Nice Guys Don't Win (The Boys #2) - Micalea Smeltzer Page 0,1

are rich. The kind of rich where they could buy their own island if they wanted. Some is new money, like Mascen’s family—his dad is a drummer in a world-famous band—some of it is seriously old money like Teddy’s family. I still don’t know exactly what it is his family does, but I do know he casually mentioned one time that his cousin is married to a prince of Greece. Still haven’t wrapped my head around that one.

Unlike them, if it wasn’t for my talent at basketball, there’s no way I would’ve ever been able to attend Aldridge University. But for some reason they saw something in a poor mixed kid from the middle of nowhere Michigan.

Reaching the apartment, I set the box down and unlock the door. Teddy pushes his way in before me. He has no idea that he’s tap-dancing across my last nerve.

The smell of fresh paint litters the air, stinging my nostrils when I step inside. Despite the chemical smell, I won’t complain. The apartment building is new, built to accommodate the growing amount of people in the area thanks to the university.

Setting the box on the kitchen counter, I turn to Teddy. “Since you’re here already and irritating the shit out of me with your babbling, make yourself useful and unload my truck.”

He laughs like I’m being funny. “Oh,” he sobers when I don’t laugh along, “you’re serious.”

“Yeah.”

He holds out his hands. “You see these hands? Do they look like they do manual labor? No. They’re good for baseball, weightlifting, and fingering pussy.”

“What pussy? The only action your hand gets is from jerking yourself off.”

He slaps a hand to his chest, gasping like a dramatic mother in a period drama when her daughters do some shit she’s not pleased with. Yeah, my sisters have made me watch all that shit.

“You don’t have to cut me like that, Cole. I know you’re mad at me, but you know damn well I have no problem getting girls.”

“There’s shit in my truck waiting for those delicate hands of yours.”

“All right, all right.” He throws his hands up. “I’m going. But don’t think I’ve forgotten about my promise. I’ll find you a new roommate. A great one. The best ever. Better than even me, which is unimaginable, but I’ll make it happen.”

“You do that,” I call after him as he walks out.

I shake my head. It’s laughable to think that Teddy will actually manage to secure me a roommate. Nah, like always I’ll be on my own to dig myself out of a hole.

2

Zoey

“What do you mean you don’t have me down for a dorm assignment?” I slam my hands on the counter, glaring at the secretary behind it. She’s older, graying hair down to her shoulders and a pair of lime green reading glasses perched on the end of her nose. I’m not in the habit of snapping at older ladies, my mom raised me to always speak respectably, but in this moment, I can’t keep my temper at bay.

Transferring to Aldridge University for junior and senior year wasn’t part of my plan. But when I caught my fiancé cheating on me with my best friend of all people, I knew I had to get the hell out of dodge, and lucky for me my dad is a coach at Aldridge. He pulled some strings and now here I am. It’s a tad awkward since I haven’t been that close with my dad since he and my mom divorced when I was thirteen, but desperate times call for desperate measures. His eagerness to help me get in did leave me feeling a tad bit guilty for not making more of an effort to be involved in his life, along with those of my half-siblings as well with his new wife.

“It shows you were late enrollment, and all the dorms were full.” Her tone is calm but pointed. “There’s nothing we can do.”

Panic surges inside me. “B-But no one told me. There was nothing in all of this,” I wave my massive stack of papers from the university, “telling me that I didn’t have a place to sleep. This has to be a joke.”

Behind me, the door to the front office opens and a guy’s voice barges in. “Hey, Mrs. Jostin I lost my student ID again, can you help a guy out? I promise it’ll never happen again.”

In front of me, the woman sighs heavily, her shoulders sagging. “Teddy McCallister, you lose your student ID every three months.