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Knowing it was because he saw her talking to me nearly sent me into a fury.
    “Hi,” Abby said, taken off guard. She clearly didn’t know why he was suddenly talking to her. It was written all over her face. “Who’s that?” she asked
me.
    I shrugged casually, but I wanted to tear across the room and beat his preppy ass. “Parker Hayes,” I said. His name left a bad taste in my mouth. “He’s one of my Sig Tau
brothers.” That left a bad taste, too. I had brothers, both frat and blood. Parker felt like neither. More like an archenemy that you kept close enough to keep an eye on.
    “
You’re
in a
frat
?” she asked, her little nose wrinkling up.
    “Sigma Tau, same as Shep. I thought you knew.”
    “Well . . . you don’t seem the . . . fraternity type,” she said, eyeing the tattoos on my forearms.
    The fact that Abby’s eyes were back on me immediately put me in a better mood. “My dad is an alumnus, and my brothers are all Sig Tau. It’s a family thing.”
    “And they expected you to pledge?” she asked, skeptical.
    “Not really. They’re just good guys,” I said, flicking her papers. I handed them to her. “Better get to class.”
    She flashed that flawless smile. “Thanks for helping me.” She nudged me with her elbow, and I couldn’t help but smile back.
    She walked into the classroom and sat next to America. Parker was staring at her, watching the girls talking. I fantasized about picking up a desk and hurling it at his head as I walked down the
hall. With no more classes for the day, there was no reason for me to stick around. A long ride on the Harley would help keep the thought of Parker sleazing his way into Abby’s good graces
from driving me crazy, so I made sure to take the long way home to give me more time to think. A few couch-worthy coeds crossed my path, but Abby’s face kept popping into my mind—so
many times that I began to annoy myself.
    I had notoriously been a piece of shit to every girl with whom I’d had a private conversation over the age of sixteen—since I was fifteen. Our story might have been typical: Bad boy
falls for good girl, but Abby was no princess. She was hiding something. Maybe that was our connection: whatever it was that she had left behind.
    I pulled into the apartment parking lot and climbed off the bike. So much for thinking better on the Harley. Everything I’d just unraveled in my head made no fucking sense. I was just
trying to justify my weird obsession with her.
    Suddenly in a very bad mood, I slammed the door behind me and sat on the couch, and became even more pissed off when I couldn’t find the remote right away.
    Black plastic landed beside me as Shepley passed to sit in the recliner. I picked up the remote and pointed it at the TV, turning it on.
    “Why do you take the remote to your bedroom? You just have to bring it back in here,” I snapped.
    “I don’t know, man, it’s just habit. What’s your problem?”
    “I don’t know,” I grumbled, flipping on the TV. I pressed the mute button. “Abby Abernathy.”
    Shepley’s eyebrow pushed up. “What about her?”
    “She gets under my skin. I think I just need to bag her and get it over with.”
    Shepley eyed me for a while, unsure. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate you not fucking up my life with your newfound restraint, but you’ve never needed my permission
before . . . unless . . . don’t tell me you finally give a shit about someone.”
    “Don’t be a dick.”
    Shepley couldn’t contain his grin. “You care about her. I guess it just took a girl refusing to sleeping with you for more than a twenty-four-hour period.”
    “Laura made me wait a week.”
    “Abby won’t give you the time of day, though?”
    “She just wants to be friends. I guess I’m lucky she doesn’t treat me like a leper.”
    After an awkward silence, Shepley nodded. “You’re scared.”
    “Of what?” I asked with a dubious smirk.
    “Rejection.
Mad Dog
is one of us after