"Madison Kate, this is Ella. She wanted to... meet you." The odd hesitation in his phrasing made me pause, and I quirked a brow at him. He just gave me a sheepish smile, though, and rubbed the back of his neck.
Totally confused, I gave the girl a smile. "Hi, Ella."
Her eyes grew wider, if that was even possible, making her look younger. Too young to be a student at SGU, at any rate. Her bleached blonde hair was cut in a messy bob with a heavy fringe touching her mascara-coated lashes, and there was something vaguely familiar about her face.
"H-hi. Oh my gosh," Ella gasped like she was meeting a celebrity or some shit. "Wow. It's really you. When Bark said he knew you, I was like, nuh-uh, no way, but then Dad said Bark wasn't lying, and I figured if I came by here, maybe I'd see you for myself and, oh my god. You're so pretty in person. So much prettier than when you were on TV. For the record, I never believed those charges against you, Madison Kate. Never. I can't believe it ever went to trial." She was verbal vomiting, but I wouldn't have known what to say even if she had stopped for a breath.
As it was, her stream of babble cut off when Bark clapped a hand over her mouth and gave me an apologetic grimace.
"Sorry about her," he said, ignoring Ella's muffled protests from behind his huge hand. "You met her, okay? Now go home. Mom will be worried."
The vague familiarity of her face clicked into place. She looked like Bark and Professor Barker. She must be his little sister.
"It was so, so nice meeting you," Ella gushed when Bark released her mouth once more. "Oh my god, wait ‘til my friends hear about this." She let out a little squeal of excitement, then—after a pointed glare from her brother—rushed across the lot to where a little white convertible was parked.
"Sorry about her," Bark apologized when she drove away with a huge wave.
"Little sister?" I asked, and he nodded. "And I'm guessing those girls you were talking about when we met the other day..."
He grimaced and nodded again. "Yeah. Sorry. Ella was one of your biggest supporters during the trial. Our mom only just convinced her to dye her hair back to blonde a couple of months ago."
I frowned, biting my lip while I thought. It was a bit flattering, I guessed? I’d had no idea that anyone was on my side during the trial, and I'd left for Cambodia almost the second I'd been released. Then again, Kody's girlfriend calling me goat the other day had implied everyone believed in my innocence... just in a less flattering way.
"Don't worry about it," I told Bark. "I'm just glad she didn't have a phone to take selfies like I'm some kind of pop star."
He cracked an amused smile, agreeing. The university's no-phones rule had actually worked in my favor this week. It meant no one had photographic evidence of my little juice-covered strip tease, otherwise I had no doubt that shit would have been all over the damn internet by now.
Instead, it was good old-fashioned gossip and rumor mill until we collected our phones at the gate on our way home each day.
"Well, anyway," Bark said, turning the full force of his flirtatious charm back up, "I wanted to see if we were still on for tonight? I didn't manage to get your number the other day, and you ran out of Crim too fast for me to grab you yesterday."
We only had that class twice a week, and apparently it was the only one Bark and I shared. I'd bolted as soon as the lecture was over because I wanted to avoid having this exact conversation with him.
"Tonight?" I repeated. "Uh, I kinda figured you'd changed your mind on that." Or Archer had scared you off with his macho bullshit the other day.
Bark flashed a cocky, self-assured grin. "No way, babe. I was just biding my time."
Something about the way he called me babe made my skin crawl. Strange how the same word sounded so very different coming from Kody.
"I guessed if I chased you too hard around campus, I'd be risking Archer giving me a more physical incentive to steer clear. You know that guy is a professional MMA fighter? No offense, Madison Kate, but I don't want to get in a fight with him."
I stifled a sigh. "Yeah, I'd heard."
"So, tonight?" Bark pushed, and I found myself nodding. It wasn't like I had anything else to do, so why not? Bree had mandatory family dinners with her grandmother on Fridays, so unless I suddenly made other friends at SGU, I'd be stuck at home all night. The risk that one of the three guys would be there? Too high. Suffering through a shitty movie with Bark was far more appealing.
"Cool." He grinned. "I'll pick you up around eight?"
I gave another nod, seeing Bree coming from across the lot. "Sure. You need my address?"
Bark laughed. "You're funny, Madison Kate. Catch you later."
He walked away, still chuckling, and I wrinkled my nose at his back.
"Weird," I muttered, shaking it off as Bree clicked the doors to her car unlocked, and I slid into the passenger seat a beat ahead of her in the driver’s side.
She arched a brow at me and looked pointedly at Bark's retreating back. "Did I just see the SGU Ghosts quarterback chatting you up, MK?"
I smirked. "Maybe. Got time to help me pick a date outfit before you're due at Nanna Grave's?"
Bree's jaw dropped, then she squealed with excitement as we peeled out of the parking lot.
13
At about ten to eight, after ignoring Steele knocking on my door to say dinner was ready, I made my way downstairs to wait for Bark. It wasn't exactly a date that I was getting butterflies over, but it'd be nice to do something normal. It'd just been so long since I'd been out with a guy who was even remotely interested in me as a woman, seeing as Aunt Maria had lived in an all-female community.
"Is there a party we weren't invited to?" Steele seemed to pop out of freaking nowhere, making me stumble on the last step of the staircase.
"Fuck!" I shrieked as my ankle rolled in the high-heeled pumps I'd put on, but of freaking course, someone caught me. I was seriously starting to wonder if I'd hit my head and woken up in a new adult romance novel.
"Careful, baby girl," Kody warned me, carefully setting me back on my feet but not removing his hands from my waist. "No matter how much I love seeing you fall for me, I'd rather if you didn't mess up that pretty face in the process." He shot me a flirtatious wink, and I scoffed.
"The whole knight-in-shining-armor image is a bit ruined by the fact that you still look like an overgrown Smurf, Kody." Ugh. Lies. He was still as gorgeous as ever. How unfair was that?
"Smurfs are blue, not purple," Steele commented, folding his arms. He was sweaty and streaked with dark grease, and I locked my jaw to prevent any involuntary drooling.
Really, how fair was it that the three guys who'd ruined my life all looked like they’d stepped straight out of my sex dreams?
"Whatever," I muttered. "Get out of my way, Kody. I'm going out."
"Out with who?" the green-eyed devil demanded, folding his own muscular arms in a mirror of Steele's pose. "I thought Bree had a standing family engagement on Friday nights."
I scowled. "How do you even know that?"