Rival Dreams (Rival Love #3) Read Free

shakes his head. “Dude. I’m trying to have a conversation with my girl, not listen to your foodgasms.”
    “This shit is so good,” Kyle responds.
    Caleb rolls his eyes and groans as he walks me over to the door. “I’ll walk you back to your place.”
    “Caleb, I want to stay and spend time with you. I have a long day tomorrow and so do you. I won’t see you until Friday afternoon, for our appointment.”
    He looks at me with a confused expression. “What appointment?”
    “You know, the apartment? You told me this morning you’d look at it with me.”
    “Oh …”
    Now I’m the one who’s confused. Earlier he said he’d look at it. Now he’s acting like this is the worse idea ever. I push myself out of his room and into the hall. Caleb is right beside me. We walk in silence down three flights of steps. I spin on the landing and face him. “What is wrong? Is it the whole idea of us living on our own in an apartment that has you freaking out? Or is it your workload? I’d like to know.”
    “Sky …” He reaches for my arms, but I take a step back.
    “I want to know.”
    “Nothing is wrong. I’ll be there. Okay?”
    I nod. He kisses my forehead. “Okay.”

Chapter 4
     
    Caleb
     
    After walking Skylar back to her dorm, I take the long way back to my own. The air is brisk and reminds me of winters in Ohio, but not as harsh. At the end of the month I’ll be in Indianapolis, doing a training session for the NFL recruits.
    I have to keep focused on the goal at hand. But shit, Sky’s face when she talked about the appointment for the apartment and how she looked as if she was going to cry if I blew it off killed me. I’ve got to find a way to tell her that maybe this apartment thing isn’t going to work out.
    I should have told her after the phone call. I should have just come right out and said it then, but I waited. And now my time is coming up short. Three weeks, to be exact. Yeah, I mean, I could stay in school for another year. What’s one more year, right? But that’s the thing: if I do that, this opportunity will not come back around. Not going into the NFL. I’m talking about the high demand for quarterbacks. Five teams are in demand this upcoming year. That’s like an all-time record. I think one guy is out with a permanent injury that he got skiing, three are retiring, and one was cut for doing a horrible job. This is my chance. But of all the teams in demand for a quarterback this year, there is one team that isn’t looking, and that’s the North Carolina Panthers.
    That means I can’t keep Skylar and follow my dreams. I have to be fair to her, man up and tell her. But how do you possibly tell someone who owns your soul that you can’t be with her anymore?
    I just gotta get through this week. Before we go apartment hunting I’ll tell Sky what’s going on. Who knows, maybe she’ll be happy and decide to follow me wherever I end up. Or maybe she won’t, and I’ll lose the best thing that ever happened to me.
    I’m approaching my dorm when I see a group of girls huddled by the door. A short blond and redhead are standing next to the ID scanner on the door. Neither has on a coat and it’s a chilly forty-five degrees outside. A third girl has on a heavy brown coat, her black hair is pencil straight, a spider tattoo on her right hand. She’s near the ashtray and is easing a cigarette to her mouth. Gross.
    The blond stares at me and breaks out in a fit of giggles. She smacks the other girl and whispers something. The redhead looks over at me and smiles with a deep blush on her cheeks. The smoking girl glances over at the other two and says, “Nice. Just make her more embarrassed, Sarah.”
    “Shut up! Hi! I’m like your biggest fan,” the redhead blurts while throwing her arms around me. She feels like an iceberg against me. I shiver and pull her back.
    “Thanks,” I say. I get my key card out to buzz myself in when a chilled hand lands on mine. I glance over at the redhead.