While I moved my clothes into the far corner of the apartment's only closet, a heavy knock on the front door grabbed my attention. I figured Ellie's dad came back and braced myself for the verbal lashing I expected. Instead, Wes and Charlie's frowning faces greeted me from where they stood in the hallway.

Apparently still a verbal lashing, just from a different source.

"Hey," I said casually. "You guys just missed Ellie -"

"We're not here for Ellie." At 6ft5, there weren't many guys on the team taller than me, which included Wes. But the intense, angry stare in his eyes, tension strained in his thick neck and shoulders, and how tightly he clenched his jaw shut all showed he couldn't have cared less about a few inches' difference.

"Okaaaay," I dragged out the word but stepped aside with the full understanding that they weren't our apartment's welcome wagon. I'd expected their visit sooner and was surprised they'd chosen now, after Ellie had arrived but while she wasn't here, for this conversation.

"Come in, sofa's awful." I swept one arm over to the previous tenant's obvious parting gift. I was a big guy, so small furniture and I didn't get along but this sofa felt like a spring went up into my ass every time I sat on it.

"We're cool." Wes' brown eyes stared intensely at me while he bumped my shoulder when he stepped by. Charlies also attempted to glare a hole through me and I chuckled at their overprotective nature. Once inside, the way Wes slid an arm around Charlie's waist and they faced me looked like a tag-team effort.

Wes told me Charlie, short for Charlotte, was here at UW on a tennis scholarship. That explained her tall, athletic figure. I wasn't sure how she ended up being Ellie's roommate but all I cared about was how easily she'd traded with mine. One look at her face, eyebrows and mouth wrenched up in concern, made one thing obvious.

Apparently I underestimated the 'easy' level.

"Exactly what are your feelings about Ellie?" Charlie cut right to the point and without a blink, which I respected.

"I..." I paused for a moment, then shrugged and answered honestly, "Want her back. I never stopped... wanting her back."

My answer, which was mostly true, definitely hadn't appeased both of them. Charlie pursed her lips and Wes' grip on her tightened. "Those are intentions, not feelings. What if she's not the girl you knew?"

Charlie was right, I hadn't shared my feelings. When I got here at UW, I wasn't entirely sure of them myself but one look at Ellie affirmed everything. Deep down, my feelings hadn't changed at all for Ellie.

What concerned me wasn't the possibility I actually loved the Ellie I knew two years ago, but whether she still had any feelings for me. I wasn't about to vomit all my feelings to her social gatekeepers though.

Instead, I crossed my arms over my chest and again went with the honest, direct confession, "I've known a lot of versions of Ellie."

The sarcastic biting Ellie who hated football players but had me with one look.

The fun, smart, confident, sexy, and forward Ellie.

The loving and caring Ellie.

Even the sad and broken Ellie.

My answer obviously wasn't good enough for Wes because his eyebrows drew together. "How serious are you here, LT?"

"Ellie broke up with me," I reminded him. "So pretty fucking serious if I'm here and want her back."

After a few practices, workouts, dinners, and nights in our apartment, Wes seemed like a stand-up guy. He was in a solid relationship, now engaged, called his parents a few times during the month we were here, and had an obvious concern for Ellie.

While we called our apartment a two-bedroom, technically on paper it was a one-bedroom with a den. Since Wes moved in first, he took the actual bedroom and left me with a tiny space that my bed entirely filled up. My dresser hadn't even fit, so we stuck it on a wall outside the glass doors that offered no privacy.

Wes' bedroom had the same glass doors, probably to give some charm or illusion of more space, but I'd definitely already seen more of him and Charlie together after they got engaged. Two walk-ins that I'd turned my head away from sent me and Wes digging through our rental contract with one thought in mind.

They should live together.

I hadn't planned to tell Wes about me and Ellie but after he proposed to Charlie, our next dinner conversation led to another. Ironically, he started by how he told me Ellie was off-limits.

"For the record," he'd started casually. "New guys never get the message the first time they're told, but don't even think about going for Charlie's roommate. Dead end there, bro."

