There were girls everywhere, along with their parents, little siblings, and friends galore. Most of the dads seemed to halt whatever they were doing. Their heads craned for a better view so they could see his Jaguar. The girls snapped to attention as well, but their eyes were on Cord himself as he rounded his car and sauntered to mine. Even though his head was down and he only looked at me and talked to me, he still emanated a subtle cockiness. It was as if everyone knew he was an elite athlete among their mix.

I could only shake my head. If people reacted like this to Cord, how would they handle Jesse?

“Any order?” Cord asked as he opened my back door and bent to scoop up a box.

“No order.”

“What room?” He straightened from the car.

“613.”

“Got it.” His head clipped up and down in a brisk nod before he headed for the opened stairway. It was like he knew where he was going, exactly where he was going.

“Was that Cord Tatum?”

I had expected the question from a girl. When it was a deep masculine voice instead, I was thrown off balance for a second. He looked in his mid-forties with a beer belly. Sweat soaked most of his shirt and he wiped a hand over his glistening forehead, but his eyes were lit up. “Was it?”

Then I remembered.

Cord and Jesse were on the basketball team. They helped take their team to the NCAA Championships. Of course, they would get this reaction. They were Grant West gods, already basketball legends.

I had a feeling I’d be getting this question a lot from the other dads.

“Uh,” I wasn’t sure what to say.

“Yo, Connors.” Cord was already back.

I almost did a double take. He must’ve sprinted up the stairs and jogged down, but he looked like he could do that twenty more times. He grinned from the corner of his mouth at me as he bent to picked up another box. “You got no roommate. Nice.”

The dad moved in his way. “Are you Cord Tatum?”

“Nah, man.” Cord gave him a polite smile and jogged back to the stairway. “I just look like him.”

The guy’s shoulders dropped down. “Oh. I thought—well—he looks a lot like him.”

He was still looking at me, but I shrugged and grabbed a box of my own. Locking the door, I went inside and up the stairs. Cord passed me on the third floor. He rolled his eyes as he held his hand out for my keys. “That guy still down there?”

I nodded. “Does that happen a lot?”

“Usually only when we head to a bar. I didn’t expect that here, but makes sense. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Is that…” I hesitated. I wanted to know how it was for Jesse. Should I ask that?

Cord flashed me another grin. “Don’t sweat it, Connors. Jesse comes off as a Grade A bastard so he’s usually not approached for autographs.” He laughed to himself, shaking his head. “And he gets away with it. No one’s going to think anything less of Malcolm Hunt’s son.”

I nodded. I wasn’t sure what to think of that.

“Oh, hey.”

I turned back on the stairs.

He winked at me. “Jesse will like knowing that your room is right next to the stairs.”

“Cord!” I hissed, horrified, excited, and embarrassed at the same time. I didn’t want to dwell on any of those emotions, they were too threatening, so I ignored all of them and went the rest of the way to my room. When I stepped onto the sixth floor, I realized he was right. 613 was right next to it. It was in its own hallway since the exit sectioned off from the main hallway and my room was the last, tucked away in a corner.

My room wasn’t anything special. There were two beds, two desks, two closets, and two dressers. I had paid for a single after I received the screw-off letter from my parents. I hadn’t known my grandfather was wealthy, but I capitalized on it. I had the money so I was going to use it. I’d heard enough horror stories about freshman roommates.

I was stepping out from the room and heading back downstairs for another load when someone tapped me on the shoulder.

“Hi, there!” A girl waved at me with a friendly smile. She had bright blue eyes and platinum blonde hair. Dressed in white khaki shorts and a white polo, she could’ve stepped out of a golfing magazine for the rich and preppy. Then I noticed the GW logo on the top right corner of her shirt in purple lettering.

This girl was my resident advisor.

“Hi.”

She held her hand out, tanned like the rest of her with a diamond-encrusted watch wrapped around her wrist. “I’m Kara.”

I shook her hand and tried not to grimace at how my hand contrasted next to hers. She was golden and beautiful. I was pale and grotesque, but I drew in a breath. This girl was stunningly beautiful. I would always pale in comparison to her. I wasn’t a slouch. I knew I was slender and my dark hair had grown longer over the summer from the shoulder length, but I wasn’t in her league. Or at least, that’s how I felt.

“Alex.”

“Yeah.” Her smile doubled. “Alexandra Connors, right?” She lifted a clipboard and wrote something on it. A strand of her hair slipped forward to the board, but she didn’t notice. She compressed her lips together before she was done and looked back at me. The smile slipped a second and her eyes widened as they shot past me. “Cord?”

“Oh, hey, Kara.” He breezed into my room with two boxes. Setting them down, he came back out and leaned a hand against the doorframe behind me. He was sheltering me. I didn’t know if he did it on purpose, but for some reason I was grateful. His hand came down to my shoulder in the next moment. “You’ve met Alex, huh?”

“Uh…”

He squeezed my shoulder. “Treat her right. She’s like family.”

I was? I sent him a furtive look over my shoulder. His smirk deepened and he jogged back down the stairs.

“You…” She blinked rapidly. “You know Cord?”

“You know Cord?”

“Yeah, he’s roommates with my boyfriend.”

The slight enjoyment I was having hurdled down my stomach. I felt it grinding into the ground now as I swallowed over a sudden knot in my throat. Roommates? Cord lived with Jesse. Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I had to ask. “Oh. Uh. Who is that?”

“Derek Williams.”

My knees buckled underneath me. The relief was overwhelming. I grabbed onto the doorframe Cord had rested against and struggled to keep myself upright. For a moment, I thought a nightmare had occurred in front of me. This girl wasn’t dating Jesse. Thank god.