrollment for next quarter was still pending, that they were waiting on a tuition payment, since you were no longer eligible for financial aid.”

Nina sucked in a breath. “Jeff. You didn’t pay my tuition, did you?”

“No!” he insisted. “No, I tried to bring it up with you, and you dodged the topic but still seemed upset. So I called Dr.Hale and asked if she could look into your situation, find out why your financial aid was revoked. She called me back and explained that the whole thing had been a mistake.”

When Nina said nothing, Jeff’s hopeful expression faltered.

“I’m sorry. I really wasn’t trying to sweep in and…”

“And fix problems with money and status, the way you always do?”

“Yeah. That.”

He agreed so readily that she almost cracked a smile.

“I knew you’d hate it if I got involved, but I also know that you would hate dropping out of school even more. You’re so smart, Nina, and whatever happened with your aid, it clearly shouldn’t have happened in the first place.” Jeff hesitated, then added, “If it really was cut off by Gabriella’s father, then we should open a formal investigation. That’s a flagrant abuse of his position on the board of trustees.”

“I don’t want a formal investigation,” Nina said quickly. She just wanted this whole thing to be done with.

Jeff hesitated. “Are you angry?”

There were a million things Nina could have said, but she settled on the simplest. “I’m not angry. Thank you for helping.”

She still felt a little embarrassed that her family’s economic situation had been laid bare to Jeff—who had more money than he could ever hope to spend, whose family probably owned the land King’s College wasbuilton—but lookingat Jeff, she saw that he truly didn’t care. His eyes didn’t gleam with judgment, just concern.

“Okay, then,” Jeff said heavily. “I guess I need to go, um…handle things.”

Nina’s warmth evaporated. There was no getting around the fact that this would hurt Daphne.

Maybe if she was careful, and considerate, she could find a way to keep them both—Jeff and Daphne. She could give it some time post-breakup before going out with Jeff, make sure it didn’t seem like she was waiting in the wings to pounce on him. Maybe they could find someone else to set Daphne up with. Who knows, maybe Sam could introduce Daphne to some of her and Beatrice’s new European friends—Nina could see Daphne being very happy with a Baron vonSomething-or-other.

And someday everything would be forgiven, and they would all be at the Washingtons’ ski house, laughing about how it had all worked out for the best.