�We want to welcome Lexi Andon, David A. Dawson�s personal assistant. Unfortunately, Mr. Dawson wasn�t able to be here today, so we got the next best thing,� Cassie Krieger of In The Know announced to her TV audience.

Lexi let a trace of irritation touch her eyes at the backhanded slam. Many people underestimated Lexi because she was young and good-looking. It was easy to make that mistake in Hollywood because everywhere you turned, there were beautiful men and women.

Reflecting on it, Lexi realized that people often forgot that Lexi�s father was Paul Andon, an executive at one of the largest film companies in the world. They�d been responsible for the Star Academy movie franchise that David was currently starring in. Lexi wasn�t a typical Hollywood kid who was off in their own world; she�d paid attention to the details of her father�s work-but hardly anyone knew that about her.

Lexi had made up her mind not to use her dad�s influence to make her career. Instead, as soon as she�d graduated high school, she�d set her eyes on one of the most promising young actors to hit Hollywood in recent years: David A. Dawson. Her plan was to leverage working for him into bigger and better opportunities.

�David sends his regrets. He is currently in New Zealand, wrapping up the filming of his most recent Star Academy movie,� Lexi answered with her best smile.

�It sounds like David has been busy.�

�Yes. Besides wrapping the next two Star Academy movies, he finished filming his part in the upcoming James Bond movie, Devil May Care. In that one, he plays James�s son, Ian Bond,� Lexi related.

�I think we have a clip,� Cassie said.

�Yes, we do. This is the first time anything has been released to the public. Ian comes upon a terrorist attack in this segment,� Lexi said to set up the scene for the audience.

The video switched to the clip. When it started, Lexi couldn�t help admiring David. There was a reason he�d recently been named one of the sexiest up-and-coming actors in Hollywood. He�d gotten his start modeling while still in high school. David was six-four and had a body that made women swoon.

One of her favorite pastimes was sitting back and watching women either check him out or fall all over themselves, trying to get his attention. Lexi was amazed that David took it all in stride and ignored it for the most part. He was too focused to be distracted. It took quite a lot for someone to catch his attention.

What amazed Lexi was that David was never rude or dismissive. He always had time for people but was firm about his refusals. It was hard to pull off and not have women feel rejected or mad when David didn�t succumb to their advances. He had a flair and quiet authority that somehow made it okay.

The scene began with David in running clothes, jogging in London. There was the sound of an explosion, which prompted David to set off toward it at top speed. David reached the iconic Tower Bridge over the River Thames, where he found a scene of chaos. A double-decker bus was in flames, and traffic was beginning to pile up.

There was a second explosion that rocked the bridge. People began to jump out of their cars and run away from the carnage. David fought his way through the utter chaos.

There was a cutaway scene that showed another bomb. When the camera switched back to David, he spotted it.

�Run!� he screamed as the bomb detonated to end the scene.

�Oh, my. That looks exciting,� Cassie observed and then turned back to her guest.

�It does have a lot of action in it, as you would expect with a James Bond film.�

Cassie smiled and then got a serious look. Lexi knew what was coming next and prepared herself not to react if she was asked something outrageous. David�s main PR guy, Frank Ingram, had given her a set of talking points to help her navigate an interview like this.

�Tell me about what happened in India. I understand that David refused to film there,� Cassie said, digging for dirt.

Lexi kept her composure as she felt some relief; she�d been prepped for this question. She sent a silent word of thanks to Frank and his team. Lexi paused a moment to show thoughtful contemplation, another trick Frank had taught her. It kept her from rushing her answer. Frank had pointed out that pacing was necessary when building trust with your audience. He said it showed that she was confident.

�They�d planned to film in northern India. I understand it�s beautiful and would have made an excellent backdrop for the film. David began to be concerned when he did his homework on the region. He�d run across an article that discussed births in the area. During one time period described, there were 216 children born in several neighboring villages. Not a single one was a girl.

�It raised the question: was this a fluke occurrence or something more sinister? David asked me to look into it,� Lexi said.

�What did you find?� Cassie asked as she leaned forward in interest.

It was one thing to watch someone like David give an interview and know what he was doing, and another for her to pull it off. Lexi found that being the one on stage was harder than she�d realized. She had to tell a story, one that was engaging and held the audience�s interest.

�Indian baby girls are being aborted simply because of their gender. For families living in poverty, boys are deemed more desirable since they are considered the main breadwinners. Families chose to simply never have girls because they are considered a burden,� Lexi explained.

Cassie gave her a shocked look. Living where they did, it was easy to forget the reality of true abject poverty. What seemed deplorable to us could make perfect sense if you went to bed hungry at night. Frank had told her it was okay to show outrage but not go over the top with it.

�Isn�t that illegal?� Cassie asked.

�India made it illegal in 1994, but the practice still persists.�

�What was the other concern that put a stop to filming in India?�

Lexi looked at the camera and grimaced. This was the part that genuinely disturbed her. In her mind, she could come up with no justification for what happened.

�There was an incident. I understand that there are nomadic tribes in the area where we planned to film. The local population was a different religion, which caused tensions,� Lexi said to set the stage.

�What happened?� Cassie prodded when Lexi paused.

�An eight-year-old girl left her camp to tend the horses, and she went missing. Her body was found a week later. It was discovered that she had been taken to a small temple, drugged, raped for five days by a group of men, and then killed with a rock.

�When David heard about it, he told Chubby Feldman, the director. Chubby looked into it and agreed that they would have to find another location to film. Neither the studio nor David wanted to have that taint the movie. I was glad they made the right decision,� Lexi said with conviction.

�That�s terrible,� Cassie admitted and then switched gears. �David is one of the most eligible bachelors in Hollywood, yet we haven�t heard a peep about a love interest.�

Lexi had to choke back a laugh because she was amazed. She�d just described a horrific event, but Cassie showed no interest in digging deeper. Frank had a term for it: �NIMBY,� or �Not In My Back Yard.� If it didn�t affect someone directly, they could just brush it off and ignore it.

Cassie had just shown Lexi that she wasn�t a serious journalist. In truth, though, Lexi hadn�t expected anything more of Cassie, given her position on a show like In The Know. They were geared toward reporting the latest starlet exposing herself as she got out of a car or a pop star getting drunk and making an ass of him or herself. So, switching to David�s love life fit better with their usual fare.

The real reason David hadn�t been linked with anyone on set was that Lexi had hooked up with him. She�d made it clear that they were both young, good-looking, and had needs. They were to both understand that was all it was, just a hookup.

It wasn�t as if others hadn�t offered David similar opportunities. Both his publicist and agent had told David that if he wanted to maintain his �All-American Boy� image, he shouldn�t be seen acting like a typical Hollywood douche. It was bad enough that he�d had five children before graduating high school.

Granted, one was adopted, but the optics were still far from ideal.

On a football recruiting trip, he�d met a young lady at the campus check-in. He�d asked her to show him around campus and go to dinner with him. David and a few of his fellow recruits went out as a group. They were accompanied by some of the sorority sisters of the girl in question.

It was all pretty innocent until the second night when David had been invited to fulfill a fantasy one of the sorority girls had. That night, he�d spent quality time with both the girl he�d asked out the day before and her sorority sister. One of them ended up having twin boys and the other a baby girl. They�d held off telling David about the children until after they�d been born.

In the meantime, he�d gotten a classmate pregnant, and she�d had a little boy.

David, being who he was, hadn�t shirked his responsibilities. He had a healthy family support system, and his parents had stepped in to help raise the children.

The last child was that of a friend who�d found herself in a tough predicament. She and David had actually dated for a while. She�d broken up with him and taken up with another guy who�d gotten her pregnant with a boy right as they were ready to go off to college. The father had signed away his parental rights, not wanting anything to do with having a baby at such a young age.

David and his family had opened their doors and let the girl and her son move in with them. They�d given her a job as a childcare helper, which allowed her to take college classes. David had always treated her son as one of his own and made it official last spring.

Now he had all his children under one roof in his new home in Malibu.

�The poor guy�s schedule has been bananas. He�s been working nonstop since the beginning of May when filming started on the James Bond movie. Immediately after that, in August, he was off to New Zealand and Australia to film the next two Star Academy films. Because of the compressed schedules for filming, he�s often been on set upwards of eighteen hours a day or more. I challenge anyone to find time for a love life when that�s happening,� Lexi said to deflect the question.

�Why is his schedule so compressed?�

When David had agreed to film the movies, he�d bypassed his first semester of college. A deal-breaker would have been to miss the second semester.

�He�ll enroll at the University of Oklahoma for the spring semester in just a few weeks.�

�Does he still plan to play football?� Cassie asked.

�That, and baseball.�

David had been one of the top recruits for both sports coming out of high school.

�Will he continue to act while in school?� Cassie dug.

Lexi had to admit that Cassie had finally asked a good question.

�He did get a waiver from the NCAA, but he has no plans to act while he�s in college. He�ll focus on getting his degree and playing ball. David wants to be a normal student-athlete,� Lexi answered.

Getting the NCAA waiver had been touch-and-go. The NCAA and its member institutions wanted to control the image rights of their student-athletes. With the help of his legal team, David had come to an agreement with the NCAA powers-that-be. His being a model and actor had been a sticking point for his eligibility.

The NCAA had specific rules that precluded such activities. Their contention was that student-athletes gain the fame that makes them marketable from their athletic abilities. The schools provided training and opportunity, so they should reap the benefit. But David had garnered his marketability before entering college, which the NCAA recognized, and they had finally provided him with a waiver.

Then came the fly in the ointment. A shoe company and university had each approached David and two of his teammates with money if they would go to that school. David reported the whole scheme, which turned into a mess.

The NCAA investigator, Stewart Chadwick, had wanted David to conduct further meetings with the bad actors, to the point of committing to the school. Chadwick was hoping that would help the NCAA get the goods on them. Unlike the FBI, the NCAA could not compel people to talk. The investigator was trying to do an end-around, to the point of seriously jeopardizing David�s sports career.

�Fat chance of that,� Lexi thought with smug satisfaction. David had refused.

The investigator tried to coerce David�s cooperation with the threat that he would pull David�s eligibility and waiver if David didn�t help him. David called his bluff and found himself ineligible for a while.

The NCAA and Chadwick didn�t know that in addition to reporting the incident to them, David had talked to the FBI. The feds were in the process of building cases against various shoe companies for offering money to high school athletes to attend schools they sponsored. However, no one but the FBI was privy to that information. It turned out that the FBI was more interested in basketball recruiting, so they�d shelved David�s case.

David and his legal team had arranged a meeting with the NCAA to work out his issues. The meeting was hijacked by the FBI, and the NCAA was forced to back off. The FBI didn�t want it getting out that they were investigating shoe companies. They�d suggested that the NCAA might want to reinstate David�s eligibility. The NCAA acquiesced but had slow-walked the waiver to allow him his name, image, and likeness rights, also known as NIL rights.

While he was filming in New Zealand, the story broke that the FBI had moved on the shoe companies. The NCAA, fearing that David might tell the press that they�d known about the investigation and done nothing, had finally come to their senses. They�d given him the waivers he needed to promote his films. There was a lot of language in the agreements indicating that the waivers were an exception due to his unique history.

The NCAA had dragged their feet because they faced legislation in several states that would negate one of their long-standing rules. The laws would allow student-athletes to control their NIL rights and enable student-athletes to make money through advertising, appearances, and the like. It might also mean that they would get paid for jersey sales and other items that universities currently controlled. If the market truly opened, the NCAA�s member institutions could take massive financial hits.

�But I�d understood that he was approached about doing the new Star Wars movie. What�s going on with that?� Cassie asked.

Lexi bit her tongue because Cassie had been on the cusp of uncovering what had happened behind the scenes at big-time football schools. Instead, she was back to more familiar topics.

David�s agent, Ari Gould, had pushed for David to skip college and act full-time. David had, in fact, won the role of young Han Solo but turned it down because it would have meant leaving high school to film it.

Ari hadn�t been happy when that decision was made. But then the Star Wars movie had tanked relatively badly compared to the other films in the franchise. And David then won his Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Royal Palm. That was followed shortly by his filming the James Bond and Star Academy movies.

Ari had gone behind David�s back to see if Disney/Lucasfilm were interested in his client doing another project. David had been furious and fired Ari. Frank, his publicist, suspected that Ari leaked the information as a parting FU.

�David�s made it clear that he wants to focus on his family and school for now. After college, he�ll see if there�s still interest in him as an actor. Then again, he might just play football or baseball,� Lexi explained.

�You can let him know that we�ll miss him on the big screen, and he needs to hurry up and get back to acting,� Cassie said.

�I�ll tell him, but remember, you won�t be missing him for long,� Lexi assured her. �The three movies are due out this year. Starting with Devil May Care this Memorial Day, followed by the second in the Star Academy series around the fourth of July. The final film in the Star Academy trilogy will be out around Christmastime.�

�What about you? Will you still be David�s personal assistant while he�s in college?�

Lexi wondered that herself because everything had been perfect while filming. She�d made herself indispensable to him. Lexi organized and catered to his every need so he could focus on his craft. He�d said many times that she was the best PA he�d ever had.

Looking back, Lexi had to admit to herself that hooking up probably hadn�t been the best decision. Lexi had found herself in David�s bed most nights. In her fantasy world, that would have continued, but he�d made it clear from the start that it didn�t mean anything.

Lexi had made the mistake of announcing that she loved him during a particularly nice orgasm a week ago. After that, David had pulled back.

He�d claimed that she probably should head back to LA since they were wrapping up the shoot. She�d found herself on a flight home the next day.

Kent, her boss, had been happy to have her back. He wanted to dump their problem child, Gwen Larkin, back in her lap. Gwen was mentally unstable but was currently a key figure in a highly rated TV series. One of the benefits of going overseas with David was that she�d been able to fob the nutjob off onto one of her colleagues. Gwen required almost 24/7 babysitting to keep her from doing crazy stuff that would get her in the gossip rags.

So far, Lexi had fended Kent off by saying she needed a vacation.

�I�m back in LA. I�m sure I�ll still help David out as needed, but I�ll have other clients to keep me busy.�

The alternative Kent had given her was time off to go to college to get her degree. The company did more than PA work; they also helped celebrities manage all aspects of their lives. To do that effectively, she could really use a college degree.

Lexi�s long-term plan was to get into management at a studio, so she leaned towards going to school. If nothing else, it would make her parents happy.

�Thank you for stopping by today and giving us the scoop on what David A. Dawson is up to. Maybe you could talk him into visiting with us when he gets back into town,� Cassie said.

�I doubt he�ll show up,� Lexi thought but plastered a smile on her face.

�I�ll let him know.�

Cassie seemed happy, so Lexi was able to make her escape. David was going to owe her for this one.

Tim, Wolf, and David were sixteen hours into their seventeen-hour flight from New Zealand to Norman, Oklahoma, home to the University of Oklahoma. That was where they planned to go to school and play football.

�Could you imagine if we�d tried to do this via a commercial flight?� Tim asked.

�My luck, I would�ve had some little kid behind me, either screaming or kicking my seat the whole way,� Wolf replied.

Their original flight to New Zealand had been a nightmare. Tim and Wolf had flown out in June, nearly three months before David arrived, to help set up and start filming the last two films in the Star Academy trilogy. David had been in Europe shooting the latest James Bond offering. Without David along, they�d had to fly commercial. For the flight home, the studio had sprung for a private jet.

�I don�t think they allow rug-rats in first class,� David said with a bit of a smirk.

�Whatever,� Wolf said, not taking the bait.

David had gotten his two best friends jobs with the Star Academy production crew. The financial windfall was enough for both Tim and Wolf to decide to gray-shirt and enroll for the spring semester instead of the fall. They�d had a lot more free time than David and had been able to enjoy traveling all over Australia and New Zealand.

The copilot emerged from the cockpit.

�The tower in Norman wanted to let you know that Coach Michaels will be there to meet you. I let them know we�re still on schedule.�

�What time is it here?� Tim asked.

The copilot looked at his watch.

�It�s nineteen hours behind Auckland ... that would make it two-thirty, local time,� he said and then went back up front.

�We didn�t rate the head coach when we came for our recruiting trip. Why do you think he�s meeting us today?� Wolf asked.

David had caught that, too. One possibility was that their Heisman-winning quarterback, Hayden Walsh, had announced plans to go pro. The coach might be greeting them to jumpstart David on his quest to lead the Sooners as next year�s quarterback. David had been rated the number one recruit his senior year and had decided on Oklahoma specifically to win national championships.

But in the back of his mind, he didn�t think the head coach would be there when one of his staff could have done the job. Oh, well, he would find out soon enough.

�Before we left, I got confirmation we got a triple in Headington Hall,� Tim said.

�I got that too. Did you get yours?� Wolf asked David.

David shrugged.

�I�m not sure. Lexi handled that stuff.�

�Not that I�m complaining, but why did she go home a week early?� Tim asked.

Lexi was David�s PA and acted as his gatekeeper, sometimes to his detriment. She�d pissed off his friends more than once when she�d stopped them from �bothering� him. Tim and Wolf had admitted to each other, though, that with the compressed filming schedule, David had been run ragged. He�d been lucky if he got five hours of sleep on any given evening.

It wasn�t that David was afraid to work hard. He�d put in more hours than anyone he knew of during high school to become an elite quarterback and baseball player. He was almost invariably up at the crack of dawn, hitting the pavement running when most everyone else was snug in their bed.

But the past half year had been nonstop. If Lexi hadn�t been taking care of him, David didn�t know how he would have survived. She�d made sure he was where he needed to be when he needed to be there, and she�d been tasked by David and others, including the director, with keeping all distractions away from him. That sometimes meant that his friends and family were blocked in their efforts to get ahold of him.

David grinned as he reminisced about the time when Lexi had learned that her gatekeeper duties didn�t apply to his mom. All his friends loved his mom but knew that you never crossed her. In David�s junior year, she�d actually dragged his former best friend, Alan, out of the stands by his ear when he�d defied her.

It hadn�t taken long for everyone to figure out that if they really had to talk to David, they should have his mom call. Lexi had even interrupted filming one day when she�d called. That Lexi was more afraid of David�s mom than of Chubby Feldman, the legendary action director who�d filmed the James Bond movie, said a lot about David�s mom. When Chubby had started to object, Lexi simply told him it was David�s mom. They�d been lucky Chubby found it amusing.

�We were almost done, and she�d done such a good job that I decided to reward her and let her go home early,� David explained.

Tim and Wolf looked at each other.

�I call bullshit,� Wolf said.

�He�s right. It was more than that, because you were lost without her to boss you around,� Tim agreed.

�She said she loved me,� David confessed.

They both looked as confused as he�d felt for the last week. If he�d known that might happen, he would never have gone along with Lexi�s scheme to hook up. She had made a convincing argument. Instead of him romantically linking up with another actor on set in stereotypical Hollywood fashion, she would fulfill his sexual needs.

Lexi had sold it as a way to prevent any friction on the set if things went south. She�d reminded David of what happened in the romantic comedy he�d been in, Love Letters. The two leads, Halle James and Ben Cowley, had gotten interested in each other. Halle was one of David�s best friends, and he�d warned her that Ben was also dating Isabel Alexandra, the smoking-hot actress of Baywatch fame. It turned out that he was right and that Ben had never intended to leave Isabel. The results were not good when Halle had finally realized Ben wasn�t the best idea she�d ever had.

There were many other instances where such relationships had caused problems, so David had relented. It didn�t hurt that Lexi was his type: athletic with model-quality looks. He also knew that sex with her was more than satisfactory, and that was selling it short. Between the sheets, they clicked.

The final reason David had accepted was that Lexi and he had a history. When they�d first met, he�d been convinced she was the typical �mean girl.� David had had numerous people who�d met her warn him to be careful. Even when David first hired Lexi, he�d been cautious.

Then she�d made it her mission to prove him wrong. They�d had a few rough patches, but all in all, she�d done an excellent job as his PA. David had come to think of Lexi as an integral part of his team. Sort of his Girl Friday, who just happened to be there for him in more ways than was probably appropriate.

When Lexi said she loved him after the last time they�d made love ... David had panicked. He was of two minds. David once had a girlfriend explain to him that if you said you loved someone within 24 hours of sex, it didn�t count. A good orgasm wasn�t much of a foundation for love, so it was possible she didn�t mean it.

There was another possibility, though, which was why he�d sent Lexi home: she really might have meant it. The honest-to-God truth was he�d never made the cognitive leap to even entertain the possibility. He�d instantly realized that if two people worked together as closely as they had, day in and day out, for seven months, feelings could develop.

What made him even more skittish around Lexi was yet a third possibility, something his Uncle John had explained to him. It concerned what was called �grooming,� which was a process that was done in stages to tie a person to someone else. In its most insidious form, it was used by predators to lure underage children.

The stages include: targeting the victim, then building trust; filling a need or finding something missing in the target�s life and providing it; creating a �special� relationship; introducing sex; and finally, reinforcing the connection. The same steps could be applied to dating, but the difference was the intent.

David could see that Lexi had accomplished each of those steps. If so many people hadn�t warned him about her, he would probably have never doubted her actions. In the back of his mind, though, he knew Lexi was smart enough to con him. David had already seen her fake-cry on demand to get her way.

If it had been anyone else, he�d have taken the declaration at face value. In the light of day, he�d connected the dots that they were about to wrap up filming, Lexi was going back to LA, and he would be going to college. Was her announcement of love a way to bind them closer together?

David had almost instantly decided that if he had those kinds of doubts, then he didn�t want her as a distraction on set. David still had work to do, and with her there, he would have been focused on trying to figure out if she really meant it or not, rather than on making a quality film.

The big question now was ... what if she did? What if she really loved him?

�That is an epic bad idea,� Tim said.

�Almost as bad as when you thought you could sleep with an entire women�s volleyball team,� Wolf reminded Tim.

That brought David out of his Lexi funk. A volleyball team had stayed at one of the hotels the guys had been at. The first night, Tim had gotten lucky and brought one home. His lucky streak had lasted three nights, with a different girl each night. There was a lot of alcohol involved, and sound judgment had gone out the window.

On the fourth night, each of the three girls figured out about the other two. Wolf had sent David a video of them going at each other in a pub. Tim made his next big mistake when he decided he should be the peacemaker.

The three girls� focus had turned from each other to Tim. He�d ended up with a pitcher of beer on his head, several lumps, and a cut over his eye. Then the girls had thoroughly and loudly listed his shortcomings as a man for all to hear.

Back in their hotel room, after Wolf and David had done what they could for Tim�s bruises and abrasions, the guys had time to reflect on what happened. The three of them had concluded that if something like that ever occurred again, it was better to just leave.

�Why do you think I sent Lexi home? I don�t have time for girls right now.�

�Says the man who has a hot stripper waiting for him when he gets to school,� Tim rejoined.

David sometimes wondered why he had friends.

On their recruiting trip to Oklahoma, the university�s then-starting quarterback, Hayden Walsh, had been their guide, and he�d taken the three boys to a gentlemen�s club. They�d witnessed a live work of art named Tawny Greenwalt, aka Mercedes.

After the club, the group had gone to a party at Hayden�s apartment, and David had learned that the goddess lived upstairs from Hayden. Tawny and David had bailed on the party and had gone to her place to talk. It wasn�t that he didn�t want to spend some quality time with her; it was more that he�d found a friend. His best relationships had started that way. If something happened between them, he didn�t want it to be just a one-night stand.

�I haven�t really talked to her since that night,� David explained.

�But you�ll be looking her up,� Tim said.

�Yeah, I might,� David admitted.

�That�s my boy. Get Lexi out of your head. If she got her claws into you, we would never see you again,� Wolf predicted.

Lexi had said on more than one occasion that the two of them were terrible influences on David. He could see her putting her foot down if he came home with glitter on his face from some stripper�s boobs. It would, of course, be all their fault if that happened.

�So, are we set on the plan for today?� David asked to get them off of their Lexi rant.

�We might want to get Lexi back just to organize him,� Wolf teased.

David flipped him off.

�Sign our financial aid docs, get our class schedules, and then we go to our dorm room and see what it needs,� Tim listed off.

�I already know that we need a giant flat-screen TV,� Wolf said to make his priorities clear early.

Tim and David rolled their eyes because he�d been politicking for that for the last several weeks. They�d both come up with reasons why they didn�t want one. Of course, they were just pulling his leg.

�We�ll have to see if there�s room for one,� David said.

�I�m not sure we need the distraction,� Tim added.

Wolf gave them a determined look but let it go.

�Do we really have to have cameras in our unit?� Wolf asked.

�It�s either that, or my mom will insist that a security guy sleeps on the couch. Besides, there won�t be any in your bedrooms. Only I have to carry that burden,� David said.

The downside of fame and money was that a person having both had to protect themselves. On more than one occasion, David had been happy that there was always a camera on him, be it a bodycam or cameras where he lived. It helped eliminate he said/she said situations. More than one celebrity had been shaken down that way. The easiest method was to say that sex was nonconsensual after the fact. Nine times out of ten, people believed the accuser.

Wolf snorted.

�Like you would hesitate to make a sex tape.�

From being a model, David was not body-shy, and his friends knew it.

�The problem is that my security team won�t let me have access to them,� David shot back.

Over the speakers, the captain told them that they were preparing to land and to put on their seatbelts.

�I�m so ready for this,� Wolf said.

�Today begins our drive for a national championship,� David said.

�Hell, yeah,� Tim agreed.

A new chapter in his life was about to begin. David relaxed in his seat as he thought of what was to come. His hope was that he could just be an average college student-athlete. He would prefer to let the whole David A. Dawson actor persona fade into the background while he went to school.

He still had some movie commitments, like voice work and then the publicity tours, but he�d been promised that would be kept to a minimum.

What he really needed was to be treated like any other guy-and maybe to sleep for a month.

Oklahoma�s head football coach, Bob Michaels, had been summoned to the athletic director�s office. While it wasn�t unusual for him to meet with Dr. Wilken, they�d just met two days ago to talk about their upcoming bowl game. The athletic department was in charge of the logistics, and he�d wanted to make sure everything was on track.

In the past, he�d been confident that everything was being handled. But Dr. Wilken had suddenly been thrust into the job as the interim athletic director. Bob�s old boss, Tug Candis, had unexpectedly retired due to health issues.

Tug had been in charge for the past seventeen years. He knew all the ins and outs of running a smooth operation. In contrast, the best characterization that Bob could come up with was that Dr. Wilken was �muddling through.� The coach didn�t think anyone in the department would be happier than him when they found Tug�s permanent replacement.

�Hey, Becky. I�ve been summoned,� he said as a greeting to Tug�s long-time assistant.

Truth be told, she was probably more responsible for the success of Oklahoma�s athletics than anyone else. Coach Michaels knew that if you really needed something done, you went to her.

�Bob,� she said, which brought him up short. Becky had never used his first name before. �I tried to stop it, but they�ve made up their minds. Don�t lose your job over what he�s going to tell you.�

As she was saying that, she�d pushed him out into the hall so her boss couldn�t overhear them.

�What�s going on?� he asked.

�The new compliance guy we hired from the NCAA rejected the waiver we were granting David Dawson.�

�Son of a B ... We had that worked out,� he said, stunned.

�Go make your case, but I�m telling you he has made up his mind. Dr. Wilken is worried he�ll look weak if he grants it,� Becky shared.

�Why couldn�t Tug have waited to retire?� Coach Michaels complained. �This will cost us, mark my words.�

She simply nodded and went back into her office, where she announced him. Bob put on a neutral face and walked in. He saw that Dr. Wilken was with a man who looked to be in his mid-20s. How anyone thought that the interim AD was fit for the role was a mystery to Coach Michaels.

�Bob! Thanks for making time for me today,� Dr. Wilken said, a bit too excited.

�We need to make this quick. I�m meeting with Darren Ludlow for lunch today to talk about signing David Dawson, Tim Foresee, and Wolf Tams to financial aid agreements. He�s doing a piece to welcome them to Sooner Nation. He plans to write a big spread for Sunday�s paper. It�s not every day that we pull in the number one recruit. The timing couldn�t be better, with Hayden planning to go pro.�

Dr. Wilken visibly flinched. Coach Michaels really didn�t have a lunch meeting with the local paper�s lead sports reporter, but he soon would if this meeting went south.

�Bob, I�d like you to meet Stewart Chadwick from the compliance department. He has something to share with you.�

A glimmer of hope cracked through when he saw Dr. Wilken toss the grenade to the source of all this nonsense.

�It concerns David Dawson. We�re not going to be able to provide him a waiver for his image rights. The long-term implications are too grave to allow it,� Stewart announced.

Both men braced themselves for the coming explosion, which would have happened if Becky hadn�t warned him. Instead, Coach Michaels put on a confused face before trying to reason with the two ... well ... idiots.

�Tug Candis already agreed to it and signed a letter of understanding to that effect. David will probably take in more money from his movies than all of us together make in a year. Part of that pay requires him to help with promotions when the films are released. At the time he verbaled, he made it clear that giving up those rights was a deal-breaker.

�What I need to know is, what changed? What is making us go back on our word?� Coach Michaels asked.

�Nothing changed. It has been our policy all along that all student-athletes sign a blanket document granting us the use of their likeness. Without it, we couldn�t function,� Dr. Wilken explained.

�Even the NCAA provided him with a waiver because what he needs it for is something he�s created on his own before he steps on campus. This isn�t going to change how we do business. A little common sense would dictate that we work with the young man on this. Unless we all missed something before, I would strongly recommend we stick with what we promised,� Coach Michaels said.

