Wicked Rich

by C. Morgan

  “Yes, it is.” I cleared my throat in an attempt to make my voice sound less squeaky. “I’ve picked my major, but the courses I’m currently studying aren’t aligned to what I’ve decided on. I figured it was better to get into the right classes as soon as possible.”

  “Hmm,” she hummed, her eyes never leaving mine. They were soft and kind but also intelligent and alert. “In your records, it says that you elected not to declare your focus area right away. Why the change of heart?”

  Here goes nothing. This was the part I wished I’d had more time to prepare for.

  “I want to study law, but I decided not to declare it at first because of the time it takes to complete the degree,” I said. “I wasn’t sure I could commit to school for that long, but I’ve done some thinking and this is what I want. It’s what I’ve always wanted.”

  “Law, huh?” She turned slightly in her seat to check the calendar hanging on the far wall. “You do realize you’ve missed the first few weeks, don’t you? The professors for those courses don’t kid around. They’ll have covered quite a lot already.”

  “I’m fully aware of that,” I said, nodding as I swiped my tongue across my dry lips. “I also know that I can catch up. I’ll make up for lost time. I’ll make friends and review notes. I’ll study every night until midnight. I’ll do whatever it takes, but I really don’t want to lose a whole semester or even a whole year.”

  Deep down, this was what I’d always wanted. As I’d spent the day yesterday recommitting to my studies and doing what was best for myself, I’d realized that my heart wasn’t in business or computer science. My heart had always pointed toward law, but I’d been too scared to commit to it before.

  I hadn’t discussed it with my parents yet, but I would the next time I went home. They’d be proud of me, but we’d have to talk things through since nobody had ever planned for me to be away for seven or eight years of school.

  When I’d first told them I wasn’t planning on pursuing law anymore, I knew they’d been disappointed. They’d known all along how much I wanted to study it and they’d tried to encourage me, but I’d shut them down.

  A move I never should’ve made, but I’d been known to be pig-headed at times. I was just glad that I’d come to my senses now instead of later. Truth be told, law was the only thing that’d ever made my heart beat faster.

  I’d always known it was the career I was meant for. Dax had been right when he’d been worried that nothing else would ever truly make me happy or fulfill me. Now that I was being totally honest with myself about what I wanted, I knew that law was still the only thing that would ever do that for me.

  Elena opened the file again, silently scanning through sheets of paper before looking up at me again. “Your grades certainly speak for themselves. I don’t foresee any problems in getting you into the right classes, but I’m curious about why you changed your mind. If committing to school for the amount of time law will take was a problem a month ago, why isn’t it anymore?”

  “You’re worried that I won’t have the necessary determination and perseverance to see it through?” I asked.

  She smiled again, which was something she seemed to do often. “I just want to help you set yourself up for success and not failure. That’s my job. You’ve done extremely well to get as far as you have. It’s obvious that you don’t lack either determination or perseverance, but narrowing your focus now will make it terribly difficult to turn back if you have another change of mind.”

  “I won’t,” I said firmly. “The time was an issue for me because four years of studying and not working is already a lot. My parents need my help, so I wanted to start earning money again as soon as possible.”

  “Has that changed?” she asked, her voice gentle and understanding.

  I inhaled deeply before I shook my head. “No, it hasn’t. They’ll still need my help but for now, they seem to be doing okay. My brother has gotten a job, so he’s helping out now too. Ultimately, I’ve decided to do it now because if I don’t, then I never will. Law has always been my dream. I’ve been given an amazing opportunity to study here, and I don’t want to waste it by wondering what-if.”

  Ten minutes later, I left her office with a pep in my step and the signed paperwork in my hands. I needed to submit it, but the deal was done. Elena had questioned me a little more about my so-called change of heart but eventually, she’d realized that this wasn’t a spur of the moment decision I would come to regret.

