Lunch with Jesse was located in the back of a building, overlooking their stadium. Cord showed me the way with a reluctant Jamie behind us. As we got closer and as I saw the small cafeteria, Cord whispered to me, “The best athletes eat here. Boyfriends, girlfriends, close friends are invited, but only if it’s kept a secret.”

As I got inside, I could see why. The buffet had a carving station with a private chef behind. There was another grilling station. A salad buffet was set up on the far side, along with a pasta bar. As I passed by, there was whole grains, tofu, items that I’d only see in the organic section of a grocery store and certainly too pricey for me to buy. This was all for them, the elite athletes.

Jesse waved from a table in the back corner. He was surrounded by other guys, a few girls, and all of them moved down to make room once we filled our plates and grabbed some drinks. Jamie pounded fists with a few of the guys before he sat, eyeing Jesse at the same time, warily. Cord filled in next to him. Wrapping a hand around my wrist, Jesse tugged me beside him. Derek and Kara came in not long later and sat across from us. Glancing around, I wondered if Tiffany would show. Kara must’ve guessed at my thoughts. She gave me a brief shake of her head, leaning over the table. “She’s with Hannah. They stayed at the house today.”

“Jesse’s?”

She nodded. “It’s become a retreat for some of us.”

I could understand. I wasn’t even sure if I dared invite Beth over, the study session being an exception. But I made a note to ask Jesse about it. She had proven her loyalty, more than a few times already to me.

“How was your day?” Jesse had been waiting to ask.

His eyes pierced mine, trying to shift inside and read my thoughts. I caught the concern in his and wanted to lean against him. Merely shrugging instead, I murmured, “It was interesting.”

“I had a ton of girls ask about you. They wanted to know who you were and how you guys met.” Kara smiled, her eyes sparking from warmth.

Sipping on my water, I wasn’t sure what to say to that.

“What’d you say?” Jesse spoke for me, frowning slightly.

“I didn’t say anything except that Alex is a very nice girl.”

I’d been holding breath and released it now. I wasn’t sure why I’d been tense, but Kara hadn’t thrown me to the wolves. She added, “I’m not being nice because you’re one of my residents, Alex. Jesse’s a good friend, one of Derek’s best friends, so you can reach out for anything. I mean it.”

“Even though Tiffany hates me?”

Her eyes shifted down the table, to where Jamie wasn’t hiding his own eavesdropping. Her lips pressed together. “Even if Tiffany hates you. She knows better not to now, now that Jesse handed Jamie his own ass last night.” She ducked down, but I caught the pink flush and small giggle that escaped her lips.

Derek gazed fondly at his girlfriend, rubbing her back. “You’re good for Jesse. We’ve noticed a big difference from this summer.”

“Yeah,” Jamie surprised everyone by speaking up. He cleared his throat as he straightened in his seat. “I’ve noticed that too. And,” he caught Cord’s meaningful look, “I want to apologize for last night. Again. I should never have spoken like that to you.”

Cord coughed once.

Jamie added, “Or to any girl like that. I wouldn’t want my sister to get treated like that.”

“I still don’t want you around.”

“Oh, come on! Why not?” The polite charade was gone. A sulking five year old came over the big jock. “I apologized to her. Twice.”

“Words are cheap. Find a new place to stay over the season.”

Outraged, Jamie’s mouth hung open. “Are you f**king with me?”

“No,” Jesse snapped back. “I’ve been getting tired of your shit anyway. Last night was the last straw.”

“So this isn’t even about your girl?”

I fidgeted in my seat as new pairs of eyes turned my way. The argument had taken center stage in the small cafeteria. No one else even pretended to be having a conversation. They all shut up and were waiting with open ears.

“Some of it. Some not.”

“This sucks. Come on. What do I have to do?”

“Not be such an ass**le. How about that?”

“Why are you riding me? You trying to grow big balls for the team now?” But as soon as those words left him, Jamie knew he’d stepped wrong. His mouth clamped shut and a tense silence filled the room. A pin could’ve been heard dropping. I knew I quieted my quick gasp as Jesse had clenched his jaw. His body grew rigid like stone and I didn’t dare look in his eyes. I knew the deadly threat that would’ve been in them.

Jamie tried to backtrack immediately. “Hey, I’m sorry, man. I didn’t mean—”

Jesse cut him off. His tone was soft, but even more lethal because of it. “It’s comments like that. It’s because of that attitude that I don’t want you in my home. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t even have you on the team. You were in Camden’s corner all last year. You think I don’t know about the shit you said about me? That I was weak, a Hollywood pansy, mooching off my daddy’s strings?” He rose from the table, his arms so clenched that his veins stuck out. “If you even f**king knew one real thing about me, you’d know that I’m anything but those things.”

As Jesse was lashing at Jamie, I recognized the tortured look in his eyes. I knew what he was feeling. Jamie wasn’t Ethan. No one was. Cord wasn’t. Derek wasn’t. Jesse was surrounded by a bunch of people that thought they knew him, but none did. It was only me and I’d just gotten there. A mirrored emotion came up in me.

“Jesse,” I touched his hand. “Let’s go somewhere private.”

He wrenched his arm away, but glared, keeping himself in check. Barely. Then he sighed, “Fine.”

I led him down a hallway until I spotted a room that resembled a conference room. Plush leather chairs surrounded the table with an expensive-looking projector in the middle. It slid up from the floor. Two speakers were in the corners. No matter how many hours I might’ve trained at a sport, I knew I’d never be good enough to be in that room again. But this was Jesse’s world. Private cafeterias. People trying to get to him for what they imagined they could get from him, and he had ripped into one that might’ve been a friend. I wasn’t sure about Jamie so I held my tongue. At times, he seemed genuine. Other times he was just an ass. But it wasn’t Jamie that Jesse wasn’t mad with, and it was starting to hit me that I was the only one who really knew him. It was my job to help him now.