�We have several concerns. A good example is our upcoming bowl game. We, as a university, had to grant them image rights for all our football players, coaches, and anyone affiliated with the program to allow them to both promote and televise the game. If we give up those rights to David, he could potentially refuse to grant the bowl committee the use of his likeness for the promotion of the game. That could be a huge problem for us,� Mr. Chadwick said.

�Did you even read the letter? He is granting us the rights to his image for football and baseball activities,� Coach Michaels countered.

�There is a clause that says that for marketing purposes, David has veto power,� Mr. Chadwick added.

�That was explained at the time. David has a public image beyond football. One, I might add, he pays a PR firm to manage. What he�s protecting himself from is some marketing guy deciding he�s the bad boy of football or being asked to make excessive appearances. It�s intended to limit us from turning him into some kind of show pony as the face of the program. He is serious about getting an education and doesn�t want his athletics to affect that,� Coach Michaels reasoned.

At the time, Coach Michaels had wondered why David would be worried. Then the whole Heisman hype had hit for Hayden Walsh. He�d had to step in to limit all the press requests for Hayden so he could focus on football. The marketing arm of the athletic department had naturally wanted the exposure that one of Oklahoma�s players winning a Heisman would give the university.

�The decision has been made. I suggest you get David to sign it,� Dr. Wilken ordered to show that he wasn�t backing down.

Coach Michaels would have taken this to the Board of Regents or the university president if he�d had time. He suspected that Dr. Wilken had deliberately waited until this morning to spring this on him. David and his friends would be here in a couple of hours to sign the financial aid packets that would give them scholarships. Part of that paperwork was the document granting the university the almost exclusive right to use their likeness.

He could try to sell David on the idea that he could make this right after that fact, but once David signed away his rights, there were no guarantees. Coach Michaels couldn�t, in good conscience, do that to the young man. If he couldn�t get this worked out, he would advise David to not accept a scholarship.

�He�ll walk, and I predict the other two will as well,� Coach Michaels said. �Wolf Tams is one of the better tight-end prospects and one that I planned to use next year. Tim Foresee is a bit of a project, but he could start his junior and senior years for us. Those were three key recruits I was counting on to fill out this class.�

Coach Michaels had another thought.

�And you two need to remember something: none of these three has signed a National Letter of Intent. Without those in our hands, they can walk and enroll at another school without any consequence to them. They won�t have to sit out any time at all.�

From Dr. Wilken�s stunned expression, Coach Michaels could tell that the idiot had thought they were locked in. If they�d signed the National Letters of Intent and decided to transfer, they would have to sit out another year before playing ball at their new school. Glancing over at Chadwick, though, Coach Michaels could see he was trying mightily to hide a smirk.

�That�s not really a problem. All you have to do is have them sign their enrollment and scholarship papers before you tell them,� Chadwick said, showing that the man had no morals.

Coach Michaels had to fight hard to master the upwelling rage that now threatened to consume him.

�I doubt David will leave,� Dr. Wilken said doubtfully, but then he firmed up, obviously reciting a prepared litany. �We are the University of Oklahoma and just produced the latest Heisman winner. He picked us because he knows that we are his best shot at both winning a national championship and landing in the first round of the NFL draft.�

Coach Michaels shook his head in disgust. This idiot was making a colossal mistake. Heaven help them if they ever met David across the field of play.

�David can make one phone call, and every top program in the country will roll out the red carpet for him. We�ve never had a quarterback with his raw talent step on this campus, and I include Hayden in that statement. I have him penciled in as next year�s starter, and everyone knows that I hate playing freshman quarterbacks. He is the exception to that rule,� Coach Michaels tried one last time.

�Like I said. The decision has been made.�

�That�s fine and dandy,� Coach Michaels said and then turned his gaze unblinkingly on Stewart Chadwick. �However, if you think for one second I am going to be the front man for your little scheme to defraud these young men, you�re dead wrong. I will not be getting them to sign binding documents without telling them about what it means for David.�

He thought for a second and turned back to the interim AD.

�Like you said, we�re the University of Oklahoma, and we do things the right way. I�ll meet with them and try to salvage this, but I don�t hold out much hope.�

Coach Michaels made a mental note that as soon as Dr. Wilken was gone, he would make it his life�s mission to get Stewart Chadwick drummed out of the university.

USC�s head football coach, Dylan Clayton, had a dilemma on his hands. He�d received word from his recruiting coordinator, Bryant Franzese, that David Dawson had backed out of his commitment to Oklahoma and was interested in coming to play for USC.

Coach Clayton had asked Bryant to call Coach Michaels to get some background on why David was making a change. The coach had to chuckle at what a boneheaded move their interim athletic director had made. Bryant had also sent him an article from the local paper in Norman calling for the athletic director�s head.

Coach Clayton�s dilemma stemmed from his system for recruiting and handling his quarterbacks. He wasn�t one of those guys who just kept recruiting top talent, letting them fight it out to see who came out on top. He didn�t want his starting quarterback continually looking over his shoulder, worried that one minor mistake would see him on the bench.

The coach was a believer in having a clear number one recruited every two years. That would give the future number one a couple of years to get settled and learn the offense.

USC�s current situation was a textbook example of how and why he wanted quarterback recruiting to work. Ridge Townsend had been their starter for the last two years and was projected to be a top-five draft pick in this year�s NFL draft. Even though Ridge was leaving a year early, they�d picked up Matt Long. Matt had had a chance to redshirt and was set to take over this fall as the starter with four years of eligibility.

Last year, they�d recruited both David and Matt. Coach Clayton had sat David down and assured him that if he accepted, they would back off on Matt�s recruitment. It wasn�t like Matt was a consolation prize or Plan B-type player, though. He ranked as the number four quarterback and the tenth overall recruit in the nation coming out of high school.

As tempting as it was to take the number one ranked quarterback and number one overall recruit in David, it went against what Coach Clayton believed. David would walk on and be at a significant disadvantage because of Matt�s year of experience in the program.

In his system, he gave the lion�s share of coaching and playing time in practice to his starter, another factor that worked against David. David had sat out the football season to make movies and would walk onto campus without having taken a live football snap in over a year. High-level college football wasn�t something you could just show up for after that kind of layoff and do well. He would require practice time that would eat into what they planned to give Matt.

Having both highly rated quarterbacks would mean that one would have to sit on the bench. That wouldn�t be fair to them because he felt they both had the potential to play on Sunday after graduation.

With that in mind, the coach was leaning towards not taking David, as crazy as that sounded. Before Coach Clayton called David back, he wanted to get his brain trust together and talk about it. That included his offensive coordinator, Wyatt Thomas, and defensive coordinator, Jackson Farrow, to get their thoughts.

Coach Clayton was on his way to meet with them. They had a small conference room where they talked about strategy. He found both men waiting, so he took his seat.

�Bryant got an interesting call. David Dawson pulled his verbal from Oklahoma and has put out feelers to see if we�re still interested. I talked with Coach Michaels at Oklahoma, and he�s okay with it, says David has a legitimate beef with Oklahoma�s administration.�

�My first instinct is to say absolutely. My only concern is what this will mean for Matt. He might transfer if he hears that David is coming. I�d hate to see that since we invested so much time in Matt, and he�s going to be a good one,� Coach Thomas said.

�Do you really think that David, who hasn�t touched a football in over a year, could come in and displace Matt?� Coach Clayton asked.

�When you put it that way, maybe not. But when we recruited them, it was obvious that David has the higher ceiling. While Matt might get us to a national championship game, David could win it for us,� Coach Thomas said, giving his evaluation.

�It sounds like we�re splitting hairs,� Coach Clayton said and then made his opinion known. �I�m leaning toward saying �no.� Matt has earned his shot, and I don�t want to muddy the waters with a quarterback controversy before he has even had a chance to take the reins.�

�If you two idiots don�t want him, I do,� Coach Farrow said to weigh in.

Coach Farrow had kept out of it to this point because David�s best position was on offense. But he was more than a quarterback. He was, first and foremost, an athlete. In high school, David had played defense at times. When he did, he showed that he could play almost any position on the defensive side of the ball. Coach Farrow was excited because he could move David all over the field, from stand-up defensive end to cornerback, as situations dictated.

Coach Farrow also felt that you put your best athletes on defense. While schools like Oklahoma loaded up the offensive side of the ball, they ran into problems when they met better teams outside their conference. Defense won championships, in his opinion.

�We don�t have any more scholarships for your side of the ball. You used them in the early signing period,� Coach Thomas pointed out.

�This surely warrants giving me one more, don�t you think?� Coach Farrow asked.

�What if we offered him a preferred walk-on spot with the promise of a scholarship when one opens up? I mean, he can certainly afford tuition, to start with. It shouldn�t be long until we have someone leave for one reason or another, and we could give him one then. We could sell it to him as, �if we�d known you were coming, we would�ve had a scholarship on hand,�� Coach Clayton floated.

�Why take the risk of his going elsewhere?� Coach Farrow worried.

�If he threatens to do that, we�ll give him a scholarship. But we make it clear that we�re offering him a shot to play defense and not take over at quarterback. If he doesn�t accept that, then we take a pass,� Coach Clayton said to make the final decision.

�I want to take the lead on this,� Coach Farrow said.

�Go tell Bryant. He has enough on his plate and will be happy to let you handle it,� Coach Clayton said to conclude the meeting.

There was a lot for David to do today. Coach Farrow had called to let David know he�d pulled some strings and that David was set to move into Sandoval Hall. David had to go to USC to register for classes, and he planned to swing by the dorm and see what he might need or want to bring with him.

He�d dressed down for this. David�s clothes were casual Midwestern, making him look almost like a bum compared to the LA smart set. The addition of his baseball cap and �birth-control� glasses�complete with a built-in camera, black rims, and clear lenses�reinforced his low-profile look. David�s actress friend, Halle James, would be appalled at him for allowing himself to be seen in public dressed like this, but he didn�t want to draw attention to himself today.

After visiting the dorm, David planned to stop in at the baseball offices to talk to the coaches. USC�s first game was only three weeks out, and he wanted to find out what it would take to walk on as soon as possible.

Last on the agenda, David wanted to pick up his car. When he�d won his Academy Award last spring, they�d given all the nominees swag bags full of goodies that ranged from skin-care items to lavish vacations. David had either donated or given away most of the stuff. One that he ultimately wound up keeping for himself was the use of a high-end car for a year.

David had contacted Drexler Motors, and they told him he could either pick something from the lot, or they would order what he wanted. He planned to use it for his car on campus, so he didn�t want anything too over-the-top. The way his luck had been going lately, it would get banged up or stolen.

When it was time to go, David went downstairs from his apartment over the garage to meet Manaia, his security and driver for today. David saw Manaia had pulled out his Dodge Challenger SRT Demon. This was one of four prototypes that Dodge had built to test the Demon�s design. When he�d first gotten it, he�d been disappointed to discover it only had a driver�s seat and no creature comforts, including no radio. Fortunately, his dad and uncle had contracted with the dealership to trick it out.

Dodge had included all the bells and whistles performance-wise so they could test the car�s limits. That meant that it had more horsepower and beefed-up brakes compared to what ended up coming off the production line-and the production version was no slouch. The car was a beast and a joy to drive.

�Keys,� David said, holding out his hand.

�Can�t. I�m supposed to drive you,� Manaia countered.

�Either you let me drive, or I�ll make sure you�re the sole driver for the kiddy van. That means driving them to and from daycare, playdates, and the like ... forever.�

Manaia could see he was serious and just tossed David the keys. Being stuck in traffic with five two-year-olds would make anyone want to blow their brains out, especially if they weren�t yours. He wouldn�t put it past David to feed them sugar to get them amped-up before the trips, either.

David got in and adjusted the seat backward to accommodate his long legs. He fired up the engine and gave Manaia a grin as it rumbled to life.

�I haven�t gotten to drive since I went to make my movies,� David admitted.

�That�s probably another reason I should drive,� Manaia grumped.

David ignored his whining. He pulled the car from the back garage and found his mom standing in the middle of the driveway.

�Did you narc me out?� he asked.

Manaia gave him a sideways look and shook his head �no.� His mom walked around to the passenger door and opened it.

�Get in the back. I�m going with you.�

David was impressed when Manaia did as he was told without a word. It seemed his mom had Manaia better trained than he did.

David didn�t even comment that his mom was going with. She would want to review his classes and see where he was going to live. There was no point in fighting it.

�We�re picking up Lexi,� Mom announced when she had her seatbelt on.

�Frick!� David thought.

He�d been avoiding Lexi since he�d sent her home from New Zealand. If Oklahoma hadn�t had their collective head up their posterior, he would have been free of Lexi. Living in the same city might make that more of a challenge.

She felt ready to explode, like a giant pi�ata full of secrets. Seeing Umberto Sandoval brought back a flood of memories that she wanted to suppress. He�d been part of her biggest regret.

Lexi had planned to use the day to fix her relationship with David. She knew that announcing that she loved him had made him gun-shy, and he�d been on guard when she got in the car. Lexi had watched as he began to relax as the day went on. She would bet that it was only a matter of time before she could win him back.

The plan had been to remind him what a great team they made. In her wildest fantasy, she�d hoped she could lure him into her bed, but she hadn�t anticipated seeing Umberto today. When Lexi and Umberto had seen each other, he�d almost given everything away. Lexi knew that David was more observant than people gave him credit for and had caught the momentary lapse.

When David had suggested that Manaia drive her home from the car dealership, she�d acquiesced. Lexi wanted to get away from David so that she could deal with all the feelings that had suddenly come flooding back. He knew her better than anyone else and would quickly figure out that something was off.

The irony was that all this really began with David. He�d unwittingly been the catalyst for her downfall, and now, in many ways, he was her redemption.

She found herself sitting on her couch with a bottle of wine, remembering what had happened.

David was excited. Today was move-in day at his dorm. He was looking forward to seeing Alex and also to discover what Lexi had done to his room. At first, David had felt guilty for turning that task over to her, but honestly, he�d needed time with his family. David had spent the last several days catching up on his sleep, spending time with his kids, and doing a bunch of nothing. Knowing that he�d gotten his priorities straight, his guilt disappeared.

David also recognized that for the past seven months, Lexi had been with him almost 24/7. By now, she had a good idea of what he would want for his dorm room.

As excited as he was, David was a bit wary of revealing his identity to his fellow students. He wanted to keep the sycophants, leeches, and wannabes at bay for as long as possible. The last thing he needed was to collect his own �entourage.� He�d rather have real friends.

When David arrived, the parking security guard exchanged his parking pass for a sticker for his car to be placed on his windshield. It had an electronic chip that would provide him with access to the parking lot after hours.

David found a spot in the back corner that he hoped would keep his new car from being dinged up. Making his way inside, he was greeted by a clamor of excited voices coming from a mixture of new residents and students returning from Christmas break. David was glad that he didn�t have to fight the crowd to move in today.

The line for the elevators was a nonstarter, so he took the stairs. On the third-floor landing, he found a girl sitting down, breathing heavily. Even with a sweat mustache, the girl was cute. She had a case of wine next to her.

�Want some help?� he asked.

She looked up and took David in. He�d worn his nerd-farmer gear, and he could tell she wasn�t impressed.

�Maybe just up the next flight of stairs,� she finally said.

David bit his tongue because it was evident that she didn�t want to be seen with him. That didn�t mean he couldn�t be put to work, though. He picked the case up and took it upstairs.

�You can put it there,� she said as she pointed. �Are you visiting someone?�

�No, I�m new here.�

Time for the subterfuge to begin.

�Allen,� he said as he offered her his hand to shake.

�Oh,� was all she said as she ignored his outstretched hand.

�You sure you don�t want me to carry that to your room?� he asked.

From the look she threw him, she would prefer to be dipped in honey and tossed onto a hill of fire ants rather than be seen with him. David thought for a moment about just standing there to see how uncomfortable he could make her, but he had better ways to spend his time.

He walked out into the common room, and the first thing he noticed was that the security doors for both the women�s and men�s sides of the hall were propped open. David looked down the hall toward his suite, and that door was open as well. The kicker was that Alex and Lexi were nowhere to be found.

David took a deep breath to calm his irritation and wandered into his suite to look around. Lexi and Camilla had done an excellent job of improving the looks of the place. They�d replaced all the mismatched furniture with pieces that belonged together. He was pleased that it looked like stuff that would hold up.

In place of the cloth couch that looked like it came from a doctor�s waiting room, there was now a leather one. They�d also picked up four gaming recliners that had cup holders. The chairs were arranged in front of what had to be an 80-inch TV. What would really incite his friends� envy was the gaming system hooked to it. David snapped a couple of quick pictures and sent them to his buddies Tim and Wolf.

He went to check his new bedroom and was even more pleased. The walls were painted a neutral gray, with the ceiling a chocolate brown that matched the wood blinds.

Lexi had placed his desk against the wall by the door. On it was a 60-inch TV with a keyboard and mouse in front of it. Next to the desk was a credenza. When David opened it, he found his new computer and printer. The credenza was stocked with all the office supplies he would ever want.

In the center of the room was a California king bed that had a USC bedspread on it. Instead of a headboard, Lexi had hung two surfboards on the wall. The bottom one was the one he�d bought his junior year of high school. It was white with a burnt-orange octopus with orange and yellow tentacles and bright green suction cups. The one on top had a weathered, vintage look and featured a huge sun as it dipped down over a tropical island.

Against the far wall was a comfy oversized chair with a round table. That looked to be a perfect spot to kick back and either study or relax after a long day when he wanted some alone time.

There was also a docking station for his phone. What he�d first thought were security cameras in the corners by the ceiling turned out to be speakers. David plugged his phone in and picked a playlist. He was impressed by the sound quality.

The walk-in closet was completely decked out with a top-of-the-line integrated closet system. He�d seen what something like this cost; there was a similar one in the master bedroom of his house in Malibu. If he ended up only living here for a semester, that would be a costly purchase. Everything else could be packed up and moved; the closet system couldn�t. Then again, for that kind of money, he could pay to have it torn out and put something cheaper back in its place.

The bathroom was as David remembered. There was a shower, toilet, and sink. Lexi had put in a shelving unit over the toilet to house all his products. It was embarrassing that a guy would have so much of that stuff, but he�d learned from modeling that proper skin and hair care were essential over the long haul.

�You�re here,� Lexi said, scaring the bejesus out of him.

Damn, that sound system was good. David hadn�t heard her over the music until she spoke.

�So, what do you think?� she asked.

�I love it,� David said with a smile.

Lexi was eager to show him everything. He did discover where all the security cameras were hidden. Fritz and his team were sneaky. They were in the pegs that held up the surfboards.

�Where did you go?� he finally asked.

�Oh. Alex and I went to get some food. If you�re hungry, I brought you a roast beef sandwich.�

�Do you even have to ask?� he teased Lexi.

When David walked out of the bedroom, he saw Alex was making full use of the gaming system and giant TV to play a soccer game. David made a mental note that he had to broaden his new roommate�s taste in gaming. Maybe he could interest him in real football.

Alex glanced back and dropped his controller as he began to laugh.

�You look like a complete dork. I�m not sure I can be seen with you in public.�

�Fuck you too,� David shot back.

�Seriously, dude. Are you sure about this? Lexi told me you wanted to blend in, but this will have people making fun of you.�

Lexi was trying not to laugh. Maybe this wasn�t such a good idea.

�I think I scared one of the girls when I came in,� David said and then related helping the girl in the stairwell.

�That had to be one of the princesses. There�s a group of stuck-up townies who judge everyone. It�s almost as bad as what Lexi used to be like in high school,� Alex related.

Lexi stiffened.

�Thankfully, she outgrew that. If she hadn�t, I�d have kicked her to the curb by now,� David said.

Alex and Lexi gave each other looks David couldn�t interpret. Hopefully, she would win Alex over as she�d done him.

Cassidy Hope prided herself on her fitness. In high school, she�d put together a conditioning program called sixty minutes of hell, modeled after what the Marine Corps did to turn boys into men. Her father had spent twenty years in the Marines, and she�d grown up around them. When Cassidy had been barely a teenager, her father had been willing to put her up against almost any new recruit. He�d won numerous bets when she would outlast them all.

David Dawson had been her model student. She�d taken him under her wing and taught him to defend himself. In a dojo or on the street, David could hold his own. Towards the end of high school, he�d slacked off on his self-defense training, but she wasn�t sure if she could still take him.

Part of what she wanted to do someday was train people. David had talked to her dad and arranged for her to work with a trainer they�d brought in to improve Lincoln High�s strength-and-conditioning program. She�d learned a lot about what trainers did that she hadn�t really thought of before, but that had just whetted her appetite to learn more.

So, when she stepped onto campus with a rowing scholarship, she�d thought she was ready. She�d done better than any of the other freshmen, but she discovered that rowing felt like the equivalent of sprinting a marathon. The sport utilized every major muscle of your body: arms, legs, abdomen, even the tips of your fingers. Every muscle counted.

She�d worked her tail off and made the novice 8+ team. Their first race had been held at the annual San Diego Fall Classic, where the team had been entered in the Women�s Open Frosh/Novice races. They�d ended up winning by over a minute against the second-place boat.

The real season for rowing would begin in about two months when they were entered in the Las Vegas Invitational.

Cassidy was putting her workout clothes into a duffle bag to go to the gym when her roommate, Pam, came bounding up the stairs.

�David�s on his way over,� she announced, then hurried to her room to get ready.

Cassidy had two roommates in the townhouse they were living in. It was actually owned by David, and he let them live there for free. All they had to pay for was food and utilities. The girls she lived with had been best friends since midway through high school.

There was a fourth bedroom, which David had said to save for him. The townhouse was close to USC�s baseball field. He reasoned he could park his car there and walk to the game or sleep over. They�d put a daybed and desks in the room. The girls were using it as a study room.

Pam was originally from California. She�d moved to the Midwest when her father had taken a job in David�s hometown. Pam was the quintessential California girl, a knockout with blond hair and blue eyes. She made sure to go surfing at least once a week, if not more often.

Tracy had won the head cheerleader spot in her junior year at Lincoln High. She was a year older than both Cassidy and Pam.

Tracy and Pam each had a history with Cassidy�s friend David. Tracy had been his first official girlfriend in high school. From what Cassidy heard, it hadn�t ended well. It had taken David and Tracy a while to start talking again. Now she was probably his best female friend.

Pam and David were linked through their son, Coby. David had offered to marry her�multiple times�but she felt she was too young to do that. Thankfully, David�s parents had stepped up and volunteered to be Coby�s guardians until David was done with college. They�d welcomed Pam with open arms, helped her (and David, of course) to raise Coby, and included her (and David) when decisions had to be made.

Cassidy had accompanied Pam to David�s house in Malibu numerous times. He�d asked her to work with all the little ones, as he called them. Coby was the youngest and also the biggest of David�s children. He didn�t tolerate bullies, so when someone at daycare got hit, pushed over, or bitten, he could be expected to retaliate.

They were still too young to really teach how to defend themselves, but she could teach them some ways to avoid conflict. She�d worked with them to try to avoid confrontations altogether. They now knew to run away from biters. They were also taught to tell an adult. Currently, she was working on stop means stop.

Another reason for Cassidy�s visits was that David�s dad was teaching her to cook. For her, it was a win-win because on every visit, she got a home-cooked meal for free.

�Honey, I�m home!� David called out.

Cassidy came downstairs to find him sitting at the island in the kitchen, loving up her cat, Precious. That lasted until �the cat from hell,� as David had dubbed her, clawed him. He dumped her on the floor and shook his head.

�I knew better,� he admitted.

�If she didn�t like you, she wouldn�t have let you in the house,� Cassidy said.

She also noticed that David wasn�t bleeding. Precious tended to draw blood if she had it in for someone.

Cassidy found David looking at her with an open mouth. He cleared his throat.

�You�re wearing a dress.�

She had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. Tracy and Pam had convinced her to do a makeover to lose her tomboy look.

�It�s a wonder you passed all those AP classes in high school,� Cassidy shot back. �You, on the other hand, look terrible. What happened to you?�

Pam and Tracy joined them in the kitchen.

�Before you change the subject, tell me about you wearing a dress,� David said.

�What�s wrong with me wearing a dress?� Cassidy asked.

�I don�t know. I don�t think I�ve ever seen you in a dress other than for a school dance,� David said. When he caught the look the three girls gave him, he quickly added, �It looks good.�

�Nice save,� Cassidy thought.

�You know, you can borrow it if you like. With your legs, you would look better in it than what you have on,� Cassidy rejoined, causing her roommates to giggle at David�s expense.

�I think he looks fine,� Pam said.

Tracy and Cassidy each gave her a sideways look and rolled their eyes because Pam was looking at him like a caffeine junkie eyes a hazelnut macchiato.

�I dress like this on purpose,� he explained. �I want to keep my identity on the down-low for now. That way, I can figure out which people are truly nice and genuinely interested in being my friend without knowing who I really am.�

�I�m sure they�re all running away from you,� Tracy commented.

�In fact, I met a guy and gal who said they want me to be their friend,� David said to defend himself.

�I would be your friend,� Pam said.

It was obvious where this was headed.

�Take him upstairs and say hello already,� Tracy said disgustedly.

�Dear Lord, he can get laid looking like that!?� Cassidy asked, to David�s amusement.

Of course, being the slut that he was, David let Pam lure him upstairs.

David met Lindsey and Kirk at the elevator. They were with another girl who looked like the quintessential bookworm. He recognized that he would probably never have stopped to talk to her if he�d seen her on campus.

�Allen, this is Jamie,� Lindsey said to introduce them.

�So that�s what the �A� stands for,� Jamie said.

�Uh, oh�game over!�

�What are you talking about?� Kirk asked.

David kept a neutral look on his face and prayed Jamie was not about to out him before he�d even made it through his first day.

�I must have seen a floor chart, and it listed his first name as an initial.�

Thankfully, the elevator came to distract Kirk and Lindsey. Jamie gave him the ghost of a smile to let him know that he owed her.

David was amazed by the cafeteria�s transformation. Each table had a white tablecloth, and there was actual waitstaff. Instead of going through the food line, as he�d expected, they were handed sheets of paper with the evening�s menu.

�Is this how this always works?� David asked.

�Only at night. For breakfast and lunch, you go through the line,� Kirk explained.

�Tell us about yourself, Allen. I take it you grew up on a farm,� Lindsey said.

�Not exactly. My grandmother, father, and uncle did, but my father left the farm when he went off to college. My grandmother recently moved to Malibu with my parents, so only my uncle farms now. I grew up in a small Midwestern town. It was the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else,� David explained.

�What do you like to do?� Jamie asked.

�Normal stuff, I guess. Our high school was big on sports, so I played both football and baseball. In fact, I was thinking about trying out for the baseball team on Monday.�

Kirk and Lindsey each gave him skeptical looks. David had decided to refrain from totally deceiving them. It would be easier if they knew some truths when his true identity was finally unveiled.

�That might be harder to do than you think,� Kirk weighed in.

�I�m sure it will be,� David conceded.

Their conversation was interrupted by Veronica and a girl with two guys David didn�t know yet. He didn�t have to know their names to guess what they represented, though. David had a friend, Halle James, who was also an actor and had grown up around the business. While he had filmed one of his movies, he�d stayed at her house when he was in LA. Halle had taken David to a party that her high school friends were having. These four would have fit in perfectly.

�Fair warning, Allen. If you want to have any kind of social life at college, you shouldn�t hang out with these three,� Veronica said.

�Don�t you all have something better to do than harass us? Like torturing kittens or whatever it is you get up to for fun?� Kirk fired back.

The other girl looked appalled at the kitten reference.

�He�ll never fit in, regardless,� one of the guys commented.

�You�ve been warned,� Veronica said and then led her group to another table.

�You�ve been warned,� Lindsey mimicked snarkily. �I hate my roommate some days.�

�Wait,� David said. �She�s your roommate?�

�Yes, and she�s a total entitled snot,� Lindsey grumped.

�Does she wear frilly panty sets?� David asked like he was a twelve-year-old horndog.

Lindsey had a look of horror on her face. Both Kirk and Jamie cracked up when they saw her reaction.

�Linds, he got you again,� Kirk observed.

�We were looking for a replacement when we met you,� Lindsey threatened.

David batted his eyes at her.

�But Veronica is every guy�s dream girl,� he whined and then smiled. �Until she opens her mouth.�

Kirk started to say something, but Jamie jabbed him in his ribs.

�No need to take it to the gutter,� Jamie warned him.

From that point on, their �get to know you� dinner began to be fun. Kirk�s father was a Lutheran minister, and he was from San Diego. He was a junior majoring in English and had two younger sisters who were still in high school. Kirk planned to either be a writer or possibly a teacher when he graduated.

David had thought that everyone in the dorm had money and asked Kirk about it. He explained that his grandfather was wealthy, and both his father and he had trust funds.

Jamie�s parents were professors at USC, and they both taught in the Marshall School of Business. She explained that while her parents made a good living as professors, most of their money was made through savvy investments and consulting. She was also a junior and a business major. Jamie commented that David might run into her parents, Gerald and Julia Stratton, in some of his upper-level business courses.

Lindsey was from Seattle. Her father had died in an accident when she was ten. When she was twelve, her mother had gotten remarried to a Microsoft executive. Lindsey was an undeclared freshman and apparently changed her mind about her future major weekly.

David made a mental note to tell Coach Farrow that the food was every bit as good as he suspected. He doubted he could find a local restaurant that served a better meal.

When they were done, Kirk made an announcement.

�It�s time to initiate you into the group. Let�s show Allen our secret spot.�

If they hadn�t looked happy, David might have worried.

David had gotten lazy over the last week. Today was the first day of school, so he wanted to get back on track. He�d gotten up at the crack of dawn to go running. It was officially winter, so David had worn baggy sweatpants and a hoodie along with his glasses, as much to stay warm as for a disguise.

