Page 84 of Forever Defiant
“You hooked up with Dante Spence.”
She grinned. “Exactly.”
And somehow, despite that, I found myself thinking I could trust her. What weird witchery was this?
I looked over at her suspiciously. “I think you’re full of it.”
She burst out laughing, and I eventually joined in. I was stuck in the car with her, so I did what I did best. I embraced the situation and waited to see how it played out.
“You want to be my feature review for my class?” I asked her, surprising myself more than her.
“Tell me more.”
“I shadow you, see your day-to-day, find out the person behind the persona of the dean’s daughter.”
Savannah pursed her lips. “I get to see it first?”
“If you want.”
She nodded. “Sounds fun.”
It did. I looked at her, and she looked back, not bothering to hide her amusement. “Is this a test?” I asked her suspiciously.
“Nope. It’s the start of a beautiful friendship.” She looked hesitant once more. “I was so lost until I met Dante. Honestly, I feel like I’ve become the person I was meant to be, and that person makes friends and tells those friends they’ll be their feature for an assignment.” She flushed a little, and it was easy to see her sincerity.
“QB10 had this effect on you?” I asked her doubtfully. “Mr. Grumpy and Judgmental?”
Savannah laughed loudly. “He can be, but yes, he did. He’s amazing.” She rolled her eyes slightly at my disbelieving look. “And a control freak, but you know, I never said he was perfect.”
“Pretty sure you were trying to persuade me he was.” I thought about it. “It’s good you see he has flaws.”
She didn’t argue, just turned to look out the window.
Her phone rang, and she looked down at it, her frown instant. “Shit. I forgot to tell Dante that I kidnapped you.” She gave me a bright smile. “Well, here goes nothing.” She answered the phone. “Hey, how was training?”
Savannah Cole may be as fearless as I was.
Interesting.
Chapter 20
Dustin
I’d just finished a brutal set of routes — the kind the coaches called ‘conditioning’ and the rest of us called ‘punishment for existing’ — when Dante flagged me down near the sideline.
Spring training had started in earnest, and it was tough. I was ready for it; the team was ready for it — new play calls, redshirts coming off the bench, trying to prove why they deserved to play, injured players trying to convince the coaches they were healed.
It was a fun time.
I jogged over to Dante, a player whose spot was secure. He wasn’t out here to convince anyone of anything. Even from here, he looked... off. Not panicked, but the quarterback version of ‘locked in,’ which meant something was wrong.
“What now?” I asked, wiping sweat off my forehead. He didn’t answer immediately, which was never a good sign. “Spit it out,” I said.
He exhaled. “Hadley and Sav left campus.”
“Hadley and Savvy?” I stilled. “Left, as in . . . ?”
“Left,” he repeated. “I’m not certain, but I think...” He frowned. “I think my girlfriend hijacked Hadley’s trip.”
