The Wrong Quarterback (The Wrong Player, #1)

by C.R. Jane

“Casey, this is Matthew aka Matty aka Sir-Grouch-A-Kins aka The Third Amigo,”

“Sir-Grouch-A-Kins, this is Casey aka the love of Parker’s life aka the fourt...

Matty reached out to shake my hand, and Parker smacked it away. “No touching,”

“No touching,” Jace repeated, in a sort of Cookie Monster voice as he continued to laugh hysterically.

And now I was a little nervous to use it, actually. I had a feeling Matty didn’t miss much. What if I forgot to flush or something?

Parker and Matty sighed almost simultaneously.

“You can’t go in with me to the bathroom,” I told him…and a hint of a blush appeared on his cheeks. “I know that,” he scoffed. I raised an eyebrow…because did he?

Parker nodded at Jace and Matty, and they stepped away, taking the crowd of people that had gathered with them.

Before he could answer anything, there was a commotion by the front door, and Nat stormed in, eyes blazing, her feet stomping against the floor like war drums.

She must have sprinted the entire way to get here that fast.

“You fucking asshole!” she screamed, her voice cutting through the noise. Without a second of hesitation, she stomped over and launched herself on his lap.

“Get it girl!” I thought I heard Jace yell.

Parker was right by us then, a tic in his cheek when I told him I was leaving. “We need to talk,” he said as he walked with us out of the house to drive us back home.

“I need to be there for Nat,” I told him, even though with the weird hand gestures she was making, she was encouraging me to talk to Parker.

“You’re not allowed to second-guess me either, Casey. Add that to the list,”

Don’t hurt me. I don’t think I can survive you.

I was laying in my bed, miserable because all I wanted was to go kidnap Casey out of her dorm and make her talk to me.

If I could somehow force her to live with me so I didn’t have to sleep without her anymore…that would have been great as well.

unfortunately, pretending you weren’t a psycho meant you couldn’t do ...

Cole: Whoops. Didn’t mean to include you, Disney. You’re definitely not rockstar material.

“for grave robbing and desecration of a gravesite.”

“The Sphinx sends its congratulations. Sometimes silence is trust,”

I sat there, staring after him, my mind reeling. This had been a setup—the cops, the endless questions, the threats. This hadn’t been a real interrogation. This had been my second trial. Fuck.

Jace threw the truck in park so violently, the whole Jeep shook. He jumped out and jogged over, throwing his arms around my shoulder and squeezing.

“Fucking hell. Where the fuck have you been? We thought you died!” he growled, still holding me tight. Matty was out of the Jeep, too, and suddenly I was in some sort of group hug.

“As endearing as this is, can we fucking get back? I haven’t slept in—what time is it? What day is it?” I asked. “It’s eleven p.m. on Sunday,” Jace said, still not letting me go. “Crap,” I growled, shaking my head. A part of me had been hoping I’d just ove...

“We didn’t exactly have time to go check on your girlfriend since we’ve been looking for you all day!”

“I got arrested after the party for our little adventure in the graveyard. They took me to a fake police building and interrogated me for almost twenty-four hours before someone from the Sphinx came in, undid my handcuffs, and told me I’d passed the second test. Can we go now?”

“Oh, well, with your friendship bracelet,” he said nonchalantly.

Matty made a pained sound in the backseat. “They are not friendship bracelets.”

“They’re totally friendship ...

I glanced at the leather band that I’d forgotten Jace had even given me. We’d gotten them freshman year, and I considered it my lucky cha...

“What does my…band have to do with this?” “It has a tracker in the...

“Because best friends stalk e...

I gaped at him and then looked back at Matty who just looked res...

“It’s not a big deal. It just was annoying freshman year that I never could find you guys when I needed you. So I bought tracking discs for your friendship bracelets and gave them to you…it’s very useful.”

“When I was eighteen, I was obviously not shelling out for high-tech machinery.”

Although now that I was thinking of it…Jace had always just popped up. I’d assumed it was some sort of super power he had that he always was able to find us.

A moment later, Nat’s sleepy face appeared in the doorway, her eyes barely open as she blinked at me in confusion. She started to say something, but I pushed past her gently, my gaze already fixed on Casey.

Without a word, I walked over, pulling off my shirt before I eased myself onto the bed. Gently, I slipped my arm around her, brushing a kiss against her hair, breathing her in. “I’m here, baby,” I whispered, my voice soft, the words more for myself than for her.

Nat’s bed creaked as she climbed back in, but it barely registered. All I could feel was Casey beside me, her breathing slow and steady, and then I closed my eyes, letting sleep finally pull me under. I was back where I belonged, at last.

I glanced over at Nat’s bed and saw she’s already gone, and then my gaze was right back on Parker’s beautiful face.

At some point yesterday, I’d realized that Parker wasn’t a loss I was willing to take. I at least needed to fight for him.

“Just ignore it, he can’t help himself,” he said, his voice still sleepy.

“I wouldn’t let you. You could run, and I would run after you; you could hide, and I would find you; you could go to the other side of the fucking planet…and I would spend my entire life trying to track you down.”

He was looking at me like he’d never believed in anything, like he believed in what he’d just said.

“Are you ready for me, baby? There’s no going back, you know that, right? You’re already mine, but once I get inside you, it’s permanent.”

“As soon as I saw you, I went and got checked. I knew you were it. I knew I’d never have anyone else.”

“You’re so sweet, baby. My sweet, perfect girl,”

“You were made for me.” He licked a falling tear off my cheek. “I’ve never felt anything so good. So right.”