"Why would I go for her roommate?" I'd mumbled in response because frankly there was only one girl on campus I had any interest in.

"Everyone does, because she's got a heart of gold." Wes looked up from his plate of food with an intense, almost dark glare. "She tutors a few guys and helps others with their meal plans. But she's a hard no, bro."

"Sounds like a nice girl," I pretended like I cared and rubbed one hand over my chin. "What's her name, so I know to stay away from her?"

"Ellie Harrison," he replied casually but the intense look in his eyes hadn't changed. "Again, don't even think about looking at her. If I don't, then D-Train will rearrange your internal organs for it."

My chopsticks slipped from my grasp, then hit the table and splattered my General Tso's sauce like sticky fireworks onto the table. I straightened up in my seat and just stared at him with my jaw practically hinged off. My reaction had nothing to do with Darrius Williams, the Huskies' 6ft6, 260-pound offensive lineman but a 5ft2, 105-pound brunette who tripped over thin air.

Did he say... Ellie!? As in, my Ellie?

While I appreciated the 'stay away from Ellie' message even more if that sentiment was shared with the whole team, I was even more stoked that just a shared Chinese take-out dinner was all I needed before lady luck smiled on me.

Finally. Let's see how I can work this in my favor.

"You're fucking kidding me." My mouth dropped open so wide that I was surprised my last bite of food hadn't fallen back out. "Ellie Harrison, from Santa Cruz, California?"

"You know her," he stated flatly. "Eleanor Harrison."

The start of a huge shit-eating grin spread across my face while past images of Ellie flashed through my mind. "If her middle name is Grace, then I sure do..."

"You used to know Ellie, LT." Charlie's curt answer snapped me out of memory lane. "But how do we know that you aren't just a jaded ex here for payback?"

My eyes darted between the identical expressions on both their faces, eyes narrowed in distrust and mouths pressed together in skepticism. Despite how I wanted to laugh at their seriousness, I doubted that helped the situation. So instead, I just cleared my throat and forced a tight smile.

"Look, I won't say it didn't hurt because it did." One of my hands ran over my hand then scrubbed over the back of my neck. "But I never stopped... caring about her. If she doesn't want to get back together then I'll respect that."

If I was fully honest, then the idea Ellie hadn't wanted to get back together never occurred to me because I'd refused to let myself think that. But I wasn't about to pour my bleeding heart out to these two now, even if they protectively acted in Ellie's best interest.

The hardness in Charlie's gaze softened but she pressed, "So you're not gonna just toy with her like every other transfer playboy before you? Or are you just like them, trying to hit and quit it?"

My mouth dried at her words.

Fuck... What?

Ellie and I barely said more than hi to each other, who do they take me for?

"Look, Charlie... " I stared straight at her and tried my best not to sound condescending but their insinuation pissed me off. "I'm not here for a quick score and I'm definitely not here for revenge."

I reached into my pocket, pulled out my phone, and opened up one of my locked photo albums. "I don't know how else to convince you other than... Here."

I passed my phone to Charlie, who scrolled through the pictures while Wes looked over her shoulder.

"I could've deleted them," I muttered and stuffed my hands into the pockets on my sweatpants. "Would've been easier."

"Why didn't you?" Wes' eyes looked up to mine and the creases in his forehead softened slightly.

The album had my favorite and most intimate pictures of Ellie. None of them were nudes or even sexy pictures. A few I'd taken when she was peacefully asleep, with the same coy half-smile that player on her lips before they parted and she drooled. A few others she hadn't known about included her chin lifted, eyes upwards with a look of awe from when we'd toured here at UW.

In another picture, I kissed her cheek after one of my high school games. She pretended she was grossed out at how sweaty I was but her smile gave her away. My eyes rolled at the picture of my silly public love proclamation I'd done in Salesian's parking lot but my chest squeezed at the one from Christmas where she held up the promise ring I'd given her with a true, genuinely happy smile.

Charlie's thumb hovered over my phone screen, her eyes lifted to mine, then she flashed my phone screen. "This."

