Page 95 of Touchdown, Tennessee

Seeing Peachel all dressed up.

Gray: I like what I see.

Andrew: Hope you’re ready.

I’ll be there to pick you up in fifteen.

Growing up being trained as a petty thief means that you never stopnoticingexpensive things when they surround you.

Turns out that when you walk into a formal party for college athletes, you don’t have to scan the room to notice wealth.

Because it’severywhere.

It screams out at you.

“Thisis not a college party,” I said as I walked into the grand ballroom of the hotel. “This is fucking regal.”

Out front, there had been complimentary valet service for my Evo, which I turned down. I was able to park twenty feet away, even without the damn valet.

I liked driving my own car. End of story.

I knew exactly how easy it would be to steal a car from a spacey valet guy, and I wasn’t going to give my keys to anybody.

We were in a town called Cedarmarch about forty minutes outside of Bestens.

When I glanced at Andrew, I could tell he felt the same way I did, for once.

“The boys told me it was going to be good, but I didn’t know it was going to bethisgood,” he said, staring all around at the lavish ballroom. “I didn’t know this existed anywhere in a hundred mile radius of TNU.”

“Cedarmarch is small but wealthy. One of the professors I wrote an article about last year lives out here.”

Music floated through the air. The live band was already set up at the far end of the ballroom, playing lively jazzy renditions of modern songs. The whole room seemed to shimmer with the decorations, and the place was already packed with people in suits and dresses, carrying cocktails in their hands.

“Holy shit, the bar,” Andrew said.

“Calling that a bar is an insult to it,” Luke said from behind us, coming up with a dazed look on his face. “It’s a mile long and looks like it’s made of solid gold.”

“So all of the other people attending are from other Tennessee schools?” I asked. “Other football teams?”

My gaze drifted over all of them. The amount of money people in here had spent on suits was more than I’d ever seen in my life.

The observer in me found it fascinating.

Thechildin me wanted to take a flamethrower to the whole room.

“Yeah. The people in here are athletes of all kinds, and their plus-ones,” Andrew said.

A guy walked by and for a split second I swore it was a young Leonardo DiCaprio.

“Dapper as fuck,” Luke said under his breath, watching him practically float by. “Did you see that Rolex?”

I bit the inside of my cheek. “Wasn’t a Rolex, actually.”

“No shit? What was it?”

“Patek Philippe Aquanaut,” I said. “That thing is worth at least fifteen grand. Probably more, if it’s a rarer one.”

“You know your watches, bro,” Luke said, giving me a pat on the back before bopping off toward the bar with a little salute.