SWNOVELS What Are The Odds?: Chapter 38
Grace
The party was subdued after Ryker shut his bedroom door. Like Levi, he kept his locked. That seemed smart, given how many people were downstairs. Many of which I’ll bet Ryker didn’t even know.
“Through there,” Ryker said, pointing to a closed door.
I hadn’t actually needed the bathroom, but now I was here, I may as well use it.
“It’ll probably take me a while to shimmy out of these pants,” I admitted. “You don’t have to wait.”
“It’s all good. I could use the quiet for a bit.”
I walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind me. My reflection took me by surprise. I kept forgetting about the winged eyeliner and bold lip Stella had painted on my face. The pants were just as hard to drag down as they were to pull up. I felt for Olivia Newton-John. Filming that final scene couldn’t have been easy. It took me a while, but when I came back, Ryker was still waiting patiently.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Anytime.”
He made no effort to leave. I didn’t either. Having distance between the cowgirl and Harley Quinn was nice.
“Are you enjoying the party?” he asked.
I shrugged, leaning against his dresser. ‘It’s a lot crazier than the house parties I’m used to.”
“What were they like?”
“A lot tamer than this.”
He chuckled. “What can I say? We go big here.”
That was an understatement. Everything was grander. Some things I liked. Some things I didn’t. Just like I missed some things back home. And others I was happy to be away from. Each place had its pros and cons. After a pause, Ryker opened his mouth.
“I have to ask. Are you and Holloway together?”
His question surprised me. I parted my lips, trying to give him the best explanation I could, but it was hard when I didn’t know myself. If I said no, I was downplaying mine and Levi’s agreement. But if I said yes, how did I explain Harley Quinn and the cowgirl? I settled with both.
“Yes and no.”
“Yes and no?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I mean, probably more yes than not. But we’re not, like, dating.”
“Right.”
Ryker drew the word out. He clearly didn’t know what to make of my explanation.
“Let me help you, Grace. If I asked you out, what would you say?”
He’d asked the perfect question. Because the answer was so clear to me. I smiled apologetically.
‘That I was with someone else.”
The corner of his lips pulled up, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes.
“I think you have your answer.”
He was right. I hadn’t thought of another guy since hooking up with Levi. Partly because it was hard to look past him, but mainly because I didn’t want to. Even if we hadn’t agreed to not hook up with other people, I wouldn’t have anyway. So long as anything was happening between us, nothing would be happening with me and anybody else. That wasn’t who I was. Casual was new to me. Being casual with more than one person was too hard to fathom.
“I should probably find Levi.”
Nodding, Ryker moved toward the door. Though just before he turned the handle, he hovered.
“For the record Grace, if Levi doesn’t break his no girlfriend rule for you, he’s a fucking idiot.”
With that, he opened the door, gesturing for me to go first. Wordlessly I stepped out of his room, only to slam into a solid wall of muscle. Levi. And an angry Levi it seemed. The muscles in his arms strained as he clenched his hands at his side.
“Hey,” I cautiously said. “What are you doing?”
“Looking for you,” he answered. “What are you doing?”
“Ryker let me use his bathroom so I didn’t have to wait in line.”
Levi’s gaze travelled past me to Ryker. His jaw was set, and his posture was rigid.
“Is that all?”
Whoa. The nerve. And the hypocrisy. My cheeks heated from anger.
“Relax, Holloway,” Ryker calmly said. “Grace and I were just talking.”
My eyes nervously bounced between the two of them. Levi didn’t seem to be buying the explanation. After what felt like a lifetime, he finally looked at me.
“We need to talk.”
“Um. Okay. Where?”
There was nowhere private at this party. Every area was full of drunk people. Even the staircase had people sitting on the steps.
Ryker sighed heavily. “By all means, in you come, Holloway.”
Ryker stepped to the side, opening the door wider. I reluctantly walked back into the room, entirely unsure what was about to go down. A stare down was happening between Ryker and Levi. Now I could see why people were afraid of the hockey team. Levi’s glare was terrifying. Ryker on the other hand appeared unfazed by it. I guess he was used to walls of muscle laser focussed on taking him out.
“Lock the door on your way out,” he said simply before stepping around Levi and leaving the room.
The second the door shut, I rounded on Levi.
“What the hell was that?” I snapped.
He had the audacity to look surprised.
“I should be saying the same to you.” His shoulders and chest expanded as he inhaled deeply. “Imagine my surprise when Morrison came to warn me you had gone upstairs with Richardson.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. Dumb move. Levi’s gaze fell to my cleavage.
“Was that in between sucking the vodka from the cowgirl’s pistol?”
Damn. I didn’t mean to let that slip. I was trying to play it cool. Guilt flashed across Levi’s face.