He�d kept his run short because he knew that he had baseball tryouts that afternoon. Somehow, David found himself at the coffee shop before he went back to the dorm. All he�d heard for the last 24 hours was talk about this hot Goth barista. The guys were all infatuated because she wasn�t the typical California girl. Let�s just put it out there: the USC campus was a target-rich environment by anybody�s standards. What had David intrigued was that this �Goth Barbie,� as they were calling her, had seemed to catch all their attention. For that to happen, she had to be extraordinary.

The shop had just opened, and he was the only customer in the place. There was music pumping, and no one was behind the counter, so he took a moment to look around at the d�cor. The walls were covered with vintage band posters, which, along with the music, gave the place a fun vibe. He wandered toward the back to see what else there was to see of the coffee shop.

He turned around and found a large mahogany-skinned woman who looked to be in her thirties, checking him out. She wore vintage clothes covered by an apron with the coffee shop�s logo.

�Mmm, now we�re talking! I like me a fine-assed big boy. Come here and give me a hug.�

She moved in with her arms spread to hug him, the woman reached up, grabbed his head, and pulled it down. David found his nose buried between two giant aproned boobs as she held his head in place. It felt like he was being smothered by two plump pillows. She smelled like French roast and lilac body wash.

�Doreen, let the poor man go,� another woman said.

�Sorry, no can do. If I let him go, he�ll take one look at your skinny ass and won�t look my way again.�

If David hadn�t found the banter amusing, he might have tried to wiggle free.

�You better let him up, or you might smother him. Besides, you�re about to scare away our only customer while you sexually harass him.�

�Fine, but I call dibs on this one,� Doreen said as she released her grip on David�s head.

David turned and found �Goth Barbie� standing by the counter. He finally figured out what the fuss was about.

Barbie dolls had become a subject of scorn for the politically correct crowd. Scarlet, the mother of his little girl, Carol, had said that he couldn�t buy his daughter one because the dolls presented an unrealistic example for young girls. If the Barbie doll had been blown up to human size, she would be five-nine with a 36-inch chest, 18-inch waist, and 33-inch hips. She represented the idealized image of the perfect hourglass figure. Scarlet had further pointed out that only eight percent of women had an hourglass figure, so why set their daughter up to have body-image issues?

�Goth Barbie� wore all black, including knee-high leather boots with five large buckles on the outside. Peeking over the boots were fishnet tights that disappeared under a lacy skirt. She wore a black corset trimmed with red stitching that just reinforced her Barbie look. The bonus was the way the corset pushed up her breasts. Above them was an intricate tattoo design with a large red rose in the center of her chest.

�Please be ugly� David thought before looking up toward her face.

He�d nearly decided that he didn�t want to get tied down in a relationship. David wanted to just be a regular guy and have some fun during college. If what he�d seen so far was any indication, and she had a pretty face, he might have to change his mind.

Well, that and the competitive side of him would surface. It wasn�t something he was always proud of, but he�d come to accept that he worked to be the best. If the measuring stick was the girl everyone else wanted, then he�d go after her. His biggest problem was he�d put himself at a decided disadvantage with his farmer-nerd look. He was betting he could still pull it off, though.

She had a black hoop piercing in her nose and blood-red lipstick that was the same shade as her rose tattoo. She wore black eyeliner, and her hair was dyed jet black as well.

�Sheeit! I said I had dibs,� Doreen complained.

David could only imagine the look on his face for Doreen to make that comment.

�Since Doreen sexually harassed you, how about a cup of coffee on the house?� �Goth Barbie� offered.

�Uh, sure,� he finally got out.

That made him chuckle because Alex had said that he would take whatever she gave him. He preferred tea, but if she wanted him to drink coffee, he would, and thank her.

David typically wasn�t flustered when it came to good-looking women, but she had him tongue-tied. As soon as she handed him his coffee, he made a hasty exit. As he walked out, he heard her ask him to come back tomorrow. He smiled all the way back to his dorm. You bet he would see her tomorrow.

Ridge had hired Doug Ericson to be his agent. His dad had done the research and determined that Doug was one of the best in the business. The man seemed to be constantly on his phone. Doug claimed it was so he could gauge teams� interest and sell Ridge to them. Ridge had no doubt Doug was good, but the anticipation and anxiety over where he would end up in the draft were about to kill him.

Projections on the Internet were all over the board. There were mock drafts that had him as high as number one and going as late as the end of the first round. The difference in guaranteed money was significant.

He was brought out of his musings by David�s evil-pixie trainer, Cassidy.

�You�re up, Princess!� Cassidy barked.

David smirked at him. He�d warned Ridge that she would finally get him into shape. At the time, Ridge had dismissed the warning because he�d worked his butt off with the USC staff.

He�d been mistaken.

They�d been at it only a couple of days, and he�d considered bailing today because he ached everywhere. The only reason he�d kept at it was David. If she hadn�t killed his protege, then Ridge wasn�t about to admit that she might have gotten the best of him. It wasn�t in his nature to back down from a challenge.

What scared him a little was that Cassidy worked out with them. She might not lift as much weight, but she put him to shame when it came to cardio. She had them doing what David called �sixty minutes of hell.� If Ridge could lift his arms at the end of the day, he might have to kick his friend�s butt because David did the routine wearing a weighted vest. Ridge hadn�t quite gotten to that level of crazy yet.

�If I could make you some extra money, would you lighten up on me?� he asked Cassidy.

�What you don�t realize is that part of her payment is watching us suffer,� David shared.

�Shut it, Stupid Boy. Let him talk,� she said.

�A few other guys are preparing for the NFL draft like I am. I might have mentioned how you�re kicking my butt. They were wondering if you�d train them as well.� Ridge said.

�They would have to show up when we work out. I still have school and my rowing commitments,� Cassidy said to set expectations.

Ridge agreed with her thinking because being a full-time student with an athletic scholarship wasn�t easy. He was only taking one class this semester to free up his time to prepare for the draft.

He honestly didn�t know how David planned to do it when he added baseball into the mix. When Ridge had asked, David had laughed. He explained that he was used to working long hours from when he did his movies. Ridge suspected that David was more organized and focused than he ever was in his own freshman year.

Ridge was a little worried that David would have a reality check when the first round of midterms was given. Ridge remembered what had happened to him. School had taken a back burner to football and his social activities. When he�d all but flunked out, his parents came to his dorm and explained the facts of life to him. If he didn�t handle his schoolwork, he wouldn�t play ball.

�I�ll give them your number,� he promised Cassidy.

The dumbbell in Ridge�s left hand slipped out and almost hit him on the foot.

�What were you thinking?� she asked.

�Nothing.�

�It never ceases to amaze me how often men are being truthful when they answer �nothing� to that question,� she quipped.

�You promised to go easy on me,� Ridge complained.

�Dude, she hasn�t been paid yet,� David teased.

�Bite me, Stupid Boy,� Ridge shot back, to Cassidy�s amusement.

�Let the pain begin,� he thought.

Cassidy didn�t disappoint.

Choosing all morning classes might have been a mistake, at least from a sleep perspective, but being done by noon on Fridays made up for it. David had stuck to running each morning and visiting the coffee house. This morning was no different.

�There�s my fine-assed white boy!� Doreen, the owner, called out. �Come dance with me.�

With a beat thumping, Doreen�s hips started moving to the rhythm of the music. She crooked a finger toward David to tell him to �come here.� He began to wiggle his hips to mirror her movements.

�Oh, yeah. That�s what mama needs,� she said while giving him an appraising look.

David blew her mind when he busted a move and began to dance around her. Doreen squealed and began to shake everything she had. He didn�t know if he should be aroused or amused. Various parts of her anatomy were jiggling all over in a provocative way.

Kat, aka Goth Barbie, aka Katherine, came out from the back.

�Doreen! What did I tell you about sexually harassing the customers?� she said with a look of interest.

�Honey, you need to let this one take you out. He at least doesn�t have a stick up his uptight ass like all those Palace boys that come in here.�

�He�s not interested in taking me out,� Kat told her boss and friend.

�What gave you that idea?� David asked.

Doreen stopped dancing and gave him a hard stare.

�What�s keeping you?�

�Kat, would you go out with me tonight?� he asked.

�I was planning on going to a party with some of my Goth friends tonight. I will if you dress appropriately,� she challenged.

�Either I hand in my manhood card for being coerced into dressing as a Goth, or I hand it in for passing up a date with Kat,� he thought.

�I have just one condition,� David decided.

�This should be good,� Doreen predicted.

�I get to start picking out what I drink around here. I don�t actually drink coffee very often, and when I do, I prefer Cuban. Believe it or not, I would rather have tea in the morning.�

They�d been giving him a coffee each morning. Not that he was complaining, since it was free. Doreen claimed it was in honor of him being the first customer each day. He wanted to believe that was the real reason. David had been giving the coffee to Alex, who, in turn, thought David was the best roommate ever. Alex thought he should also bring him a pastry but had shut up when David threatened to give his coffee to the guard at the front desk instead.

�I�m a little embarrassed I never asked,� Kat said and then bit her bottom lip. �Now, I have to make a bigger fool of myself. What�s your name?�

�David,� he said without thinking.

�Frick!� This whole �Allen� deception was going to come to a rapid end. Already the baseball team knew he was on campus, as well as half the football team. It wouldn�t take long for the whole �Where�s Waldo?��or, rather, �Where�s David?��question to finally be answered. So far, Ohio State, Clemson, and Alabama had all denied to the press that he�d enrolled there. It was probably for the best that he be honest with Kat.

Not that he felt like he�d lied to his dorm-mates; he just hadn�t been entirely forthcoming. In his defense, it had been eye-opening to find what a bunch of posers lived in Sandoval Hall. On the other hand, he�d discovered a lot of people he really liked, too. So, it had been worth it, in his mind. He might not have gotten to know them if he�d walked in as David A. Dawson.

�Where and when should I pick you up?� he asked.

Kat wrote it down for him and then made him tea. He left to start his day, all smiles.

David packed a bag and grabbed his car before driving to his townhouse. The girls weren�t home, so he used his key to let himself in. He almost wet himself when their guard cat, Precious, let out a warning yowl that sounded just like a bobcat�s, which they suspected was in her heritage. A millennium of evolution kicked in as his heart went into overdrive, and David froze.

He almost bolted when he saw the big cat come stalking around the corner.

�Is this the day we finally figure out who�s in charge?� he asked the feline.

She eyed David for a moment, flipped her tail, and went in the other direction.

�That was fun,� he thought.

The townhouse had four bedrooms. One was supposed to be David�s, but the girls had turned it into a study. There was a daybed in case he wanted to sleep over. He thought he just might do that since the townhouse was close to the baseball field. He put his bag on the bed and began to take off his farmer-nerd clothes. He�d brought what he thought might pass for Goth clothing for tonight�s date with Kat.

He�d opted for all-black garb that included skinny-leg pants and a silk fitted t-shirt that was semitransparent. He�d gotten it doing a modeling gig, and he liked how it clung to his torso in the photos. David had brought a pair of handmade boots with silver zippers up the outside that he put on over his pants.

He checked himself in a mirror and almost had the look he was going for. All that was needed were the finishing touches. He decided to raid Tracy�s room upstairs because she would have the most makeup. He found her black eyeliner; she also had some red mascara, but he figured the eyeliner was enough.

Then David had a thought. Over the center of his right eye, he used the eyeliner to give himself some flair. Starting halfway up his forehead, he drew a vertical line that ended halfway down his cheek and, at the top, added a small horizontal line to make a cross.

He stood back and took in his appearance. He decided it wasn�t so bad for something thrown together last-minute. If he and Kat were to go to more events like tonight, he�d want to get a Goth-inspired jacket.

David heard the girls come home, so he grabbed his stuff and walked down the stairs. As he approached, the cat from hell was registering her complaints to Cassidy.

�What�s wrong, Baby?� she asked as he walked into the kitchen where they were unloading groceries.

Pam shrieked in surprise to have a Goth man standing in the doorway. She saw it was David and threw the bread in her hand at his head. He caught it and put it on the counter.

�Jerk!�

�What do you ladies think?� he asked, posing for their inspection.

�You going to a costume party?� Tracy asked as she wrinkled her nose.

�Goth,� Cassidy clarified. �I take it you asked out that barista that everyone has the hots for.�

�David asked a girl out on a date?� Pam asked.

The way she asked made it sound like she was shocked that he was capable of asking a girl out. Then he thought about it for a moment. The last normal girl�not counting princesses, actresses, and the like�he�d taken out on anything close to a regular date had been over a year and a half ago. And that was only if he counted Destiny Crown. She�d technically won the date as a prize, so that one might not be considered a regular date.

The last time David had asked a girl out on a first date might have been nearly three years previously. No wonder Pam was confused.

It wasn�t that he hadn�t dated; he had. Somehow, girls just ended up going out with him without the awkward having-to-ask portion of the process. And once they had, they just seemed to keep going out together. This morning had felt weird when David put himself out there for possible rejection. He might have to call his younger brother and ask him what it felt like to get rejected.

He chuckled because that was what younger brothers were for: to torment. Phil had assumed that because his two older brothers were successful with women, he would be too. It amused David to no end, watching the little dumbass go down in flames over and over again. Both he and Greg had offered their help, but Phil �knew better.� Obviously not.

�Have you guys gone on dates since you moved here?� David asked, suddenly curious.

The girls had all enrolled in the fall, so they had a semester of college under their belts.

�You make it sound like we aren�t capable of finding a guy to ask us out,� Tracy said.

�It�s not that; I just wanted to know what to expect on my first college date. Do I pounce on her at the door and have my way with her before we go out? Or do I need to wait until the second date for that?� he asked with a straight face.

Pam looked at him in horror as both Cassidy and Tracy smirked. They knew he was goofing off.

�This is college, not Hollywood,� Cassidy reminded him.

He�d shared stories of what he�d witnessed some of his fellow male actors getting up to. The whole pouncing bit wasn�t out of the question for a lot of them.

�You might want to play it by ear,� Tracy suggested and then added, �And if she pounces on you at the door, be sure to wrap your little friend.�

�You guys are terrible. Don�t listen to them, David,� Pam said, obviously worried.

�Thanks, Pam. I�ll be good,� he assured her.

He looked at his smartwatch.

�I gotta go,� he announced.

�Have fun,� Tracy encouraged.

�Be nice,� Pam suggested.

�Pounce,� Cassidy said, then quickly wiped the grin off her face when Pam twirled around on her.

David shook his head as he left them to it.

David woke Saturday morning and decided to be a complete slug. Cassidy had some rowing get-together, and Ridge and Penny were going home for the weekend. There wasn�t any baseball practice, and he�d forgotten to get Kat�s phone number. He could be responsible and crack his books, but that held zero appeal at the moment.

David pulled on some oversized sweats, a Farm Supply hoodie, and an AgriGold camo hat. Then he added his black-rimmed glasses and the comfy bunny slippers his kids had given him for Christmas. His plan was to go down to the cafeteria to grab something to eat. On his way out, he checked, and Alex was missing in action. David suspected he had a girl he was hooking up with.

Since Alex wasn�t around, he went down to Kirk�s room and knocked. He heard a crash and foul language. The door flew open, and Kirk promptly fell on his ass.

�They got you, too,� David observed.

There was the telltale sign of Jell-O or whatever gross concoction the townies had whipped together and poured under their doors.

�It�s no surprise that Linds�s room wasn�t touched,� Kirk shared.

The townies tended to bypass Lindsey with their pranks because the lead princess was her roommate.

�Should we get the girls or risk their wrath and grab breakfast on our own?� David asked.

Kirk was a wuss. He sent a text to Lindsey and Jamie. The girls met them at the elevator after Kirk cleaned up the mess that almost killed him.

�He�s destined to die a virgin,� Jamie said to egg Lindsey on when they saw what David was wearing today.

�Hey, now. I will have you know that I had a date last night,� David said without thinking.

In David�s defense, he�d almost forgotten the grillings he used to receive at lunch from the female members of his circle of friends.

Kirk pulled David into the elevator before the girls could drag him into a confined space and interrogate him. David quickly figured out that the elevator qualified as a confined space.

�How did you ask her out?� Jamie asked.

�What did you do?� Lindsey asked.

�How far did you get? I hope you at least got a kiss goodnight,� Kirk said as the doors opened on the all-girls floor.

Of course, six of them crammed themselves in, and all turned to look at him. David didn�t even question that they somehow knew Lindsey and Jamie were digging for dirt on his date. He would have to talk to Kirk later about joining in. If it had just been the two of them, David could have gotten away with a couple of short sentences, and the conversation would have been over.

�He somehow managed to get a date last night,� Lindsey said to bring the girls up to speed.

�This was a real girl? Not an inflatable one?� one of them asked.

Jamie choked on something. Lindsey and all the other girls tried to hide their smirks as they put on serious faces.

�Well, I did get a kiss,� David said weakly.

�But...� Lindsey prodded.

�The date only lasted about an hour, and she threw up twice,� David admitted.

The one who made the inflatable comment smirked in triumph as the doors opened on the main floor.

Pam, Cassidy, and Tracy had joined David for his trip to Malibu on Sunday to see his kids. Much to his chagrin, the kids were more excited about seeing Cassidy than anyone else. She enlisted her two friends, along with David and Peggy, to help teach her future ninjas to protect themselves.

Cassidy had them all hold pillows in front of their young charges. The munchkins twisted back and forth with their arms straight out as they whacked the cushions.

Cassidy explained that this was the way she�d first learned. Since they weren�t coordinated or strong enough yet, swinging their arms was the best they could hope for. David could only imagine Coby cornering a bully and swinging his little arms back and forth as he pummeled him.

Peggy wasn�t happy because she felt the �run and tell� approach was the best. She was also afraid they weren�t old enough to not just decide to whack other kids for no good reason. She knew better than Cassidy that it would, in fact, happen at some point.

What made her get on board was that Dawson had been pushed down by a bigger child at daycare. He was sporting a welt on the back of his head from the confrontation. Cassidy assured her that �run and tell� was fine, but there would be times when they had to defend themselves.

The side benefit of letting them beat the stuffing out of pillows was that when nap time arrived, they went down without a fuss.

He�d been about to go on his morning run when Mr. Happy protested. Instead of trying to run with a boner, David pulled his cock from his shorts and slowly stroked himself.

�Frick!�

That felt good. Thank God for Internet porn because the only action he�d gotten recently was from his hand.

Last week, he�d taken Kat to another Goth party. This time, David had passed on dressing up again. He�d discovered that most Goths were just like everyone else when you got to know them. Of course, they would probably be mortified if he ever said that out loud to one of them. But when a group looked like that it was just something they did to fit in with their friends.

Lately, his inner actor had been making him look at people more closely. It fascinated David to witness what different groups did to integrate, be it Goths, athletes, sorority girls, or the townies in his dorm.

At the last party, Kat had been nervous that he�d dressed in �normal� clothes. But David, being David, had made it a point to go around and introduce himself and talk to everyone�all while Kat got herself falling-down drunk again. This time, she�d lasted almost three hours before he had to take her home and pour her into bed.

Frankly, her binge drinking was an issue. The primary evidence of that was what he was doing at the moment. David had some personal rules about sex, one of which was �Don�t do it with someone under the influence.� He called it his �Take a Drunk Girl Home� rule. Most college guys would have succumbed when she grabbed him as he dumped her into bed.

After all, Kat was as sexy as hell and willing. That she�d fallen asleep a minute after she�d lain down, though, reinforced the rule for him. When David finally had sex with her, he wanted her to at least remember it the next day.

Yong, Kat�s roommate, had offered David a beer after he put Kat to bed. His friend Bill Callaway, a former high school and current USC football teammate, had a thing for Asian girls. Yong was Korean and ran around the apartment braless and in form-hugging shorts. If he�d not just been on a date with Kat, he might have taken a shot at hooking up with her. His friend Bill was right; there was something about Asian girls that did it for him, too.

David had shared his dilemma with Ridge. Ridge�s solution had been to make him and Cassidy come to dinner at his place the night before. To Cassidy�s glee, Ridge�s girlfriend, Penny, had wanted to set David up with one of her friends. What had Cassidy so happy was that she knew that David hated it when a woman thought she could find him a date.

Ridge had been a total dick and refused to help him out. It was probably best that he�d sided with his future wife, though.

That final thought was interrupted when nature took over. From the amount of spunk that showered his stomach and chest, David knew he had to get laid. If all else failed, he�d call Lexi.

She had obviously talked to the other women in his life and had taken a step back when he�d had his knee-jerk reaction to her declaration of love. Now that a month had passed, David had all but convinced himself that it had just been a good orgasm talking. The women all knew that given time, he would forget why he was upset with them. This upset had taken longer to get over because Lexi�s declaration had scared him. What if she really did have feelings for him beyond just friends with benefits?

If Kat didn�t come through tonight, David might have to eat humble pie and see if Lexi was up for one of their hookups.

He�d gotten word that she�d gone part-time at the management company and enrolled in classes at UCLA. He might just pop in and say hi.

Curious was the word of the day.

At breakfast, Lindsey couldn�t help noticing that Allen had an indelible smile on his face. If she hadn�t known better, she�d have guessed he�d finally gotten laid. But her current favorite social project, �Operation Help Allen Lose His Virginity,� had to be put on hold. The townies had gone too far this time in their prank-war efforts.

They�d gone to a local pet store, bought dozens of crickets, and set them free in Kirk, Allen, and Jamie�s rooms. It might have been funny, but the damned bugs hadn�t stayed in their intended targets� rooms. The whole floor was ready to string the townies up because the crickets made it almost impossible to sleep.

Lindsey was a woman on a mission. She was gathering the troops so they could have a planning session on the roof. She found Jamie and Kirk and had them go with her to Allen�s room. The door was wide open, so they walked in.

Standing behind the bar was Alex with his head tipped back, mouth agape, looking at them with a glassy, uncaring stare.

�Are you okay?� Lindsey asked because something was obviously wrong with him.

Alex�s expression didn�t change. Kirk smirked and went to get Allen. Lindsey started toward Alex, but Jamie stopped her.

�I don�t think you want to go over there,� Jamie warned.

�Why?�

�That�s head-face. All guys get it when they�re getting a blow job.�

Then she dropped her face into an exact replica of the blank look Alex had. Allen came out of his room with Kirk in tow and then stopped and looked at his roommate.

�What the hell, Dude?! We�re paying her to clean our rooms, not polish your knob.�

Alex flipped Allen off.

Allen shook his head and followed Lindsey to the common room where they ran into their archnemeses, the townies: Veronica, Lauren, Christian, and Peter.

�Hey, girls. Why don�t you dump those losers and spend the afternoon with us?� Peter offered.

�I heard that you had to pay Veronica and Lauren to hang out with you two,� Jamie retorted.

�Ignore her,� Peter said. �She thinks I have cooties.�

Jamie stared at him like he was something disgusting that she�d stepped in.

�Correction, I believe you have the adult version of cooties: STIs.�

�The fuck!� Peter snarled.

Allen stepped between the groups as an obvious protect-and-prevent measure while Kirk hustled the girls into the stairwell to the roof. They�d all but made good their escape when Lindsey found the roof door was locked. Lindsey was a bit worried when the downstairs door opened behind them. She was relieved when she saw it was only Allen.

�It�s locked,� she told everyone.

�Use your keycard and PIN,� Allen said.

Lindsey gave him a confused look.

�It pays to have Alex as a roommate. When they fixed our door, I made sure we could still use the roof,� he explained.

Lindsey was puzzled but tried what he suggested. She was surprised when it opened. They went out and each grabbed a seat while Kirk grabbed three beers for himself and the girls and a water for Allen. They were left over from a previous night, so not very cold, but they�d do.

�What does your boyfriend think about you having guys as friends?� Allen asked Lindsey.

She glanced over at Jamie, who was suddenly fascinated with her fingernails. Lindsey had unloaded her unhappiness with her boyfriend, Finn�s, jealous streak to Jamie during girl-talk late at night.

�Finn is fine with it,� Lindsey said and then thought of a better response. �He doesn�t control me. He knows that he can trust me. Besides, he�s got nothing to worry about because neither of you is my type.�

Kirk looked a bit hurt, but Allen smiled.

�Good, �cause you�re not my type, either.�

Lindsey gave him a sad look. Was that the best he could come up with?

�Are you saying I�m not good enough for you?�

Allen raised one eyebrow and checked her out.

�I hadn�t really thought about it, but I bet I could do a whole lot better.�

She laughed in his face.

�Says the Virgin Boy.�

�Game. Set. Match. To me!� Lindsey thought.

Allen got a hurt look on his face. She swore she saw his bottom lip quiver. He got up, walked to the edge of the roof, and looked off into space. Lindsey replayed what she said in her mind and worried she�d really hurt his feelings. She had to remember he was a na�ve boy who�d just moved here from Cornfield, Timbuktu. He was probably in the middle of a homesick phase.

Jamie saw her concern and shook her head. Lindsey was sure it was in disgust at her for being so mean to Allen.

�Don�t you think it�s about time you cut the act?� Jamie asked, looking meaningfully at Allen.

He turned around with his hands in his pockets, head down, looking miserable.

�Yeah, it�s time,� Allen conceded.

He straightened his posture, removed his glasses, pulled his sweatshirt over his head, and faced them. The transformation was incredible; it took Lindsey�s breath away. It was better than when Clark Kent turned into Superman. Looking back at her was someone who exuded an air of easy confidence. Without his glasses and with the slightly crooked smile on his face, Allen was incredibly handsome.

Lindsey had noticed his huge brown eyes before, even behind the glasses, but she�d never registered how sexy they were. He ran his fingers through his hair, and suddenly the transformation was complete. He went from farmer-nerd to heartthrob in a matter of seconds.

�What the ... How did you do that?� Kirk asked.

�He�s David A. Dawson, the actor,� Jamie said with a degree of smug satisfaction. �I Googled him. Allen is his middle name.�

Another piece of the puzzle that was Allen�or was it David?�fell into place, giving Lindsey the complete picture. She hated how much she had to fight even to think about what she�d just found out because her mind was going in a million different directions.

�Why the deception?� Kirk finally asked.

�Fair question,� David said. �If I�d walked in as the actor, who would be my friends right now?�

�Probably the townies,� Lindsey said to finally get back into the conversation.

�Exactly! And how happy would I have been when I discovered what they were really like?� David asked.

�You knew?� Kirk asked Jamie.

�I figured it out when we first met,� she admitted.

�Don�t be mad at her. I explained why I was doing it, and she agreed to keep my secret,� David said.

�When Veronica finds out...� Lindsey started, referring to her townie roommate.

�I�m not sure I want her to know just yet,� David said. �I�ve come to cherish the feeling of being normal. I know that it won�t last, but I�d like to hold off the circus as long as possible.�

�Is it really that bad?� Kirk asked.

�Knowing that your every move is probably either being recorded or photographed; having random people approach you while you�re minding your own business; not knowing if someone is your real friend or just wants something ... Do I need to go on?� he asked.

�But this is huge,� Lindsey blurted.

�That I�m no longer Virgin Boy?� he asked with a smirk.

She blushed.

�I just assumed...�

�Linds, you are about to find out how much fun it is to watch him when you know the real truth. He is way funnier than you�ve given him credit for. David found your thinking he was a virgin to be hilarious,� Jamie said.

�Really?� Lindsey asked.

�Do a quick Internet search. I have five kids,� David confessed.

�Give me a minute while I wrap my brain around that one,� she said.

�Not to change the topic, but I do have an idea how we can end this prank war,� he said to get them back to why they were up on the roof.

He had their full attention.

David had survived another week of school. He�d made the executive decision to quit going to the coffee shop after his runs. Not because he was embarrassed to have hooked up with Kat�s roommate, Yong. Rather, because when that happened, David realized he�d already decided on some level that he and Kat wouldn�t work.

On reflection, he�d initially pursued Kat because all the other guys wanted her, and for good reason. The Goth Barbie look was different enough that it caught attention. Doreen admitted that Kat made triple the tips any of the other girls working there did.

Frankly, David wasn�t looking for a girlfriend right now; he would just as soon hook up with someone like Yong�at least until he got a handle on college. He didn�t have the time to wine and dine someone, let alone work toward a deeper relationship.

On the other hand, he didn�t want to turn into the typical Hollywood type who randomly hooked up with girls. That had been the main reason he�d avoided the Baseball House.

For Kat, he�d been willing to make an exception. Unfortunately, the more David got to know her, the more he realized they weren�t right for each other. Her binge-drinking aside, they just didn�t have that much in common.

He�d stuck it out in the hope of finally getting her into his bed. In the end, he was happy he hadn�t. It would have complicated his life, and right now, he wasn�t looking for complications.

This was a big weekend: the baseball team would be playing their first game on Sunday, which wouldn�t really count because it was against their alumni. Next week, the team would travel to North Carolina to play Wake Forest for a Friday-Saturday-Sunday series. David was set to fly out Thursday afternoon, so he would have to avail himself of the athletic department�s nifty get-out-of-jail letters they sent to professors. Margaret, his tutor, had given him the information on how to go about it.

Tonight was their floor�s turn to host the weekly dorm party. Alex was excited and wanted the floor residents to put their best foot forward.

�Squeak will be here in a minute,� Alex said, referring to his sister, Natalia, who lived in the mirror image of their suite but at the other end of the hall. �She wants to know if you�ll take her to the store to get party supplies.�

David hadn�t seen much of Nat. She�d formed her own group of friends over the previous semester. Her absence, in general, was similar to Alex�s, except Alex spent the majority of his time with his buddies on the USC soccer team.

