Do I love Jude? Her throat closed up, and her palms started sweating. She felt sick.
No, she wasn’t going to think about that.
“All right. Are you staying on campus, or should I get us a place at the Bellagio?” Gates asked, changing the subject.
“I’m supposed to stay on campus, but get us a room in case the place is shit,” she suggested.
“Done.”
Gates immediately got on the phone with his manager and asked him to book them a room on the Strip for the weekend. They stopped at Gates’s place to pick up an overnight bag and then headed out.
They arrived on campus just off of the Vegas Strip late that night. After checking in at the visitor’s center, she was given directions to the campus hotel. The room was nice enough that she decided to stay there.
Gates drove back to the Bellagio alone with big plans to go to the casino and stay up half the night playing blackjack.
She had a meeting the next day, so she got some much-needed sleep before heading to the president’s building in the morning. His assistant directed her down the hall to a large conference room. She stepped inside a roomful of other students. She wondered what they were all being recruited for. How many parents did the president personally contact to get them here?
She saw President West speaking to a few students on the other side of the room. He smiled when he saw her, but she walked in the opposite direction. Is he seeing me or dollar signs?
She might have ended up here at her father’s insistence, but she wanted to like LV State. It had always been her top choice. She had been on campus since she was a baby. She wanted to rule like she did now at Harmony. But with nearly fifty thousand students, would that be possible? The thought set her on edge. She wanted to find her people…now. She didn’t want to wait for school to start to make friends and step into the limelight.
Bryna tried mingling with a few students and found out that many of them were there for a scholarship interview. They were finalists for a full-ride merit scholarship. She ended up sitting next to one of the girls during lunch with the president. The university had flown the girl in from some small town in Alabama, and she had a thick Southern drawl that made it difficult for Bryna to understand half of what she was saying. It was clear…these were not her people.
By the end of lunch, she was glad to skip the tour for her meeting with the head football coach, Coach Galloway. While he was a young coach, he had earned the spot at LV State two years ago after there was a scandal with the previous coach. Coach Galloway took the team to a national championship victory that year and wasn’t planning to leave anytime soon. Her father had made it a point to become friends with him, so she was relatively well acquainted with him.
She walked into the athletic complex and straight to his office. She knocked twice.
“Come in.”
She pushed open the door. “Coach Galloway, it’s so great to see you again.”
“Bryna, how are you?” He stood, shook her hand, and gave her a dimpled smile.
“Great. It’s so good to be back on campus.”
“Glad to hear that. Why don’t you sit down?”
She took him up on his offer and sat in the chair opposite his desk.
“How is your father doing?”
Bryna held back her sigh. “He’s filming on location in New Zealand, so he is incredibly busy.”
“It was unfortunate that he couldn’t attend the homecoming game this year. And we’re missing him this weekend.”
“So am I.”
Everyone always asking about her dad. Between Gates and her dad, people were going to know who she was on campus all right. It made her second-guess the decision to bring Gates along…and second-guess this meeting as well.
“I’m sure he’ll be around next year when I’m cheering on the sidelines.”
Coach Galloway laughed jovially and nodded. “I’m sure he will.”
A knock on the door sounded, and she turned around to see who was interrupting.
“Hey, Coach. You called for me?”
“I did. Bryna, let me introduce you to our student representative.”
Bryna’s smile brightened. “Eric Wilkins.”
He turned at his name, and she drank him in. Six feet tall, dark brown hair, light honey–hazel eyes. He was still built as if he had never blown out his knee beyond recognition last year in the middle of his touchdown interception that won them the game during the national championship.
“I shouldn’t be surprised you recognize him. Eric is training underneath me as a student coach,” Coach Galloway told her. “Eric, this is Bryna Turner. Her father is Lawrence Turner, nineteen eighty-eight National Championship winner.”
Eric nodded appreciatively and walked over to shake her hand. “I love his movies,” he told her. “Clever work.”
“Thanks,” she murmured.
“If you don’t mind, Eric, I’d love for you to show Bryna around. Her father is a very esteemed alumnus.”
Bryna stared back at Coach Galloway in surprise. They really were bringing in the big guns if they were getting Eric Wilkins to show her around. She wondered how many millions of dollars her dad donated every year for her to be getting this kind of treatment.
“Of course, Coach.”
“Well, I have some more business to attend to here. It was great seeing you again, Bryna. I’ll probably make a surprise appearance at the Sunday send-off brunch, so we’ll talk again there.”
Bryna took that as her dismissal. She shook the coach’s hand again and then left the office with Eric.
“So, what are your plans today?” Eric asked. “Campus tour? Sit through an information session on the school? Tour the dorms?”
She cringed. “No, thanks. I’d rather do what students actually do on campus.”
He laughed. “Get drunk and play football?”
“Sounds like my scene,” she told him truthfully. If she made friends now, then she would be one step closer to taking over the school.
“Then, we need to go to Posse.”
BRYNA MET UP WITH GATES AND ERIC on campus later that evening to go to Posse. The guys seemed to size each other up when they were introduced. They were about the same height, but Eric had a bigger build. Gates had lost some of the insane definition he had needed while on set for Broken Road.
After a few seconds, they smiled and shook hands.
They walked off campus to the club Eric had recommended. Gates and Eric talked easily the whole way while Bryna was lost in thought.
If her father hadn’t forced her to come to this recruitment weekend, she would be locked away in Jude’s apartment, discussing everything they had been holding back. Instead, she was on campus, being escorted by two guys who would probably sleep with her with a snap of her fingers.
She wasn’t looking forward to explaining all of that to Jude once they finally made their confessions. Then again, it was nothing compared to the fact that she was seventeen and still in high school.
“This is the place,” Eric said.
Posse was a colossal building with a bright green neon sign on the front. Eric got them past the bouncer and inside. The interior was a giant open space with multiple bars and tiered balconies overlooking the dance floor. A DJ blasted hip-hop music. Outside, there was a pool with several swim-up bars. The room had an energy that she couldn’t explain. It was hypnotic.
She and Gates followed Eric through the crowd to one of the bars. He shook hands with a bunch of huge football players, and then he introduced them. She got a couple of appreciative looks and just kept her smile on her face. This was what she wanted to be doing next year—cheering on the sidelines, hanging out with football players, and overall, being the most desired person at the school. She needed to push Jude out of her thoughts tonight and enjoy her time here.