“Nothing happened.”
“And it didn’t for me either,” I exasperatedly stated. “I needed the bathroom. Ryker let me use his, then we talked for like, two minutes.”
“Talked about what?”
“I don’t know, the bloody weather. What does it matter?”
Levi’s lips pressed into a firm line. Realisation hit me like a large wave, the type of wave that threw you off your board and kept you submerged. He didn’t trust me, which was infuriating. I’d never given him a reason not to. And despite his reputation, he hadn’t either. Which is why I hadn’t stormed over to the cowgirl and yanked the pistol from her manicured fingers. I’d kept my emotions in check. Given him the benefit of the doubt.
‘The thought of you with another guy, particularly Richardson, makes me see red, Grace.”
“That doesn’t mean you have the right to act like a Neanderthal,” I told him. “If we both behaved like that, I–”
I stopped, reminding myself that Levi’s past was his past. I couldn’t hold it against him. But hell, sometimes I wish it didn’t exist. I wish he wasn’t the type of guy girls literally stumbled over their words in front of. And I wish I had a reason to be mad. But I didn’t. We weren’t together. Which is why I’d let it go.
“It’s different, Grace. Ryker’s into you. You realise that, right?”
Levi stared at me, dumfounded, like I’d missed the fact the sun came out each day or that the sky was blue.
“And Harley Quinn and the cowgirl aren’t into you?”
“Veronica and Summer are–”
“Meaningless hook-ups? Part of the roster? Now I’m the next one? I get it, Levi. Clear as mud.”
“No, Grace,” Levi roared. “You don’t get it.”
Levi’s eyes pinned me in place. His expression flashed with frustration. I was scared one of us was about to say something we’d regret. How had we gone from holding hands and kissing to yelling at each other?
“Just because hookups have been meaningless for me in the past doesn’t mean they are anymore.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t give me that speech.”
Levi frowned. “What speech?”
“The it’s different with you speech.”
“But it is different with you.”
“Yeah? Then why haven’t we had sex?”
Levi jarred back, as though I’d slapped him.
“Jesus, I don’t know, Grace.” His raised voice was laced with sarcasm. “Maybe because this is more than a casual hook-up, so I wanted to do it right.”
Oh. I hadn’t expected that. He closed the distance between us, stopping directly in front of me. His looming height was familiar. I tilted back my head to look up at him.
“Why do you look so surprised?” He softened his voice. “We said we were exclusive, Hughesy.”
“Exclusively not hooking up with other people,” I agreed. “You never said exclusive meant dating.”
“Well, that’s what I meant.”
I had no idea what to say to that. I wasn’t able to think this quickly.
“You told me you didn’t do girlfriends,” I weakly whispered.
“Yeah. Well. Maybe I do now.”
I groaned, exasperated, before roughly combing my fingers through my hair.
“No. No maybes, Levi. Tell me exactly what you mean. What is this? What do you want it to be?”
“I want you to be my girlfriend, Grace.” He threw his arms in the air. “And I want every guy in this college, and country and world to know that you’re mine and they’re not allowed to look at you. Or touch you. Or think about you. Or fucking take you into their room to talk.”
I snickered. “That last one was really specific.”
Levi’s expression told me now wasn’t the time to make jokes. He was probably right. Blame the Aussie in me. It was habit to make light of intense situations. Levi had just confessed he wanted me to be his girlfriend. He needed to give me a minute to let that digest. Wait, no. I didn’t need a minute. I’d just become used to having Levi Holloway in my life. Though I knew it’d be fleeting, I wasn’t ready for it to end yet.
“I wish we weren’t dressed like this while having this conversation,” I said, chuckling.
Levi softened at the sound of my laugher. “I wish we weren’t in Richardson’s bedroom while having this conversation.”
He looked at me cautiously, as though he was worried I was going to run away. I’d be crazy to run away from this. Well, maybe it was just as crazy to stay. But here we were. Neither of us moving. I peered up at him, a smile tugging at the corner of my lips.
“Did we just have our first fight?” I asked.
“Maybe.” He looped his arms around my neck. “And you know what comes after a fight, right?”
His lips brushed mine softly, a preview of what was to come. My body was more than ready to jump to the making up. Every part of me responded to him.
“Did you hear what I said before, Hughesy?” he whispered against my lips.
I screwed up my face, feigning confusion. “Maybe. Can you repeat it? Just in case.”
His smile was disarming.
“You’re my girlfriend, Grace Hughes.”
“That’s funny. It didn’t really sound like a question.”
“Because it isn’t.” He bent down, so we were eye level. “But say it was, what would your answer have been?”
There was so much hope in his eyes that I told myself not to mess with him. Levi looked more vulnerable in this moment than he ever had before.
“Abso-bloody-lutely.”