Right on cue, Nat walked in with her roommate, Silvia. David had seen Silvia around and had met her briefly. From what he�d observed, Nat and Silvia really didn�t spend much time together because of their age difference. Silvia was a senior.

When David met her, he�d put her down as a nice person. She had a ready smile and treated him warmly.

�Hey ... uh ... Allen,� Nat said, catching herself. �I haven�t seen much of you.�

�I�ve been getting settled in with school and trying to balance that with baseball. Ask your brother; doing sports and school isn�t easy.�

�He tells me that you have a car that can haul stuff,� she said, getting to the point.

�A small SUV.�

�That works,� Nat announced and all but yanked him out of the room.

Tracy was exhausted. Last night, at 4:08 am, she�d awoken to the sound of Precious turning their living room into her own version of the Thunderdome. She could just imagine a bunch of drunken Aussies yelling, �Two cats enter, one cat leaves!�

It hadn�t been the typical kind of catfight you heard out your window where they beat on each other and the winner chased off their rival. This fight had started in their kitchen and continued all over the downstairs.

Tracy was going to USC for sports journalism, intending to report live contests. She knew that all good stories started at the beginning, so as she got into the shower, she thought about how it had all begun.

The first class of the day was always the roughest. Students shambled into the lecture hall like dead-eyed zombies, their senses dulled by all-night study sessions or hangovers or some combination thereof. They wore sweatpants and yesterday�s t-shirts and clutched enviro-friendly cups of almond-milk honey lattes or caff� Americano or some other such nonsense.

David had to admit that a student had to be a bit hardcore to make it to their 8 a.m. Intro to Financial Accounting class. If having to learn about debits and credits wasn�t enough to dull your enthusiasm, having it taught by Professor Scarpa would suck the remaining life out of the room.

The guy looked like an accountant. Not the slick kind you let clients see, but the type who did all the work in the back room and never saw the light of day. He was also a fast talker who never seemed to take a breath and then would blurt, �that will be on your test,� before rushing on.

If that wasn�t bad enough, the professor had obviously never learned the basics of public speaking because the tone of his voice never varied. If you weren�t careful, it acted like a white noise machine, and more than one student had succumbed and fallen asleep during class.

David was glad he�d been smart enough to record Professor Scarpa�s classes. Later, when he�d been reviewing his notes, he�d fast-forwarded through his recordings until he heard, �that will be on your test.� David had cut and pasted together a video of all those little gems so he would at least be prepared for the quizzes and upcoming tests.

There was one girl who had caught David�s eye, and he decided that he would sit next to her today. She wasn�t a knockout beauty, but she consistently raised her hand and asked questions. The girl was also one of the few people who paid attention like David did. He decided to sit next to her because he firmly believed in surrounding himself with motivated people.

When David sat next to her, she gave him a funny look. He could understand that because even though the hall would hold close to a hundred people, only about twenty students were present on any given day. There was plenty of room to spread out, and only classmates who were friends tended to sit right next to each other.

�Hi, I�m David.�

She gathered her stuff, intending to move. He started to put his stuff away, too.

�What are you doing?� she asked.

�It looks like we�re moving,� he replied, acting confused.

�I was moving; you should stay here.�

�I heard there was a quiz today, and I needed to copy off someone,� David said as he bit the inside of his mouth.

�You can�t cheat off me,� she said indignantly.

�I play baseball. I don�t have time to learn all this stuff,� he teased.

He noticed the professor had come into the room, and the girl hadn�t left yet. She huffed her outrage and unpacked her stuff as he hid his smirk.

He almost laughed out loud when there really was a pop quiz.

When the class ended, David stopped her from leaving.

�You missed number three.�

�You copied off me,� she said, looking scandalized.

�I didn�t need to, but you might want to check your answers against mine next time. Fixed assets are capitalized. That�s because the benefit of the asset extends beyond the year of purchase, unlike other costs, which are period costs benefitting only the period incurred.�

It took her a moment, but she realized he was right.

�See you Tuesday,� was his parting remark as he went to his next class.

Upon his return to campus, David found Alex on the warpath. David had gotten an inkling that something was wrong when he�d stepped off the elevator and was hit by the odor.

�What the hell is that?� David asked as he gagged from the stench.

Their room smelled like something in it had died, been left in the sun until it was bloated to the point it exploded, and then aged badly as it decomposed. He imagined it was similar to what a beached whale smelled like after about a month in the sun.

�I found a mayonnaise jar of rotted crap sitting in the middle of my gaming chair. Thank God they didn�t tip it over,� Alex shared.

David was just happy he hadn�t been the one to discover it. He had to bite his tongue to keep from pointing out that this shit wouldn�t happen if Alex would just lock the damned door. The rest of the floor couldn�t be any more thrilled with the aroma than either of them was.

�I�ll call my mom. She�s sold her share of stinky houses. I�m sure she�ll have a solution,� David offered.

�Fuck that. I called a company to come in and fix this. That stench is in everything. Wait until you get a whiff of your clothes and mattress,� Alex ranted. �We have to do something about this.�

�Did they get anyone else?� David asked, referring to the prank war that had just gotten out of hand.

�Kirk and Jamie�s rooms. That tells me it was the townies. I plan to kick their butts when I see them,� Alex promised.

�Before you do that, let me call my security and confirm it�s them. If it is, we�ll find a way to get even that doesn�t involve kicking butt,� David said.

�While you go all Gandhi, I plan on making someone bleed.�

�Or you could tell Lexi,� David offered.

�You�re a genius. Give me her number,� Alex demanded.

�Slow your roll. Let�s find out whether it was them or not before we go nuclear.�

The cleaners showed up, and David let Kirk and Jamie know. Those two hired the cleaning outfit on the spot to eliminate the odor in their rooms. Somehow, Lindsey never got hit, and she was missing in action. David knew that Veronica was her roommate but was starting to wonder.

�Quit riding my dick about it,� Ridge complained. �I have no idea what the coaches have planned. You should man up and go ask them what they�re thinking and quit bothering me because I don�t know.�

Ridge had come in for his daily workout, and Matt had ambushed him. Word was officially out that David Dawson was planning to play both baseball and football at USC. David had been helping Ridge prepare for the NFL, so Matt had been trying to get him to share what he knew. David was the one guy who could mess up Matt�s plans to be the starter next year and eventually make it to the NFL.

Personally, Matt liked David. They�d met at a football camp right after Elite 11 before their senior year of high school. Matt and two other Elite 11 quarterbacks had come to the camp because David had skipped Elite 11 to play baseball for Team USA in the Pan Am games. David had been the first junior to ever be invited to Elite 11. It was the camp where the top high school quarterbacks competed against each other to determine who was number one.

The prior year, David had been named co-MVP. From what Matt had heard, David had actually been the best, but the Elite 11 people had a hard time admitting that a junior was the top dog.

At camp, reporters kept asking all the quarterbacks about the asterisk that would be next to the winner�s name because the actual best wasn�t there to defend his title. After the winner was announced, the top three, including Matt, went to the camp David was attending to see who really was the best.

Matt wanted to hate David because he hadn�t really touched a football all summer, and he practiced for one day. The next, he showed everybody that he was head and shoulders above the other quarterbacks. The scary part was that Matt knew David wasn�t at the top of his game. Given time to hone his skills, he would have been better yet.

David quietly showed his prowess that day in camp. He didn�t act the big man like Matt suspected the others would have if they were that much better than their competition. Instead, David took the time to coach them all on how to improve. Somehow, he had turned a potential dogfight into four guys working with each other to better themselves and have fun doing it.

That summer, Matt had already announced his intention to attend USC. He was ranked as the number four quarterback and the tenth overall recruit in the nation. His plan was to redshirt his freshman year and learn the offense. Ridge Townsend was their starter, and the preseason buzz had him as a potential Heisman candidate. Matt had been told that Ridge might jump to the NFL, so Matt could step into the starter role as a redshirt freshman. That would set him up to be the starter for the next four years.

He had picked USC because they had a history of sending their quarterbacks to the NFL. Even the big-time programs were hit-or-miss when it came to advancing their quarterbacks to the pros. USC was one of a handful that delivered, making it the place Matt and his parents thought was the best for his long-term future.

In the fall of his senior year, Matt had received a call from Coach Clayton telling him that David was coming in for an official visit at USC. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, Matt had made it a point to make an unofficial visit that weekend.

David had been nothing if not gracious. He�d even invited Matt, as well as several USC football players, to the actor Zac Verwood�s party. Matt had actually developed a bit of a man-crush on David when, at the party, a model had walked up to David and laid a serious kiss on him. At the time, Matt had thought that it must be nice to be the top dog.

Coach Clayton had asked Matt to sit down with him after he�d talked to David. Coach Clayton told him that if David decided to come, they wouldn�t be offering him. Coach had asked him to hold off on his second choice, Washington, until David declared where he was going to school.

Matt had called some of the other top quarterbacks and heard similar stories. Everyone was waiting to see where Dawson planned to go. His announcement would set off a domino effect at all the schools he bypassed. It only made sense for a school not to recruit two elite quarterbacks. Coach Clayton had promised that if David went elsewhere, Matt would receive the lion�s share of the coaching.

�Speak of the devil,� Ridge said as David walked in.

�What did I do?� David asked.

Matt laid eyes on the bane of his existence and froze, now remembering better what his competition looked like. Matt was six-two and tipped the scales at 200 pounds. David was a couple inches taller and had maybe forty pounds on him, all of which looked to be muscle.

The two of them were staring at each other when Crystal, Matt�s new girlfriend, strutted into the locker room, looking like a lost poodle at a pit-bull fight.

�There you are!�

Every guy in the place was looking at her, except David. He threw his duffle bag onto the bench and began to take his clothes off to get ready for practice. Crystal got to Matt and turned to David as he removed his shirt.

�Hi, David!�

�Hey, Crystal. You might want to leave,� David suggested as he began to unbuckle his belt.

Matt all but picked her up to get her moving out of the locker room.

�You can�t come in here,� he said as he pushed her out the door.

�But I wanted to see you,� she said.

�How do you know David?� he asked, suddenly worried about his competition for a completely different reason.

�My sorority went to a party at the Baseball House, and he was there.�

The Baseball House had parties that got out of hand. Matt had heard rumors about the goings-on, and the thought of his girlfriend going to one made him feel half sick. Those guys didn�t care that Crystal was his. He�d also seen how she�d looked at David.

�Did he ... uh ... talk to you?�

�Of course he did. David was the reason we all went. He was great; he spent time with all the girls,� Crystal gushed.

�Spent time?� Matt asked, all but choking on his tongue.

�I wish, but none of the girls �spent time� with him.�

�You will not see him. If you see David, I want you to walk the other way,� Matt said without thinking.

�I will, will I?�

�You will.�

Crystal got a haughty look and put her hands on her hips, ready to chew him out. Then he saw a look come into her eyes that made him nervous.

�It sounds like when I get home, I�ll have to get out my vibrator. That�ll have to do, right? I mean, since I won�t have a real cock and a hard body above me or a man eating me out. But hey, a girl has to get off some way,� Crystal said.

�If she wasn�t so frickin� hot... � Matt contemplated.

�I�m sorry. It�s just that David makes me crazy,� he admitted. �How can I make it up to you?�

He had to admit to himself that he was a disgrace to men right now. This woman had him tied in knots. He�d be willing to bet big money that David would never put up with this crap and would never grovel to any girl. Could this day get any worse?

Crystal just harrumphed and began to walk away.

�Why did you need to see me?� Matt asked.

She looked back and shook her head sadly.

�My roommate is gone for the next couple of days. I was going to see if you wanted to come over so that we could figure out what to do with her gone, but I guess we�ll never know.�

There it was. Matt�s day had just gotten worse.

David walked into his accounting class and didn�t see his new friend. He might have scared her off last Thursday by teasing her that he wanted to cheat off her. Professor Scarpa made his entrance. As he was about to start his lecture, the girl rushed in and sat down beside David. She handed him a coffee and gave him a weak smile.

He took that as a peace offering and turned on his video to record the class. The girl glanced over and frowned when she saw what he was doing. David imagined there had to be some rule against it, but when he thought about what he�d paid in tuition, he figured that gave him the right. Plus, he�d seen other students doing it, so he shrugged it off.

At the end of class, their quizzes were handed back. David glanced over and caught her name: Alyssa Timmons. He also noticed that she had, in fact, missed question 3, which gave him a higher score. He showed her his 100%.

When the class ended, David introduced himself.

�Thanks for the coffee. I�m David, by the way.�

�Alyssa. You get the coffee on Thursday,� she said as she got up and left.

David chuckled as she just left him sitting there without even looking back.

He came out of his room to head to class. Mason was standing in the hall, clad only in his underwear. His hair looked like he�d gone ten rounds with a weed whacker and lost.

�What are you doing?� Andres asked.

Mason reached for the wall to steady himself.

�Apparently, that last shot last night was a mistake,� Mason shared as he locked his jaw and sucked in a long breath. As he slowly let it out, he repeatedly mumbled, �I will not throw up.�

�Fuck,� Andres grumbled.

�What crawled up your ass?� Mason asked as he stood straight up and sucked in a deep breath through his nose.

�The coaches pulled me in yesterday. The team meeting I called was to give the team a heads-up that they�re going to come down on everyone if they don�t start following the team rules. Your little impromptu party last night couldn�t have come at a worse time.�

�Who�s going to tell them? You?� Mason asked as his lips twisted into an expression that could be called a smile but wasn�t. It was too smug and self-assured.

A rising tide of self-loathing and disgust overcame Andres. For the past couple of years, he and Mason had been a team, sort of the Butch and Sundance of debauchery. Mason compared them to Vikings. They lived to drink, fuck, and fight. A part of Andres wished he�d gone out last night, but that damned Dawson had gotten into his head.

�Crystal was there last night,� Mason said to pull him out of his thoughts. �And she was looking hot as fuck.�

�Did you talk to her? Did she ask about me?� Andres asked in rapid succession.

�She was telling everyone that her new boy toy had messed up. The word is that if he doesn�t straighten up, she�ll be looking for a replacement. Last I saw, some Sig Ep was chatting her up.�

�You didn�t answer my questions,� Andres said.

�I talked to her,� Mason said as he ran his fingers through his hair.

�Did she ask about me?�

Mason�s cocky grin was back.

�She asked about Dawson. She wanted to know why he wasn�t out with the team. I told her that the Boy Scout was with you doing some kind of circle jerk.�

Andres didn�t believe that for a minute. Mason was just playing with him. Andres felt like he had no control when it came to Crystal. He�d never wanted a woman as badly as he did her. All that let him make a fool of himself in front of Mason was knowing that when it came down to it, Mason would have his back.

�Look,� Andres said to get back on the topic of baseball. �The coaches are laying down the law this afternoon. You need to cool it for a while. If not, they�re talking about playing the younger guys to begin a rebuild.�

�Fuck that. I�ve never seen a coach not play his best players. Just relax. It�ll be fine,� Mason predicted.

�I�m telling you. Cool it. I want to get a minor league contract, not go home and move into my parents� basement,� Andres said to paint a picture.

�You�ll be fine,� Mason said dismissively.

�I was told that there�ll be scouts at our upcoming games.�

�Bullshit. Why would we have scouts?�

�Dawson. Did you know he was drafted last year?�

�And he didn�t take it?� Mason asked with utter disbelief dripping from his lips.

�I know, right? Imagine making another movie for tens of millions instead of signing a minor-league contract with the Twins for a pittance. Where�s his sense of priority, huh?� Andres said, his voice filled with sarcasm. Then he collected himself.

�What his decision will do is give us a shot at catching on somewhere after college. When the scouts are here to look at him again, they�ll see us, too. We need to get our shit together,� Andres all but pleaded.

�Our shit is together.�

Andres felt like he was beating his head against a brick wall.

Economics and Communication Strategy in Business was painful. All David wanted was to fast-forward the day so he could play baseball. It was what the team needed after the suspensions. The morning paper had announced that Mason and Jorge had been placed on indefinite suspensions due to breaking unspecified team rules. It didn�t take a Mensa candidate to figure out that meant they hadn�t passed their drug tests.

Coach Deneau had caught David before he left for class to tell him that he would be starting in place of Jorge. He�d also shared that Tucker Frost would play third base to replace Mason. A few minutes later, Andres had sent a text to the starters to meet him for lunch in the USC Village at a restaurant called Honeybird.

David had visited the USC Village on his recruiting trip. It was a new development that was a mixture of dorms and retail space. There were eight dorms, and David had considered living in one of them until he�d found out what Alex�s dad had done.

He�d heard good things about Honeybird. Their signature dish was a spiced fried chicken that was supposed to be outstanding. Andres had picked the right place, in David�s opinion.

On his walk there, his phone rang. It was Lexi.

�Did you forget to tell me something?� was her greeting.

�That I�m taking Jorge Orlando�s spot in the starting lineup tonight?�

�While you didn�t tell me that, I�m wondering why I have four panicked voicemails from Veronica and Christian to call them. Did they break the truce I brokered?� Lexi asked.

�Frick!� If Lexi was receiving calls, that meant Lindsey was the rat. David was so over all of this. To him, this was the very definition of wasting time. The �prank war,� as Kirk called it, meant much more to his friends and Veronica�s group than it did to David. He�d talked his friends into ignoring it for the most part.

If Veronica�s posse had simply decided that their pranks had been enough, David would have forgotten about it. Lexi knew Veronica and the rest of her gang. In high school, Lexi had been the Alpha girl. When she�d found out that they�d added David to their target list, she�d threatened to take matters into her own hands, which had seemed to cow them.

�They set off stink bombs in our rooms. I have a plan to get back at them, but we were suspicious that Lindsey was sharing information with them. Kirk and Jamie were tasked with telling her that I was calling you to fix their asses,� David explained.

�Why didn�t you tell me?�

�I trusted that she wasn�t a rat. I�d hoped you would never get called. Besides, I�m dealing with it.�

Being a girl, she made him tell her what he planned. Lexi made him promise never to get mad at her. Then she added to the plan.

�I know when you can do it. Sunday, my dad is having an all-day event at his place, and Veronica is coming with four others. I was supposed to get you there. My mom wanted to know why you hadn�t RSVP�d. I had to admit that I never told you because you spend Sundays with your family. Plus, you have a baseball game that morning.

�Mom said it was supposed to go into the night. She told me to get you and drag you there,� Lexi said.

�It would give me cover for what we plan to do. Can I invite Kirk, Alex, and Jamie, too?� David asked.

�If it gets my mom off my butt, absolutely.�

�You coming to any of my games this weekend?�

�I would come tonight, but it�s such a long drive home,� Lexi faux-complained.

�You could always spend the night at my place,� David said to play along.

�What do you want me to do about Christian and Veronica�s calls?� Lexi asked.

�Don�t call them back. Let them worry,� David suggested.

�Okay. I�ll see you tonight.

After David hung up with Lexi, he called Alex to tell him they were a go for operation �revenge on the townies.� David also asked him to talk to Kirk and Jamie to let them know that Lindsey was the rat.

Alex was stoked when he heard he and the rest of the gang were invited to the Sunday party at Paul Andon�s place. He promised to extend the invitation to the rest of the crew. He said his parents had been trying to wangle an invitation. David told him to call Lexi and add them and his sister to the list.

Alex said he would call his father to get everything organized for their prank.

Cassidy had been hiding a secret. Well, two, actually.

Her plan for college had been to follow David to wherever he picked for football. He�d agreed to let her be his trainer while she went to school. After that, she would follow in her father�s footsteps and join the Marines as an officer.

At the time, David had narrowed his choices down to USC and Oklahoma. Her best friend, Brook Davis, had been proactive and gotten Cassidy a scholarship to USC on the women�s rowing team. She�d done it because Cassidy hadn�t been the most diligent student in high school. And why should she if she could get solid �Bs� without cracking a book?

Everyone knew that she didn�t meet the entrance qualifications. Not that David�s other friends, Tim and Wolf, would�ve gotten in, either. But if you went through the athletic department, you bypassed their stringent rules.

When David decided to go to Oklahoma, she was happy because she didn�t need the USC athletic scholarship to get in. Oklahoma�s admission standards allowed her to qualify without a problem. Plus, it was a quarter of the cost when you figured everything in.

She was set to go to Oklahoma until Brook told David about USC, and the big dork tattled on her. He shared with his parents what Brook had done. If he�d just told her dad, she would�ve been fine. As soon as David�s mom knew, it was game over. She was the one woman Cassidy was a little afraid of, and David�s mom decided that Cassidy couldn�t pass up the opportunity to go to USC.

In the end, it worked out when David enrolled in the spring.

Her second secret was that she wasn�t the only one who�d gotten into USC through the back door of an athletic admission. She�d found out that her crew-mate Veronica had been designated as a preferred walk-on to get into school. Veronica had shared with Cassidy that her parents had paid a guy to make �donations� to USC to help facilitate her enrollment. Cassidy had also seen Veronica at the party where David had outed himself as the David A. Dawson. The funny thing was, David never thought of himself that way, but just about everyone else did.

What worried Cassidy was that Veronica rarely came to practice, which made Cassidy wonder if others had gotten in that way. She�d heard that Veronica�s younger sister was also getting a rowing spot next year.

Cassidy didn�t feel guilty about receiving her scholarship because she�d learned that many of the other girls hadn�t rowed in high school; they took up the sport when they came to USC. She�d taken it seriously and worked her butt off to win a seat on the Novice eight boat.

But even though Cassidy didn�t feel guilty about her own scholarship, she did worry about the fake athletic scholarships and admissions that might have been given out to other girls. If those girls took the money but weren�t willing to put in the effort to actually honor them, there might be trouble down the road.

Veronica had shared that her parents had paid quite a bit of money to get her into school. This worried Cassidy because Brook had never told her how much she�d spent to get Cassidy into USC. Brook came from money and bristled anytime Cassidy asked about what stuff cost. She�d even footed the bill for Cassidy when Brook and David had decided to get their pilot�s licenses. Somehow, Cassidy had found herself taking the classes with them.

The real secret she�d been keeping had just happened. Cassidy was excited because she would be in the number six seat in the Varsity eight today. Last semester, she�d become friends with Nicole, the Varsity eight coxswain, as well as Amy, the girl who rowed in the number eight, or �stroke,� position. Amy was considered USC�s best female crew member.

Nicole and Amy had taken Cassidy under their wings when they saw how hard she worked and how well-conditioned she was. Cassidy�s two �mentors� had been in the Varsity eight for the past three years and were going to graduate at the end of the spring term. They�d been disappointed that none of the underclassmen in the Varsity eight had shown any strong leadership, and they�d started grooming Cassidy for that role.

Cassidy had to chuckle because Nicole had told her they�d picked Cassidy because they�d decided she was a bossy bitch.

In rowing, the coxswain, or cox, was the one to call out the strokes for the crew. She had to not only know her crew�s physical strength but had to lead them through her commands. While the stroke was in charge of the shell, it was the cox�s job to guide the crew to victory. The cox was also the lightest and smallest person on the boat and couldn�t do it herself. The cleverest, most strategic, and most experienced rower was called the �stroke� and sat immediately in front of the coxswain, facing her.

The other seven rowers were seated in line behind the stroke, where they could see the stroke and match their strokes to hers. The stroke set the example for the rest of the crew and had to be the most disciplined rower in the boat and was often the best-conditioned.

The two seniors had watched Cassidy train, and they�d seen her leading David and Ridge in conditioning drills. They knew they�d found their successor as the leader of the women�s crew.

Cassidy was thrust into the position when the number six of the Varsity eight suddenly got sick. Brianna went to the hospital complaining of severe abdominal and back pain. They found a problem that required surgery. Cassidy learned on Thursday that Nicole had recommended Cassidy take the sick girl�s place until she could recover, and their coach agreed.

The rest of the Varsity eight hadn�t been convinced, though, and the other six had challenged Cassidy to an endurance contest on the ergometers, the stationary rowing machines they used for training. Cassidy hadn�t even blinked; instead, she responded that was fine, but if she beat them all, she�d be rowing number six. The other girls, never having watched her practice or drill, laughingly took her up on it. They hadn�t been laughing a couple of hours later when Cassidy kept going a full five minutes after the last of them had collapsed, gasping, over their knees.

Nicole and Amy had laughingly welcomed her to the crew and to the number six position. They didn�t tell Cassidy, or the rest of the crew, that the number six spot was where they were going to put her anyway. That was because she was the strongest rower next to Amy and because that was the best position for them to watch Cassidy and give her tips and guidance. It was also the best spot for her to watch and hear the stroke, especially the calls from the cox.

Cassidy had wanted to be sure David was there for her big moment because he was the one who�d turned her into a leader. He�d convinced her to help train the athletes at their high school in what she called �sixty minutes of hell.� It was a modified workout that she had learned hanging around her dad, who�d been in the Marines before he�d become a football coach. The drill was meant to turn boys into men, and it had turned Lincoln High into probably the best-conditioned athletes in the state.

Cassidy hadn�t realized that David had turned her into someone people would follow until he pointed it out to her during her senior year.

That was what was different about David, different from any other boy she knew. In a lot of ways, he acted like he had life experience beyond his years. More accurately, he was a stupid boy who somehow found the right thing to do in almost every situation. It was uncanny how everything he put his mind to turned out for him.

Some of it was genetic. David�s grandfather, Davey Dawson, had been a politician for many years. He hadn�t been the typical glad-handing kind that you found nowadays. He�d been someone who got stuff done. He�d had a knack for bringing people together, no matter what political party they were in. Davey had made people see what the greater good was, and they�d actually listened and acted on what he�d said.

David�s dad and uncle were a lot like that, too. They�d taught David, and his older brother Greg, how to do a lot of common-sense stuff that most people ignore. Such as how to network effectively or treat groups of people differently based on circles of trust. David had also taken to heart the concepts of goal setting and creating other leaders to whom he could then delegate. He had embraced the idea that the more you involved others, the more you could accomplish; and that many times, the outcome would be much better than what you�d originally planned. This was the basis of David�s willingness to listen to and incorporate others� ideas. He�d discovered that when he did that, the end result was better.

David also wasn�t one to think he knew everything. He had the wisdom to seek out mentors. And not just any mentors, either. He looked until he found the right person for the job and then somehow got them to agree to teach him.

In Cassidy�s mind, what really separated David from everyone else was that he rarely, if ever, expressed uncertainty and always seemed to know instinctively how to handle any given situation. In her psychology class, they called that �situational competence� or �situational genius.�

Cassidy�s professor had suggested that no single leadership style was best, that it depended on the situation to determine which form of leadership to adopt and what strategies to follow. According to her class teachings, the most effective leaders were able to adapt their style to ever-changing situations. Each task was different, even if you did it repeatedly because the nature of the group and other factors could change how you should approach it. David was one of those unique individuals who could do that without even thinking about it.

David chalked it all up to being a badass Alpha Male. He sometimes thought he was funny.

Because of who he was and what he meant to Cassidy, she�d kept her promotion to varsity a secret. She wanted to surprise him. He was the one person she knew at USC who would recognize what a big deal this was for her and be happy that she�d achieved it.

There was that, and then there was something else. The whole �he would someday discover that she was the woman of his dreams, and he would beg her to marry him, and they would live happily ever after.� She was afraid that day was far in the future. All she knew was she would be the one there when he finally decided to settle down. Until then, he would be her best friend.

In the back of her mind, she heard Tracy cackling that she and Pam needed to get off their butts and just tell the boy how they really felt about him. If Tracy kept it up, Cassidy might forget she was a girl and hurt her.

At first, David had been somewhat amused to walk in on Alex getting head in the living room of their dorm suite. It had been okay the first few times. But the new had worn off, and last night had made him more annoyed than amused. For cripes� sake, Alex had a bedroom. He could have the decency not to do it on the couch, with his phone in his hand as some random girl gave him head.

When David returned from Cassidy�s race, he found Alex cleaning pecker tracks off the couch with David�s favorite blanket. He made a mental note to never leave something like that in their living area again.

�Come on, man. That�s my blanket you�re using. Can�t you take it to your bedroom when you get busy? We actually live here,� David complained.

Alex didn�t seem bothered by David�s growing annoyance. He tossed the blanket in the corner when he was satisfied that he�d gotten the worst of it.

�Sorry, Boy Scout. I�ll have the cleaning lady wash your blankie.�

�It�s not even about that. It�s about boundaries.�

�Are we pretending you never get head? It sounded like you and Lexi were getting it on last night,� Alex said.

�Not in the living room. Not where people sit.�

�I bet you can only do it behind closed doors with the lights off.�

�Are you done?�

� ... in the missionary position.�

�Fuck you, Alex.�

�I said I was sorry, okay? I forgot you were such a prude.�

David scowled.

�I�m not a �prude.� I�m just not an exhibitionist.�

Alex burst out laughing.

�Whatever you say, dude. I remember you running around naked in Greece. Allard told me all about your exploits when he roomed with you for Team USA,� Alex pointed out.

�That was different,� David tried.

That just made Alex laugh harder. David made a mental note to kick Allard�s ass the next time he saw him. Not just for sharing about the road trip, but for telling Alex how Mason had taken to calling him a Boy Scout.

�Asshole,� David mumbled.

�Settle down. It wasn�t all my fault this time.�

�I�m not sure I want to know.�

�If you�d been here earlier, it would have been you getting head. She was here for you,� Alex said.

�What are you talking about?�

�Some of the girls on the third floor were playing Truth or Dare. She took a dare to give you head. I was just kind enough to stand in for you,� Alex said with a big grin.

�For fuck�s sake.�

�Actually, I think you owe me,� Alex said, acting like he was contemplating something.

