Page 91 of Forever Defiant
Fuck, what’s happened now?
“Close the door,” Coach snapped, and I did, hesitating when I saw the girl in the other seat. He sat behind his desk, glaring at all three of us. “The dean has something for you.” His glare shifted to the girl.
“What?” I looked between the three of them. She was slight, with dark hair — no, purple. Her black hair had a purple sheen to it. She was really pale and had huge eyes. She looked like an anime character, but not quite. She was looking at her phone with the focused disinterest of someone who’d been in exactly this kind of meeting before, onlyIdidn’t know what this kind of meeting was. “Who are you?”
Dean Cole harrumphed. “This is Briar Holmes.”
She looked up and offered me a small smile.
I knew for certain I hadn’t fucked her, so I didn’t know why I was here. “Hi?”
“Your recent—” the dean hesitated — “videodrew a lot of attention.”
“What?” What the fuck was he saying? What video? Cold dread washed over me. I glanced at Coach — oh shit, he was about to kill me. “The one with Had — the reporter?”
“Yes.” Dean Cole’s smile was thin and unamused. “It’s brought a lot of attention to you.”
I blinked. “What? Why?”
“Because every woman you never called back decided to comment on the fucking thing, calling you a dick, and now I have your womanizing rejects causing unnecessary drama,” Coach Sutherland snapped at me.
Was this real? I saw Dean Cole’s eyes close briefly at Sutherland’s rant.
I shook my head. “What is happening?” I looked at the girl. I’d already forgotten her name.
“Briar,” she murmured as if reading my mind. “You’re getting some negative attention on social media,” she said softly, her eyes downcast like she didn’t want the attention any more than I did. “I’m here to fix it.”
I looked between the three of them. “Shechasedmeacross the field. Why is this a negative thing for me?”
“I believe they’re calling it karma,” Dean Cole said primly.
I wasn’t hiding my confusion. “You fix this how?” I looked at Coach in alarm. “I don’t have to date her, do I?”
He gave me a flat look of displeasure.
“Miss Holmes is part of the social media marketing team,” Dean Cole said, pretending I’d never spoken. “She will shadow you and hopefully help clean up your social media image.”
“My image is fine.”
“Your image is a man who can’t keep his dick in his pants,” Coach Sutherland snapped. He glanced at Briar. “Hope bad language doesn’t offend you.”
She shrugged. “Not at all.”
Dean Cole spoke to me as if the interruptions hadn’t happened. “Miss Holmes will shadow you and the team for the rest of spring training and this semester. Hopefully, when you return next semester, all the fuss will be over.” He glancedat Coach Sutherland. “Bobby Ray. Try to keep this one in the building a little longer.”
He left the room. Coach Sutherland was on his feet, muttering about reporters hanging around his neck, and left me in the office with the goth girl. Only she wasn’t really a goth girl; she was just... what?
“What the fuck just happened?” I asked her.
Chapter 21
Hadley
Savannah Cole was a cool traveling companion.
That was genuinely surprising. Not because I doubted her as a person, but because the idea of Savannah and me being in the same room was alien. I didn’t move in her circle of friends, which I was learning fast; she didn’t really have any. I didn’t have friends because, well, as I told Savannah, people sucked.
I had a few friends. A handful from high school, ones I was happy to DM on Messenger, ones who never pushed for a meetup. I had a couple of exes I was still friendly with, but I never understood all the drama over an ex. If it wasn’t working, it wasn’t working. If they cheated, they obviously weren’t right for you.
