Then his stormy eyes got a twinkle in them and before I could react, he reached down, picked me up, and tossed me into the deeper water. I came up sputtering, but laughing all the same. His deep chuckle enveloped me and I wanted nothing more than to be closer to him.
We played around like that for an hour. Just alternating splashing one another, though he was usually too fast for me. When my fingers started to prune, I knew it was getting close to time for us to head back home. I decided to attempt to dunk West once more before calling it a day.
Before I could reach him though, he went under. I stood there and looked from the left to right waiting for his head to come back up. Then I felt the tug to my ankle. I immediately went under again. When I came back up, he was there in front of me laughing. He helped me brush the wet hair away from my face. Our smiles were wide as we stared back at one another. Then the air grew thick and our smiles started to slip. West’s eyes dropped to my lips for a brief second and then he began to lean in.
My heart rate kicked into high gear as his arms slipped around my waist below the water. He pulled me as close to him as I could be. Just as I prepared myself for the kiss that I just knew was coming, he closed his eyes and pulled away from me. When he opened them again, it was as though a switch had been flipped and the normal smiling West was back.
We stayed in the water a few more minutes before finally deciding we’d had our fill of fun in the sun. We slowly got out and made our way back to our things. I helped West reload everything and then we headed back to his truck. He opened the door for me before tossing the cooler in the back and climbing into the driver’s seat. He looked over me and smiled, showing off that dimple that I loved so much.
“Well, was it everything you hoped for?” He asked. I grinned wide as I nodded my head enthusiastically.
“It was perfect. Thank you for bringing me.”
“Of course.” He started up the truck and we began our long drive back.
At some point I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew West was gently shaking my shoulder. When I opened my eyes, I’d noticed we were parked back in his driveway. I stretched and let out a yawn before turning to him. He looked so happy sitting there next to me and it made me smile.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you.” He shrugged it off.
“It’s fine, though I have to say I never pegged you as a snorer.” I gasped before gently hitting him in the arm.
“I don’t snore,” I said. He just laughed before he opened his door and climbed out. I quickly followed suit. “West, I don’t snore.” He was still chuckling as he unlocked the front door and motioned me inside.
“It’s fine Len. It was kind of cute actually. If you think freight trains are cute.” I gasped again. I couldn’t believe he had just said that.
“West.” He walked by me and headed down the hallway toward his room and I was quick to follow after him. “Take it back.” He looked over his shoulder at me and flashed me that irresistible dimple. Then he disappeared into his room and closed the door. I huffed before following after him. I opened his door and stepped inside, but my words died on my tongue as I saw that he’d taken off his shirt and tossed it across the room.
It shouldn’t have made a difference to me seeing him in nothing but his swim trunks since it was the same thing I’d seen him in all day, but for some reason this time it caused my heart rate to speed up and my palms to sweat. My eyes couldn’t seem to focus on which part of him I actually wanted to look at. They drifted from his perfectly defined chest, to those abs of his, to his wide arms, only to start all over.
“Uh,” I muttered before my mind finally kicked into gear. I quickly turned on my heel and went back to my room where my phone began it’s pestering ringing all over again. I knew I couldn’t avoid Stetson forever, but maybe I could for just a little bit longer. I shut off my phone and sat down while I tried to think of anything other than how incredible West looked without a shirt on or how nice his lips had felt against mine the day before.
I only had four more hours before it was time for me to leave. Then I would be back at home and I knew Stetson would be there waiting for me.
Thirty-Five
When I walked through the front door, the girls came rushing in to greet me. They all had smiles about a mile wide, but I couldn’t bring myself to show the same enthusiasm. Thankfully, Stetson hadn’t been waiting for me, but I knew it would just be a matter of time before he showed up.
“How was Houston?” Layla asked, even though it was completely obvious they knew exactly what had happened.
“Nice,” I replied simply before I kicked off my shoes and made my way into the kitchen. I opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. When I turned around, I saw the girls had followed me.
“What did you do?” Bri asked with a Cheshire cat grin.
“Nothing really. Went to this bar with West and his roommates, saw him play, and then spent a couple of hours at the beach.”
“Anything else you want to tell us?” Jessie cooed, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at their horrible attempt at being nonchalant.
“Nope,” I said simply. Then I started to walk down the hallway toward my room.
“Oh, come on Len. We’ve been dying for you to get home so we could talk about it,” Layla pleaded as they all followed me down the hallway. I stepped inside my room and came back out a second later. They were waiting expectantly, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“It was amazing,” I relented and they all squealed their excitement. The four of us made our way into the living room and I rehashed every moment that I had spent with West while I had been in Houston. They hung onto every word like it was the air they breathed.
“So does this mean you guys are together now?” Bri asked.
“No.” Layla groaned out loud.
“Why the hell not?”
“Stetson and I are still together, for one.”
“You sure about that?” Jessie offered. “Because he has left some nasty messages for you that say otherwise.”
“Well, we haven’t officially ended things yet, so…”
“What’s the hold up?” Layla asked.