�Why�s that?�

�I had to make out with two of them, and then the third gave me head. They were just working themselves up to the good stuff. When what�s-her-name left, she wasn�t happy to have heard you and Lexi getting busy.�

David just went to his room, leaving Alex in the living room, laughing at him.

CRASH!

�Hey, Boy Scout!� woke David from a sound sleep.

David jumped out of bed and grabbed his Bo staff as he went to his bedroom door.

�Stay in here,� he ordered Lindsey before he swung it open.

He found Mason and Jorge standing in the middle of their living area with baseball bats. Alex poked his head out of his door and quickly retreated, and David heard his door lock.

�Now he decides to lock a frickin� door,� he thought.

It looked like David was on his own. He could handle himself if it all kicked off, so he wasn�t too worried.

He also had his Bo staff, and it wasn�t a regular one. It was a weighted practice staff. David used it for various exercises as he ran to build up his hand, wrist, and forearm strength. The reason he was so confident was that the Bo staff was his best martial-arts weapon.

Even Cassidy, who was lightning fast and could kick his butt in any other kind of martial art, was no match for David when he used one. He was a hair slower with the weighted staff, but the added weight could do severe damage. David would need to be careful, or he could kill someone.

Yes, both Jorge and Mason were athletes and could swing a bat, but fighting was different. They would more than likely only think to swing their bats, especially given the almost maniacal looks in both their eyes. David knew there were other, sometimes better, ways to attack an opponent with a stick. He also had the advantage of reach, both from his size and from the length of the Bo staff compared to the baseball bats.

�What the hell do you think you�re doing, breaking into my dorm room?� David asked with authority.

Jorge and Mason looked at each other as if surprised that he wasn�t cowering when faced by two men with baseball bats. Mason recovered first.

�We decided it was time for a little payback for you messing up baseball for us,� Mason sneered.

David didn�t quite follow the logic as to how he was responsible for their failing their drug tests but guessed it didn�t matter at the moment.

�So, your bright idea was to break in and carry baseball bats as weapons?� David asked, shaking his head. �My roommate has probably called the cops. I suggest that you take off before they get here because once they do, I�m pressing charges.�

Mason moved first, cocking his bat back to take a swing at David. David�s training kicked in, and he jabbed the tip of the Bo staff into Mason�s gut to double him over. David moved to avoid Jorge�s attack and got his staff between him and Jorge�s swing. The impact jarred his hands enough to make them tingle. If that swing had connected with his ribs, he would�ve been down for the count.

Jorge stumbled a bit as he became overbalanced from his mighty swing. David whipped the Bo staff in an arc that hit Jorge in the upper right arm. Jorge cried out as he grabbed his arm and dropped the bat. David swung the Bo staff in the other direction but held back. He used the Bo staff to push Jorge towards the door.

Mason had seen what David had done to Jorge and dropped his bat, too.

�Out! Both of you, get out!� David commanded as he used his Bo staff to herd them from his room.

Jorge�s arm was limp at his side. David guessed he�d broken it. Jorge cautiously backed down the hall, with Mason backing up as well. David followed them to make sure they left the floor. By now, the other residents were peeking out their doors.

When they got to the common room, Mason got his courage back.

�Put down that stick and fight me like a man. Or are you the pussy Boy Scout I think you are?�

�You�re just chock-full of bad decisions tonight. I�ll kick your ass if you fight me one-on-one. Cut your losses and head out before the police get here because once they do, I�ll let them deal with you,� David said.

�I grew up on the streets and can handle myself. I bet you�ve only fought on some choreographed movie set,� Mason taunted. �Besides, you don�t want to look like the useless piece of shit you are in front of everyone, do you?�

David noticed that Veronica, Christian, and Peter had been sleeping in the common room because of David�s revenge prank of sealing off their rooms with drywall. The contractor would be by in the morning to replace their doors�provided they behaved.

He also saw there was a crowd of girls in their hall, watching the confrontation. He assumed the guys on his floor were behind him.

David couldn�t care less about what the people on his floor thought. He couldn�t even care less about Mason and Jorge, but he was sick of all the stupid games and drama. David figured that if he made an example of Mason, people would realize he was someone they shouldn�t mess with. Giving Mason what he wanted might solve more than one problem. The bonus was that Mason had started to piss him off. Labeling David a Boy Scout and working to mess up the team was bad enough. Breaking into his room to intimidate him had crossed the line.

David gave Mason a feral grin and tossed his Bo staff to Christian, who fumbled it and let it clatter to the floor.

Mason dropped into a boxing stance. David could box, so he matched Mason as he brought his hands up to protect himself.

Mason moved to David�s left. David intentionally simply pivoted in place as a novice would do. Mason snapped out a jab to measure the distance between them, just missing David�s nose. David was impressed with his quickness. Mason had some skills.

Mason threw two quick jabs to get David�s measure and shifted his feet to throw a powerful overhand right. David had anticipated this and suddenly moved to the left to avoid the punch intended to do some serious damage. He hadn�t danced back. His move to the left put him in position to do his own damage. He threw a hook into Mason�s body that would drop a buffalo. It was to the same spot that he�d hit with the Bo staff.

The crowd collectively winced and made an �eewww� sound in sympathy as Mason�s eyes got big and he gasped for air. David hadn�t held back like he did when sparring, so he wasn�t surprised when Mason involuntarily went down to one knee. He momentarily worried a bit because that shot would have taken down most guys. Mason was obviously made of sterner stuff.

David danced back and let his opponent gather himself and get back up. He knew Cassidy would be all over his butt when she found out that he didn�t finish Mason off when he had the advantage. However, that wouldn�t have served his purpose of making it clear that he was not to be messed with.

Mason must have realized that if he boxed David, he was going to lose the fight because he rushed forward to turn this into a street fight. As Mason came forward to tackle him, David shifted to a martial arts stance and exploded forward.

When they came together, David grabbed Mason and used his momentum to toss him. Instead of letting him go to send Mason flying through the air, David hung onto him and redirected his energy down toward the floor. It was reminiscent of the fake wrestling body slams you see on TV. When done in real life, you landed on a solid floor, not a bouncy ring. David knew that the spectacular move had ended the fight and served his purposes.

There was a collective gasp from the onlookers because Mason�s body smacking into the floor sounded as bad as it looked. All the air had been driven from Mason�s lungs, and he gasped because he couldn�t catch his breath. David knew from personal experience that his body would eventually figure it out and begin breathing again. He also knew that getting slammed like that hurt like a mother when done on a practice mat. Mason was done being a tough guy.

As everyone stood in stunned silence, David turned on Veronica and her gang.

�I�m done playing. I don�t have the time for your stupid games, and I have better things to focus on. If the prank bullshit doesn�t stop, I�ll simply call the cops the next time you come into our room uninvited. I didn�t come to school for this kind of shit. Do we have a truce, or do I go nuclear on the lot of you and end it just as quick?� he asked.

Veronica nodded slowly, and a stunned Peter reached out his hand for a handshake. As David grasped his hand, he looked at Christian, who also nodded his assent. David glanced towards the girls� side of the hall and spotted Lauren slinking back to her room.

The elevator doors opened, and the campus police stepped off the elevator to begin a whole different kind of pain for David.

David arrived at his accounting class to find Alyssa already there with a coffee for him. He looked around and saw there were more people in class than average.

�Do we have a quiz today?�

�No. Why?� Alyssa asked.

�It just looks like everyone�s here today.�

�We have our first test Thursday, and Professor Scarpa will give us a review of what�ll be on it today,� she explained.

David was digging through his bag.

�Hey, do you have a pencil?�

�No.�

He stopped digging and looked up at her.

�Okay, I�ll play. Do you have two pencils?� David asked.

Alyssa grabbed her phone and tapped a few times, and suddenly David heard phones pinging all around him, his included. He gave her a confused look and pulled his out to check his message. He burst out laughing and was followed quickly by others chuckling when they checked their phones.

He�d never imagined that Alyssa would find a picture of a horse�s ass on the Internet and send it to him. David took a moment to consider what this meant about Alyssa, as a person, to have even thought to search for horses� asses in the first place. He decided that made her more interesting to him.

David was clueless about how she�d done it because Alyssa didn�t have his phone number. When other people around them had begun laughing too, David had become even more intrigued. Somehow, she�d air-bombed her text to the whole class.

�How�d you do that?� he asked.

Unfortunately, Professor Scarpa picked that moment to come into class and went straight into the monotone monologue that he called a lecture.

The last two days had found David taking tests. He had a natural talent for Communications and Marketing, so tests in those classes were no problem. David also saw the value in his Economics and Accounting courses, which meant he thought those went well too. The class that David was learning the most from was Applied Business Statistics.

One of his first homework assignments had been to figure out, based on buying patterns, whether a woman was pregnant. The assignment bothered him a bit because it felt somewhat invasive to dig into someone�s personal life for financial gain.

Then he saw the business side of it. If you knew that a member of a household was pregnant, you could market differently to them. A mattress store that wanted to sell cribs could save a lot of money by only mailing out flyers to women about to have babies instead of to all homes.

After everyone turned in their papers, their professor told them that Target had actually hired a statistician to figure this out using only a computer. He developed a mathematical model that was able to predict not only which women were pregnant but what their expected due date was.

This taught David that you could figure out just about anything using stats. From that point on, he was hooked.

His mind went immediately to sports and how decisions were increasingly being made based on statistics. He was reminded of the book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, which had been turned into a movie.

It chronicled Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane and his staff in the 2002 season. They used stats to figure out which players were undervalued by other baseball teams. That knowledge informed their choices in both the draft and when signing free agents. When you considered what they were up against, it may have been their only way to compete. In 2002, the Athletics had a player budget of $44 million while teams like the Yankees spent upwards of $125 million on player payroll.

David�s mind began to spin as he thought about how statistical analysis could apply to both baseball and football. For example, in baseball, what percentage of the time did Player X hit to the right? At what point would it make sense to shift your pitching and/or defense to take advantage of that knowledge?

The truth was, it was being done right now. What intrigued David was the notion that they�d just scratched the surface of how statistics could be used. The key would be to capture the data and then be smart enough to interpret what it all meant.

As far as studying for tests, David had discovered that what he�d heard about cramming was true. With everything else going on in his life, there just weren�t enough hours in the day to do the thorough day-to-day prep he felt was warranted to get ready for taking his exams. That meant he was up late into the night studying on Wednesday and Thursday.

What saved him were his life goals and his work ethic. At first blush, that probably made no sense.

When David entered high school, he�d spent the preceding summer at his uncle�s farm. It hadn�t been voluntary.

He�d gone off the rails in middle school and had gotten involved with the wrong crowd. David had experimented with drugs and alcohol. His close friends had tried to get him back on track, but he hadn�t listened, to the point they didn�t want anything to do with him.

David�s best friend growing up was Tami Glade. They did everything together, along with the two other members of their group, Alan Douglas and Jeff Rigger. David still had nightmares about the time Tami had become so frustrated with him that she screamed she didn�t want anything more to do with him.

Shortly after that, it had all come to a head at a party he had thrown in one of his mom�s vacant house listings. One of the girls at the party had been drugged. Combined with the alcohol she�d consumed, she�d passed out and almost died.

David�s mom was so mad that when the police finally released him, she wouldn�t allow him to come home. He was sent to his uncle�s farm and became his slave labor for the summer, digging fence-post holes by hand. It wasn�t until the end of the summer that David learned his uncle had a post-hole digger attachment for his tractor.

Uncle John had a degree in child psychology. Long story short, he recreated David over the summer. He went from a chubby middle schooler to a taller, physically fit high school freshman as his growth spurt and hard work did their magic. The transformation hadn�t ended there. Uncle John gave David the tools he needed to help him make better decisions and begin to grow up. Part of that was writing down his life goals.

What that did was help David focus on what was important to him and on the long-term, not just what was fun at the moment. Over the last few years, those goals had changed because of circumstances. Having kids would do that.

His current life goals were:

1. Financial Stability

Spring football practice was set to begin on Monday. Today, the coaching staff had asked everyone to come in voluntarily to prevent wasting time on the first day dealing with trivialities. Everyone was giving up their Saturday morning to tie up any loose ends.

Players had a variety of reasons to be there today. Some were there to get their gear squared away. Projected starters were trying to move their equipment to the best locker locations. Others with lingering medical issues were receiving a final physical to verify they were ready to go.

Matt planned to snag Ridge Townsend�s old locker. Crystal had been riding him about looking and acting like the team�s starter. With Matt taking Ridge�s spot on the depth chart, she had pushed for him to take Ridge�s locker as well. She explained that being a leader was as much about appearances as it was about production on the field.

The only drawback to Ridge�s old locker was its location: right in the middle of the offensive linemen section. He understood why Ridge had wanted to be placed there; his linemen were the ones protecting him during the games. The reason for Matt�s discomfort was that he would be right next to John Johnson, whom he�d characterized as a mouth breather in the past, and for good reason. Matt suspected that John was borderline mentally disabled at worst and just plain dumb as a box of rocks at best.

If it hadn�t been for the prospect of having to share space with John every day, Matt wouldn�t have thought twice about taking Ridge�s old locker. As it was, he would have to suck it up and make the best of it. Crystal was right. Appearances mattered.

When Matt walked into the John McKay athletics facility, Coach Thomas, USC�s offensive coordinator, stopped him.

�You ready?�

�I can�t wait to get started, even if it�s just practice. It�ll feel good to actually get on the field and run plays,� Matt said.

�Coach Clayton is excited to see what you can do. Ridge�s declaring for the NFL draft wasn�t ideal, but we�re confident we won�t miss a beat with you taking the helm,� Coach Thomas said.

�I heard that Ridge is working hard to get ready for the draft.�

�That�s right. I saw him today, and he�s starting to get buff. I just wish he�d worked that hard last year.�

�Is he still around?� Matt asked.

Coach Thomas shook his head.

�He�s a glutton for punishment. He�s watching the video of last year�s Notre Dame game in the small film room.�

The Trojans had gone 11�3 last year. Their worst loss had been to Notre Dame. At the start of the game, both teams had been ranked in the top 15 in the polls. The Trojans had gone into South Bend and by halftime were down 28�0. In the third quarter, they�d shown some life, but it hadn�t been enough as they lost 49�14.

�I�ll stick my head in and say hi after I get everything sorted out for Monday,� Matt said.

�Sounds good,� Coach Thomas said as he headed back to the coaches� offices.

The first day of football practice was always a circus at USC because every local sports outlet covered it. As David came up the sidewalk to get to the locker room, he was impressed by the number of TV news vans he saw.

When David arrived at his locker, he found a pleasant surprise. His jersey with no number had been replaced by one with the number 11, which was his old high school number. When David was in on Saturday, the equipment manager had told him that he wouldn�t receive a number until he made the team. Even then, he learned, scholarship players got first pick. He�d resigned himself to getting some number like 98 and winding up sharing it with two or three other walk-ons.

His day got better when he saw his locker was next to Percy Wilkes. David had met Percy when their teams played a game on ESPN. The game had featured two nationally ranked high school teams and was held in St. Louis. ESPN had paired Percy�s team from Texas against David�s because, at the time, Percy had taken David�s number one spot in the recruiting rankings.

David had been injured in a car accident, and the game was going to be his return to football. When interviewed before the game, Percy had basically said that football in Texas was superior to the rest of the country. Furthermore, David�s team wasn�t good enough to rate being a part of such a high-profile game. Percy had actually said that Lincoln High was �irrelevant.�

When they�d played, the first snap from scrimmage had made David a believer that Percy might be the best high school football player in the land. Percy was a monster who lined up at defensive end. He was three inches taller than David and outweighed him by at least fifty pounds. On the snap of the ball, Percy had taken one hand and basically tossed Lincoln�s offensive tackle aside.

The play had been designed for Lincoln to triple-team Percy, but he discarded all three opponents with ease. David momentarily froze as he saw his life flash before his eyes. He�d watched plenty of game film where Percy would simply engulf a quarterback and slam him to the turf in spectacular fashion. In most cases, that ended the quarterback�s day, as they had to carry him off.

Percy had zeroed in on David with a glint in his eyes. That ended in a flash as Lincoln�s center had pulled to add a fourth blocker. The center had been able to get up to full speed while Percy had been busy tossing three Lincoln linemen around like rag dolls. The end result was that Percy hadn�t seen him coming, and when the giant defensive end was driven to the turf, David had smiled in satisfaction.

That play set the tone for the game as the boys from Texas learned that the Bulldogs didn�t give up even if they were facing a �relevant� team. David�s team had won 56�28. The game wasn�t really as close as the score indicated, and David had retaken his spot at the top of the recruiting class.

�I�d heard rumors you were on campus. Where have you been?� Percy asked when he saw David.

�The football team claimed they didn�t have any scholarships, so I�m a preferred walk-on. I�ve been playing on the baseball team,� David explained.

�I haven�t seen you in the weight room,� Percy persisted.

�Ridge Townsend and I have been working out together to help him get him ready for the NFL draft. How did you do last year?� David asked to turn the subject to Percy.

�They had me redshirt, which pissed me off at the time. The coaches have assured me that I�ll be getting plenty of playing time this coming year. I decided to look at it as a positive and have been focusing on working out to get ready.�

�You look good. How much weight have you put on?� David asked.

�I�m up to 290. I feel good there, and the trainers think I�m where I need to be.�

At six-seven, the 290 pounds looked to be all lean muscle when Percy took his shirt off to put on his jersey. David had no doubt that Percy would be a star once he got on the field.

One of the coaches interrupted their reunion by calling everyone to the field to start practice.

Bill�s knee woke him up, which wasn�t unusual. During his freshman year, he�d worked his way up the depth chart. By the end of the season, he saw as many snaps as the guy in front of him. Everything had been in place to move into the starter�s spot last fall because the guy in front of him had graduated.

Then, their freshman year wide receiver coach took a job at San Diego State as offensive coordinator. That spring, USC�s new wide receiver coach had his own ideas about the type of receivers he wanted to put in the field. The coach maintained the guise of open competition, but it was obviously a ruse. Bill had outperformed the coach�s pets in spring ball, yet somehow, they were all at the top of the depth chart.

The issue wasn�t confined to the wide receiver position, either. Probably the worst example was the offensive line. They�d had four different coaches in four years, each with his own agenda. It was apparent that whose ass you kissed was more important than how you played.

His sophomore year, he�d only seen the field sporadically. He�d seriously considered transferring. When Bill had come to college, he�d been one of four wide receiver recruits that year. They were touted as one of the best receiving groups to ever step foot onto USC�s campus. He�d been named the Gatorade Football Player of the Year in his state, which meant he was considered the best player that year. Rated a 4-star recruit by most service, the other three guys who�d accepted scholarships with him were his equal.

They were supposed to be the future core of USC�s resurgence. From that class, Bill was the only one still on the team.

Two had transferred when last year�s coach ran them off, and one had flunked out. Bill had heard he�d entered a junior college with the hope of turning his life around and maybe playing college ball again. After a strict upbringing, he�d overindulged in the freedoms to be found at college.

Bill�s freshman year, he�d made friends with Ridge Townsend. Ridge had a long-time girlfriend from his high school days, Penny, to whom he was now engaged. That didn�t stop Ridge from partying like a rock star and bedding his share of jock bunnies. What surprised Bill at first was that Penny was even wilder than Ridge.

Bill�s first serious girlfriend, Sage, had left him when she discovered what he and Ridge got up to at away games. The final straw had been when she�d watched him and Ridge initiate a foursome with Penny and another girl. It had been apparent to Sage that this hadn�t been their first such indulgence. While Bill hadn�t admitted it to her, she�d been right, and Penny had been the instigator when it happened.

Since then, Bill had dated several girls, none seriously, since it was college, after all. He�d grown up in a small Midwestern town that was 95% white. USC�s multicultural diversity had been eye-opening. He�d found that he was attracted to Asian women.

Not starting hadn�t seemed so bad when you considered that he was living in LA and had a life most guys could only dream of. Being a football player at USC was awesome.

Then, at the start of his junior year, Bill had hurt his knee in preseason practice and missed playing last season. In all honesty, the fun had gone out of playing football for Bill.

He�d come to realize that their head coach was the cause of most of the team issues. Even the press had started to point out that Coach Clayton was squandering his team�s talent on the bench. Last year, with Ridge Townsend on the Heisman shortlist as the best college football player, they�d been projected to be in the national title hunt. They fell short of that.

This coming year, they were projected to be in the middle of the Pac-12. If that happened, they would get a whole new coaching staff next year.

Being injured had opened Bill�s eyes, and he�d figured out something that most of his teammates either didn�t know or ignored: USC offered a world-class education. As with all schools that did, what you received was commensurate with your efforts. The school gave athletes the tools to be able to squeak by to stay eligible. They had to because most athletes would never have qualified to get in. While they didn�t go quite as far as North Carolina, paths through the curriculum were easier than others.

Bill had decided that he would knuckle down and take advantage of that education. He planned to stay his fifth year in the hope of picking up a master�s degree. He would barely manage to get it done if he loaded up with summer-school classes.

He�d also realized that only a tiny percentage of college players made it to the NFL. And for most NFL players, it wasn�t the life-changing experience Bill�s teammates all thought it was.

Yes, even the player making the minimum would rake in around a half million a year. However, those salaries were, for the most part, not guaranteed, and most NFL players didn�t manage their money well enough to make it last the rest of their lives.

Worst of all, the window for earning that kind of money was abysmally short. The average professional lifespan for a player who managed to get drafted was less than three years. That meant that the total NFL salary for an average or below-average player was somewhere between $1.5 and $3 million. Then you had to subtract state and local taxes, agent compensation, anything the player paid for during the offseason to stay in shape, etc. Typically, that meant the player�s actual take-home pay was less than half his �salary.�

The bottom line for Bill was the recognition that he would almost certainly need to be able to rely on his degree at some point. Therefore, after his knee surgery, he�d become an earnest student who didn�t chase jock bunnies, drink, or otherwise screw around when not working out.

That was why Bill hadn�t looked up his friend David when he�d learned he was on campus. Between doing his physical therapy and buckling down, Bill didn�t have time for distractions. He considered David to be one of his best friends, but it seemed that distractions found him without his even trying with David.

What made Bill decide to go to lunch with David was that he was a good friend to have.

They met at Kobunga, a Korean grill one of his exes had introduced him to. He spotted David walking from campus. He was about a quarter block away when a gorgeous Asian girl left her group of friends, walked up to David, and kissed him.

�Lucky bastard,� Bill thought.

David said something to her, and the girl nodded her agreement. She told her friends goodbye. As they came to the restaurant, the two were stuck to each other like double-sided tape. When they got close, David gave Bill a smile.

�Mind if I bring a friend?�

�Not if they look like she does. Hi, I�m Bill.�

�Yong,� she said and then saw where they were going. �I love this place.�

They spotted an empty table, so Yong grabbed it while the guys bought lunch.

�Where did you meet her?� Bill asked.

�It was actually a bad situation. I dated her roommate a couple of times. The girl I was dating liked to party.�

�I bet that didn�t sit well with you.�

�Not when she became falling-down drunk before the night was over,� David admitted. �Yong and I became friends.�

�I bet that�s not all,� Bill jealously thought.

�Are you two dating?� Bill asked.

�You trying to poach my lunch date?� David asked.

�No,� Bill quickly said, which made David laugh.

�Relax. We�re not dating, but she is someone I would like to get to know better,� David said to stake his claim.

They ordered their food. There was a soda fountain for drinks, so they got those while they waited.

�Are you doing anything for spring break?� David asked.

�I planned to stay here. I�m kind of short on cash,� Bill admitted.

�If you want, I�m putting a group together to spend the week in Whistler, skiing. Wolf, Tim, and my brothers, Greg and Phil, are going. I�m still waiting to see if Tami can get away. Also, some other people I�ve met at USC might be coming. All you would have to pay for is your food and drink. I got a package deal on lift tickets, and we would be staying in my condo,� David explained.

Bill knew everyone David had mentioned by name from back home.

�I think I�m going to pass. I�m focused on taking care of business this semester. I don�t need to fall off the wagon and party for a week.�

�You could hang with me. I might have a beer or three, but I won�t be getting out of hand, either.�

�Well, that, and I don�t miss the snow.�

�That, I get. When Greg gets here, you should come with me to my place in Malibu. We don�t usually get snow there. Besides, my parents would love to see you,� David offered.

�That I would love to do,� Bill admitted.

They grabbed their food and found Yong fending off a couple of fraternity boys. When the frat guys saw David and Bill, they decided they had something else to do.

Bill could tell that David barely knew Yong but deftly included her in their conversation as they ate. Bill wanted to hear about David�s travels while filming, so there was no talk about football.

When it was time to go, David collected Yong�s digits and invited her to his baseball game the next night, then sent her on her way. When they were alone again, Bill couldn�t help but ask.

�Did you hit that?�

He knew David would never confirm it, but he enjoyed giving him shit for old times� sake. David just gave him a noncommittal shrug.

�What�s the deal with you playing defense?� Bill asked.

David shook his head and then related all that had happened. Bill knew that his friend was a good-enough athlete that USC could plug him in at just about any position except offensive line, and he would more than hold his own.

That being said, David was an elite quarterback. USC was wasting his talents on the defensive side of the ball. This was just another example of the coaches favoring their own recruits. They may have thought they were protecting their professional reputations, but the players all knew the coaches were simply protecting their own egos. It would cost the coaches down the line, but it would cost the players sooner.

�You made a mistake coming here,� Bill decided. �You won�t get a fair shake on either side of the ball.�

�Ridge let me know that in so many words. I�ll redshirt in the fall before I make a decision. I�m half-convinced that Matt will fall on his face at some point. Do they have anyone who can step in if that happens?�

�We have one senior who could fill in for a game or two. But if it comes to more than that, kiss this season goodbye. Coach Clayton has put all his hopes on Matt,� Bill said to share what he knew.

�I�m fine with the situation as it is for now. Playing defense is something I never thought I�d be able to do after high school. Maybe I can make Matt look bad when we play a little seven-on-seven.�

Bill groaned. He�d faced David in practice more than once, and even back then, he made Bill work for every catch he got.

�Do me a favor and make me look good. I�m trying to win a starting spot.�

�But I get to mess with the other guys, right?� David asked.

�Hell, yeah. If you do that, I�ll give you a little intel on each one of them.�

David rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

�I�ll put the word out. We�ll do what we can to help you win a starter�s job,� David assured him.

�Right. How are you going to talk the defensive players into going along with you on that?� Bill asked.

David just smiled.

As they parted, Bill had no doubt that David would pull it off. All he had to do was hold up his end of the deal and catch everything thrown his way.

Yong�s roommate, Kat, had briefly dated David. That had come to a crashing halt when he�d brought her home drunk once again. Yong had been attracted to David from the moment she laid eyes on him. Kat had shared that he was both a football and baseball player, and jocks were Young�s weakness. She liked her men big and athletic.

She�d felt horrible about what had happened, especially knowing that Kat had previously gone through a terrible breakup. It had resulted in her roomate dropping out of Yale and coming home at Christmastime, which had caused no end of trouble for Kat.

Kat�s mother ran the local office for Senator Hatley. Her father was the managing partner of the law firm Burrows and Burrows, one of LA�s most connected law firms. Both of Kat�s older brothers worked at the law firm, and the plan had been for Kat to join them.

Her ex was Daniel Hatley, the senator�s favorite grandson. Kat long suspected that some kind of arrangement had been made that would someday find her married to Daniel. They�d been paired together at dinners and the like since they were in high school.

From what Kat had told her, it had just been easier to date Daniel than to fight it. So, when Kat caught him cheating, she took that as a sign and ran when the semester ended. Her parents were upset that she�d rebelled. From that came Kat�s further rebellion, including her tattoos, Goth look, moving in with Yong, and working at a coffee shop until she could figure out her next move.

The coffee shop was close to Sandoval Hall, which everyone called �The Palace� because it was where the rich and famous lived. Kat arrived home the first few days after the students trickled back to campus, complaining about the entitled jerks that came in and hit on her. It reminded her too much of the crowd Daniel ran with at Yale.

If it hadn�t been for the owner, Doreen, Kat might have hit back physically. Doreen was a unique individual. She was always upbeat, loved to blast music in the shop, and had a penchant for younger men. The first time Kat had met David, Doreen had him cornered and was making a move on him. Kat had told Yong that when she first saw David, all thoughts of Daniel had fled her mind.

Yong found it amusing, listening to her roommate switch from a daily �poor me� to an equally daily �I met this hot guy.� It was almost a relief when Kat came home and announced that they had a date.

Yong had to admit that she was curious about what kind of man would cause her roommate to act half crazy. She�d purposefully dressed to see if he had a wandering eye like Kat�s last boyfriend had. David did check her out, but as soon as he saw Kat, he didn�t give Yong a second look.

No time at all had passed on their first date before David brought Kat home, falling-down drunk. Yong first worried he�d gotten her that way so he could take advantage of her. The way Kat was pawing at him, every other guy Yong knew would have taken their shot. When he didn�t, Yong took a second look at David.

She did a quick internet search on him to see if he was a serial killer and found he was the David A. Dawson. That made her want him even more, especially when she found some of his modeling pictures sans shirt.

For the most part, Kat was a great girl. Her only major flaw was that she�d become a binge drinker. Since David didn�t really drink, their relationship was doomed.

On the last date they�d had, Yong hadn�t set out to sleep with David. But when she did ... Holy hell! He made her feel things she�d only read about in romance novels. When Kat caught them, Yong�s perfect moment came crashing down around her.

The worst part was that after experiencing pleasure like that, she knew she would do just about anything for more. The situation was a mess, though, especially when David ghosted Kat. Yong found it amusing that Doreen took the news harder than either Yong or Kat had.

