Closer to Duke. I feel my jaw twitch. Closer to Lawrence. Lawrence, who’s still the star quarterback for the Blue Devils. Fuck that guy.
“I ran into Dr. Elsa,” Mav says before I get a chance to ask how he knows that.
“When?”
“When I went to speak to my academic advisor.” He looks at me with a raised brow. “I asked about Misty and Jo and she filled me in. They’ve been going through some shit after their grandfather died.”
“Right.” I look away. My brothers attended the funeral. I chose to stay in New York drowning my sorrows over my shoulder in a bottle of Macallan and random pussy.
“Look, you can either stay mad because she chose Lawrence over you or you can let it go and start over. Either way, you’re not going to be able to avoid each other anymore.”
“We’ll see.” My lips purse.
Every time Lawrence is mentioned, the sour taste in my mouth returns. It’s not just that she picked him over me, it’s that Lawrence and I have been in competition most of our lives, and even though it was friendly before, it felt personal when he made the moves on Josephine. The fact that she let him, that she fell for his southern charm, is what really kills me. Not that I’d ever admit that to her.
Chapter Five
Jo
“I think that’s it, right?” Misty asks. “You don’t have much. I’m kind of surprised.”
“The place is furnished. Besides, I dropped the rest of my stuff back at Mom and Dad’s.”
“Did you pick your room?” She sets down the bags in the living room and shuts the door as I set the bags in my hands down as well.
“Not yet.”
“I already picked.” Jagger’s voice booms from the hallway.
He runs a hand through his thick hair as he walks over to us, wearing a baby blue UNC Athletics T-shirt and basketball shorts. I try not to give him the pleasure of catching me checking him out.
“Hey, Jag,” Misty says beside me. “I heard you got lucky and were paired to live with my favorite sister.”
“Your only sister,” I add.
“You mean she got lucky.” He raises an eyebrow and walks over to Misty pulling her into a quick hug. “You moved back? I thought you decided to take a year off to travel?”
“Have you met my dad?” She shoots him a look that makes him laugh. “That was short-lived. I only took one semester off before starting. I’ve been at Duke for a while now.”
“Duke?” Jagger groans. “Why?”
Misty laughs. “I guess it was my way of getting back at my parents. Like, yeah, I’ll go to school, but it’s going to be the one you don’t approve of as much.”
“Gutsy.” Jagger grins. “So what are you studying? Something in the medical field?”
“Journalism, actually.” She laughs. “I know. I know. Everyone thought I’d be a nurse or something.”
“Journalism? Nice. I bet my mom would be glad to offer you a job at the magazine.”
“I’ve thought about interning there, actually. I’ll have to see how next summer looks.” She moves closer and nudges me. “Jo’s the one with the perfect GPA. Dad wants her to go to med school instead of PA school.”
“She always was a huge nerd.” Jagger’s eyes dance as he looks over at me.
“Yeah, okay.” I roll my eyes. “I’m going to go pick my room.”
“I already told you, I picked for you.”
“That’s not how this works. You see why this is impossible?” I look at my sister and move past Jagger and make my way down the hall. “As it is, we have to share a freaking bathroom.”
“We shared a tub when we were kids,” he says, his voice close behind me. “Remember?”
“Unfortunately.” I shut my eyes.
This is a mistake. I just broke up with my boyfriend, which means I definitely should not be feeling this way when another man speaks to me, but here I am, heart pounding in my throat, hands sweaty.
“I picked this room for you, by the way.” His voice is still too near, too deep, too seductive, and I know him, he’s not even trying to get to me, this is him without turning up the charm at all.
I take a deep breath and look around the room. It’s nice enough. Queen-size bed, television, closet, dresser. I turn around and nearly slam right into his chest, which is exactly at eye level with me since I’m wearing flats and he’s a giant. I crane my neck to meet his eyes.
“Excuse me. I want to see your room.”
“Go right ahead.” He moves out of the way and follows me to the room across the hall.
Like, right across the hall. Literally two steps away since the hall is so narrow. I let out a laugh as I push the door open. It’s the same exact layout as the other room, but this bed is bigger and takes up a lot more of the room. He has three open bags, two on the floor and one on the bed, and clothes everywhere already, which makes me wonder how much time he beat me back here by.