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Home / YA/TEEN / Off-Side Love With My Best Friend's Brother / Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

All Chapters of Off-Side Love With My Best Friend's Brother : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

65 Chapters

Chapter 31

Dani’s POVShe ran.One second she was right there, water dripping from her lashes, cheeks flushed and her lips parted like she wanted to say something, and then Ross came downstairs and broke whatever spell that had settled over us, and then she bolted. Climbed to it and wrapped her towel around herself and disappeared through the sliding doors without looking back.I stayed in the water for a long moment, staring at the space she’d left behind.“Too fast, I moved too damn fast,” I mumbled to myself.After everything that had happened yesterday, Blake, the police station, the hospital, the stitches behind her ears, I was out here pulling her into the pool and brushing her hair out of her face like we were in some movie. Like she wasn't in pain from her injuries.I pulled myself out of the pool and grabbed the towel from the lounge chair. Sat down on the wooden bench by the fence, water still dripping from my hair.The back door slid open a few seconds later.“What happened?” Ross sto

Chapter 32

Wren’s POVI closed the bedroom door, pressed my back against it, and stood there for a full minute.The sounds from Dani’s room had stopped by the time I stepped into the hallway. But I'd heard enough before that. The door wasn't fully shut. The voice that wasn't mine.I pushed off the door and crossed to my bed and lay down on top of the covers, staring at the ceiling“Playboy.” The word settled into my chest like something I’d always known but let myself forget for one stupid, unguarded afternoon. That was Dani. That had always been Dani. Girls in and out of his life like revolving doors, never staying, never meaning anything, because nothing ever had to mean anything to him.I thought about what happened at the pool.I squeezed my eyes shut.It meant nothing. The kiss we almost had meant nothing. His hand brushing my wet hair from my face meant nothing. The way he’d looked at me in the water like I was the only thing worth looking at absolutely, meant nothing.I grabbed my phone

Chapter 33

Wren’s POVMy alarm went off at six forty-five and I was already half awake, staring at the ceiling.I slipped from my bed and grabbed my phone, opened Spotify, picked up the loudest playlist, and went to brush my teeth.The music helped, I felt almost like a person again. I turned on the bathroom shower and waited.Nothing came out right. The pressure sputtered, dropped to a trickle, then died completely. I stared at the shower head as it had personally wronged me.“Are you serious right now?”I wrapped a towel and went downstairs.Ross was already in the kitchen, which shouldn’t have surprised me. He was cracking eggs into a bowl when I appeared in the doorway, hair still wrapped, playlist still running from my phone in my hand.“Good morning.” I walked over to him and hugged him.“Good morning.” He replied.“The shower is broken,” I announced.He looked up. “Which one?”“Mine.”“Yeah, the pressure’s been off on that side of the house. I keep meaning to call someone.” He tilted his

Chapter 34

Dani’s povI saw her the second I stepped onto campus.She was walking with Anna near the east entrance, head tilted back, laughing at something, her hair loose around her shoulders. The mini skirt. The same one from this morning that had made me stand in the kitchen with my arms crossed like some kind of idiot while she looked straight through me and ate her eggs.She’d used my body wash. I’d noticed it the second she came downstairs. Didn’t say anything. Couldn’t.I was still thinking about it.“Dani.”I turned.Sienna was walking toward me from the parking lot, bag over her shoulder. She stopped in front of me and tilted her head.“You didn’t call,” she said.“I know.”“Not even a text.” She crossed her arms. “You called me someone else’s name and then let me walk out and didn’t say a word.”“Sienna, I’m sorry. What happened was…”“I’m not here for the apology.” She cut me off, but not angrily. “I’m telling you I’ve forgiven you. People have off nights.” She shrugged one shoulder.

Chapter 35

Chapter 35Wren’s POVThe car rolled to a stop in the driveway and I had my door open before he cut the engine.“Wren.” “I’m tired, Dani.”“Two minutes.”I stopped with one foot on the pavement. The night air hit my face, cool and sharp. I turned back.“Why did you go out with him?” His hands were still on the steering wheel. “You don’t even know him.”I laughed, short and humourless. “I know him enough.”“You met him two days ago.” “And I’ve known you for years.” I held his gaze. “Look how much good that’s done me.”I got out and he followed, coming around the front of the car faster than I expected.“That’s not fair.”“No?” I turned around fully. “You walked into my dinner, Dani. You threw a punch at someone who hasn’t done a single thing to you and then tried to drag me out like I was something that belonged to you.” I kept my voice low. “Don’t talk to me about fairness. Don’t you have one of your girls to call? Go bother one of them.”“Wait a minute, did you follow us to the res

