by Renee, Holly
There was a quiet lull between us. The silence of getting to know each other, but for some reason, it didn’t feel awkward like it should have.
“Should we play twenty-one questions?” I laughed at my stupid question, but his eyes lit up.
“Only if I get to go first.”
“Shoot.” I sat up farther in my seat and prepared myself for his questions.
“What’s your favorite movie?” He was watching me so intently, and it was weird. I didn’t think I had ever been so noticed before, so truly noticed.
“Starting with the hard questions first.” I took a sip of my water. “Harry Potter.”
“Which one?” He narrowed his eyes like one wrong answer from my lips could ruin everything.
“All of them. I refuse to pick a favorite, so don’t make me.”
“Okay then. What’s your first question?” He stretched his arm out, resting it on the back of the booth causing his t-shirt to stretch across his chest. I couldn’t stop staring as I thought of a question to ask him.
“Why are you in a fraternity?”
Theo had joined for the parties that came with being a frat member and because half the football team were also members, but Easton didn’t seem like the type.
“I got a scholarship when I joined.” He had no shame in sharing his answer. “It pays for a quarter of my tuition.”
I wanted to nod in understanding, but honestly, I couldn’t. My parents had paid for my education like the cost was nothing to them, and in reality, I guess it wasn’t. I knew I was blessed, but there was something about knowing that Easton had to work for what he wanted, that he had to join a fraternity he didn’t seem to fit into just to get an education. It made me feel guilty.
“Do you have any tattoos?” He wiggled his eyebrows, and I laughed at his preposterous question.
“Absolutely not. My mother would have a coronary.”
“Your mom strict?” he asked, but I didn’t answer him.
Instead, I shook my head. “Don’t get greedy. It’s my turn.”
He chuckled, and I thought about my next question.
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
He grinned, a dazzling grin that made my stomach tighten, and shook his head. “Not at the moment. What about you?”
I should have laughed at his question. It was a joke really, because I hadn’t had a decent prospect for dating since I broke up with Josh Lowe after I lost my virginity to him when I was sixteen years old.
“No.”
Mei returned to our table with our food, and I was thankful. I didn’t want to start rambling about my love life or lack thereof.
I stabbed my fork into a bite of chicken and moaned as the flavor hit my mouth.
“I told you,” Easton boasted. “It’s the best ever.”
“Are you from Georgia originally?” It was starting to feel more like two people just genuinely getting to know each other versus a game of twenty-one questions.
“I am. Northern Georgia, but it still counts.” He took a bite of his food, and I could see him thinking of his next question as he ate. “Tell me one thing that’s on your bucket list.”
“My bucket list?” I scrunched my nose. “Do people seriously have those?”
“They do.” He nodded like I was crazy. “Come on. Tell me one thing you’ve always wanted to do.”
“I don’t know.” I laughed as a series of things that would piss my parents off ran through my head but none of those were real. “It’s stupid, really.”
“It’s not stupid. Just tell me.”
“I’ve always wanted to go to a drive-in movie. You know the kind where you stay in your car and listen to your movie on the radio.”
He was grinning at me.
“You know? Like in Grease?”
“I know what a drive-in movie is.” He chuckled as he ran his fingers through his hair.
“Then why are you looking at me like that?”
There were a million things I expected him to say. Because your bucket list item is dumb, because other people want to cure cancer, because a drive-in movie is as lame as you are. But the last thing I expected to come out of his mouth was, “Because you’re so damn cute.”
Seven
I hesitated at the front door. I didn’t really know the rules of a frat house. Was I supposed to knock? Should I just walk in?
Every time I had been here before, I had been with Theo. It felt weird actually. To not be here with him. It felt like I was doing something wrong even though I wasn’t.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and sent Easton a quick text.
Easton: Be right there.
His gray sweatpants hung low on his hips, and they were the first thing I noticed as he opened the door.
“I almost thought you were going to bail.”
I looked up at him, slowly, taking in all the details that assured me that coming here was, in fact, a bad idea.
“I’m five minutes early.”
He put his hand on the doorframe, and I was far too interested in the way the muscles of his arm shifted with the movement.
“Yeah, but you seem like the type that shows up at least twenty minutes early.” He smiled at me, and he was right. I had been sitting in my car for the last ten minutes at least, but I wasn’t telling him that.
I pushed against his stomach, forcing him to move out of my way. “I’m not that predictable, am I?”
He was staring down at me, and even though I knew I should have moved my hand away from him, I let his warmth seep into my fingertips as I stepped farther into the house.
“No.” He barely shook his head. “I guess you’re not.”
Easton pushed the door closed behind us, and I let my hand fall away from him as the latch rang out around us.
“Do you want anything to eat or drink before we head upstairs?” Easton didn’t step away from me, and I realized that I hadn’t been this close to him since the first day I met him. I hadn’t allowed myself this close.
Because everything about him was more potent when I couldn’t seem to escape it.
“No. I’m fine.”
“Okay.” He hesitated, only a second longer, before he moved away from me and headed up the stairs. The same stairs that I had taken with Theo so many times before.
We stopped three doors down from Theo’s. I didn’t know why I stared at his door when we passed. I knew he wouldn’t be here today. Not that it mattered. Theo was my best friend and Easton was my partner in a group project. I just needed to repeat that over and over in my head.
Neither of these guys were for me.
I took in Easton’s room as I stepped inside. The walls were a crisp white, but one of them was covered from floor to ceiling in bookshelves that were crammed with books in every nook and cranny. A large bed was in the middle of the room and the dark gray comforter was thrown haphazardly over it. His desk was made of dark wood and took up a large majority of the space.
The scent of him, the spicy hint of cologne, the clean fragrance of detergent, I took a moment to breathe it in because I couldn’t help it.
