Eighteen-year-old Nat falls for five different boys during her first month at college, but never openly admits her crushes - until one night she drunk texts all five of them. She finds her freshman year turned upside down as she navigates the world...
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"I still can't believe you didn't tell me your uncle owns the place," I said to the boy sitting across from me. Tyler Sawyer's uncle freaking owned this bar-pub-club mashup, The Brew.
"Wasn't important." He slung his arm across the back of the booth, fingers brushing a forgotten, half-empty pint of beer.
"So, the little scene outside was for shits and giggles?" I folded my arms across my chest and leaned forward, ridges of the rough-hewn table, digging into my skin.
In a frazzled haze, I rambled complete nonsense to the bouncer for so long I was sure he was going to tell us to leave him the hell alone. When I paused to take a breath, Tyler nodded the weird guy-chin-raise-thing at the bouncer, who I now knew as his cousin CJ, and let us in.
"It was fun watching you squirm," he said, a single dimple popping up.
Ugh! I dragged a hand through my dark hair. Instead of a green crystal, dimples had to be my kryptonite.
"I told the boys I'd go out, and since you had to interview me, we had to go someplace I wouldn't get swarmed. You do realize we won the first game of the season tonight, right?" His voice was clear over sports fanatics shouting at the TV.
How could little old me forget Tyler Sawyer was Summit University hockey royalty? Shaking my head, I squinted down at my phone's screen for more questions. "So, we've covered hockey from your pee-wee days to high school. What made you choose Summit?"
"Had to go somewhere." His dimple disappeared. Tyler leaned forward, arms resting on the table.
"There are plenty of great hockey teams, why here?" I paused to examine him. He'd been a little less monosyllabic than usual with the other questions.
"Why not here?" He twisted the ring on his pinky, gaze on the wall-mounted flat-screen TVs over the bar.
I rubbed my brow. Guess Summit was a no-go topic. He turned the ring again, revealing the same emblem as Will's hookup ring.
"So, you actually wear your ring?" I asked.
He paused mid-ring-twist, giving me a blank look.
I fidgeted with a thin paper napkin. "Will lost his ring, I helped him find it, told me the whole thing about giving it to girls to hook up, or something."
"Right, to hook up. Of course, he'd say that." He scoffed, gaze going cloudy. "This ring is never leaving my finger again, I can tell you that much." Duly noted.
"Last time it did, it cost me a championship."
I strained to hear him over the loudmouth sitting in the booth over. He banged his hand repeatedly against the wood tables to emphasize whatever he was going on about.
If I heard Tyler right, I wasn't about to touch that comment with a ten-foot pole. Nope. Not gonna do it.
I threw him a sidelong glance, low lighting casting shadows across his face.
