Page 47 of Running Play (Gods of Campus #1)

Shelby

I can smell dinner as Christian gestures for me to enter through the front door.

“This house is rarely locked,” he says, holding the door open.

“Feel free to come and go as you please but,” he pauses to look at me.

“Just a heads up, it’s probably in your own best interest that you make your presence known.

You never know who is walking around with no pants on,” he says, placing my bag in the foyer.

“Thanks for the tip.”

“Yeah—that’s what I’m trying to avoid you from seeing.”

“Gross.” I gesture back to him, following my crinkled nose into the kitchen.

Tonight, Christian is half right, my eyes do find two men in the kitchen, both with no shirts on.

Randy is dressed in white track pants with Adidas stripes running down the legs.

They hang loose off his hips as he stirs the meat on the stovetop with one hand and holds a beer in the other.

Seth sits at the kitchen bench grating cheese and shaking his head at something Randy just said.

“Shelby!” Randy says, spotting me entering the kitchen. He places his beer and spatula down and walks around the island and welcomes me in a big hug. “Welcome to the family, Shelby,” he leans back and looks down at me. “You’re one of us now,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows.

I can’t help but grin at his goofiness. “Umm, thanks,” I reply, my eyes darting around the room between Christian’s friends.

“Geez, don’t scare her,” Seth says, reaching for his beer.

“Me! Look at you. If we ripped off the Grim Reaper’s hood, you are what we would expect to find!” Randy says, turning back to the meal he is cooking.

Seth gives Randy the middle finger, while Christian gestures to the chair beside Seth. “Take a seat, I’m just going to take our bags up,” Christian says, smacking a kiss to my cheek. “Stay next to Seth, he will protect you.”

“Again, man.” Randy frowns. “I’m standing right here,” he says, throwing his arms out to the side and walking back over to the stove.

“She doesn’t need protecting; she kicked his butt this morning!” And I smile at any compliment I can get from Seth.

Christian gently squeezes my arm. “Do we have any drinks for Shelby left over from camping?”

Seth slides off his stool and opens the fridge.

“Yeah, there are some girly drinks in here,” he replies, grabbing one out and holding it up for me to view.

I give him a nod and the lid pops off easily with the smallest movement of his wrist. “You want a beer?” he asks Christian as he slides my drinks across the bench to me.

“Yeah,” Christian says, exiting the kitchen.

Seth grabs more beers out of the fridge, passing one to Randy and sliding one next to me for Christian.

“Anyway, Shelby, even though you’re family, it doesn’t mean I’m going to take it easy on you at our next match.” His back is to me as he adds garlic, bell peppers, and a red sauce to the pan.

“I wouldn’t want you to,” I say, taking my seat next to Seth. “But you do realize I’m winning, right?”

“I’ve done that on purpose. You know, to draw out the suspense,” he says, turning to look at me. “See, Shelby, I’m a showman; people are drawn to me on and off the field. I can’t help it. I need to give the people what they want, and what they want is entertainment!”

“So, you let me win on purpose to build suspense?”

Seth interjects. “No, he fucking didn’t. He was pissed off this morning and the whole time at training, so don’t you dare believe the shit he is spewing now!”

“Whatever, man,” he says, heading over to the fridge. “Walsh,” he yells.

“Yeah,” I hear back from the living room.

“You want a beer?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

Randy turns his head in Walsh’s direction. “ What about an apple martini for that chick flick you’re watching?”

“Whatever, man,” Walsh yells back.

Seth picks up a bottlecap from the bench and throws it and hits Randy in the back as he pulls some ingredients from the fridge. “Don’t be a dick,” Seth scowls.

“I’m just joking around, man,” Randy replies as he starts layering the lasagna.

“Seen the latest poll results for the bets on who is going to win?”

“No, I haven’t, what do they say?”

“Fifty-seven percent in my favor,” he says, looking up at me.

“It was higher than that yesterday, but after this morning you dropped,” Seth says as he slides the grated cheese over to Randy.

I notice uncut carrots, red onion, lettuce, and tomatoes for the salad are already on the table. “Do you want these cut up?” I point.

“Yes, please,” Randy says, opening the top drawer and passing me a knife.

I reach for the tomatoes and the chopping board that Seth slides down to me. “I can’t believe how many people are talking about it. Letti said there was over a thousand comments.”

“Two thousand when I checked it an hour ago,” Randy says, adding the cheese to the top of the lasagna, and I have to say it’s cute watching him put so much effort into doing it neatly.