  Having explained it all to her, I felt more confident than ever about my choice. I was pretty much floating on sunshine as I walked down the corridor, but I stopped in my tracks and the sunshine vanished when I saw Dax out in the hall.

  He was standing at the end of the corridor, looking around wildly until he spotted me. Before I could completely ignore having seen him, he rushed over to me. There were bags under his eyes and his hair was disheveled. He reached for me when I tried to brush past him without sparing him even a glance.

  “Please, Hadley. Just give me one minute. I need to—No. I want to—Um, I’m sorry.” He spewed out the words all sloppy and disjointed, his touch impossibly gentle on my wrist as he tried to keep me from storming away. “I never should’ve done it. I know that now. I’m so, so sorry.”

  I yanked my arm out of his grip, shoving my chin into the air as I stared him down. “I appreciate that you’re sorry, but I’m not sure why you’re telling me. I want nothing to do with you, Daxton. We’re done. It’s over.”

  “If you could just—”

  “I can’t,” I said, taking a big step back when he took one closer to me. “I’ll never be able to trust you again, so while I appreciate your apologies, there’s no point in us wasting any more of each other’s time.”

  “What can I do to make you see that I made a mistake?” he asked, his tone as close to pleading as I’d ever heard it. “Because I did, Haddie. I really fucking did. I want to do better. Be better.”

  “That’s great, but I can’t tell you how to do it. If you want to be better, you’re going to have to figure it out by yourself. Please leave me out of it. We’re nothing to each other. You’ve had your fun with me, but since that’s over, it’s best that we just stay out of each other’s way.”

  Without waiting to hear anything else from him, I marched away with my chin up despite the almost overwhelming urge to cry. Deep down, I loved Dax. I wished I didn’t, but I did. It was another realization I’d come to yesterday, and one that’d been difficult to admit.

  It was going to take time and patience to heal, but I would heal. As long as he stayed away from me like I’d asked. I couldn’t look at him when he was in such obvious pain as he seemed to be in today and keep turning my back on him. I just couldn’t.

  Despite what he’d planned on doing to me, I wouldn’t be able to say no if I really thought he needed me. Even if it was just as a friend.

  But if I gave in, I’d never heal. School was going to be ample distraction to allow said healing to happen, but I had to stay focused on it. Not him.

  Never him. Never, ever again.

  Chapter 35

  DAXTON

  Sweat dripped down my brow and ran in rivulets down my back, but I was hardly aware of it. The boat was practically soaring through the water, and my body, mind, and soul were completely focused on achieving our goal.

  Nothing else mattered. The team was a month away from our championship race, and I wasn’t about to let a little bit of sun distract me. Besides, sweat was good. Sweating meant that I was working hard for my team and proving, again, why I’d become one of the best guys on it.

  It wasn’t just my cockiness making me think I’d become one of the best, either. Coach told me all the time, and the other guys on the team had started looking to me to set the pace.

  It was weird to think that little over a month ago, I hadn’t even been taking the team that seriously. Before Hawaii, it had been something to do that was fun and competitive. Now, however, rowing and the team were
things I was completely dedicated to.

  Then again, a lot had changed for me since Hawaii. In fact, that weekend had become a defining moment in my life. Whenever I thought about things now, Hawaii was the event that something had either happened before or after.

  Since I’d been back, my entire life had changed. Or rather, I had changed my entire life. After all the revelations I’d had that weekend, I couldn’t just go on the same way. I’d taken a good, hard look at myself and I hadn’t really liked what I’d seen.

  When I’d felt that shift happening inside me, I hadn’t realized quite how fast or how drastically things had been about to change for me. As I’d promised myself I’d do, I’d ridden out the shift and so far, I was liking where I’d landed.

  My grades were looking better than ever before. Much to my surprise, there were a number of study groups in the house and most of the guys were part of at least a few of them. Ryker had invited me to the ones he’d joined, and things had gone from there.