The question was, should Yong tell Kat that she�d had lunch with David?

Especially since all she could think of was his ... his manhood. In her mind�s eye, she saw his rampant member, enormous and thick and pink and straining, so engorged with blood that it was near to bursting. It was attached to a near-perfect specimen of a man, one that should be in a museum, not running loose on the USC campus.

After the events of last night, David thought he might have to seriously consider getting himself a girlfriend because satisfying sex was the best way he�d found to get a good night�s sleep. He woke up early and took Kat and Yong home.

The only hiccup from last night was he�d never gotten an explanation from Yong about why she�d brought Kat. Kat had made it crystal clear that they were through when she caught him in Yong�s bed. It wasn�t something he was proud of. David would admit that he may be a horse�s ass at times, but he wasn�t that horse�s ass.

Because he knew he was in the wrong, he�d quit going to the coffee shop. He also had no desire to sit down with Kat to work it out. In his mind, he�d already decided they were no longer going out before he slept with Yong. Even so, he hadn�t yet said the words to Kat; that told him he had a ways to go to become the man he wanted to be.

Internal scolding finished, he decided to skip running for the day and have breakfast at the dorm�s cafeteria instead. On his way back to the dorm from dropping the girls off, he sent a text to see if anybody wanted to join him. He shouldn�t have been surprised when Alex, Kirk, Lauren, Lindsey, and Jamie were all sitting at their table when he walked in.

When he came to the table after loading up on breakfast, he stopped because they were all staring at him.

�What? Did my dick slip out of the bottom of my shorts again?� he asked.

He lifted his tray up so he could look down. All three girls checked, which had Alex and Kirk shaking their heads.

�I thought you and the Goth Barbie barista were through,� Alex said as David placed his tray on the table.

�He had an even hotter Asian girl with him, too,� Kirk shared with David�s roommate.

�I�m going to have to seriously up my game,� Alex said thoughtfully.

�I think you can get a discount on the second one down at the corner,� Lauren chirped.

David gave her a fist bump for burning Alex, whose contention was that it was easier to pay for it than to have to track a girl down for sex. It was a case of having too much money and no common sense, in David�s opinion.

�As much as we want to have an intervention with Alex concerning his hooker addiction, we need to hear about last night,� Lindsey said.

�It was no big deal. That was Kat and her roommate. Yong was there to help Kat and me talk some things out,� David said.

�If you mean ... and I quote... �No. Fuck me now. Fuck me!�� Alex overshared with an admittedly good impression of what Kat had sounded like. �Then I guess you did.�

David looked at each one of them in turn. They were waiting for him to clarify what had happened.

�Welp,� he said and then shut his mouth.

Suddenly, he had a brilliant idea.

�Not that this topic hasn�t been fun, but I was wondering if you all would like to go with me to my condo in Canada to go skiing for spring break?� he asked.

Before they could get him back on the previous topic, he provided a travel guide to what they would experience in Whistler, British Columbia.

It was just a two-hour drive from Vancouver, where two large ski resorts had combined to make the behemoth that was Whistler Blackcomb. It was one of the largest and most sought-after ski vacation spots on earth, ranking up there with the best resorts in Europe and the United States.

It featured one run that descended more than 5,200 feet. It was the second-longest vertical drop on the continent. Besides the world-class terrain, there was everything from fine dining to low-key watering holes.

�I already bought lift tickets for the week. And I would provide transportation to and from, along with lodging. I have a condo that I rent as an Airbnb that sleeps 16. It also has most of the gear you would need,� David explained.

They kept a closet full of skis and accessories for guests who didn�t bring their own. Part of the deal was that they held a security deposit to cover the cost of replacing any missing or damaged equipment.

�When do you have to know?� Alex asked.

�Soon. I want to lock everything in so I don�t have to worry about it,� David said.

�Don�t you mean that Lexi told you to get her a list like yesterday?� Kirk teased.

She had given David a ration of shit because he�d fallen down on telling her who was going. But he would never admit to that, so he ignored Kirk�s jab.

�I might have to go back to Colombia that week to try out for the national soccer team. Otherwise, I would love to go,� Alex shared.

David made a mental note to ask what that would mean for Alex. Was it possible he would stay in Colombia if he won a spot?

They all had to think about it, so David gave them Lexi�s contact information and told them they had until the end of the day to decide. He was in no mood to play middleman. For him, it would have been a no-brainer.

David timed it so that when they wanted to come back to their original discussion�about his threesome last night�it was time for him to go to class.

Crystal�s phone rang. It was her mom.

�Are you ready for tomorrow?� her mom asked.

�Yes, I am. Andres has promised to get the whole baseball team to show up, and I got both the Trojan Dance Force and Song Girls to commit to coming,� Crystal ticked off.

The Trojan Dance Force had been modeled after professional NBA and NFL dance teams. They�d been called USC�s version of the Laker Girls. They performed routines that focused on hip-hop and jazz dance at USC home basketball games.

The USC Song Girls were referred to as �The Ambassadors of the University of Southern California.� They cheered and danced at Trojan athletic sporting events, as well as at the Heritage Hall �jock rallies� on Friday afternoons before all USC home football games. They also performed at other activities for alumni and the university. The girls were involved in charity work, so they were easy to convince to come out and help.

�Is the actor still going to be your DJ?�

�He promised to be there as soon as he gets out of class. He did us a favor by letting us pick out the music. I hate to think what he listened to back on the farm,� Crystal carped.

�Who did you put in charge of that?�

�Milena. And get this: she went heavy with Euro Techno.�

�I hope you made her change it.�

�What do you think? I got my inability to suffer fools from you, after all,� Crystal said.

�Yeah, I don�t do well with them, either.�

�My point exactly, Mom.�

�So, it�s all sorted out?�

�It�s all good. Once Milena figured out that she wasn�t back in Armenia, she got it together,� Crystal assured her mom.

�I thought she�s American.�

�Well, she is, but sometimes I wonder,� Crystal said.

She and her mom chatted for a bit longer, and then Crystal had to get back to work. The next day�s fundraiser was part of her grand plan to become the president of the Panhellenic Council. Doing well with the fundraiser would give her a leg up.

David picked up Milena, and they took a trip to the grocery store. He let her pick out steaks while he hit the deli and produce aisles to figure out what would go with them. David spotted fresh asparagus, so he grabbed a couple of bunches, along with two lemons. At the deli, he bought pasta salad and baked beans.

They then picked up Allard and Seamus, both of whom knew Milena from the Baseball House parties with Alpha Mu, so no introductions were needed. When they arrived at the townhouse, they could hear Precious complaining. Someone had gotten smart and put her in her crate before leaving for the day. Her pitiful cries had Milena feeling sorry for her.

�You�re just the cutest,� Milena cooed.

�That�s Precious. She�s a straight-up badass,� Allard shared.

�But she wants out of her crate,� Milena said.

�Of course she does. She can�t make you bleed if she�s in there,� Allard speculated.

�Are you a bad kitty? No? You just want some loving. I think we�re going to be friends,� Milena predicted.

�Don�t be stark ravers. That cat is mental,� Seamus said, adding his doubt about letting Precious out.

�It�ll be okay,� Milena said as she reached for the latch.

�What are you doing!?� David barked.

Having slept on what had transpired the night before, David was still upset. His usual MO when he would get mad would be to, after some time, get over it and move on. Matt�s betrayal by having Crystal drive off and leave him to get an ass-kicking was too much to stomach. Especially after David had come running to save Matt.

His first instinct was to track Matt down and finish the job the Deltas had started. His best friend growing up, Tami Glade, had taught him that he should ignore his first instinct because it was always wrong. In this case, he might make an exception to that particular rule. It was probably best that the next football practice wasn�t until Monday. If he saw Matt today, it might not end well.

It wasn�t only Matt and Crystal who had him upset. Coach Clayton�s coaching methods had him playing defense, for Christ�s sake. In every fiber of his being, David knew that if he were given a fair shot to play quarterback, he would beat Matt out for the starting job.

Bill was right; it had been a mistake to come to USC. If it weren�t for his family, he would have picked up the phone and gone to Ohio State or one of several other destinations. If UCLA wasn�t such a mess, he might have considered going there.

For David, playing defense wasn�t the worst outcome. He�d actually agreed to it with the understanding that he would be given a scholarship when one became available. However, the scholarship hadn�t come through; the head football coach seemed to be deliberately withholding it.

It wasn�t really the money that upset David, though; it was the sense of betrayal. Breaking his word to him told David that USC�s head football coach couldn�t be trusted, that the man was only looking out for himself. At that point, all talk of doing what was best for the team went out the window.

Bill was an excellent example of how this made USC a toxic place to play ball. You were told that everyone had a shot at playing time. That if you did what was asked of you, put in the effort, and excelled in practice, you would be rewarded. When the coaches had their own agenda, though, it often meant that the best player didn�t get to see the field on game day.

David decided that before he ran himself in circles and tied himself into knots over all this, he should call together what he liked to call his �brain trust.� His mom, dad, uncle, and grandmother were all members of his inner circle of trust. They were all people that he went to when he had big decisions to make. He could count on them to give him sound advice and not just tell him what he wanted to hear. Plus, they had more worldly experience than David had to this point. They might see something he was missing.

With that in mind, he invited them to dinner at the townhouse. He also asked Lexi because she would end up being involved in whatever happened. David then called around and got extra tickets from his fellow players so as to have enough for whoever wanted to watch him play baseball tonight.

Every player was given two tickets to each USC baseball game. Not surprisingly, if family or friends didn�t take them, the tickets were given out to �jock bunnies.� Tonight, the Alpha Mus were packing the section behind the home team�s dugout.

Lexi volunteered to lead the way and ended up farthest from the aisle, sitting next to Cassidy. Lexi knew that David had been with Pam�they had a son, after all�and was sure he�d been with Tracy. But Cassidy confused her. She didn�t act like all the other girls who fawned over him. She also had some mystical power over David that made it so he couldn�t seem to refuse her. Lexi had yet to figure what it was.

Lexi reflected back on what had transpired earlier that evening. That was the first time she�d been included in the group of David�s closest confidants. To think, just over a year ago, David had thought she was the quintessential �mean girl.� It had taken Lexi a lot of work to change his perception of her. To accomplish that, she�d had to make actual changes.

After what had happened with Christian and Alex, she had resolved to become a better person. What better role model for that could there be than David? Watching how he interacted with people, even when he thought others weren�t looking, had convinced her that David really was what he appeared to be�a great guy.

Observing him tonight with his inner circle, Lexi had been taken aback by how open everyone was. There was no doubt that David had needed a good kick in the status quo, and his uncle had given him that in spades. Lexi had waited for David to blow up when his uncle had pointed out how wrong hiding himself had been. She knew why he had done it and how much thought he�d put into it. David hadn�t just made a knee-jerk decision, and she had agreed with the why.

Looking back, Lexi was surprised that he�d fooled everyone for as long as he did. It just showed what a great actor he was. But to be told that he had to grow up and face who he was seemed harsh.

Her prior role model had been her father. Her dad had worked his way up to the point where he was now one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. She knew he would never have reacted as David had. If one of her father�s underlings had been that blunt, they would be looking for work by the end of the day. David hadn�t reacted that way at all. On the contrary, he had absorbed the body blow and given serious thought to what his uncle had actually said instead of losing his cool.

Lexi had seen from Tracy and Pam�s faces that they�d expected him to erupt, as had Lexi. Tracy had even jumped to his defense. Lexi wasn�t sure why he hadn�t defended himself as well, but somehow, she knew he had taken the right approach. With the clarity of hindsight, she had come to understand that if you created an environment where people were comfortable enough to tell you hard truths, you could achieve a better outcome. Lexi suspected that most of her father�s underlings had learned to say only what he wanted to hear.

For such an approach to work, it was crucial to know that the person delivering the honest news really did have your back. You had to absolutely know that their only goal was to help.

She had heard David talk about circles of trust in passing before. Now she wanted to learn more about them. Lexi decided she would call David�s uncle to see if he would help her understand how they worked. Her most important takeaway from the evening�s discussion was that you shouldn�t treat everyone the same. She hadn�t consciously thought about it in those terms, but it made sense.

What Lexi wanted after that meeting was to figure out how she could help David achieve his goals of becoming the starting quarterback at USC and getting his football scholarship.

Lexi was brought out of her thoughts when Cassidy leaned around her so she could talk to the Alpha Mu sitting next to Lexi.

�Hey, Milena. What exactly happened last night?�

�After you left, David wanted to get in some batting practice; he let me come watch. We were interrupted when Crystal called. She said that her boyfriend was getting into a fight with the Deltas. If it had been any other house, I would have ignored her,� Milena shared.

�What�s wrong with the Deltas?� Lexi asked.

�It�s been taken over by the rugby team. They like to fight and have a bad reputation. Crystal has put the word out that they�re to be blackballed by all the sororities,� Milena explained.

�Did you see what happened?� Cassidy asked.

�No. David made me stay in the car. The Deltas were fighting with everyone, so I focused on getting our girls out of harm�s way.�

One of the other Alpha Mus chimed in.

�They were serving vodka shots after they ran out of tequila. My ex told me that whenever he drank vodka, he either got arrested or got into a fight. It looked like that was true last night. I heard the police had to come break up the party.�

�What happened to David?� Cassidy asked.

One of the other Alpha Mus leaned forward so she could talk.

�I heard that David jumped into the middle of it and saved Matt by taking on three guys who had ganged up on Matt. The problem was that when they got back to the car, the guy he saved made Crystal leave David behind.

�Crystal said she was amazed when he took down two of the biggest Deltas and then handled Silas Kemp, who�s the meanest one of the bunch, to save her boyfriend. I heard that David broke Silas�s nose. He�s put the word out that he�ll be looking David up, but Crystal said she doubted David has anything to worry about after watching his kung-fu-like moves.�

�What�s this guy look like?� Cassidy asked.

�I have a picture from when we went to their house for a party,� Milena said as she pulled out her phone and flipped through her pics. When she found it, she enlarged the picture and handed it to Cassidy. �He�s the one on the right.�

�Is it okay if I send this to my phone?� Cassidy asked.

�Sure. Why do you want it?� Milena asked.

�I plan to have a talk with him,� Cassidy said seriously. �Does he live in the house?�

�Yeah. Second floor, last door on the right,� the girl who leaned in shared.

�You slut! We were told not to go upstairs with them,� Milena scolded.

�It wasn�t like that. I cut my hand on a piece of glass, and he gave me a Band-Aid.�

�Yeah, right,� the other one chimed in.

Another Alpha Mu, who was sitting behind them eavesdropping, tapped Lexi on the shoulder.

�I�ve been trying to get David to pick me after a game. Is he worth the effort?�

Lexi blushed.

�You would think he was big all over,� Cassidy shared as she held up her hand and wiggled her pinky.

�Cassidy Hope,� David�s mother said. �Don�t lie to the girls. I remember his first girlfriend sharing that he�s hung like a horse.�

�I warned my son about marrying you. It�s comments like that that have made me prematurely gray,� Grandma Dawson said, and both women laughed at the stunned looks from the Alpha Mus.

David�s dad looked like he could use another beer. Lexi agreed with him.

Lexi left to do laundry at her condo, so David grabbed a quick bite and then went to the baseball stadium. He found Coach Deneau in his office.

�You have a minute?� David asked.

�Sure. I wanted to talk to you anyway.�

�Yeah? What about?�

�I talked to Coach Conde yesterday,� Coach Deneau said.

�Really? How is Mario doing?�

Coach Conde coached the baseball team David had worked out with in Cuba while shooting his movie. He was also an assistant coach for the Cuban Pan Am team David faced.

�We had a long talk about you,� Coach Deneau said with a smile. �You made quite the impression.�

�Did he have any players we could recruit?�

�He did, but said that most kids good enough to play college ball want to play professionally. I didn�t realize how poor they were there.�

�It�s a whole different culture. The government provides basic handouts, and salaries are low. Most Cubans have to have some form of side income to make ends meet. I ran into a one who had been a doctor who was bartending so he could earn American dollars.

�I can see them being focused on the money. Even the lowest minor league contract would make them kings back home. It doesn�t take much each month to make a real difference in their family�s lives,� David shared.

�Do you think these kids are worth pursuing?�

�I do because you can sell them on both an education and exposure to scouts. You would have to give them a full ride or help them with some other form of financial aid, but these kids will work their butts off. My impression was that many of them would benefit from a good training program. The majority of them don�t have access to anything like what we have in our weight room, the specialized conditioning, or the other training aids we have,� David said.

�That�s what Coach Conde told me. He also said he would be interested in coming to America.�

�I only worked with him for a few weeks, so I don�t really know if he�s a great coach or not. I would guess he is since he was on the coaching staff for the Cuban team at the Pan Am games. He did impress me in our interactions in Cuba. I do know that he has contacts all over Cuba. I�m sure you can figure it out from here,� David said.

�Why are you early?�

�I wanted to talk to you. I need advice on how to handle a situation,� David said.

He then spent thirty minutes talking about what was going on with him and football. David shared his decision that he wanted to play quarterback.

�I guess I�m asking what you think would be the best way to approach Coach Clayton and not have him shut me down,� David said to finish.

�I have a bit of inside information that might help you out. Word in the athletic department is that Matt Long may be held out from practice because of his ribs. He�s getting a CT scan today so they can see the extent of the damage. For now, Travis Barry will be taking Matt�s snaps in practice,� Coach Deneau shared.

Travis was a senior, and David was sure he was excited to get his shot.

�How should I play it?� David asked.

�If you came in on Monday morning, and I were Coach Clayton, I would kick you out of my office. Now, if you came in on Wednesday, and Matt isn�t back, and Travis isn�t doing the job, I would begin to look down the depth chart. Not so much as a replacement for Matt, but because I would worry about the season if he gets hurt.

�If I were you, I would approach him with a �for the good of the team� pitch. Tell him that you would like to get some reps at quarterback in case of an emergency. If you don�t come across as trying to change what Coach Clayton has planned, he would be more likely to let you on the offensive side of the ball,� Coach Deneau said.

�That sounds a bit thin, if you ask me,� David complained.

�Well, anything short of a coaching change is going to leave you behind the eight ball. You said you planned to redshirt this fall. Show him what you can do in practice and, while you�re at it, show the fans who come out to watch practices; they�re open to public viewing. I�ve come to recognize that when you have David Dawson on your team, the alumni and fans know about it.

�Coach Clayton knows that if he gets on the wrong side of certain alumni, his days at USC are numbered. And the fans always think the guy on the bench is the answer. Especially if your team starts losing this coming season. You just need to be the guy they�re all looking at as the savior,� Coach Deneau advised.

�Is that why you play me?� David asked with a little smile.

�I won�t be if you go oh-for-four like you did yesterday,� Coach Deneau shot back.

�They walked me,� David said to defend himself, then added, �You need to either move me down in the lineup or once I�m on the base path, cut me loose so I can make them pay for walking me.�

�You trying to tell me how to do my job?� Coach Deneau asked, giving David a disapproving look.

�Of course I am. Have you ever met a teenager that didn�t know what was best? If you old folks would just get out of the way and let us run things...� David teased.

Coach Deneau kicked David out of his office with the instructions to go learn how to hit. David was starting to really like him.

The doctors had done a CT scan because the X-rays were inconclusive as to the extent of the damage Matt had received in his dustup at the Phi Sigs� on Saturday. The team doctor had agreed to meet both Matt and Coach Clayton at the coach�s office before practice.

Matt got there early and saw the doctor hadn�t yet arrived with his results.

�What the hell happened?� Coach Clayton demanded, jumping on him before he even took his seat.

�Crystal had her fundraiser, and all the sororities were celebrating its success at the Phi Sigs� house. I ran into a douchebag, and words were exchanged. We took it outside, and his two buddies jumped me.�

�Were you drunk?�

�I�d had a couple,� Matt said to deflect the question.

�A couple, huh? Your blood work showed a .15. Thank God you weren�t driving,� Coach Clayton ranted.

Matt was happy when his coach�s receptionist announced Doctor Liao. The doctor joined them, and his face didn�t give anything away.

�What�s the word, Doc?� Coach Clayton asked.

�It�s not terrible, but I can�t clear him to play yet.�

�Can�t you just give him something?� Coach Clayton asked.

�If it were during the season, sure. Since it�s not, it�s more important to get him well.�

Coach Clayton didn�t like the doctor�s response. Matt could see that this meant he would miss a couple of practices.

�What did you find, and when can I get back on the field?� he asked.

Doctor Liao pulled out a picture that only showed his ribs. The problem with chest X-rays was that a person�s lungs could blur the image of the bones, and you couldn�t see what was really going on. The CT scan, however, was clear as day. It showed Matt had two cracked ribs on his right side and one on his left.

Doctor Liao pointed at the scan results.

�If the bones higher on your rib cage had been cracked, it could have been serious. As it is, this injury is painful but not life-threatening.�

�Like I said earlier, why not just pad him up and let him practice?� Coach Clayton pressed.

�If it were a cracked limb, we could put a splint on it to hold the bone in place. There�s no way to do that with ribs. Your ribs must be able to move fluidly because they serve as attachment sites for many muscles that control the neck, pelvis, and arms. They also assist in breathing.

�Since we can�t hold them in place, there�s a danger that they won�t heal properly. It�s also entirely possible that the injury could worsen with too much movement. We aren�t in season, so my primary responsibility is Matt�s long-term health.

�I looked at the practice schedule, and you have two weeks until spring break, and then you come back and have a final week of practice. Given what I see here, I�m going to require that Matt refrain entirely from physical activity for the next two weeks.

�Over spring break, he can get in with the trainers, and they will help him manage his pain and get him ready for the last week of practice. I�ll want to see him the Sunday before the end of spring break to check his progress. If all looks good, he�ll be cleared to practice then,� Doctor Liao explained.

�I don�t think you understand. I need Matt in practice for the next two weeks to get him ready for next year. Can�t he heal up after spring ball?� Coach Clayton asked.

�Absolutely not. And don�t bother trying to make an end run and talk to the athletic director. In matters of team health, I have the final word,� Doctor Liao responded.

Matt could see his coach wasn�t happy with the decision.

�Thank God Coach Clayton wasn�t there this morning when I woke up,� he thought.

If the coach had been, he might understand how much pain Matt was in. It hurt to even breathe. If it weren�t for the giant pills that looked like horse tranquilizers, he would�ve had a hard time walking here today.

When the doctor was done, Coach Clayton was in a mood, and Matt was happy when he was dismissed.

�There�s my fine-assed big boy. Come here and give me a hug.�

David found his nose buried between two giant aproned boobs as Doreen pulled his head into her chest. It felt like d�j� vu as he smelled French roast and lilac body wash.

�Doreen, let David go,� Kat called from the back.

�You ran him off once. Good-looking men like this need to be in my shop, and I�m not letting him get away again.�

�Kat and I have made up. I promise to come in and say �hello.� Besides, you�re the only one who knows how to make tea the way I like it,� David said, enjoying their banter.

�Strong?�

�You got it.�

�Kat, take a break while I make David�s tea,� Doreen ordered. �You want coffee?�

�Dear God, yes. Coffee before talkie,� Kat said around a yawn. She then found a table for them to sit at. �Since I started here, I�ve become convinced that Doreen�s coffee is actually liquid heroin. I�ve become a caffeine addict.�

�I heard that,� Doreen called from behind the counter.

�Thanks for coming back. I had to stop Doreen from going to your dorm yesterday to track you down,� Kat shared.

�I got in late Sunday night and skipped running to sleep in before going to class.�

David could see the relief on her face. Then she scrunched her nose.

�I need an escort to a fundraiser for Senator Hatley. If I don�t bring someone, they�ll make me sit with my ex,� she explained.

She told him that the event was next Thursday. David didn�t have a game, so technically, he could do it. He just wasn�t sure whether he wanted to encourage Kat. All the reasons they�d broken up were still valid. The only complication was they�d since had sex. David had assumed that it was a onetime event. His mom was fond of saying that �when you assume something, it makes an ass out of u and me.�

�Why don�t you just bail?� David asked.

�This is one of the few obligations I�m looking forward to. I like Daniel�s granddad. Probably more than I like my own family at the moment.�

�Why not take Yong?� David asked.

�The seats are fifteen hundred a plate.�

David was ready to pull out one of his life goals and use it, specifically, the ability to say �no.� But in the back of his mind, he heard his grandmother�s voice advising him to get involved in politics. If he planned to live here, this would be an excellent way to get to know the local political players.

�Would I get a discount if I bought a table?� David asked.

He knew he could get his parents and grandmother to go. If he had extra seats, either his grandma or Lexi could find people to take them.

�I don�t know. I would have to ask my mom,� Kat said.

�Let me give you my PA�s number. I�ll let her know to expect someone to call.�

�Does that mean you�ll take me?� Kat asked.

�As friends,� David said to clarify.

He could almost read her mind as she added a silent �for now.�

The rest of the week, David had split his time at defensive end and middle linebacker.

Since they�d started wearing pads, David had been able to get physical. Coach Farrow had the defensive linemen practice against the offensive linemen in one-on-one drills. The two players who consistently beat their counterparts were David and Percy. Percy did it with brute force and incredible quickness for a man who was six-seven and weighed close to 300 pounds. David, on the other hand, was as slippery as an eel. Once he shed his block and got past his opponent, there weren�t any offensive linemen fast enough to keep up with him.

Coach Farrow loved David�s speed. He was one of those rare linebackers who could make tackles from sideline to sideline. Being a quarterback, he knew offenses. That gave him a unique perspective when trying to stop them. He instinctively knew where the ball was going and always seemed to be in the thick of it. In some ways, David reminded the coach of Lawrence Taylor, the Hall of Fame linebacker for the New York Giants.

On the offensive side of the ball, next year�s senior and junior backups, Travis and Jaden, were struggling. It wasn�t that they weren�t good quarterbacks; they�d been talented enough to receive scholarships to USC. Instead, their struggles exposed the Achilles heel of Coach Clayton�s coaching style. When a coach focused ninety percent of his staff�s coaching time on the starters, their backups didn�t develop.

Ridge had kept his word and had begun a whisper campaign. The results were twofold. First, articles started to crop up about the lack of player development at USC. They laid the charge squarely on Coach Clayton. While David appreciated that result, he worried that it would impact recruiting. Every high-level high school football player has dreams of playing in the NFL one day, and they knew that USC got more than its fair share drafted. But it might give a prospective recruit pause to know that if he wasn�t a starter, he might not get the coaching he needed for a chance to advance to the next level.

The other consequence was that questions were being asked as to why the best high school quarterback in the country just a year and a half ago was now playing defense. Coach Farrow, USC�s defensive coordinator, sang David�s praises. He said that he felt that with a year backing up, David could be a four-year starter on the defensive side of the ball�implying that he would be redshirted. Coach Clayton�s strategy was to remind the press that Matt was healing and would be back, and all worries would go away.

In the meantime, David was making a concerted effort to become friends with his teammates. He had some catching up to do, but his outgoing personality was making inroads. It made David realize that he missed the social aspects of football. While he enjoyed baseball, there was a different bond created when playing football. There was no more special bonding experience than two teammates bashing into each other one minute, only to pick each other up the next and laugh about it.

It was a frantic week for everyone because midterms had started. David was amazed at the dread that had set in across campus. It was as if the student body suddenly realized why they were going to school, and parties and goofing off weren�t the reason.

Sunday night, after the team got back from Salt Lake City, he�d received a text from Margaret Tilghman letting him know that she had to cancel his tutoring session. One of the offensive linemen was in danger of flunking accounting. David had no idea why the man had taken a business course when there were easier ones for athletes. He now understood why she�d fit in an extra session for him last week.

David had cut back on the length of his runs because Ridge had given him an article about a Hall of Fame quarterback. The guy said he wished he hadn�t run so much when he was younger. He said that if he had it to do over again, he wouldn�t have run twenty-plus miles a week because his knees were now shot. That quarterback suggested only running about ten and focusing on other lower-impact cardio.

Cassidy had talked him into purchasing a rowing machine and putting it in The Palace�s weight room. She�d done it so she could train, but David found it was a good low-impact substitute, and his knees thanked him. He also missed swimming, so he put that on his to-do list for when he came back from spring break.

When David arrived at the coffee shop, he was shocked to see the place was packed. All the tables were taken with students studying and getting their caffeine fixes. Doreen had his tea ready.

�Hey, cutie. I saw you coming this way,� she explained. �Go on back. Kat wants to talk to you.�

David grabbed his drink and went around the counter. He found Kat in the back room, filling coffee filters with freshly ground beans.

�I always wondered what you did back here in the morning,� David said.

�Doreen claims the coffee tastes better if it�s ground daily.�

�She said you wanted to talk to me.�

�Oh, yeah. The tables for the fundraiser were all sold out. Did you want me to see if anyone has extra seats for the people you wanted to invite?� Kat asked.

�No, that�s okay. Just let me know who to make the check out to.�

�My parents are paying for our seats. Of course, if you want to make a donation, I�m sure the senator would take it.�

�I bet he would. Are you sure your parents don�t want me to pay for us to go?� David asked.

�When I told my mom that you were coming, she got excited. You might have to �pay� for your seat in other ways. I have a feeling it involves getting your picture taken.�

�Maybe they should pay us to show up.�

�Don�t let my dad hear that. As a lawyer, he gets creative with his billable hours. This might be one more scam he can pull,� Kat said a bit too seriously.

David had long suspected that was the case with his lawyers.

