As he turned to leave, I called his name in frustration, to which he turned around. “Nothing for you.”

Annoyed, I groaned, and he laughed.

Visibly annoyed, I turned back to the others.

Larissa was still grinning.

“Your brother’s pretty hot.”

My jaw dropped. First Mia, now Larissa, too.

Bayla rolled her eyes. “Larissa thinks every second guy here is hot.”

“Because every second guy here is hot!” Larissa laughed.

A little while later, Ezra returned with the order and placed a strawberry ice cream with pink heart sprinkles in front of me.

“You’re serious?” I laughed, and Ezra disappeared, smiling in amusement without another word.

“And such a cutie, too,” Larissa continued to gush, earning a punishing look from me.

What I needed now was not ice cream but a proper drink. But he wouldn’t give it to me, as I knew him, even though I was already nineteen.

The door to the bar swung open and I, like most of the people in the bar, watched curiously as the DeLoughreys entered the bar.

While the black-haired one looked around in an examining way and the blond one was busy with his phone in his hand, the brown-haired one casually strutted across the room, over to the bar and waved at the bartender to order a drink.

While he smelled like a lot of trouble and the blonde looked handsome as hell, the black-haired one seemed rather cold and sexy. And indeed. All the girls in the bar had turned to the young men. Jenny was striding toward the blonde with her iPad pulled out, and two blondes were already giggling their way toward the brown-haired pretty guy at the bar counter.

I stopped breathing.

He looked directly at me...and winked, a smirk on his even lips.

I wheeled around to Bayla and Larissa with warm cheeks.

“Did you guys see that?”

Bayla just nodded, and both girls grinned, but Larissa’s gaze shifted the next moment to the black-haired man who was already walking across the room toward the bar, his gaze lingering on our table for a second.

God, this was uncomfortable.

“Who are these attractive guys?” Larissa murmured in a low voice, not without taking her eyes off the young man, who was definitely a bit older than we were.

“They walk around like undercover FBI agents?” Bayla chuckled softly.

“Ugh, I’d volunteer to be arrested by that one,” Larissa whispered, taking a sip of her beer.

This time, Bayla looked disturbed at Larissa. “What did you take today?”

The door flew open again, and faces all too familiar to me entered the bar—Nash and his guys in tow, Emely in their midst.

“I think I need that for a minute,” I groaned, reaching for Larissa’s bottle to take a big sip.

“Them again,” Bayla sighed, forcing me to look back at them.

I had been hoping that Nash had gotten uglier, but he had the same golden blond hair, the slight dimples when he smiled, and those deep blue glossy eyes, which, when you looked at them up closely, reminded you of foreign galaxies. His tan had become more golden, which he definitely owed to the indigenous genes, even if they were not as dominant in him as they were in his sister.

My heart tightened when he turned in our direction and spotted me. It was like earlier. Just a brief moment, but too intense. So many unspoken words, so much lay between us.

His buddy Caleb patted him on the shoulder and gestured toward the bar. He stared for another second before turning away.

I began to breathe again.

“Well, look who missed us,” the brown-haired DeLoughrey laughed, raising his glass toward Nash.

And while the blond gave him a warning look and turned away from Jenny, the black-haired one eyed my ex-boyfriend with coldness.

Nash, as usual, clenched his fists and marched toward the DeLoughreys with his head held high.

I knew he only disliked them because his father had problems with their family, as he had with me being with his son even though Dr. Copeland had never met me in person.

“Wasn’t my warning clear enough?!” Nash pressed out.

The brown-haired DeLoughrey turned to him, the two female blondes beside him.

“That warning was directed at your rebellious lapdog, wasn’t it? What did you say his name was? Julian?”

Emely’s eyes snapped open.

“Stay away from him,” Nash growled angrily. “You better get the fuck off our campus right now!”

“Relax, we were just about to invite you guys for a drink,” the brown-haired one continued to laugh, holding up his hands while looking at his brothers.

Emely crossed her arms and gave him a hostile look. “Which we gratefully decline.”

The DeLoughrey raised his brows, unimpressed yet curious before smirking at Emely as if this was all a game.

“Your sister?” he asked Nash, eyeing Emely closely. “She’s quite sassy.”

Emely blinked at him dismissively and Nash, I knew, was about to explode.

The black-haired DeLoughrey seemed to notice that, too, because he stepped forward.

“We have no intention of disobeying your rules, as long as you leave us alone.”

It sounded anything but compliant, more like a threatening, hostile statement.

Nash seemed to consider, then stepped toward him and lowered his voice. “You know I don’t give a shit? I don’t want you here.”