Henry’s jaw dropped. “You’re throwing the game against Eastern?”
“Shhh!” Dean nudged him with his knee under the table.
Henry immediately dropped his voice. “How?”
“You know my study group?” Dean’s smile was small and tight, waiting for Henry to connect the dots. He’d supposedly been going to a calculus study group for a few weeks, but Henry knew it had to be a cover for something, because Dean didn’t study. He’d said it was mostly guys from the fraternity, all football players…
All football players. Henry gaped at him.
“Eastern has had only had one winning season in twenty years. They’ve gone through eight coaches.” Dean’s grin widened. “Do you know how big this payoff is going to be?”
It wasn’t impossible. Dean had a lot of influence- a lot. He could see him seducing players into jeopardizing the rest of their lives, their careers, for a big payoff.
“I just need five-hundred more,” Dean insisted. “And I can hold the bastards off until after the game.”
“And then you’re done with gambling forever, right?” Henry asked sarcastically.
Dean held up two fingers and saluted. “Scout’s honor.”
“I’m tapped out.” Henry shrugged helplessly. “I can’t borrow any more from my parents.”
“Then borrow it from your girlfriend.”
“Who?” Henry blinked at him, sure he was making a crack about Libby, who still hadn’t called him, even though he’d called her and left a message twice since they’d gotten back. So much for getting together after break.
“Professor Franklin.” Dean’s words turned Henry’s blood to ice. He doesn’t know, Henry thought, panicked. He can’t know! “I’m sure she’d be willing to help you out.”
Henry could barely speak the words. “What? I can’t do that.”
“Sure you can.” Dean leaned back in his chair, stretching, casual-seeming, but every move he made was calculated. “You know, I don’t think she’d be too happy if the university found out what she’s doing with you.”
“You mean…” Henry gulped. How? How could he know? “Tutoring me?”
“No.” Dean’s eyes flashed. “I mean fucking you.”
Henry stared. He couldn’t breathe. He didn’t know how Dean knew, but he did.
“Listen, it’s just five-hundred.” Dean’s voice turned friendly again-just a conversation between amigos. Never mind that Henry had that sick feeling in his gut like someone had just racked his nuts. “Just ask her. Okay?”
What else was he supposed to say? “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thanks.” Dean leaned forward and clapped Henry on the shoulder. “Really, thanks.”
Henry stood, leaving the rest of his lunch. “I gotta go.”
Toni’s apartment was small, but she said she liked it better than the big empty house she’d lived in with her ex, and he believed her.
“You’ll meet your soulmate some day,” she whispered to him in the dark. The bed was full and high-and it squeaked like they were squishing a thousand mice when they fucked. It made them both laugh so hard they often had to move to the floor to finish. “I promise, you will.”
Henry knew it had been a bad idea to tell her that Dean was asking him for money for gambling debts, and that he just might know what was going on between them-but he’d had a feeling this was coming anyway. Nothing could burn this hot, this fast, and last very long. Of course, he hadn’t told her about the game. That one was like an anvil on his chest, a paralyzing weight.
“What if I don’t want it to be over?” He spoke the words, but he didn’t know if he meant them. It had been wrong from the beginning, in all the right sorts of ways, and this felt the same. Wrong and right-a horribly apt paradox.
“It’s too dangerous, for both of us.” Toni’s cheek pressed against his back and she kissed his shoulder blade. “But I’m not abandoning you. We can still work together.”
“I don’t know.” Just being in her class for the rest of the year was going to be hard enough. He couldn’t imagine being in her office four days a week and not being… with her.
“Or…” She sighed. “I can give you a whole list of names. We have great tutors in the program.”
“I wish I could.” Henry turned, pulling her into his arms. “But I couldn’t be around you so much and not want you. I couldn’t resist.”
“I know.” She tucked her dark head under his chin. “It’s probably better this way.”
“I wish it wasn’t.” His voice cracked.
“Me, too.” Her tears fell on his bare chest and they both pretended it wasn’t happening, wasn’t ending, at least for a while.
“Henry?”
“Libby?” He recognized her voice immediately. It was the call he’d been waiting for, hoping for, and now here it was, and he couldn’t believe it. “How was your break?”
“Fine.” But Libby’s voice was wrong, somehow. Something was wrong. Not that everything wasn’t already wrong in his life. Between his roommate problem and ending his affair with Toni, he’d reached the bottom of what could possibly go wrong. Or so he thought. “I really need to talk to you.”
“Sure.” He shrugged. “What’s on your mind?”
“Not on the phone.”
Had Dean called Libby and told her about Toni? Is that what put such urgency into her voice? And still, his heart was pounding at the thought of seeing her in person, no matter what the reason. He glanced at his watch. It was almost dinner time, but he didn’t have anywhere to go.
“Want to meet somewhere?”
“How about The Red Hawk?” she suggested.
“Half an hour?”
“See you there.” She hung up.
The Red Hawk was pretty quiet for a Thursday night. They sat in one of the high-backed booths, Libby eating the Thai shrimp salad, and Henry was getting messy with the Red Hawk wings, extra spicy. They made his eyes water and his nose run.
“I bet it didn’t snow down in North Carolina,” Henry said, making conversation. They’d had a foot of snow over the break, just in time for Christmas.
“Henry, I need to talk to you about Dean.”
He paused, a wing in his hands, then nodded. “Okay.” At least now he knew the topic of conversation. Maybe she knew Dean was in trouble? Had he gone to her for money, too?
Just please don’t let her know about Toni.
“But I have to tell you first why I was fired from the paper last year.”
He waited, not understanding what in the world that could have to do with Dean, or anything having to do with Henry, but he was sure Libby would connect the dots.
“I told you I did a sort of expose on fraternity hazing.”
“Right.” Henry remembered. “Forced drinking and all that.”
She went on. “Well, the university did an investigation after the article went to print. They wanted to know my sources.”
“Let me guess.” Henry licked his fingers. “You wouldn’t tell them.”
“No, I wouldn’t.” She blinked at him, indignant. “The first amendment still applies, even at a college paper. We have the same constitutional rights as professional newspapers. This isn’t high school.”
“Then why did they fire you?”
Libby fiercely poked her salad with her fork. “The Board of Regents said that if I didn’t leave the paper voluntarily, they were going to fire my advisor instead.”
“Jesus.” His jaw dropped.
She smiled sadly. “Nice, huh?”
“I’m sorry, Libby.”
“I’m over it.” She gestured his apology away, but it was clear to Henry that wasn’t really true. “Anyway…one of my sources was Dean’s brother, Chris.”
Just when he thought his jaw couldn’t drop any further. “You’re kidding me.”
“He was a senior member of the frat and he knew all the ins and outs.” She stabbed at a shrimp.
“And he talked to you willingly?” Henry was doubtful. He hadn’t met any of Dean’s family, but he couldn’t imagine them being much different from Dean. “He knew he was being interviewed?”
“He was…” Libby took a sip of her water. “I was dating him.”
Henry sat back, stunned. And all this time, Dean had never said a word. Chris had graduated last year. So he was the senior guy she’d been dating, he realized.