  I’d found out that, without me bringing that energy to the table, there was a lot less immaturity in the house than I’d thought. The guys weren’t all really assholes. Sure, they could be, but for the most part, they studied hard and dedicated themselves to their chosen focus areas and sports.

  Which was what I was doing now, too. Rowing fulfilled me more than I’d ever thought possible. My place on the team had come to mean something to me, and so had my teammates. Even the Tau Pi’s.

  Every guy on the team needed the other guys. We trusted each other. We did well together, and we worked fucking hard to be the best team we could be.

  In another surprising twist, I’d also realized that I actually enjoyed working hard at things. Between school and rowing, it was rewarding to reap the rewards of all the hours and effort I was putting in.

  In a lot of ways, I felt like a completely different person to the guy who’d gotten on that plane to Hawaii with Haddie. With my grades looking up, the team doing well, and my relationships with my brothers and teammates strengthening, I’d realized that she’d been right.

  I had been a selfish, snobbish, childish ass before. All of which was different now because of her, and I couldn’t even tell her. I also couldn’t thank her, which really sucked.

  If it hadn’t been for Hadley Sage coming back into my life when she had, I didn’t doubt that I’d still have been the same old asshole. Well, I was still an asshole. I just wasn’t an ignorant one.

  There had been times when I’d been with her that I’d caught a glimpse of the guy I wanted to be, which was much closer to the person I was now than who I used to be. If I’d only chased after those glimpses and kept doing what felt right instead of fighting it over an ancient grudge, I wouldn’t have been as confused. I also probably wouldn’t have lost her.

  Crying about it wouldn’t get me anywhere, though. She’d told me to figure out how to be better, and that was what I was doing. One day at a time.

  Ryker clapped me on the shoulder when we got off the boat. “Good run, bud. You were a fucking machine out there.”

  I grabbed a towel hanging over the rail as we walked into the boathouse, drying my forehead and the back of my head as I grinned at my friend. “Thanks, you too.”

  “Think you’ll be able to do it all again tomorrow, or were you just putting on a good show for our audience?”

  “Audience?” I frowned. “What? You mean the regulars on the banks?”

  He threw his head back and laughed. “Man, you were totally in the zone then, huh? You really didn’t notice?”

  “Didn’t notice who?” I asked, though my heartbeat sped up when I saw the shit-eating grin on his face. “Hadley’s out there?”

  “The one and only.” He winked and stood beside me as we formed a loose circle around our coach. When the debrief was done and we were dismissed, he looked at me again. “You still haven’t spoken to her?”

  “Not a word in over a month,” I confirmed. “She asked me to leave her alone, and that’s what I’m doing. I figure I owe her at least that.”

  Some of our teammates—new friends of mine and not just buddies from the frat—fell into step with us when we headed out. Ryan, a Tau Pi I really got along with, immediately realized what we were talking about.

  Since we’d set the house rivalry aside when we weren’t actually doing shit with or for our houses, he’d become a good friend. A good friend who shared Ryker’s opinion of the me I had been before Hawaii.

  “So she still doesn’t know you’re not a shithead anymore?” he joked, turning while he walked to look out over the lawn. “Which one is she? I feel like I owe her a thank you for turning Dax the dick into a human being.”

  “You and me both, dude.” I laughed and shoved him playfully in the shoulder. “You’re going to have to get in line, though. If anyone’s getting to thank her today, it’s going to be me.”

  He smacked a hand over his heart and pretended to clutch it. “Fine. I’ll play second fiddle, but it’s only because I love you and I know you love her, so I’ll let you go first.”

  Ryker snickered and offered him a fist bump, but everything inside me had stilled. Not because he’d said that I loved her. I’d figured that part out already. There wasn’t even a question about it. Of course I fucking loved her. I’d fallen in love with her at fourteen and I still loved her today. I was man enough to admit that now.

  But no. Everything in me had stilled because she was right there.

  For the first time in over a month, Hadley was only a few yards away from me. I’d seen her around campus here and there, but she wasn’t in Business 101 anymore and all her lectures now seemed to be in the buildings across campus.