I stared at the photo she'd landed on before a grin spread across my face. At first glance, it looked like any regular picture. Ellie wore a gray hooded sweatshirt, one of mine by how it swallowed her small frame whole and the sleeves were rolled up. Her dark hair was slightly matted and damp from the light rain that morning but her head was cocked backwards, her eyes squeezed tightly closed, and her mouth opened up in the loudest laugh that echoed out of my memory from that day.

We were here, ironically.

"She made me catch one of those damn market fish," I admitted sheepishly before my grin relaxed.

The bittersweet memory, since I'd asked Ellie to be my college roommate that day and she'd agreed, brought back mixed emotions. That was the last moment in our relationship that Ellie and I were truly happy. Everything with our future together felt like our plans were falling into place before they actually felt completely apart.

Now that I was here, I knew time had passed and things would be different but Ellie and I both deserved a chance to get back to that place of happiness. I didn't know her thoughts but I'd never been happier than when I was with my girl.

While I suppressed those personal feelings as much as possible, Charlie and Wes exchanged a weird, silent couple glance.

"Look, I'm glad you feel this strongly about Ellie," I assured them. "But if you're that against it, then why help me?"

"We have our reasons," Wes quipped. "But that's not why we're here."

'Course not, it's just my ass on the hot seat.

"I know everything about her," I replied in a voice that sounded cool and confident, although there was the obvious two-year gap.

The past two years, I followed Ellie online but her digital footprint was as small as the rest of her. She had one social media account with nothing but a generic profile picture of a giant meatball on a plate of spaghetti and a link to her cooking blog.

My social media was slimmed down, nothing personal, but active at the request of my coaches for free game-day PR. But I was definitely aware that she followed mine when she viewed my updates about Aggies' wins.

Mom couldn't have Googled her way out of a paper bag but when I noticed Ellie had liked her profile picture of me and Brody, I took over Mom's account and updated it with pictures like a litmus test if Ellie was still out there. Whenever I'd had a low day, Mom texted me a random picture and a few hours later, Ellie liked it.

No part of me ever admitted to anyone how much I'd also not only followed Ellie's cooking blog but might possibly have been responsible for at least half the views on her videos. To anyone else, Ellie hadn't changed much physically but I saw the differences. The color in her cheeks and sparkle in her eyes returned and her soft, infectious smiles and laughs both seemed more effortless. While I was beyond relieved at how happy and healthy Ellie looked, a part of me was disappointed that I wasn't involved front and center in that process.

"You don't know her over the last two years," Charlie replied with one more glance down at my phone. "Ellie's pulled herself out from a heavy pile of shit."

No, but I was sure there when the shit was piled on her.

While they'd known her the past two years, I was positive they didn't know everything because of the NDA Ryder's parents had slapped Ellie's family, Harper, Harper's Dad, and me with in a legal retaliation threat against Ellie, me, and Jake.

"I know." My hand slipped out of my pants, then I crossed my arms over my chest. "And how she deserved none of it."

My jaw clenched at the memory of how Ellie had slipped away into a silent battle against her own self doubt and worse, how I hadn't done anything to stop her.

I failed her then, let her fall.

But I won't do that again.

"I also wanted to remind you that we're down the hall. One word from Ellie, no questions asked, and I'll tear you inside out," Wes grumbled in a low voice.

Mental note made, Wes and Darrius have it out for my organs.

The irony that one of my classes this quarter was Human Anatomy tugged a smile on my mouth.

"And, for the record, I'm not helping you." Charlie tossed my phone back in the air to me. On her way out the door, she added over her shoulder, "I'm helping Ellie."

With one last warning look from each Charlie and Wes, the door clicked behind them. Silence surrounded me once their muffled voices in the hallway softened.

My mind circled around what Charlie said and suddenly two things became very apparent to me. First, the two-year time gap between Ellie and me was a bigger factor than I'd expected because they knew something I didn't. Second, and more importantly, Ellie obviously still struggled with... that something.

What help does Ellie need?

Whatever she went through, my stubbornness rushed forwards. I'd failed Ellie in the past was damned sure if, given another chance, I wouldn't fail her again.

No if's. My chance is now here and I'm gonna take it.