She sniffed and burrowed deeper into his chest. “You’d think he’d know he didn’t have to protect me like that anymore. I’m eighteen.”
Ten smiled. “Doesn’t matter how old you get. You’ll always be his little sister. He’ll always want to protect you.”
“And I’m sure I’ll always want to knock his head off for it, too.”
With a soft chuckle, Ten began to stroke her hair. “I bet.” When he closed his eyes and buried his nose in it as if he was smelling her, something tight wrapped around my chest. He liked her. I mean, he really, really liked her. I slunk an inch in reverse, feeling like a voyeur. But I didn’t know where else to go. So, I just...stayed and watched.
“Is there really a naked picture of Aspen going around?” Caroline asked, lifting her face.
Ten stopped moving his fingers through her hair as his gaze touched hers. “Yeah,” he said. “It’s what got her fired.”
Caroline shook her head. “That doesn’t make sense. How could a naked picture of just her get her fired?”
“It had Noel’s arm in it.”
This time, I shook my head, confused, though no one saw me doing so from my hiding spot. Geesh, I was doing a lot of hiding and eavesdropping on couples today.
“I still don’t get it,” Caroline spoke my thoughts aloud. “If all they saw was his arm, then how did they know who she was with? It might not have been a student at all—”
Ten lifted his forearm to point out something I couldn’t see from where I was standing. “About a dozen of us football players got this very same tattoo last year. It did end up in the picture of her, so the university knew it had to be a current ESU football player she was with.”
Caroline studied the tattoo and slowly ran her finger over it. I don’t think she noticed how doing that made Ten close his eyes briefly and then slowly reopen them.
She finally looked up. “So, for all they know, it could’ve been you who’d been with Aspen.”
His lips spread with amusement. “It wasn’t me.”
Her fingers kept lingering on his tattoo while her gaze stayed fastened to his. “I can’t believe they’ve been going through all this, and I didn’t even have a clue.”