“I’m just waiting until I know exactly what I want to say.” There was a knock on the door and Jessie stood up to check. After she looked through the peephole, she turned back to face me.
“You might want to hurry up and figure that out. He’s here.” Layla and Bri exchanged a glance while I let out a deep sigh and stood up from the couch. Then I walked over and opened the front door once Jessie had stepped to the side.
Stetson stood there looking back at me like he hadn’t slept much in the last twenty-four hours. His hair was disheveled and he had at least a day’s worth of stubble covering his usually bare chin. He looked me over and I knew I had to get this over with. There would be some hurtful things said, and there would probably be yelling, but it had to be done. I wasn’t going to lead him on anymore. It was obvious to me at that point that my feelings for West weren’t going anywhere. We were like magnets. No matter what we did, we just kept getting pulled back together, and it wasn’t fair to have Stetson in the middle of that.
“Uh, hi,” I said softly. “Would you like to come in?” He didn’t really answer as he stepped inside. He didn’t bother to say hello to the girls as he walked straight down the hallway and into my bedroom. I looked at the girls and they all looked back at me with sympathy.
“We should probably go get some dinner or something,” Bri offered, and I was thankful. The last thing I wanted was for them to hear the screaming match that I just knew I was walking into. I told them all goodbye before letting out a deep sigh and heading towards my room.
Stetson was standing by my window with his back toward me when I walked in. I closed the door behind me, and he glanced over his shoulder. I could see the anger in his gaze and I prepared myself for the words I deserved. While I might not have initiated the kiss with West, I didn’t exactl
y do anything to stop it.
He turned all the way around, his face a mixture of disgust and anguish. I took a breath and moved toward him. “Stetson, I’m so…” I didn’t get to finish my sentence. He held a hand up in front of him as he glared back at me.
“Save the bullshit, Lennon,” he hissed. I flinched at the harshness in his tone. “Do you seriously expect me to believe there’s nothing going on with you two?” I didn’t have the chance to answer before he spoke again. “I asked you to stay away from him, and instead you went to Houston and fucking kissed him on TV!”
“I…”
“I don’t want to fucking hear whatever excuse is about to come out of your mouth right now.” He ran a hand through his hair as he began to pace back and forth in front of me. I wanted to try and comfort him in some way, but I didn’t know how.
“I should have told you about him from the beginning,” I said softly. Stetson stopped pacing and looked at me.
“Yeah, it would have been pretty damn nice to know my girlfriend was already screwing someone else.”
“I’m not.” He scoffed and looked away from me again.
“I don’t believe you.” I swallowed hard.
“It’s the truth. We do have a history together, and I should have told you that. I was scared to though. I met West when I was thirteen years old. At first, it was just a crush. Purely innocent, but then he took me to prom and told me that he liked me too. We couldn’t be together though. I was only sixteen at the time, and he was older. My parents didn’t want me seeing him, so we kept our distance.”
“Should I be feeling sorry for you? Cause I don’t.” I ignored his comment and continued.
“We stayed apart for a year, but then when we saw each other again; it was as if no time had passed at all. The feelings we’d had, hadn’t gone away. So, we decided to just see what happened. We didn’t tell anyone because I was still only seventeen and he was about to be a sophomore in college. We had a secret relationship until the following summer.” I didn’t want to tell Stetson the entire reason for our breakup, so I glossed over it instead. “Distance drove us apart. I went to college not expecting to see him again. That’s when I met you.”
“Lucky me,” he muttered sarcastically under his breath.
“When I went home for Christmas, he was there. We talked. I told him about us. We couldn’t say goodbye though. Not completely. So, we decided to be friends. Nothing more. I wasn’t going to hurt you.” He shook his head and looked away from me. I kept going. I needed to say everything so that maybe he could understand that I really hadn’t meant for things to go this way.
“We mostly just talked over the phone. He came to visit once, but it never went further than sitting beside each other. I promise.”
“He came here?” Stetson asked, turning toward me again. His brows were furrowed in renewed anger. “Are you fucking kidding me?!”
“Nothing happened,” I promised.
“Jesus Christ.” He raked both hands through his hair. “I’m such a fucking idiot. This whole time you’ve been fucking him and kissing me.” A realization dawned on his face. “Is that why we haven’t had sex yet? Because of him.”
“We haven’t had sex because I wasn’t ready,” I corrected.
“Because of him,” he repeated. “Because I’m not him. Be honest Lennon, if I was you would have given it up a long time ago.” I reeled back.
“I didn’t deserve that,” I said.
“Like hell you didn’t. You kissed another guy on TV, Lennon. While you’re supposed to be dating me.” I didn’t have a response to him. He stared back at me while the silence surrounded us.
“You know what, screw this. He can fucking have you.” Then he stormed out of my room. When the front door slammed, I jumped. About a half hour after Stetson left, the girls came back. They all came to check on me, and I assured them more than once that I was okay. Stetson and I hadn’t been right for each other. I knew it from the beginning, but I ignored it because I was trying to move on from West. Or at least that’s what I convinced myself of at the time.
