Coaching the Nerd (Nerds Vs Jocks #2) - Eli Easton Page 0,93

Rand manages to keep up the ALA asshole quotient all by himself.”

“Go away, Jax,” Rand gritted out.

“Hey! I’m on the Quiz Bowl team too,” said PJ, taking another student’s money. “So, show up to support me.”

Bubba shrugged. “Okay. Let’s go to support PJ too. So does that mean you’ll be at the flag final May first, PJ?”

“Are you kidding, man?” said PJ. “I’ve got a hell of a lot riding on this. Of course I’ll be in Omaha. I wanna see that game with my own eyeballs.”

As, apparently, would tons of Madison students, judging from the ticket sales. Which was unprecedented since neither event was close by. The next few weeks were going to be fascinating. But for now, I’d seen enough. I tugged on Bubba’s arm. “Come on. We have places to go and things to do.”

“We do?” Bubba sounded surprised.

I just gave him a heated look. Oh, yes. We really did.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Bubba

I adjusted the decorative pillow on the left side of my bed, stood back, looked, and then moved it to the center.

Maybe I should have bought two new pillows.

I smoothed out the bedspread, turned, and straightened a stack of notebooks on the desk.

Then I was out of stuff to pretend needed doing.

I snorted and balanced on the edge of my study chair. He’s just coming over for a little while. Come on. It’s like any day.

Nothing in me believed that. At the union, when Sean had told me he wanted to come over, there’d been something about his voice, like a combination of excitement and determination. Plus, a lot of the house was out right now, and Sean knew that. He’d run back to his house to get something, but he’d be here any minute.

I was thrilled Sean was recovering so well, but I still worried about him. The trouble was, every time I closed my eyes, I saw the guy I loved lying in a crumbled heap on the grass, and I freaked out. I’d resisted his cute overtures because I didn’t wanna put his neck in a weird position. But, man, it was tough to hold firm—and not to hold Sean.

I’d left the door to my room ajar, and now I heard the doorbell ring downstairs. My heart gave a little jump, and I hurried out. I was halfway down the steps when I heard DeWan saying, “Yo, Sean, my man. How the hell are you?”

By the time I got to the entry, DeWan had escorted Sean into the living room. Only Rex and JC were around, the three of them playing video games.

DeWan had his big arm around Sean’s shoulders below the neck brace and was saying, “So tell JC how Tray blew his throw totally, and you rushed in and saved the day and won the game.”

Rex waved his arms. “Yeah, and then some major ass from another team practically kills you in a game where nobody’s supposed to get hurt. Total bullshit. The ref should have given that guy more than a penalty.”

DeWan brandished a fist. “Yeah, he should have gotten fifteen to life, man.”

Sean was blushing but obviously happy.

JC eyed the brace. “Shit, man. Does it hurt?”

Sean made a seesaw gesture with his hand. “It did at first. Not so much now.” He pushed his glasses up and rolled his eyes. “Only I could test new theories of aerodynamics while playing what is presumably a noncontact sport.”

Everyone laughed. “Well, you’re all right for a little dude,” DeWan said. He looked over at me. “Have fun shopping, yo.”

“Thank God Bubba’s room ain’t above this one, that’s all I can say,” Rex muttered, picking back up the video controller.

I was absolutely not blushing as we clomped up the stairs to my room. Funny I was so nervous when we were probably just going to study.

When we got to my door, Sean opened it and stepped back to let me cross in first. I was so big and the room so small, I kind of had to establish my space before anyone else, even little Sean, could fit in.

As I again adjusted my notebooks on the desk, I heard the very loud click of the lock on my door. I turned and swallowed hard at Sean’s bright eyes and firm jaw. I said, “Uh, what exactly is our big project?”

He took a step toward me and held up a brown paper bag. He gave me a smile that grew from a turn-up of his lips to bright teeth. “The fifth item from the list