bums will ever know. So you all better bring your A game.”
When we got up to our room, Jax and I both used the bathroom and stripped down to our T-shirts and underwear. He checked his phone while I sat on my bed, staring at the ceiling. Fuck, being that cheerful had been hard. I felt like shit.
“Wanna talk about it?” Jax asked me.
“Nope.” I popped the p for emphasis.
“Okay. Look, I just wanna say—you’re the best team captain I’ve ever seen. You’ve got nothing to feel bad about. Jesse bailing is on him, not you.”
That did help a little. “Thanks.”
“Wanna practice?”
I should—if only for Jax’s sake. He hadn’t been attending meetings. But Jax was a grown-ass man and a killer Quiz Bowl player. He was perfectly capable of brushing up on his own.
“Actually I think I wanna go to sleep,” I said. “We have an early day tomorrow, and I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
The memory of why that was—the night with Jesse at the hotel, and then getting up early to the Rex-ocalypse—made me cringe. Had that really only been that morning?
“Yeah, get some sleep,” Jax agreed. “Good idea.”
I dug a couple of Quiz Bowl decks out of my backpack and tossed them to him. Then I curled up under the covers, pulled the scratchy bleach-scented sheet over my head, and waited for this shitastic day to be over.
We drove over to the swanky Marriott, hosting the sectionals the next morning, getting there by seven thirty. There was a breakfast buffet for participants, and being ravenous college students, we had to jump all over that shit. Quiz Bowl check-in would be from eight to ten, and the first meet started at ten thirty. We had a match in the first round, so Sai was freaking out about getting us checked in as early as possible. And that was fine by me. I didn’t need the stress of running late on top of everything else.
I was digging into my oatmeal and half-listening to Billings and Johnson complain about being kept up late by noisy neighbors when the table fell silent. I glanced up and about had a heart attack.
Jesse Knox stood at the table, looking at me. His hair was mussed, and he had dark circles under his eyes. His hands were stuffed in the pockets of his letter jacket.
“Hey,” Jesse said nervously, glancing around the table. “I’m sorry to show up last minute. Did I make it in time?” His voice was strained.
“No,” I said sharply. “Since you fucked off and I had no idea what you were doing, Jax is already assigned to take your place. So—”
Jax interrupted. “Dobbs. Wait.”
I looked at him, giving him the stink eye too. Poor Jax.
“We haven’t registered yet. Jesse’s still on the roster. This is good. This means no hassle with Dean Robberts,” Jax said.
Traitor.
My stink eye ramped up several fold. Jax winced, but he continued to stare at me, raising one brow. It said, Come on, Dobbs. I know you’re not stupid.
Despite my stubborn anger, I could see he had a point.
I folded my arms across my chest and glared at Jesse. “PJ said you went home to Iowa. You just decide to swan in now, no explanation?”
“Yeah, good luck with that, bro” PJ said.
“I tried to call yesterday,” Jesse said. “To explain. Didn’t you get the message?”
I blinked at him. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so quick on the Delete button.
He ran a hand through his hair. He looked like a mile of road rash. Well, if the road rash had started out as good-looking as Jesse Knox. “Can I talk to you, Dobbs? Please?”
All the other guys were watching us.
“I’m guessing that’s a no,” snarked PJ.
“Dude. Too late. Don’t let him in,” Felix muttered sourly, shooting Jesse a disgusted look.
“He’s been practicing with us, and Jax hasn’t,” said Sai, pushing up his glasses.
I ignored them all and stood, shoving my chair back hard enough for it to squeak. I followed Jesse from the room.
The buffet was in a conference room, so we stepped into a wide hallway with carpeting and that low sconce hotel lighting. There were Quiz Bowl people milling around, but we found a quiet few feet of rug not far from the door.
“Look, I was mad, and I deleted your call.” I sighed. “So, what did you say?”
Jesse stuck his hands in his pockets again like maybe they were cold. “Yesterday morning, Eli called me. He started having an asthma attack on the phone.