I wasn’t interested in doing that anymore.
So, I grabbed my purse and headed out the front door. Then I got back into my car and headed down the same highway that I had been on just a few hours before.
Thirty-Six
I knocked on the door and waited. After a few minutes, I knocked harder. Finally I heard someone moving around on the other side. I heard what sounded like a crash followed by West cursing loudly. Then the door was tossed open and he stood there looking back at me angrily. Once his eyes took me in though, his anger evaporated and a look of surprise washed over him.
“Lennon?”
“Hey.”
“What are you doing here?” I didn’t really have an answer for him.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. He stepped to the side so I could come inside. Once I did, he closed the door behind me.
“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked. I gave a half hearted nod. He took my hand in his and led me down the hallway toward his bedroom. “Okay, what happened? I thought you were going home.”
“I did go home,” I said as I took a seat on the edge of his bed. He sat down next to me and waited for me to continue. “Stetson and I broke up.”
“Shit, Len, I’m sorry.” I shook my head.
“Don’t be.”
“Is it because I kissed you?”
“No,” I said softly. “Not really. I think we’ve been heading towards this for a while. Honestly, I’m surprised we made it this far.” He rubbed the back of his neck. I could tell he was trying to come up with something to make me feel better. I appreciated the thought, even if I didn’t need it. I felt just fine.
He looked over at me and gave a sideways smile. I let my eyes fall to his lips. Those soft lips that I hadn’t been able to stop thinking of ever since that kiss the day before. A kiss that hadn’t lasted nearly as long as I would have liked. I planned to rectify that right then.
Before he had a chance to stop me, I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his. He didn’t waste any time kissing me back. His hand found my cheek and then tangled into my hair while he turned his head to the side for a better angle. As his lips glided over mine, everything else was erased. That’s what I loved most about our kisses. The whole world vanished and for those few moments, it was just the two of us.
Suddenly, I had the urge to do more than just kiss him. I shifted slightly and then started to lay back against his comforter. I pulled him down with me and for a few seconds, he followed happily. His hand braced itself on my side while he climbed over me. Just when I thought he was going to actually be with me, he started to pull back.
He sat back and rubbed his jaw. I raised up onto my elbows and stared back at him with confusion. Had I misread everything? Maybe, he wasn’t interested in being with me like that anymore, but then why had he kissed me after his game? And then again just then?
He let out a groan before he spoke in a raspy voice. “God, I can’t believe I’m about to say this, Len, but we can’t.”
“Why not? We’re both single now.”
“Len, you’ve been single for like an hour and half,” he said. “Believe me, I would love nothing more than to be with you right now, but is that really the best idea? Don’t you think we should talk about the fact that the relationship you’ve been in for the last year just ended?”
“I’m not really interested in talking, West,” I said truthfully. I moved to kiss him, but he gently held me back. He looked so completely torn, and I knew it would only take a little more prodding from me to get him to give in. I was really interested in making that happen.
“Len, come on,” he pleaded, but I could hear the waver in his voice. He was close. So, close. I closed the small amount of space that he had put between us, and he kept his eyes locked onto mine.
“West, I have wanted you for so long now, and now that I can finally have you, you’re saying we can’t. I know my rela
tionship just ended, and I know I probably should be a lot more upset by that, but I’m not. He wasn’t the guy for me, West.” He didn’t seem convinced. I frowned. This was proving to be harder than I thought it would be.
I placed my hands on his shoulders while I moved my leg to the other side of his lap so that I was straddling him. I looped my arms around his neck as I looked down into those stormy eyes that were gazing back at me with nothing but adoration.
“We don’t have to do anything,” I relented. “I just want to be with you.” He reached up to cup my face and his thumb stroked my cheek tenderly. He looked down to my lips before moving forward to claim then in a sweet kiss. When he pulled back, he grinned that dimpled grin at me, and I couldn’t help but return it.
“Let’s get some dinner, yeah?” I nodded.
“Yeah.”
West and I ended up going to the same little diner that he had taken me to during my first trip to Houston when I was seventeen. We couldn’t seem to stop smiling at each other the whole time, and we even held hands over the table. I loved it. It was so nice being out with him and not having to worry about hiding it.
After dinner, we went to a bowling alley. It had been years since I’d last bowled, but I was excited to try it out again. Thankfully, West seemed to be just as rusty as I was. We laughed at the fact that after ten frames, the two of us still only had a combined score of two hundred.
“It’s a good thing you’ve got football to fall back on,” I teased as we left the bowling alley. “Because that was just sad to watch.” He feigned surprise at my light hearted insult.
“Like you did any better,” he tossed back at me. We laughed at our own expense before he took my hand in his effectively shutting me up. I thought we would go back to his truck, but instead he pulled me in the other direction. We strolled down the sidewalk with nowhere to go, but neither of seemed to mind.
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