  She was lounging on a blanket with Ruby, their textbooks spread out in front of them along with masses of notebooks and stationery. Since the weather was starting to get cold now when a person wasn’t doing physical exercise in the sun, Hadley was bundled up in a scarf, boots, light blue jeans, and a loose-fitting Edgewater sweater.

  There was no makeup on her face and her hair was in a messy knot at the nape of her neck, but she still looked beautiful to me. So fucking beautiful.

  Ruby shot me a dark look when she caught my eye as we passed by not five yards away from them, but Hadley smiled when I lifted my hand in a wave. “Hey, Haddie.”

  “Hi,” she said, returning my wave.

  When my gaze followed her as it dropped back to her books, I realized why I hadn’t been seeing her around. “Law, huh? I’m happy for you.”

  “Thanks.” Her eyes came back up, and for a second, my throat got so dry I couldn’t speak as I stared into their chocolate brown depths.

  Snap the fuck out of it, Breyer. “Making the switch couldn’t have been an easy decision. I’m proud of you for following your own path. You always have been brave.”

  Her cheeks flushed, but she stuck the back of her pencil between her lips and I kept walking until I’d passed them. It had felt damn good to have had her smiling at me again, even if it had been a tight, polite smile.

  “Wow, Romeo,” Ryker joked quietly as we headed back up to the house. “That was incredible.”

  “An inspiring performance,” Ryan agreed before glancing at me with laughter in his eyes. “Where’s your game gone, man? I know we didn’t really hang out before, but from what I heard, the chicks loved you.”

  “His game is dead,” Ryker declared sadly. “It’s gone the way of the dinosaurs and using cash to pay for stuff.”

  “If Hadley was a game, maybe I’d have brought mine,” I retorted.

  Both guys cracked up laughing, but they didn’t give me any shit for the comment. It went to show how much I’d grown in the last month that I’d even said something like that out loud, and they knew it. Plus, Ryker had never been an asshole and Ryan, while he could be the life of the party, wasn’t one for jeering or jabs.

  Ryan said goodbye when our paths split. He went back to the Tau Pi house while Ryker and I headed to ours. Once we got there, we w
ent our separate ways to grab a shower before our statistics study group started in an hour.

  Checking my watch when I walked into my room, I cursed under my breath and immediately reached for my phone. The shower will have to wait until after my weekly check-in with my parents.

  We were all trying to be better about communication and keeping in touch. From my side, that meant sticking to calling them every Saturday morning after practice.

  “Hey, Dad,” I said when the old man picked up the phone. “How are you?”

  “We’re doing well. How was practice?” he asked. “Your mom will want to speak to you in a minute, but I wanted to give you a heads-up. We’re coming out for the Championship Race next month.”

  “What? That’s awesome.” I actually grinned for real as I said it. “I can’t wait to see you guys. Are you sure you can make it?”

  “We wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he promised. “Now, your mother wanted to keep it a surprise, but I didn’t want us ending up in one of those god-awful college movie situations where the parents come to surprise the kid and walk into something no one wants to see.”

  I laughed, realizing again how much I’d come to appreciate my father’s sense of humor. “Thanks for the heads-up, but there’s nothing going on for you to walk in on. Sadly.”

  “Hadley still not speaking to you?”

  I sighed, shaking my head even though I knew he couldn’t see me. “Nope, not really. I just saw her, though. She’s looking good. Happy.”

  “Don’t give up, Daxton,” he said after a brief pause. “Time is your best friend on this one. She needs some more of it after everything that happened, but that doesn’t mean you’ll never find your way back together again.”

  I wasn’t so sure, but I was letting it be for now. There were a lot of things I needed to focus on about myself before we’d ever stand a chance anyway. “I’m not giving up on her. I’d never give up on her. I’m just trying to make sure that when I win her back, I’ll be the kind of guy who deserves a second chance.”