Wow .

“Is there anything you don’t check out?” I ask.

He winks back at me, giving me an appreciative eye. “Nope.”

Seth picks up another bottlecap and throws it at Randy’s chest. It bounces off him and lands on top of the lasagna.

“Hey,” he says, plucking the cap from between the cheese. “Don’t ruin my masterpiece.”

“Don’t be a dick,” Seth mumbles.

“It’s my dick that causes me to check things out,” he shrugs.

I shake my head and smile at their back-and-forth antics as Christian returns to the kitchen. He wraps his arm around me and reaches for his beer with the other.

“Looks good,” he says, looking at the dinner Randy has whipped up.

“Checking out my lasagna. That’s right, you’re a guy…who can blame you,” he says as he looks at Seth with a smile, then turns and places it into the oven.

“Did I miss something?” he asks.

“Just typical Randy,” Seth answers.

Christian smiles and brings the bottle to his lips. “We don’t have enough alcohol in the house to touch on that subject,” he says.

***

Thirty minutes later, we are seated at the table and begin serving the lasagna, garden salad, and garlic bread. I watch in wonder as the boy’s pile, and I mean pile the lasagna onto their plates. I ascertain that the word ‘leftovers’ doesn’t get used much in this house.

“Oh, since we’re all here, I had a class with Jason today, and he wants to know where Seth wants to have his 21st party,” Randy says, turning his head to look at Seth.

“My birthday is next year,” Seth says, his face is devoid of emotion, and you can tell he would sooner not celebrate it.

“Yeah, we want to lock it in now. Next year’s calendar is filling up, man,” Randy states.

“You mean delegate some things,” Walsh adds.

“Hey,” Randy shrugs. “The Delta Theta Psi’s offered. They are doing a beach theme because Seth was born in Florida. When they mentioned that I was like, hell yeah, let’s get this bikini orgy booked in.”

“Can we keep it small?”

“Small?” Christian raises an eyebrow. “Since when has any Raptor’s 21st at this university been small?”

Randy shovels more food into his mouth. “So, where do you want the party?”

He shrugs, breaking the last of his garlic bread in half. “Here, I guess. Maybe it’ll stay smaller that way.”

Randy sets his glass on the table. “Done. I’ll let Jason know. But you need to let go of the idea that this is going to be small,” he adds.

Christian turns to me. “Speaking of making plans, I’ve been meaning to ask if you wanted to come to Thanksgiving at my parents’ place?”

Walsh whistles.

Meeting the parents and my first-ever Thanksgiving all rolled into one. Suddenly I feel all eyes on me. Geez, no pressure. “Oh, you don’t have to ask me because you feel bad that I will be sitting at home alone. Letti has invited me to her dad’s place,” I say, adjusting in my seat.

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m asking because I want to,” he cuts in.

“You’re my girlfriend and I want you to come.

” Randy snickers from the kitchen and Christian glares over my shoulder at him.

“Plus,” he says, looking at me, “you have already met fifty percent of my family. You’re halfway there, so might as well meet the rest.”

“The scary part?”

“My parents are awesome,” he adds. “Don’t worry, they’ll love you.”

“His parents are actually really cool, Shelby.” I flick my eyes to Walsh, and he shoots me an encouraging smile. Seth sits at the end of the table, not giving me anything.

“Well…I would really like that, thank you,” I say as he leans toward me and presses a quick kiss to my lips. Another big milestone to tick off, meeting the parents.

***

After cleaning up, we grab some water bottles and head into the living room. Seth sits in the recliner, Randy is laid out on the floor, and Christian, Walsh, and I share the sofa.

“We could watch a classic like The Matrix ? What are you into, Shelby?” Randy asks, eyes still glued to the Netflix menu as his thumb lazily flicks through the options.

“Oh, I’m fine,” I reply, not wanting them to change what they would usually watch.

“Just tell me your favorite genre then.”

Luckily my taste in movies isn’t very girly, so that’s probably good in this situation. “Umm, well, I do love horror.”

“ Annabelle ?” Walsh says, pointing it out on the screen.

“Everyone good with that?” Randy asks. “No objections heard. All done? Going once, twice. Good. Sold!” he says, placing the remote down beside him.

I lean back into Christian, careful to place my body on the opposite side of his bruised ribs. He presses a kiss to my temple, and I realize I could sit like this in his protective arms for the rest of my life.

Actually, I’ll probably need his protection because I’ve heard this movie is full of jump scares.