Hooped #5 (The Hooped Interracial Romance Series #5) by Claire Adams Page A

you’d be done with the test,
or I’d have come looking for you,” I told him. I squirmed free of his tight
embrace and looked up into his face. “How did the test go? You said they would
score it immediately, right? What did you get?” Devon laughed, and even though
I knew that he couldn’t possibly be so lighthearted and happy if he hadn’t
managed to pass highly enough to justify the scholarship he’d been given and
get himself out of trouble, I had to hear it from him.
    “I got a 32!” He kissed me on the lips once more. I
clung to Devon, relief washing through me; he had done as well as I had—which
definitely showed that he was much smarter than he needed to be to get the
scholarship. And this time, there could be no question that it had been Devon
who took the test, and that he had earned the score. Devon broke away from my
lips, looking into my eyes with a loving, charming smile. “You’re the first
person I told,” he said, his arms tightening around me. “ Wanna come with me back to the frat so I can
tell the rest of the guys finally?” I laughed.
    “Seriously? You told me before you told the team, even?” Devon shrugged, letting me slip out of his
arms and taking my hand.
    “The coach knows—but that’s because he was there. I
figured you deserved to know before anyone else did.” I laughed again,
delighted beyond anything I could imagine feeling that everything—so far—had
turned out so well.
    We went back to the frat house, and Devon gathered
everyone who wasn’t in class in the living room. “Guys, I have an announcement
to make,” he said, standing before ninety percent of the Phi Kappa household. I
was seated off to the side, already beaming with my knowledge of the news he
had for his friends.
    “Oh god, did you knock Jenn up?” One of the guys shouted
out; for an instant I was appalled, until
I realized that it was a joke—everyone laughed.
    “Not yet,” Devon said, grinning archly. “Plenty of
time for that later.” There were more chuckles, and I forced myself to relax. “As most of you know, I had to re-take the ACT in
order to lift the suspension the school put me under. That’s because like an
idiot I cheated the first time around—so don’t ever let me hear about any of
you making a deal with some high school kid to take his tests for him.” He
looked out over the assembly of brothers sternly.
    “This PSA brought to you by Devon Sealy,” one of the
other guys commented. “Come on, man! Tell us the news!” Devon grinned, rolling
his eyes at the impatience of his frat brothers.
    “I got a 32! Way more than enough to pass it, and to
get re-enrolled. Coach says I can play at the championship!” The room erupted in a loud, raucous cheer, and I found
myself laughing, watching as the guys jumped around, pumping fists in the air
as if the victory wasn’t only Devon’s—as if it was a victory for the entire
frat. In a certain respect, I thought, it kind of was. Devon held up his hands
for quiet, and gradually the cheering
dissipated. “I just wanted to say that I couldn’t have done it without Jenn,
and you guys had better all be insanely jealous of me with a girlfriend who can
get me an almost-perfect score on a test along with being hot and a good cook.
That’s all.”
    The guys in the frat went back to cheering and jumping
around, some of them taking a moment to send text messages to the brothers who
were in classes. Someone proposed throwing a little “mini-party” to celebrate
Devon’s return to the team and to the school, and everyone—Devon and me
included—was on board. A couple of the guys went on a beer run, and someone
ordered in about a dozen pizzas of different kinds, and as the frat house
filled up with the rest of the brothers—those who had been away—along with the
members of the team who weren’t in the frat ,
the atmosphere was a lot like a regular Phi Kappa party.
    Devon and I were both only too happy to indulge,
hanging out and