Leo narrowed his eyes on his friend, though his mouth was tipped up. “I always knew you had to be a kinky bastard.”
I waited for Lincoln to laugh, but his attention had shifted to the other side of the room. Turning my head, I found Violet standing on the inside of the door, looking as timid as ever. Her insanely long, blonde hair hung in a complicated braid down her back, and her oversized, black-framed glasses were perched on her delicate nose.
When she caught sight of me, her shoulders sagged in relief, and she started my way. Her limp didn’t seem as pronounced as it had in the past. But maybe I’d just gotten used to it.
Before she made it to us, Lincoln jumped up and made an excuse about getting a drink before disappearing. I glanced at Leo, but he just shrugged and gave me a kiss that was only slightly longer than appropriate for public. “I’ll let you two talk. Need or want anything?”
“Nope, I’m good.”
“Okay. Yell if you change your mind.”
I wanted to roll my eyes at him for hovering, but I couldn’t blame him after the events of the day. Besides, I liked knowing he cared.
He said a warm hello to Violet before making his way to the kitchen. She sat in the spot he’d vacated and shook her head as she watched him walk away. “I still can’t believe you’ve managed to tame the Leo Sharpe.”
“What makes you think I’ve tamed him?” She lifted her eyebrows, as though to ask if I was serious, and I laughed. “Okay, even I have to admit that he’s not the same guy I re-met a couple of months ago.”
“Re-met?”
Oh, right. I’d never explained my connection to the Sharpes, and she’d never asked. With the way gossip traveled around campus, it rather surprised me that everyone didn’t know by now. But I’d only told Petra the whole story, and the guys must not have said anything either.
“We knew each other when we were kids,” I explained, not particularly wanting to go into more detail. Violet and I were still on shaky ground in the trust department. I wanted to be able to confide in her, but I wasn’t sure we were there yet. Maybe if we could make it a month or two more without her dumping me again.
Her eyes widened a bit. “I didn’t realize.”
“Yeah, well, it was a long time ago.”
I changed the subject to our Western Civ group assignment. Violet might not be comfortable in a room full of football players, but she was in her element talking about schoolwork.
I was the one who had trouble focusing. My gaze kept straying around the room. Tristin was playing bartender tonight and appeared more at ease than I would have expected. He’d made himself a loner by choice these last few months, but he hadn’t always been that way. Little by little, he was reminding me of the boy I’d known all those years ago. Not the life of the party or a wallflower but something in between.
What I found more surprising was the rather serious conversation Tobias seemed to be having with Lincoln and one of the other guys who lived at the football house. I couldn’t imagine what they could have to talk about beyond rival sports teams.
The couch filled in around me and Violet as the game on TV got more exciting, sparing me from having to carry on more conversation. I probably shouldn’t have invited my shy friend, because I wasn’t in the mood to fake normalcy. But the football guys made faking it easier. They naturally entertained with their good-natured bickering, and I even caught Violet laughing at some of their antics.
I’d finally decided that I would survive this evening unscathed when Lincoln plopped down beside me again. “Will you please convince Tobi that he should move into the football house next semester?”
“Tobi?” I asked before his full sentence registered.
“Yeah. Tobias is a little stuffy, don’t you think?”
“Wait a minute.” I looked past Lincoln, searching for Tobias over his shoulder. He was standing in the entrance to the kitchen, a stricken look on his face. “He goes to school in Kansas. Why would he move into the football house?”
Lincoln said something about one of the guys moving in with his girlfriend, but my attention was now fully on my best friend of the last eight years as he slowly approached. Once he was by my side, he said, “We need to