�I can envision the line item on my next bill. He was �advocating� for me. That would explain why I would be charged for the seats to the event he is writing off. Plus the three hours he�ll spend drinking scotch, dancing with his wife, and shooting the shit with his other lawyer buddies. And I, like a dumbass, will pay the fifty grand and not even question it,� David groused.

�You would be my dad�s dream client. Don�t be surprised if he pitches you jumping ship to his firm at some point in the evening,� Kat jested and then gave David a sad look. �You sure you still want to go with me?�

�How could I turn down an offer that includes spending quality time with a bunch of lawyers?�

�The only positive is that I�m not one. Yet,� Kat said.

�Yet? You�re planning to go back to the dark side ... er ... Yale?� David asked.

�I�ve been evaluating my options. I�ve decided I�m not going to live my life in response to either Daniel or my family. It doesn�t matter whether that�s as an obedient daughter, a rebel, or in any other way. I�m going to run my life the way I want, without regard to their desires. I�ll probably go back and get my degree, but I�m not going to work for my dad.�

�Good for you.�

�When I get done, maybe you can be my first client.�

�That�s never happening. I�ve already given you too many ideas on how to get into my pocket,� David said with a smile.

�I�d give you a friends-and-family discount.�

�Yeah, I bet you would,� he said and then changed the subject. �I�ll pick you up Thursday night at 7. I�ve gotta go prep for my midterms.�

�We�ve been putting in pieces of the offense to this point. Today, we bring it all together,� Coach Thomas, the Trojans� offensive coordinator, announced.

David had marked the day on his calendar because it was to be his first actual scrimmage. They�d brought in officials and planned to treat the practice like a real game. Well, a practice game. The coaching staff had different scenarios planned, like two-minute drills and red zones.

To simulate game-like conditions, there wouldn�t be any coaches on the field of play. David was nervous right now because his greatest weakness was receiving signals from the sideline. Even though he�d had some time to work with the offense, both the playbook and the signals were new to him. To help him, they�d strapped a mini-playbook to his arm to let him know what the signals meant.

Much of USC�s philosophy was to line up on the ball instead of going to a huddle to call the play. This forced the defense to be ready. An added benefit was that as long as the offense wasn�t making a substitution, it prevented the defense from doing so. The quarterback would have the center snap the ball if the defense had players running on and off the field.

In reality, USC never seemed to use the hurry-up offense to the extent that David would have preferred. They would line up on the ball all right. But then they would look over at the sideline, get the play, and wait for the play clock to get under ten seconds before snapping the ball.

�The first scenario is right after the opening kickoff. The offense has the ball at the twenty-five yard line,� Coach Clayton announced.

The referee set the ball on the right hash mark. Coach Thomas brought the offense together before sending them onto the field.

�Dive right on one.�

David jogged out and calmed his mind.

�You got this,� he thought.

Off to his right were Nolan Hammer, lined up just off the tackle at tight end; Tyrell Mulford in the slot; and Amari Weeks at wide receiver. On the left was Bill Callaway, who had managed to crack the starting lineup at the other wide receiver spot. At running back was Marcus Eshete, who had earned second-team all-conference honors last year.

The dive was a quick-hitting play where David was in the shotgun, with Marcus a step behind him on his right. David would hand the ball off, and Marcus was supposed to run between the center and right guard. It was meant to gain short yardage.

It was one of the foundational plays that many others could be run off of. To make those plays work, you had to show this one to the defense and force them to respect it. The best-case scenario would be that it picked up four or five yards. If that were the case, the Trojans would keep running it down the defense�s throats.

It was akin to throwing a body blow in a prizefight. If you hit them hard enough, their arms would begin to drop to protect themselves. In football, that meant the defense would start to cheat up to stop the run. That was when you snapped off an overhand right to the head�or, in football parlance, ran a play-action pass.

When David got to his spot on the field, he saw that Coach Farrow was about to do what he should when faced with a rookie quarterback. He would force David out of his comfort zone by making him make split-second decisions.

David checked his reads. The safeties were in a two-deep zone to prevent the long ball. The middle linebacker was creeping up into the hole where Marcus planned to run. He was goading David into making an audible to a play-action pass. Coach Farrow knew USC�s offense. He would recognize that the most likely play was for David to throw the ball to the tight end over the center of the field where the linebacker had responsibility.

David gambled that it was a deception. It would be easy for the linebacker to rush back to his pass responsibilities just before the snap. This was why Coach Farrow was such a challenge to face as a defensive coordinator.

David stood up and called a fake audible.

�Trojan! Trojan!�

He made a hand signal for the tight end to take a couple of steps further out to give him more room to make a catch. Then he put his hands out and called out the snap count.

�Hike!�

The middle linebacker had eyes on Nolan as he held up his hand to indicate he was open. David made the requisite �fake� to Marcus and then hunched over as if to hide the ball. He pivoted and stood up as if to pass.

Meanwhile, Marcus had the ball and broke an arm tackle at the line of scrimmage. The middle linebacker was backpedaling when he figured out it wasn�t a pass. He planted his foot to come back to make the tackle, which he did, but it was six yards down the field.

The next thing David knew, he went sprawling. Percy was berating himself as the flag flew.

�Dammit! I thought you had the ball, and I was finally going to bury you. I�m so sorry,� he said as he helped David up.

�Dick!� David said and gave Percy a playful shove.

He ran to the line where the referee was placing the ball after the penalty. No one hurried up on the defensive side because the clock was stopped, and the offense used the time after a penalty to get a play in and substitute players.

The middle linebacker was screaming at his charges to get set as the official started the clock.

�Hike!� David called.

Flags went flying, letting David know this was a free play. He saw Bill make a move David hadn�t seen before, which told him the defensive back he was up against hadn�t seen it either. Bill flew up the sideline full-out, and David launched a long pass. The safety raced over to help, but Bill had open grass in front of him. He collected the ball in stride and raced for the end zone to set the tone for the day.

It was Thursday, and Senator Hatley�s fundraiser was scheduled for that evening. When David had stopped in at the coffee shop in the morning, Kat had been equal parts excited about seeing the senator and dreading running into both her family and her ex, Daniel.

For David, the week had flown by. He�d finished all his midterms and felt good about how he�d done. As for baseball, they�d dropped another game. This time, they�d lost to Pepperdine, which made five straight losses. Coach Deneau was glad that they were going on spring break so that everyone could relax, have some fun, and get their heads back into the right frame of mind.

Football had been a mixed bag. Coach Clayton had made it clear to the team that David was only standing in for Matt until he returned after spring break. That meant that David would be going back on defense then.

That didn�t dampen David�s spirits because he gave it his all and shined at times to show what he was capable of.

David had been coached in high school by a retired Marine Corps major who never minced words. And on one of his movies, he�d had a director who absolutely hated him. Were it not for those experiences, some of Coach Clayton�s remarks might have shaken him. He�d learned to look through the bluster and focus on what Coach Clayton was trying to convey.

Sometimes, it was just him being a dick. Other times, they were legitimate criticisms. Thinking back on it, Coach Clayton was a lot like the director who�d hated him, though with the asshole dial turned down a bit.

David made it a point to never let Coach Clayton see that he sometimes got to him. He didn�t want to give him the satisfaction. He�d watched the other players to see how they handled it. The younger guys wilted when the head coach confronted them. As for the older quarterbacks, Jaden, the junior, would get mad, while Travis, the senior, didn�t care.

At first, David thought that Travis was putting up a brave front. Then they talked, and it became apparent that Travis genuinely didn�t care what Coach Clayton had to say anymore. What Travis shared made sense. His self-worth as a football player wasn�t dependent on what Coach Clayton thought. Yes, their coach controlled Travis� playing time, but his comments didn�t mean that Travis wasn�t a worthwhile person. David immediately recognized that for what it was: a life lesson he should take to heart.

Then Travis confided in David that he planned to transfer because he wanted a chance to start, and it was apparent to everyone that he wouldn�t get that chance at USC. That was particularly evident since David had stepped up and taken the majority of the practice time since Matt was injured.

David immediately thought of his former personal coach, Bo Harrington, who�d gone on to be the quarterback coach at Alabama and was now the head coach at Western Michigan. They�d gone 11�3 last year and had a good core of players coming back. Their starting quarterback had graduated, and they would have to rely on a redshirt freshman to lead them this coming year.

David knew that Travis could play. If anyone could get Travis to the NFL, it was Coach Harrington. He was thought of as a quarterback fixer and had made his living doing just that until he took the coaching job at Alabama. He�d helped David become the best high school quarterback in the nation. David surmised that Travis might be a good fit to tide Western Michigan over until the younger guy was fully ready to lead their team.

David offered to put Travis in touch with Coach Harrington once he placed his name in the transfer portal. To do so before that could be seen as tampering, which was frowned upon.

His kids were about to go stir crazy by the time they landed at LAX. Greg thanked God that Joey and Phil were there to help him. This way, all each of them had to do was be accountable for one child. Greg put Phil in charge of Kyle because he was the most responsible of the kids. It was a toss-up as to who was more likely to get into something, Mac or Nate.

He ended up taking Mac because she could cause the most damage. All he had to do was remember the book display toppling over at O�Hare as a reminder. Had that only been a little over four hours ago?

�You are not to let go of your designated buddy�s hand. Is that understood?� Greg asked before he let them get out of their seats.

They made it as far as the bathrooms. Mac had figured out what the signs meant, so they all had to go. At least at the airport, they could use the handicapped stall. The plane had been a nightmare.

By the time they made it to baggage claim, Greg was ready to make them catch the next flight back home. Thank the Lord, his mom was waiting for them at the luggage carousel.

�Nana! Nana!� his kids called as they wiggled free of their buddies and rushed to her.

It gave him a chance to get everyone�s bags while his mom, with Joey�s help, got all the munchkins to the extra-large van that Manaia was driving.

�Hey. Good to see you,� Greg said to the giant Samoan, who was part of his brother�s security and driving team.

�Welcome to LA. Mr. Dawson is planning a barbecue tonight to welcome you. David sends his regrets. He has a fundraiser he committed to, so he�ll see everyone tomorrow,� Manaia told Greg and Phil to catch them up.

�I hear you have a pool,� Phil said.

�And a hot tub and tennis court,� Manaia added.

They got everyone loaded, and from the back, Greg heard, �Oh, shit!�

�Language,� Mom chastised Greg�s half-brother.

�Read your text,� Phil said.

Joey pulled her phone out and looked at it.

�What does this mean? �Fun David is coming out to play�?� she asked Greg.

Greg�s expletive also got him yelled at by his mom.

�Hey, I want to borrow your car,� Greg said, waking David up.

�Keys are on my desk. It�s a red Porsche Macan. Tell the navigation, �Malibu,� and it will give you directions.�

�Thanks. I want to be there when they wake up.�

He really didn�t have to explain it to David. His three were in a strange place, and their dad hadn�t come home last night. The kids� grandma said they hadn�t missed him because they were kept busy with all their cousins and, David suspected, Nana�s and Papa�s attention.

David gave his brother a half-assed wave and rolled over to go back to sleep.

Joey was the first one up and shuffled to the kitchen to make coffee. She was still trying to wrap her mind around the condo. David had shown everyone before and after pictures, and they all agreed that his friend Cindy had transformed the place. It was a four-bedroom unit, and originally each bedroom had its own bath. Cindy had combined the baths for the two that were now called �the six-packs� into one huge bathroom. The new layout had three showers, three toilet stalls, and a large sink area. With doors on the stalls and showers, it could be used coed.

The six-packs each had two bunk beds with a trundle bed underneath. Joey and Greg�s bedroom had a queen-size bed, while David�s had a California King.

David had spent a nontrivial sum remodeling the kitchen. There used to be an eat-in area, but it had been eliminated to make room for commercial-sized appliances that could accommodate a larger crowd. Where the eat-in area had been, there was now an island with a sink and two dishwashers. There was also room for six stools on the end and on the back side of the island for extra seating.

Cindy had removed the wall between the living and dining rooms to give the place a vast open-plan look. David had explained that there was no need for a formal dining area for a vacation spot.

Their was a walk-in closet by the front door where all the ski gear was stored. Along one wall was a bar with a table that could be converted into a poker table. Where the dining table had been, there was now a pool table. At the other end was a home theater.

The layout was only half the story; the finishes were what made the place. It was all done in woods and stone to give it a rustic ski-lodge look and feel. Joey understood why David was able to command top dollar when renting this condo. His friend Cindy had wanted it to blow away any suite you could book at a hotel. In Joey�s opinion, she�d succeeded.

Just like his home in Malibu and his dorm room, this was a stark reminder that David had both money and good taste. Or that he at least hired people with good taste and let them do their jobs.

She�d noticed that David was comfortable in upscale surroundings. When they all boarded the luxury chartered jet, everyone except David and Lexi had gawked at how nice it was. Drinks were served in lead crystal glasses. That sure beat the heck out of the plastic ones you received on a commercial flight.

Speaking of the differences from commercial, instead of a bag of peanuts, they�d served an honest-to-goodness meal. It included fine china with genuine silverware service. The food was as good as she�d have expected at a quality restaurant. It included terrific appetizers, a choice of chicken marsala or filet mignon, and a chocolate brownie with ice cream for dessert. Lexi told her they�d initially planned for something fancier than the brownie, but she knew that was what David would want.

Joey was glad that she�d gotten the chance to spend time with Lexi because it opened her eyes to a few things. David was still a college kid, even though, at times, Joey felt he was older than he looked. When she�d first met him, she�d been starstruck and had made a fool of herself. She�d been able to get it together and put on her professional face when she saw him again.

Joey�s fellow trainers loved that he was a goofy guy who could make them laugh. They treated him like a younger stepbrother that they could dote on. They�d also clued her in that they said �stepbrother� because it would have been wrong for them to flirt with a real brother.

David was a huge flirt. That would have been fine, but he exuded a sexual magnetism that made Joey take him seriously. If she�d known that he had the skills in bed that his brother Greg had, she might have succumbed to his advances. Looking back, though, picking Greg over David had been the right choice. Greg was settled down, and they were now in a committed relationship. Lexi had shared that David wasn�t anywhere near ready for that yet.

Her thoughts were interrupted when people began to get up.

Greg hadn�t slept worth shit after Joey had told him what she wanted to do to thank his brother. Her saying that had been a wake-up call. He saw that he�d made a few assumptions concerning their relationship. It was apparent that he and she needed to sit down and clarify what they were doing before he uprooted his kids and moved to LA.

Greg thought back on their conversations and realized he and Joey had never explicitly said they were exclusive. He hadn�t been with anyone else since they�d started seeing each other, and he didn�t think she had either. Nevertheless, Greg now knew he and Joey had a lot they needed to talk over, if only so they could both be clear and in agreement about where they were and where they were going.

Still, he concluded that Joey didn�t necessarily want to open up their relationship. He assumed that the �thanking� of his younger brother was a onetime event.

Greg put his palm on his forehead and let it slide down his face in frustration. This wasn�t the first time the woman he was with had inquired about spending time with David. Angie, his ex-wife, had asked on numerous occasions. Greg even relented and given her permission, and the only thing that had stopped her was David. The question was, would David go along with Joey�s request or not?

Greg heard someone up and moving, so he decided to get up. He found Cassidy in the kitchen.

�What time did you get in?� Greg asked.

�Tami, Lauren, and I caught the last shuttle. The rest of them decided to go to an after-party. It wasn�t an official bridal festivity, but a girl who was getting married invited all her friends for the weekend. She was all over Wolf. She said she wanted to try a guy who was well-endowed,� Cassidy shared.

�Are they back yet?�

Cassidy just shook her head �no.�

�What did you guys do?� she asked.

�Went to dinner and then came back. Joey and I don�t get much alone time,� Greg admitted.

�I take it David and Lexi did the same.�

�How do you know?� Greg asked.

�I turned on the TV, and there�s porn. It�s not the kind David normally watches, so I guessed it must be Phil�s.�

Greg had two thoughts run through his mind instantaneously. How did Cassidy know what kind of porn David watched? And how did Phil get porn on the TV?

Greg�s curiosity got the better of him, and he went to see what Cassidy was talking about. The TV was turned on with the sound off. It showed a young man tied up as two girls teased him.

Yep, his brother would never let himself be tied up. David would never lose control.

Greg was chuckling when the lock on the front door disengaged, and in walked the late-night partygoers.

�You�re a horse�s ass!� Alyssa said.

�And your opinion is worth fuck-all!� Seamus shot back.

David picked that moment to come out of his room.

�I warned you. My friends are bigger horse�s asses than I am,� he told Alyssa.

�They need couples therapy already,� Wolf said as he walked in.

�I didn�t know we had porn channels,� Tim chimed in, which had everyone turning to the TV.

Tami, Lauren, Lexi, and Joey came out of their rooms to see what the commotion was all about.

�Phil must have linked his phone to it to spank his monkey. I bet he didn�t think to turn off the connection,� David said.

�That means...� Wolf said with a big grin.

Everyone quietly followed Wolf to the guys� six-pack door. He put up three fingers and then curled one at a time into his fist to indicate a countdown. When all his fingers were in a fist, he opened the door, and everyone filed in. It was cramped with the trundle beds pulled out.

Poor Phil looked like he was having a seizure when everyone came pouring in. His phone went flying, and he instinctively tried to cover up.

�Young man! What do you think you�re doing!?� Greg asked in his best �dad voice.�

The rest of them didn�t wait for Phil to respond before they were piling on.

�You might want to get that checked. It looks like you all but rubbed it raw,� Tim said to fire off a barb.

�He�s a Dawson,� Cassidy added.

�Okay, the show�s over,� David said as he kicked everyone out except for Greg.

�Let me give you a tip as an older brother. If you�re going to jerk off in a full house, don�t leave your phone hooked up to the big-screen TV for everyone to see,� Greg said sagely.

Phil said a trigger word. Greg turned to David.

�Before we leave, you have to show me how he did that.�

�No problem. Better living through technology,� David said.

They left Phil to recover from his embarrassment. Greg smiled when he heard everyone in the living room give a collective groan when Phil disconnected his phone from the TV.

�That�s one of those life lessons I�m glad I didn�t have to learn on my own,� David said.

Greg agreed.

David heard Lexi get up and take her shower. He was still in that in-between state of half awake and half asleep as Lexi got dressed and left. A few minutes later, she came back in. He assumed she�d grabbed a coffee.

A trace of a smile touched his lips when he felt the bed move and the comforter and sheet pulled down his body to his knees. When he felt fingers wrap around his member, he opened his eyes.

�Whoa, hold on...� David began as he discovered it wasn�t Lexi but Joey.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Greg leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed.

�Have fun,� Greg said as he stood straight, turned, and closed the door behind him.

David was in the process of overthinking the situation when he felt wet lips wrap around Mr. Happy�s head. His cock decided to stand up and say hello to Joey. Mr. Happy took control of the body because he felt thinking this to death wasn�t what was needed at the moment. Then the big brain reengaged.

�Stop!�

David paused a moment to take a better look at Joey, who was naked except for a thong. Her body was extremely fit, and she had impressive breasts. But, to be honest, that wasn�t what he was interested in. Joey had a world-class ass that he�d admired for several months as she pushed his work-outs.

David had lusted after that perfect derri�re, and it never failed to get a rise out of him, to Cassidy�s amusement. He�d imagined what it would look like in more than one spank session. It didn�t take much imagination since she often wore yoga pants or spandex shorts. They would cling to her and not hide a single detail.

In real life, she was merely spectacular. He�d seen some high-quality booty in the flesh, including models Miranda Kesh of Victoria�s Secret fame, legendary supermodel Adrienne Moore, and actress Halle James. They all had natural assets, but each had worked on sculpting her ass to perfection. Joey�s bottom was right up there with theirs.

Unlike the three talents he�d thought of, Joey wasn�t a world-class beauty, though she was hot. She had this girl-next-door look going for her. The other three intimidated most men, whereas Joey looked approachable. Kinda.

David looked her in the eye as her lips stretched around the top third of his member. Her hands were wrapped around his length and slowly rose and fell as she blew him. She used her tongue to tease the underside of the head of his cock, which caused David to make a tortured noise deep in his throat.

�No, seriously. Stop,� David pleaded.

�Was I doing it wrong?�

�I swear, Joey. That feels...�

�It feels what?� she asked with a mischievous look.

�Unreal,� David croaked. �But you have to stop.�

�I followed the rules. Greg and Lexi both gave their okays. I thought...� she said and then looked concerned.

�And both of them know that I would say �no,�� David said gently.

�They did tell me that, but I figured if I got you started, you�d be okay with it,� Joey said.

�You have no idea how hard this is for me. I�ve lusted after you since I first saw you. But you made your choice, one I wholeheartedly agree with. Since you�re with Greg...�

Joey stuck her tongue out at him, grabbed her robe, and left. Lexi came in a moment later.

�I was afraid of that, so I stayed just in case. Want me to act like I�m Joey?�

Yep. Best PA ever.

�Okay,� David said excitedly. �Let me set the scene. Joey is only in a thong as she comes in and starts giving me head. I resist, but she�s so skilled that I cave. To sell it, you�ll have to give it your best effort.�

He saw that his comment had the desired effect. Lexi got a gleam in her eyes that told him she was about to rock his world. She began to take her clothes off, and he looked at her rocking body and could see that this fantasy would work.

�Oh! I almost forgot. Joey is used to having sex with my brother. That means it will seem like I�m massive in comparison.�

Lexi snorted out a laugh and raised her eyebrows like she didn�t believe him. Then she took a deep breath to get into character. When she was ready, the look Lexi gave him was a dead ringer for Joey. This girl was on the wrong side of the camera.

Mr. Happy had been swaying in the wind during the exchange. Since he was supposed to be massive, Lexi took him only to the back of her throat. David was quickly thinking he�d overplayed his hand because he really did like it when she deep-throated him.

Faux Joey wrapped her fingers around the base of his cock as she sucked and pumped in unison. He got the impression that this wasn�t her first rodeo when her pace alternated slow and teasing with fast and urgent. David�s breathing grew heavy as his groans of pleasure became almost desperate.

�Joey,� he gasped.

With a last grunt of warning, his hips left the bed, lodging the tip of his dick into the back of Lexi�s mouth as he began to cum. She jerked back after the first blast, and the next jet caught her under the chin. She pointed his weapon away from her as he finished over his stomach. David�s body relaxed as he sank back into the mattress, and a sated sigh rumbled deep within his chest.

Faux Joey got off the bed and went to the bathroom. David heard the sink run and then the sounds of her using his mouthwash. She came back with a washcloth that she used to clean his stomach. When she was done, he reached up, grasped the back of her head, and pulled her down to kiss him.

�That was incredible,� David acknowledged.

�I wanted to say thank you for getting me the job at USC,� faux Joey said.

Realization struck. His devil wondered what he should have asked for. Then the angel on his other shoulder reminded him that good deeds were done only for the pleasure of doing them. The devil laughed when David�s beast woke up and roared. He still thought they should go get Joey and ravish her.

�You could have just said that,� he said to fall into his role.

From Lexi�s look, he could tell that he wasn�t the first to tell Joey that.

�I didn�t feel that would be enough.�

�If that�s the case, you shouldn�t do this in half measures, then,� David said.

Okay, the sexual beast made him say that. Lexi looked down, and he was still hard. She gave him a look that said they wouldn�t be spending the morning skiing.

Lexi had booked what looked like a fun activity for the afternoon, bobsledding, and had gone ahead while David talked to Joey. The Whistler Sliding Centre was home to the world�s fastest Olympic track.

The rest of the group was on the mountain, either skiing or snowboarding, so Joey and David caught the bus to the resort. The sliding center was a short walk from the Excalibur Gondola, so they opted to take that. When they walked in, Joey and David found everyone who�d planned to go, waiting for them. Lauren, Lindsey, Jamie, and Kirk had decided to stay on the hill and ski.

David spotted Lexi and pulled her aside so they could have a quick moment. He wanted to be clear about how everything had happened.

�Did you know what Joey planned before this morning?�

Lexi was a smart girl, so she didn�t try to lie.

�I did.�

�In the future, I expect you to give me a heads-up. If I�d known, I could have avoided the whole mess,� David said.

�Did something go wrong?� she asked, suddenly concerned.

David sighed and gathered his thoughts.

�Lexi, I�m not mad at you; I�m mad at myself. I let my desires override my common sense. You know better than I do that if I start doing stuff like that, it will damage my brand. More importantly, it will change who I want to be. And even more important than that, it could damage my family. That�s why I want you to help me not get into situations like that. I just proved that under the right circumstances, I�m in danger of making the wrong choice,� David explained and then added, �Thanks for stepping in afterward.�

�You�re only human. No one�s perfect,� Lexi said to help salve his conscience about almost sleeping with Joey.

�The problem is, people expect me to be just that. When they unmask me, they�ll have a field day.�

�Then, you might want to quit trying to be perfect so they don�t have that to hold over your head.�

�Maybe I can become the next Justin Beaver or Miley Circus,� David joked.

Lexi shivered at the thought of that, and then she got a worried look.

�Did she say anything about ... uhm...�

�The foursome you all have planned?� he asked.

�Ah...�

�Do what you want, just don�t include me. Phil might be a good substitute. He brags he can go five times in an afternoon,� David said to try to lighten the mood.

�I would only do it if you wanted me to,� Lexi said.

He got a pained expression.

�When it comes to stuff like that, I have no say in the matter. Lexi, you�re a big girl with a good head on your shoulders. If you want to have some fun with my brother and Joey, go for it. That goes for anyone. I won�t be the one to tell you what you can and can�t do in your personal life,� David said.

�Before you go too far, Greg and I talked, and we agreed this would never happen. Joey suggested it so that Greg didn�t feel left out. I probably should have said something at the time, but Tami overheard us and offered her insight. I didn�t think it was right to say anything in front of her,� Lexi explained.

�Oh,� David said.

�Nice speech, though,� she said as she gave him a speculative look and then let it go.

He knew when to shut up.

David invited both Greg and Phil out to breakfast so they could spend some family time together without anyone else around.

�We really haven�t had a chance to talk,� David said to both of them. He then turned to his younger brother. �How was your trip to Uncle John�s?�

�We talked a lot. It helped me understand more about you guys, Dad, and the family.�

�Did he spring the blood test on you?� Greg asked.

Phil shook his head.

�No, but he told me about your Alpha Male talk. I didn�t realize that our bodies controlled us so much. He also didn�t treat me like slave labor.�

�Why is it that I�m the only one who went through that?� David complained.

�You�re the only one that Mom kicked out of the house. Phil was a guest, not a juvenile delinquent,� Greg reminded him.

�Did you at least get his help to create life goals?� David asked.

�Yep. As I said, I learned a lot. Uncle John explained how you used them to get where you are. My only question is, what went wrong with Greg?� Phil asked.

�Funny,� Greg groused. �I can still kick both your butts.�

That made his younger siblings laugh even harder.

�Dad sent me articles about how you did playing football,� David said to Phil. �I knew you could win the starting quarterback job. You�ve certainly put the work in. I was sorry to see that you lost in the second round of the state playoffs. I think you can win it next year,� David predicted.

�We seem to have the pieces in place to do that. I was surprised that Dad flew back to watch all my games. I figured with him in Malibu, I wouldn�t see him that much. But he was there, every time,� Phil said.

�I didn�t realize he did that,� David confessed. �I�m glad to hear it.�

�He said he had to go back to help manage your businesses,� Greg said.

David was sure that his dad made it a write-off. That had to be a win-win sort of arrangement. That was until he figured out that his company had paid for it. David had no doubt that his dad did spend some time overseeing everything. Since Scarlet had left as his COO to work for David�s management company in Hollywood, his uncle John had taken on that mantle. Truth be told, it was really Megan who ran the day-to-day, and Uncle John was in the process of grooming her for his position so he could focus on his farm.

Megan had come a long, long way from the �Megan the Mouse� she�d been when he�d first met her, David mused.

�This will be a big summer for you. Have you picked out what football camps you plan to go to?� David asked.

Phil would be a senior next year. Unlike David, who�d been rated the top recruit in the nation, Phil was going to have to get noticed to garner a football scholarship. To do that, he had to go to the right football camps.

�I wanted to ask your advice about that and get your help. Dad suggested that I ask you if you�ll help me with getting a quarterback coach and possibly help pay for travel to the different camps,� Phil tentatively proposed.

David�s first reaction was to push back. Phil had expected their dad to buy him a car when he turned 16, as he had for Greg. When it was David�s turn, he�d known that money was tight for his parents. His dad�s work hours had been cut to part-time so the park district didn�t have to fund his health insurance.

David had suggested that he get the apartment over the garage in lieu of a car. That was done mostly so he could have his own place. David also knew his parents couldn�t afford another car but knew that they would have figured some way to make it happen. That ended up being the best suggestion he�d ever made. He�d loved that apartment.

When Phil had come and asked for a car, David had been vocal against it, at least partially because Greg had never demanded one. David�s point at the time was that Greg had worked around the house and helped out. Looking back on it, he was reminded of his conversation with Joey. Phil had never gotten the chance to do the things Greg had done.

While David didn�t want to turn into Phil�s personal ATM, the guy was family. David had also heard from Coach Hope that Phil had turned a corner and was now doing what it took. David suspected a lot of that had come from spending time on his uncle�s farm.

�Do you have someone in mind?� David asked.

�Dad talked to Coach Mason. I guess he�s doing much better, health-wise,� Phil shared.

Coach Bud Mason and David had met at one of the Elite quarterback camps. Before becoming a camp coach, Bud had been the quarterback coach and later offensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders. He�d kept busy coaching at Elite quarterback camps after he retired. Then, when David was a senior, Bud had offered to be his team�s offensive coordinator so that he could work with David. Bud explained that he felt David was a unique talent, and he wanted to be part of his development.