Chapter 36

Wren’s POVThe hallway kept moving around us like we weren’t standing in the middle of it.I looked at Theo, at the bruise along his jaw, and my brain couldn't stop replaying the question.I thought about what Dani had told me yesterday.I pushed it down.“I…” I started, then stopped. Tried again. “Theo, I don't really know you. Like, properly know you.”“You know me enough to have dinner with me.“Dinner is different from…”“From what?”“From whatever this is. A relationship. That’s a different thing entirely.He studied me for a moment, not offended. Just watching like he had all the time in the world.“What do you actually know about me?” he asked. “Right now.”I blinked. “What?”“Tell me what you know.”“Theo…”“Humour me.”I exhaled. “You’re in Professor Dale’s English lit class. Back row, left side. You noticed my presentation on unreliable narrators. You drive a dark blue car. You open doors. You stepped between me and someone who was making me uncomfortable without being asked

Chapter 37

Wren’s povThe office went very quiet.I looked at the folder on the desk. His name was printed neatly at the top of the page. At the grades underneath it, the warning letter, and the deadline sitting three weeks out.“Professor Hale…”“Think carefully before you respond,” she said. “This matters to him. But it would also look very good for you.”I pressed my lips together. Sat back and stared at the ceiling for exactly one second.“I…” I stopped and started again. “That’s a significant task, professor.”“I’m aware of that.”“We live together. If it doesn’t work…”“Academic tutoring rarely fails when both parties have something real at stake,” she said evenly.“Dani’s motivation is his place on the team. Yours would involve the additional credit hours this arrangement carries for your academic portfolio.“Does he… know about this?”“Yes, he does, I told him this morning.”“You said I don’t have to decide right now.”“I did say that.” She reached across and drew the folder back. “Think

Chapter 38

Dani’s POVI saw her before I should have.We were twenty minutes into the drill and somehow my eyes found her anyway. Up in the stands, sitting on the bench near the middle, one leg crossed over the other, phone in hand.My feet stuttered on the next turn.“Calloway.” Coach’s whistle. “Again.”I reset and ran it again.Ryan fell into step beside me on the recovery lap, breathing easy, which was annoying. He didn’t say anything for the first half of the loop. Then, without looking at me directly,“You’ve looked up there four times in the last ten minutes.”“I’m aware of the stands. It’s called spatial awareness.”“Is that what we’re calling it?” He wasn’t asking. “Have you talked to her? Actually talked to her?”I kept my eyes forward. “About what?”“About the fact that you walked into a restaurant and threw a punch at another man over her.” He paused. “That’s usually the kind of thing you follow up on.”“I apologised.”“To her.”“Yes.”“Not to him.”I didn’t answer that.Ryan glanced

Chapter 39

Wren’s POVThe doorbell pulled me out of sleep.Once. Twice. Then continuously.I lay on my back and stared at the ceiling.Footsteps in the hallway. Ross’s door. Ross on the stairs, moving fast.Then his voice as he opened the door, stripped of its composure, “Get the hell away from this door.”A beat of silence.“I said get out. Now. Before I make a decision I won’t regret.”The doorbell stopped.More silence. Then the sound of the front door closing, not slammed but close, and Ross’s footsteps coming back up the stairs. I heard him stop on the landing for a moment, then his door.I lay there for another few minutes, looking at the ceiling, before I got up.Dani was in the kitchen when I came downstairs. Ross was nowhere visible, which probably meant he’d gone back to bed. I pulled my hair over one shoulder and looked at Dani.“Who was at the door?”He was at the stove, moving things around in a pan. He glanced over his shoulder. “Blake.”The word landed flat and specific. I stood w

Chapter 40

Dani POVThe house was quiet after Wren left.I sat at the counter for another minute, finishing what was left on my plate. The way she’d said ‘I’ll do it’ across the counter like she was placing something down carefully and watching to see if I’d handle it right.I rinsed my plate and went upstairs.Ross’s door was half-open. I knocked on the frame.He was sitting on the edge of his bed, elbows on his knees, staring at the middle distance with an expression I couldn’t read.“You have class today?” I asked.He looked up. “No. Free day.” He studied me for a second. “You’ve got a game.”“This afternoon. Training first.” I leaned against the doorframe. “You good?”“I will be.” He said it in the way that meant ‘don’t push’ and I understood it because I spoke the same language. “Go. Don’t be late.”“I’m never late.”He gave me a look that very specifically disagreed with that statement.“I’m rarely late,” I amended.I took the motorcycle. The campus roads were quiet enough at this hour tha

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