My Soul To Keep (Soul Series Book 1) by Kennedy Ryan Page B

undershirts.”
    We’ve been through everything together. Middle school drama. High school heartbreaks. No one else could have dragged me away from Glory Falls so soon after Mama’s funeral.
    “You know I love you right, San?”
    His cocky grin softens until it’s just a soft crook that warms my heart and has made me feel at ease more than half my life.
    “Sometimes I know you better than you know yourself, Kai.”
    “True story.” I take off my earrings and stow them in the jewelry box.
    “That’s how I know you’ll jump Rhyson’s bones before the year is out.”
    I whirl around, pointing to the hall behind him.
    “Out.”
    San laughs, steps back into the hall, and closes his door. His parting words reach me through the door and stay with me until I fall asleep in my beloved nightshirt.
    “Mark my words.”

IF I HADN’T BEEN BORN A musician, I’m pretty sure I could have made a living as a professional gamer. A lot less money. A lot fewer women. A much pastier complexion. Upside is I wouldn’t have to wear disguises to go out in public to avoid some camera shoved in my face every day. This is the alternate destiny I consider as I kick my best friend, Marlon’s, ass in Madden. Again. He just won’t give up.
    Kai’s ring tone breaks my concentration. Where’s my damn phone?
    “Pause it.” I tear my eyes away from the screen, scanning the floor for my phone. It doesn’t escape my notice that Marlon’s still playing.
    “Man, pause it.” I toss my controller to the floor and start flipping couch cushions up searching for my phone. “You seen my phone?”
    “What’s it look like?” he asks.
    “What the hell do you mean what’s it—” I stop to look at him. Smartass is holding my phone up, inspecting the screen.
    “Give me my phone, Marlon.” He thinks I’m playing, but if Kai hangs up, I’m suspending him from a chandelier by his dreadlocks.
    “Who’s Pepper?” His teeth flash white against that dark chocolate skin the girls fall at his feet for. He wiggles his eyebrows. “Is that her stripper name?”
    I snatch my phone and walk a few paces away, turning my back on him.
    “Hey, Pep. What’s up?”
    “Nothing much.” Her honeyed, husky voice goes straight to my dick. I should be used to it by now, but I’m not.
    “Everything okay?”
    Even though I’ve told her over and over to call me if she ever needs a ride, she never does. San usually will text me or call. I’m glad I resisted the urge to cut his balls off when I found out they lived together and that he was her first. How I restrained myself that night, I’m still not sure, but it’s apparent that aside from one random initiating sexual encounter in a storage room on a bag of grits, they’re like family. So for her to call . . . even Madden’s not worth missing this.
    “Everything’s great,” she says. If we were together, I bet she’d be biting the sweet curve of her bottom lip. “I . . . um . . . well, I worked an extra shift at The Note today.”
    Not surprising. She’s the hardest working girl I’ve ever met.
    “An extra shift, huh?” I laugh and lean against the pool table Marlon insisted I had to have, but we rarely use. “That sounds like you.”
    “Yeah. Well, my manager gave me the day off tomorrow.”
    “Cool.”
    I need to let her take the lead here. I’m always the one initiating contact, calling her, picking her up from work, texting first. In the six weeks we’ve known each other, this is one of the few times she’s reached out to me. I need to be patient enough to see how far she’ll come.
    “And I don’t have a class to teach tomorrow.” She clears her throat. “And Grady doesn’t need me.”
    Okay. That’s enough hanging back. Who am I kidding? I haven’t seen her in days, and I’m practically salivating at the chance.
    “We should hang out or something,” I say, keeping my voice casual.
    I’m really not used to being in this position. The one chasing and playing down my