David had been worried about Coach Mason because he�d had a stroke and some other setbacks. Hearing that the old guy now felt well enough to possibly coach Phil made David�s day.

�Talk to Dad, and he�ll set it up. If you want to sit down and talk about the different camps, we can do just that,� David offered.

�Thanks,� Phil said and then changed the topic. �I called Uncle John yesterday.�

David and Greg looked at each other.

�I was upset with you guys bullying me,� Phil said.

Greg started to say something, but David cut him off.

�Your feelings are valid,� he said with a straight face.

Phil flipped him off. It was a family joke that their uncle tended to fall into psychologist mode, which had him saying stuff like that. David�s favorite Uncle John line was �How does that make you feel?�

�What did he say?� Greg asked.

�That you�re both dicks.�

�And...� David prodded.

�That I should remind you that we haven�t been brothers all our lives. I was an only child for 14 years, and I moved to be near you because everything I saw made me look up to you,� Phil said to David.

Greg looked somewhat put-out, so David took the opportunity.

�I�m Grandma�s favorite,� he reminded his older brother.

Phil caught on to how it had come out as a slam against Greg.

�I wanted to meet you, too.�

�Don�t worry about it,� Greg assured him. �We do get on each other pretty hard, but we�ve been doing it to each other all our lives, and I can see that we shouldn�t really pick on you.�

�I agree,� David conceded, �but you�re our brother and part of the family. With that comes some abuse. What you have to remember, like Greg said, is that we�ve been busting each other�s chops for as long as I can remember.�

�Uncle John explained that. But he told me to tell you that just because it has been how you two have always done it, that doesn�t mean you have to with me,� Phil said.

David�s first thought was to call him a pussy but stopped himself. He had to remember that Phil didn�t know that they really did care for him. Phil hadn�t been around while that bond had grown between his older siblings.

David remembered his grandfather talking about today�s kids. Granddad Davey grew up old-school where they said stuff like �spare the rod and spoil the child.� He�d complained that society was raising a generation of kids who felt entitled and special, that they all received participation ribbons instead of declaring winners.

David knew his grandfather would roll over in his grave if he had to deal with �political correctness,� trigger words, and the like. The world was changing, and what David and Greg had done was wrong.

�I�m sorry. I�ll try to do better,� David said, which floored his older brother.

It surprised Phil, too.

�I look at it this way. Would I want my kids to treat each other that way? While I want to prepare them for the world, I don�t want them to feel bullied. Especially by one of their brothers or their sister,� David shared.

�Thanks, but I don�t want you to feel like you can�t joke around with me,� Phil said.

�Let�s make a deal,� Greg said to add his take. �If you ever feel like we�re ganging up on you or being bullies, talk to us. If we don�t know, we can�t help you.�

�That was basically what Uncle John said,� Phil admitted.

They finished breakfast. David felt they�d worked things out with their younger brother. He held Greg back so he could do the same with him.

David had asked Lexi to arrange a spa day because Cassidy had never been to one. Tami joined all the other girls and David on the bus to the spa. She�d been curious about how the bus always seemed to show up when they were ready to go to the slopes. That was until she spotted David giving the driver yet another large tip.

That also explained why the bus took them to the spa when it wasn�t on the regular route. The spa resort was located just north of Whistler Village in a gorgeous setting next to Lost Lake, encircled by spruce and cedar forest. From the spa, the view of the Whistler Blackcomb valley was spectacular.

Tami would have bet that the whole staff was waiting when they walked in. To this point, David�s celebrity had only been a minor irritation. He had been approached at the various venues and had taken a few selfies and given a few autographs. This, however, was on a whole other level. They had a photographer waiting and wanted to get David to take a picture with everyone.

Tami sometimes forgot what her friend had become. It amazed her when people began to fall all over themselves to get his attention, when to her, he was just David, the adventurous dork she�d grown up with.

He put on a good front and let them take their pictures. If Tami hadn�t known him and his quirks, she would never have picked up on his irritation. She knew he wasn�t annoyed because of any drain on his time; it was that everyone with him had to wait until the staff was done treating him like the movie star he was.

The spa manager finally put a stop to it when other customers began to arrive.

�Thank you for being gracious enough to allow us to get our pictures taken with you,� she said.

�It was my pleasure,� David responded.

�Miss Andon has paid for you all to experience Scandinavian baths. This is a Finnish custom that dates back centuries. It�s a three-step process. First is warming, which you have some options to pick from. You can use our eucalyptus steam baths, wood-burning sauna, Finnish sauna, or hot baths.

�The next stage is cooling your body. Our Nordic waterfall, Nordic showers, and cold plunge baths are available for your use.

�The final step is relaxation. We invite you to take advantage of our solarium, fireplace lounge, or grab a blanket and enjoy our outdoor fireplaces. Some of our guests prefer to use our multipurpose yoga studio.

�Each sequence, hot-cold-relaxation, will take you about 25 to 30 minutes and should be repeated 3 to 4 times for maximum results,� the manager explained.

�We also booked massages,� Lexi said.

She looked at her tablet.

�Yes, two Swedish couples massages. The four who are doing that should follow me. The rest of you can grab towels and robes at the desk. Kim will give you a map that shows you where everything is. If you need anything, please let us know,� she said as she led David, Lexi, Tami, and Cassidy to where they would get their massages.

The soft glow of dawn played peek-a-boo with the horizon. Wolf pulled his eyes from the window and looked at his bedmate. She was so fuckin� cute when she slept that it should be illegal.

He got up to deal with the call of nature and decided to go ahead and shower. As the water beat down on Wolf�s head, he remembered someone had once told him that great stories should have memorable beginnings.

He�d met Robin the first night at a club. She was there with her bridesmaids; they�d come to the resort for a weekend ski trip. It was supposed to be her last fling before tying the knot.

He found out later that they�d all talked about their fantasies. Robin had confessed that she wanted to sleep with a well-endowed man at least once in her life. That was how Wolf had found himself grabbed by the hand and pulled to their table by her maid of honor.

It was lust at first sight. Wolf didn�t consider the consequences when the bride and her minions invited his group back to their place for an after-party where things heated up. He and Robin slipped off together, and it was amazing. The two of them just clicked in bed.

The next day, Wolf and Robin had decamped to grab a quick lunch. Robin was very petite, not the type Wolf usually went for. She�d ordered a kid�s meal, which had their waiter obviously thinking Wolf was a pedophile.

As Wolf finished his shower, he decided that this had to end. He was weary of leading a double life. Robin�s friends had all left after the weekend was over, while she�d stayed. Wolf had been spending his days with the people he�d come on the trip with and then spending his nights with Robin. Thank goodness he was young, or he might have dropped by now.

When he came out of the shower and found Robin standing there in front of him. She had on nothing but a white strip of lace around her hips as she rummaged in the dresser. Bare-assed, the white string disappeared between her gorgeous, ripe, juicy cheeks. Wolf looked in the mirror and could see the front of the thong barely covered all her good bits.

His first thought was to throw her back onto the bed, peel that particular garment off, and ravish her. His dick had sprung hard as goddamned steel at the sight of those plump pussy lips sticking to damp white silk. Yep, she was wet.

Wolf dragged his eyes upward and found Robin staring at him in the mirror. Her deep brown eyes were fixed on him. The corner of her mouth quirked, and her eyes blazed when she saw how his towel had tented.

�Fuck me,� Wolf thought as his resolve to end it faltered.

Then he remembered Sunday afternoon.

Her maid of honor, Bailey, had pulled him aside because Robin had told them that she planned to stay a few extra days. Bailey�s goal was to dissuade Wolf from continuing to see her friend. She first tried to tell him all about Robin�s fianc�, Colton.

Bailey explained that they had been childhood friends who had reconnected after college. She even showed Wolf a picture of the happy couple. If Wolf hadn�t been told they were about the same age, he would have sworn Colton was a lot older. He looked like a middle-aged man with a mustache that was right out of the seventies�an honest-to-God pornstache.

Wolf laughed when he saw his competition, which pissed off Bailey. She went into great detail as to why Wolf was all wrong for Robin. In the end, that was what made him continue to see Robin. That was right after he confirmed to Bailey that Robin had picked him because he did have a sizable dick. Knowing that the size of his dick was why Robin had hooked up with him to begin with caused Bailey to leave in a huff.

�I�ll go make breakfast,� Wolf said as he quickly got dressed before Robin could lure him back to bed.

David had planned an outing for the last day of the trip. Lexi had no clue he�d done it, so when David woke her at 6 a.m., she wasn�t happy.

�What�s your major malfunction?� she grumped.

�Get up. I have a special treat for you.�

�You�re a dumbass.�

�I love you, too. Now get your cute ass out of bed. We have to be in town by 7:15.�

He left her fuming and went into the guys� six-pack. He found his younger brother sawing logs.

�Wakey-wakey.�

�Shut the hell up, David,� Allard complained.

Phil simply glared at him�well, as much of his eyes as could be seen were glaring.

�Get your butt up. Now,� David told his brother.

David decided Phil�s mom must have him well trained because he got out of bed.

David slipped into Greg and Joey�s room. He sat on the edge of the bed, which startled them both awake.

�The shuttle bus is leaving at 7,� was all he said before he left.

The five of them climbed onto the bus right at seven. When it started toward the resort, David clued them in as to what was happening.

�I planned an outing,� he started.

�You mean Lexi did,� Phil interrupted.

�Not me. I am as much in the dark as the rest of you,� Lexi shared.

�This can�t be good,� Greg decided.

David looked at Joey and pointed at her.

�What?� she asked.

�I figured it was your turn to make a smart comment,� David said.

�If you don�t get some caffeine in me, you�ll hear a few,� Joey promised.

�We�re going to jump out of a helicopter and ski on virgin snow,� David said, doing his overexcited ten-year-old routine. �I have video.�

David had done a quick Internet search to find a video of crazy guys jumping out of a helicopter to snowboard. It showed other crazy stunts like launching off of a ski lift and dropping off a cliff. How they hadn�t died, David intended to find out.

�Fifty bucks says you can�t talk them into letting you actually jump out of the helicopter,� Lexi said.

David�s eyes got big. He was so doing it.

�He�s in there,� Phil said.

David had crashed on the pool house couch after their arrival in Malibu. He heard a thundering herd of little feet as they ran in.

�Uncle David, Uncle David,� Kyle and Mac cried out in unison, giggling as they scampered up to his reclining form.

David played like he was asleep right up until they were almost on him.

�Rawr!� he yelled as he jumped up.

Kyle and Mac ran squealing, wanting their uncle to chase them. Nate, Greg�s youngest, ran right to him. David scooped him up and turned him upside down. When his shirt fell away from his tummy, David gave him a raspberry. Nate giggled in turn and squirmed when it made a loud farting noise.

David set him loose so he could help chase his siblings.

His mom called to him from the second-story window as they fled outside.

�Don�t get them wound up,� she ordered.

�That ship has sailed,� David called back as he returned to the game. �Rah!�

She made a disgusted noise as she shut the window.

Part of David�s plan was to integrate better with the football team. To that end, he�d skipped running this morning to work out at the John McKay Center. When he arrived, he found there weren�t many players in. David suspected that they had slept in after spring break.

He didn�t have a lot of time, so he focused on his workout. One great thing about their weight room was the abundance of equipment, which meant you didn�t have to wait your turn. David found he got a much better overall workout if he worked fast and at lower weights. Not having people eyeing him while waiting for his current machine helped him do that. Not having to eye other people while waiting for a machine they were using helped even more.

Once he was done, he headed to the locker room. On his way, David spotted Coach Farrow. Coach nodded to acknowledge that David had shown up.

He quickly showered and dressed, then made a pit stop to grab some breakfast. Then it was off to his first class, Economics.

Milena was out to lunch with her BFFs, Taylor and Crystal. Her crush on David was causing her distress. When she�d seen the reports of him with Fiona Beckham, her confidence had gone into a tailspin. How was she supposed to compete with that?

�This isn�t like home,� Milena said as she plunged a fry into her ketchup. �I knew where I fit there. I was Homecoming Queen and dated who I wanted. At my granddad�s lake house, I know where I belong. At home, I know where I belong. But here with David, I don�t know where I fit. I don�t understand why I feel like I have to chase him.�

�Wherever you are is where you belong. You�re an Alpha Mu. That may not mean shit to anyone else, but it should mean something to you. You have all your sisters to back you up, and we�ll help you get your man,� Crystal said.

Taylor gave Milena a thoughtful look. She would tell Milena what was on her mind once she�d gathered the right words. Taylor was like that�she never spoke until she�d thought through what she was going to say.

Taylor reached over and put her hand on Milena�s leg to stop it from nervously bouncing up and down. It led Milena to wonder why girls consistently fidget about boys they like.

Both Milena and Crystal saw that Taylor had finally figured out the right words. They waited for the pearls of wisdom they knew would roll off her tongue.

�You need to get laid before cobwebs start growing down there. Lack of hard cock has made you an irritable bitch. Jump his bones. Grow a smile. Just like he plays ball, I�m sure he gives his all in the sack.�

�Wha�what?!� Milena asked.

Crystal had another take as she offered up her advice.

�Forget about him. What makes you think he�s any different from the string of losers you�ve dated recently? I mean, Michael was all about Michael in bed. I think your exact words were that he was a selfish prick. Then Jacob had the bod that got your panties wet but was dumb as a doornail. He was the one who thought a lime turned into a lemon, which turned into an orange, which turned into a grapefruit. And let�s not forget the old geezer, your history pro...� Crystal trailed off when Milena gave her a warning glare.

Taylor�s eyes got big.

�Tell me you didn�t sleep with your history professor.�

�I didn�t. He just got handsy when I went to his office. I did get an �A� in that class,� Milena admitted.

She knew that Taylor would be in her room later, wanting details.

�What I�m trying to say is you should have no worries. There are plenty of sardines in the can. Heck, that cute Phi Sig was checking you out the other night,� Crystal finished.

Milena�s friends� advice was to either jump him or run. She paid cash and threw the change into the charity jar next to the cash register. This week it was for some guy with a baby dick.

Taylor�s class was the other way, so Crystal and Milena parted company with her as they walked toward their classes.

�If you forget about David, it would be for the best,� Crystal continued.

�Why do you say that?�

�I�m not supposed to say anything,� Crystal said before continuing, �but Matt is at his wit�s end as to what to do about him. I would love for whoever you date to hang out with us. Plus, Matt overheard the coaches in a heated discussion over whether to start letting David practice on offense.�

�Would that be so bad? Didn�t you tell me that we have no decent backup at quarterback?� Milena asked.

�Matt is afraid if they do let David play quarterback, it�ll only be a matter of time before David�s pushing for his job,� Crystal shared.

Milena knew her friend too well. If she was acting hesitant, there was more to it, so she had to ask.

�I can see something else is troubling you. Come on, out with it.�

�I think Matt may have gone beyond worry to taking action,� Crystal admitted.

�They don�t plan to do anything to David, do they?�

�I don�t know for sure, but he was talking to some of the linemen about solving his problem. I think they were talking about David,� Crystal shared.

�What will you do if they hurt him?� Milena asked her friend.

�I don�t know.�

She knew that Crystal wouldn�t be happy knowing her boyfriend pulled something like that. But then again, Crystal�s plans were for Matt to go to the NFL and take her right along with him.

Milena would have gone about it differently. She didn�t think she wanted a man to support her. She also knew that Crystal was capable of so much more than being Matt�s arm candy.

They reached the point where they had to part ways. As Milena walked alone, she contemplated her situation. She had to do something. Secretly crushing on David was making her a little cracked around the edges. Her friends were right; she either had to go for it or move on.

David woke the following morning with his arms filled with warm, womanly curves and the scent of orange blossoms and pears. Milena�s unique aroma filled his nostrils. He inhaled deeply as if he were a wolf wanting to imprint on his mate. He cupped a handful of the soft, naked woman spooned delectably against him. David�s body throbbed with a monster �good morning, I�m delighted to see you,� as he lay curled around her. He pushed his nose deep into her silky hair as impure thoughts raced through his mind.

David was jerked out of his happy place by the jingle of keys before the lock was turned. The door opened, and a quartet of sorority girls stumbled in. It was apparent that they�d partied too long and were still drunk. David instantly recognized Crystal, Milena�s roommate, as the one who�d opened the door.

Their noise woke Milena, and she blinked a few times to take in the situation. The girls clearly were not normal because they didn�t quietly apologize for intruding and slink out. The four of them perched themselves on the edge of the bed for a chat.

�Finally. I hope this puts you in a better mood,� the cute redhead said.

�You guys are the worst. Don�t bother me, or I�ll throat-punch you, I swear to God,� Milena warned.

�Oh, my. Did he not do it right? Was he a selfish prick and only worried about getting himself off?� the redhead pressed.

�Hand me my boxers, please,� David said, pointing to his clothes on the floor.

The four girls just stared at him. They had obviously intimidated other college boys and made them run for their lives the morning after. David was made of sterner stuff. He wasn�t body shy, so when he saw he wasn�t going to get any help, he threw back the sheet to expose his morning wood. He scooted to the end of the bed and stood up.

Instead of grabbing his clothes, David looked the four of them in the eye while he stood in front of them in all his glory.

�Out!� Milena barked at her friends. �I�ll fill you in later.�

�He could fill me in right now,� Crystal said.

Milena grabbed her pillow and nailed Crystal on the side of the head as the girls finally began to giggle and scurried from the room.

Milena gave him a look of uncertainty. The awkward phase of the morning after had obviously begun.

�I�m hungry. Can I take you to breakfast?� David asked.

�I think I�d like that.�

Milena was having lunch with her BFFs, Taylor and Crystal.

�I�ve been calling you for days,� Taylor complained.

�It�s been one day,� Milena corrected.

After she�d left David at breakfast, Milena had taken a mental health day and went to visit her aunt. She�d wanted to be away from everyone so she could gather her thoughts. To that end, she�d committed the cardinal sin of turning off her phone. When it was turned back on, she�d been ordered to meet her friends at lunch because they wanted details.

�Calm your tits,� Crystal said to Taylor and then turned to Milena. �So, when�s the wedding?�

�What are you talking about?�

�You said you would marry the first guy who rocked your world.�

�Crystal, you aren�t funny. Not even close,� Milena retorted.

�Really? I think she�s spot on,� Taylor chimed in.

�David was just looking for a booty call. He has, like, a list of women he goes through each night until one poor girl accepts. Right, Crystal?� Milena asked her friend.

She wanted Crystal to help slow Taylor down from getting overexcited. But Crystal was no help. She raised her eyebrows and shook her head at Taylor.

�Yeah, right,� Crystal said in agreement, but with her sarcasm meter set on �no way in hell.�

�It didn�t mean anything,� Milena feebly tried.

�That�s why you snuck off. Because spending time with David didn�t mean anything,� Crystal said, calling her on her bullshit.

Milena could see them both mulling over whether she meant what she just said about how she felt about David. Milena could also imagine them deciding to call the cops on her and ending her current unmedicated, psych-ward-free existence. Because if she did mean it, she should be put away.

�Mental note: sign up for a relationship class. Oh, and also get better at play-acting. Right, and since I�m making a list, learn to tell a believable story,� Milena thought.

�Sometimes, we let things simmer for a long time without even realizing it. And we all need someone to come along and remind us to stir the pot. Hand-to-heart time: did he �stir your pot�?� Crystal asked.

Milena sank down into her chair, hoping that the earth would open and swallow her up. When she reluctantly concluded that she didn�t have the magic to pull that off, she let out a long sigh.

�He did,� she finally admitted.

Taylor sucked in her breath and fell quiet with wide eyes. Her mouth formed a silent oval, and she pressed a closed fist to it. Crystal and Milena watched because Taylor was something to marvel at, like a distant and wild storm about to explode. Then it came.

�I am so jealous of you. When he crawled off the bed, I was so excited, I might have peed a little. I wanted to reach out and touch his chest and arms. Those arms and his butt are like something you only see in movies or magazines.�

�He�s an actor and a model. Of course he looks nice,� Crystal pointed out.

�I would end up addicted to him. David would be as healthy for me as eating a bag of chips every night for dinner, but who cares about being healthy when he�s packing what we saw? He�s more than nice. He es muy caliente,� Taylor said, breaking out her high school Spanish.

�And that right there is why I�m perplexed. I think dating David would be a mistake. So I told him that we couldn�t be more than just a hookup,� Milena confessed.

�I bet he liked that,� Crystal shot.

�He didn�t. He wanted to be friends, too. I�m afraid if it was to be more than just a hookup, I would get �addicted,� like Taylor said. He would have me so twisted up I wouldn�t know which way was up,� Milena moaned.

Milena knew she could easily fall hard and fast for David. What she was afraid of was that there would be nothing to break her fall when it all ended, which it would. Guys like David didn�t date ordinary girls like her. He would end up with someone like Fiona Beckham.

�Give me your phone,� Crystal said with her hand held out.

Milena figured that Crystal�s must have been dead, so she handed hers over. Crystal knew the password, so she was quickly sending a message. When she was done, she smiled.

�There. All sorted,� Crystal said.

Milena�s phone chimed to indicate she�d received a text. When Crystal saw it, she beamed with excitement. She showed it to Taylor first before showing Milena. Crystal had invited David to come over to the sorority tonight to hook up. He�d sent back a smiley and a thumbs-up emoji to accept.

�And you invited Matt!� Taylor sang out. �So much drama!�

�You need to get a life,� Crystal said to Taylor.

�I have a life,� Taylor said breathlessly. �Both of yours.�

Crystal and Milena each cracked a smile at their overexcited friend. They had to get to class. Milena went to the cash register to pay and saw they had a new charity today. The last one for the baby-dicked guy had cracked her up. They always had some quirky cause that was more joke than serious. Milena suspected they split the money up between the staff.

This time, it was for fixing some girl�s hair. The picture was of their waitress as she came to work one day. It looked like she�d combed her hair with a hand grenade. The funny part was that the jar was almost full. Baby dick might have raised five dollars if he was lucky.

On her way to class, Milena had to push away the dizzying storm of thoughts that had rushed into her head as a result of their conversation. She focused on the realization that she would have to go home right after class to clean her room. Milena didn�t intend to let her sorority sisters �help� her again. When she�d opened her closet the next morning, it looked like a hundred raccoons had stormed through it.

David woke to the pale first light of dawn as it poured through his bedroom window, exposing his regret for what he�d done the night before. Yes, Matt Long was a rival and quickly becoming his enemy, but David shouldn�t have resorted to mocking him. Matt and his girlfriend had been having a dorky moment that David just happened to witness. From the look Matt gave him, David had no doubt that he would retaliate in some way. The problem was that he knew neither of them would back down.

David vowed to be on his guard during the final scrimmage later that day. The previous day, practice had gotten a bit chippy, to put it mildly. David had been moved to defensive end and had faced off with John Johnson. On the snap, David had gotten outside leverage on John as he�d been coached to do. His job was to cut off any outside runs and force them to cut inside where the meat of the defense was.

John was what is commonly known in football parlance as a �beast.� Not a very smart one, but if he got into his opponent�s body, he could easily move almost any college defenseman off the ball. John was an inch shorter than David but outweighed him by 60 pounds or more. David was no slouch, though. In high school, his friends had called him �the Hulk� because of his strength. David was also both agile and fast, with lightning-quick reflexes. John was none of those.

All through spring ball, John and David had faced off. At first, John had gotten the better of David as one would expect USC�s starting left tackle to do against a raw freshman. However, that was partly due to Coach Farrow�s wanting David to straight-up bull-rush John early on. He wanted David to get used to the difference in strength and ferocity of college-level ball compared to what David was used to.

Coach Farrow rightly reasoned that at some point, David would have to contend with big linemen and take them head-on. If he couldn�t handle the abuse, then Coach Farrow would have to move him somewhere else on the field. It was a given that an opposing offense would figure it out and simply run the ball right at David if that were the case. If he couldn�t free himself from a head-on block, USC�s defense would soon have serious problems.

Once Coach Farrow was satisfied that David could hold up at the position, he turned him loose to do what he�d put him at that position to do. That was to use his speed and agility to evade blocks altogether.

This was something David was born to do. He would always remember the look on John�s face the first time he didn�t bull-rush him in practice. David instead had taken both his hands and used them to hit John�s outside shoulder to turn him. He�d been past John in a flash and into the USC backfield to break up the play.

From that moment on, John and David had battled, which had led to the previous day�s events. The coaches had announced that they would be practicing third-and-long plays, which were almost always pass plays. Coach Farrow had then moved David from middle linebacker to defensive end. Coach wanted to bookend the defensive line with David and his friend Percy Wilkes, who was destined to play in the NFL one day. Between the two of them, Matt had to run for his life on almost every play.

The coaches were screaming at the offensive line to do their job, but David and Percy continued to beat their men. Out of frustration, John had reached out and grabbed David�s facemask as David slipped past him once again. That would have been fine, but John had taken a swing at David after the whistle. Luckily, David�s helmet hadn�t come off from the grab, or he might have been down for the count.

David had been so stunned that John would punch him that he hadn�t responded, but that didn�t mean that half the defense hadn�t come to his aid. John had soon been on the ground, buried under several players with ill intent. That had kicked off shoving matches all over the field.

The coaches secretly loved it because it got the team fired up. From there, the practice had felt like a real game. The defense stopped holding back, and when one of the receivers was drilled going over the middle, practice was called before someone got hurt.

Some of that bad blood, David had no doubt, would carry over to the current day�s practice. His taunting Matt the night before would just add fuel to the fire.

David was disappointed in himself that he�d gone for the cheap shot. His only excuse was that Matt looked like a total dork acting like Crystal�s disobedient puppy. Not that he had room to talk; more than once, David had been called a dork, and he was proud of it. What had him upset with himself was that he felt he should be better than that. David now had responsibilities to his fans, to the movies he had coming out, to USC, and to his family and friends. His life no longer centered on just him.

On the other hand, David didn�t regret his night with Milena. She�d confessed why she was hesitant to do more than just hook up. Milena was worried about his fame and that she wouldn�t measure up to some of the women she�d seen him with in the tabloids.

David was sure he could overcome her worries but hadn�t pushed it for now. It was always better to be friends first, and David could tell that the time he�d spent with Milena boded well for that. He even liked her quirky friend Taylor. The only hesitation he had was that her roommate was Matt�s girlfriend, Crystal, and David worried that his and Matt�s rivalry would cause trouble for the girls.

The biggest reason he hadn�t pushed Milena was that David honestly didn�t think he wanted a girlfriend right now. He�d asked Fritz to do a background check to make sure she didn�t hate dogs or children. Fritz had reported that Milena had been popular in high school and crowned Homecoming queen. She still hadn�t declared her major in the second semester of her sophomore year; she�d have to do that soon.

Milena had two younger sisters. One was a high school senior and planned to go to Arizona for college. The youngest was still in middle school. Her parents were both software engineers who worked for the same company in Mountain View, California, in the middle of the Silicon Valley. Her mother had worked her way up to become a vice president, and her father was in middle management, running several project teams.

David recognized that Milena was finding her way right now. She�d been the top girl in high school, but when she joined Alpha Mu, she�d become one of many top girls. David felt that Milena was okay with that for now. But he also sensed that once she had a chance to grow up, she�d find an inner strength that had a lot of potential.

Another work in progress was Kat, the Goth Barbie. In David�s estimation, she was a step further along because she�d discovered that she didn�t need anyone else to be successful. Kat now had a plan to go back to school and make it on her own.

The main obstacle that kept him from getting more involved with Kat was her binge drinking. David knew firsthand how it sucked to be the only sober one at a party, but that was a choice he�d made because of his responsibilities. David wasn�t so na�ve as to believe that college kids don�t go out and binge drink; most did. And he had no plans to become the champion who planned to change that. If he were just a regular guy, he would be right there with them.

David liked Kat as a person. He planned to keep track of her because when she became a woman, Kat would be someone David would like to know better, even it was just to be friends.

The two who had it together were Lexi and Fiona. Fiona had been forced to grow up fast because she was in movies, and young, innocent girls didn�t survive in Hollywood. There were too many wolves ready to take advantage of them. David knew she was still young, only a few years older than him, but she was a woman. Kat and Milena were still girls.

David also admired that even though Fiona had survived the wolves and the sharks and learned from those experiences, she had avoided becoming jaded. To him, that was a big plus.

Nevertheless, David never thought anything would come of Fiona and him as a couple. She would always be fighting for the next role or away filming. But when she was free, who knew?

Lexi was the one who worried him. They clicked in bed as only two people who had been together for a year and a half could. It would be unfair to compare Milena and Kat to Lexi in that respect because they hadn�t had that time together with him, and also because they were relatively inexperienced.

Another advantage that Lexi had over the rest of them was that David knew the two of them made a great team. She had his back without question, and people consistently underestimated her. Most thought that a good-looking girl who�d grown up the daughter of one of the top studio execs would be a pampered little princess. But Lexi had the brains and confidence to do anything she put her mind to. David worried that it wouldn�t be long before she left him to go on to bigger and better things.

All these musings led David to decide that, for now, he was happy to have Milena as a hookup.

In the locker room before the game, Matt Long had been swarmed with reporters�as had the other quarterbacks, to a lesser extent. David had been surprised when a man with a Pac-12 Network polo shirt found him in the corner where his locker was and asked for an interview.

Pac-12:I�m with David Dawson, who was the number-one recruit two years ago. David took the fall semester off to star in movies, so he took a gray shirt, and this is his first chance in college to show what he has. David is playing both defense and offense for the Trojans. David, I want to get your take on who you think will replace Ridge Townsend.