Chapter 428 - Anytime

Chapter 428: Chapter 428 - Anytime

The university looked different every time Roxie came to campus. Classes were still almost a month away, but more students had started showing up, filling parking spaces that had been empty two weeks ago and dragging boxes toward the residence halls.

Families crowded the sidewalks with storage bins, suitcases and carts piled with things that probably wouldn’t fit inside the tiny rooms they were heading toward. Somewhere near one of the dorms, a mother was arguing with her son about where he had packed his towels while another family stood around an SUV trying to figure out how to get a television through the front doors.

The image made her think of her dad and Cynthia who offered to help her settle in Tennessee but she didn’t let them.

For the first time since Roxie arrived in Tennessee, the place actually looked like a university instead of somewhere Zac disappeared into every day.

She adjusted the strap of her bag and kept walking toward the cheer facility with her lunch packed inside. She had made enough for herself and Zac that morning even though she had no idea how much time he would actually have. Another game was coming, and everything around football seemed to get worse the closer they got to game day.

Zac was still trying to keep his promise. Roxie could see that, which made getting properly angry with him almost impossible.

Two nights ago he had come home insisting he could watch a movie with her. He lasted maybe seven minutes before Roxie asked him something and got nothing back. When she looked over, Zac was completely asleep with his head against the couch and one shoe still on. She had stared at him for a few seconds, annoyed because he had promised they would spend time together, then noticed how exhausted he looked and ended up taking off his other shoe and covering him with a blanket instead.

Last night was worse. He showered, climbed into bed and fell asleep before Roxie even finished plugging in her phone.

She had wanted to complain. She had actually lain there beside him with several complaints ready in her head before she noticed the dark circles under his eyes and how deeply he was already sleeping. Zac had been trying to stay awake for her every night he managed to come home, but eventually his body simply gave up.

Football was already wearing him down, and Dylan’s family had added another problem on top of it. The constant calls and emergencies had slowed after the first few days, but the family intervention that was supposed to calm everything down apparently made things worse.

Zac hadn’t told her every detail, and Roxie had made herself stop asking once she realized some of it probably wasn’t his story to tell. After the whole Mason disaster, she had zero interest in getting caught digging around Dylan’s personal life again.

She knew enough anyway.

Dylan’s father had basically told him he wasn’t his son anymore.

Roxie had stared at Zac when he told her because the whole thing sounded ridiculous even while she knew it was hurting Dylan badly.

"God. Their family has enough people in it. It’s not like Dylan is the last man alive carrying the bloodline."

Zac had been exhausted that night, but he still snorted.

Roxie meant it. Dylan had siblings, cousins and relatives everywhere, yet somehow everybody was acting like one bi son had personally ended the family line. She couldn’t understand how people could spend eighteen years loving someone and suddenly decide who he liked erased all of it.

Zac had gone with Dylan for part of the family mess, and Roxie had told him to go. After seeing how Dylan looked the morning she brought them lunch, she understood why Zac had trouble leaving him alone while everything was falling apart.

Understanding everything was getting exhausting too.

Roxie reached the cheer facility and stopped outside long enough to look through the doors before finally forcing herself inside. She had expected enough people that she could disappear somewhere in the back until she figured out how everything worked.

Instead, there were maybe twenty girls scattered around the gym, some stretching while others were already talking like they had known each other for years.

Roxie suddenly became very aware that she knew nobody.

A girl near the mats caught her looking around and smiled. "First time?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"You look like you’re deciding whether to leave."

Roxie laughed while tightening her ponytail. "I was considering it."

"Stay. Today’s pretty chill."

Pretty chill apparently meant conditioning, tumbling drills and enough basic stunt work to remind Roxie exactly how much strength she had lost since Nationals.

At first she hated every second of it. Her legs felt heavier than she remembered, her first tumbling pass wasn’t as clean as she wanted and the timing she used to hit without thinking took more effort now.

Then she did another pass.

And another.

Somewhere between getting corrected on her landing and helping with a basic stunt, Roxie stopped thinking about how rusty she felt.

Her body still remembered.

For the next couple of hours, she barely thought about Zac’s schedule or Dylan’s family or another dinner that might get moved because something happened. She was watching her feet, fixing her arms, listening for counts and trying to get her timing back.

She had missed this.

By the end of practice, her shirt was damp with sweat, her legs already felt like tomorrow would be horrible and she was sitting near the edge of the mat finishing her water when one of the girls dropped beside her.

"You thinking of trying out?"

Roxie twisted the cap back onto the bottle. "Maybe."

The girl laughed. "That means yes."

"We’ll see."

Roxie still wasn’t ready to say it out loud. Saying she was trying out meant she actually had to come back months from now and prove she belonged here. Nobody in Tennessee cared that she had been co captain in Briarwick or that they won Nationals. She would be another girl walking into tryouts.

Still, when she left the facility, she already knew she wanted to come back.

She checked her phone while walking outside and found a message from Zac.

Got a break. Where are you?

Roxie smiled and typed that she had just finished cheer and was heading toward the athletic building.

His answer came almost immediately.

I’m outside.

That was probably the fastest reply she had gotten from him all week.

Roxie shifted the lunch bag higher against her hip and walked faster. She probably had twenty minutes with him, maybe thirty if Coach was feeling generous, and she was already thinking about telling him how practice went when the athletic building came into view.

Then she saw Zac.

And the two girls standing with him.

Her steps slowed.

They were wearing Tennessee cheer shirts. One had her hair pulled into a high ponytail and was laughing at something Zac said while the other stood close enough to hold her phone between them as Zac looked at the screen.

Roxie stared for a moment.

Seriously?

She had spent the morning getting thrown around a gym, packed lunch for him and walked across campus because this was probably the only break she would get with him today, and there he was laughing with two pretty girls.

The irritation came so quickly that she immediately became annoyed with herself too.

They were talking.

People talked.

Girls were allowed to talk to Zac, and Zac was allowed to answer without Roxie turning into the jealous psycho girlfriend again.

Still, she had maybe twenty minutes.

That was the part she couldn’t get past.

Roxie started walking again, and Zac noticed her before she reached them. His whole face changed the second he saw her.

"Babe."

That helped.

A little.

Roxie lifted the lunch bag. "I brought food."

"Thank God."

Zac started toward her, but one of the girls said something behind him, and he turned back long enough to answer.

Roxie’s jaw tightened.

He had already seen her standing there with his lunch, and somehow the conversation still needed another minute.

When Zac finally turned back, he looked at her face for maybe two seconds before his eyebrows pulled together.

"What happened?"

"Nothing."

His eyes narrowed.

The girls glanced between them, which made Roxie feel even more ridiculous, so she forced a smile and said hello.

The girl with the ponytail smiled back. "You’re Roxie, right?"

Roxie looked at Zac before answering. "Yeah."

"We were just talking about you."

"Really?" Roxie heard the sharpness in her own voice and bit the inside of her cheek. "Sorry. Long day."

The girls chuckled and exchanged a look with Zac. The ponytail girl gave him a smile that made Roxie’s apology disappear almost immediately.

"Your girl is a little feisty. I knew you were into that type."

Roxie slowly lifted an eyebrow.

She knew that tone.

She also knew the way the other girl’s eyes dropped down Zac before coming back to his face.

Goddamn.

Was there a shortage of men on this campus?

Roxie looked at Zac. "Did I interrupt something?"

Zac closed his eyes briefly and rubbed a hand over his face. "Rox, they’re cheer. I was asking them about the program for you."

He pointed toward the phone in the other girl’s hand. "She was showing me their schedule because you said you wanted to go to more open practices."

Roxie glanced at the screen.

There was, in fact, a cheer schedule open.

She could see that. She could also see the girl beside Zac looking at him like Roxie had temporarily interrupted lunch.

The ponytail girl smiled at Roxie. "He was asking what you should work on before tryouts."

Roxie looked from her to Zac and forced another smile. "Sorry. Like I said, long day."

The girls looked her over, and that part Roxie recognized immediately. She had spent enough years around cheerleaders to know when another girl was simply looking and when she was being measured from head to toe.

One of them smiled. "You’re Roxie, right? I saw your viral video."

Roxie raised an eyebrow. "Which one?"

The girl’s smile changed slightly.

Exactly.

Instead of answering, she turned toward Zac. "We’re going first. If you have any questions, you can ask us anytime."

"Thanks," Zac said but his tone was flatter.

The other girl smiled too. "Anytime."

Roxie stared at her.

They finally walked away, and Roxie waited until they were several steps away before turning to Zac with the sweetest smile she could manage.

"Anytime."

Zac sighed. "Please don’t."

Roxie pushed her hair behind her shoulder and copied the girl’s voice. "’Your girl is a little feisty. I knew you were into that type.’"

"Roxie."

She kept going. "’If you have any questions, you can ask us anytime.’" She widened her eyes at him. "’Anytime, Zac.’"

He grabbed the lunch bag from her and started walking toward one of the benches. "Are you finished?"