Easton sat down on his bed, his back against his headboard, his legs laid out in front of him, and for a moment, I felt weak in the knees over how handsome he was.
“Would Professor Bryant approve of us working on this project in your room?”
He ran his hand through his hair and looked up at me with indecision warring in his eyes. “No. I guess he wouldn’t.”
A small thrill shot through me.
I set my backpack at the foot of his bed before pulling out my notebook and pen. He was watching me, but I let my eyes roam around his room to attempt to calm my racing heart.
I moved toward his desk, but the sound of his hand patting the bed stopped me.
“You can sit on the bed. I promise I won’t bite.”
I smiled and tried to hide my nervousness behind the fake gesture. I didn’t like him knowing that he was affecting me even though he wasn’t even tryi
ng.
“We only have a couple more questions left.” I climbed on the foot of the bed where I could face him, but we weren’t at risk for touching. “Then I’ll type everything up and we can go over it.”
“So, you’ll only be forced to be around me a couple more times.” He pouted, pushing his bottom lip out dramatically.
I wanted so badly to lean forward and pull that lip between my teeth.
“Like you need to force girls to hang out with you.” I rolled my eyes and opened my notebook. “I’m surprised you didn’t already have plans for today.”
“I can juggle.” He winked at me and I threw my pen at his chest.
“Ha ha.”
His smile was devastatingly beautiful as he rubbed his chest where the pen hit. “Don’t worry, you’re my only group project. You have my undivided attention.”
I tried not to stare as the bottom edge of his t-shirt lifted and fell with the movement.
“I’m not sure if that should make me feel better or worse.” I looked around me. “Are these sheets clean? Maybe I should sit at the desk.”
I made my way to climb off the bed, but Easton grabbed my foot before I could move an inch. “Don’t even think about it.” He pulled me toward him just a fraction. “The sheets are clean. I promise.”
My skin tingled where his hand was still pressing against my foot, and I thought about how many times I had been in a similar situation with Theo. How many times I had wanted him to kiss me. It had never felt like this.
“Where should we start?” His thumb ran over my ankle and I felt that simple touch all the way to my core.
“I’m sorry?” I was staring at his hand and silently begging it to move again.
“The questions.” His hand moved then, and he tapped his fingers against my notebook. “Where do you want to start?”
“Oh.” I quickly looked at my notebook and prayed he didn’t notice the blush that I could feel heating up my cheeks. “Um. Let me look.”
I scanned over the questions, and I tried to figure out where we last stopped. When I finally found my place, I read the question out loud before finally looking up at him.
“You’re really cute when you get flustered.” He was so relaxed, so at ease, and I felt like my heart was trying to break out of my chest.
“I’m not flustered,” I lied. We both knew I was.
But he let me get away with it.
“Have you ever been wakeboarding?”
My head spun with the different directions he was taking the conversation.
“What?”
“You.” He pointed his finger toward me. “Wakeboard. Behind a boat.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Do you want to?” There was a bit of mischief in his eyes as he asked the question, and even though I ached to reach out and touch it, I had more sense than that.
“Absolutely not.” I chuckled as I shook my head as I looked back to my notebook.
“Come on.” He leaned forward and covered the notebook with his hands. “A few of my friends are going tomorrow. You should come. You can hang out on the boat if you don’t want to try, but it will be fun.”
I stared down at his hands and tried to come up with a reason as to why I shouldn’t go. Sure, I had schoolwork to do, but I was already a little ahead in most of my classes.
“If we get this project done today, I’ll think about it.” It was a half answer, but it was the only one I was willing to give him at the moment.
“Deal.”
He scooted closer to me and started discussing the question for our project. I quickly picked up my pen and wrote down key pieces of his argument, and I somehow managed to do it without giving the words he was saying any thought.
Instead, I was thinking about how close his body was to mine, and how easily he asked me to hang out with him tomorrow. There was no pretense of the group project, no reason, other than to spend time together. I thought about what his friends were like. Would they all be upperclassmen? Would they know that Easton was actually my TA?
“What about you?” He ran his hand through his hair, and I watched as each strand fell back into place.
“Sounds good.”
My gaze snapped back to him at the sound of his deep chuckle. “You’re supposed to be arguing, freshman.”
“Right.” I straightened my spine and tapped my pen against the paper. “But I think I agree with you on this one.”
“This means I’m bringing you to the dark side. I’m pretty convincing, huh?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I just happen to agree on that one topic.”
“Okay.” He lay on his side and propped his head on his hand. “You start the next question then.”
I tried not to stare at the way his body looked so strong yet relaxed as I tried to think of my argument. I searched his walls and focused on a framed poster from a music festival as I recited the facts and my opinions.
“You go to that?” I pointed to the poster before giving him a chance to dispute my argument.
His gaze moved from my face to where I was pointing. “Yeah. I went last year. You ever been?”
“No.” I almost laughed. There was no way in hell my parents would have let me go to a music festival.
“You need to live a little.”
“I am living,” I said defensively.
“Uh huh.” He didn’t have an ounce of belief in his voice. “What’s the last thing you did just for you?”
As I thought about what he said, his question annoyed me. “I don’t know. I went to that party last weekend.”
“For Theo.” He said his name slowly.
“I… I took a nap yesterday.” It was a pathetic answer, but it was the only one I could think of.
But his answering grin told me that I was only proving his point.
“I’m going to the lake tomorrow.” I crossed my arms.
“For me or for you?”
“For me?” I pointed at my chest. “Do you know how many bets are going on in our class about what you look like under that shirt?”
He opened his mouth to say something, but I kept going.
“I am going to rack up after seeing you in your swim trunks. I’m pretty sure the pot’s up to like fifty dollars plus one girl threw in writing someone’s paper.”
“You’re ridiculous.” He rolled his eyes and his hand moved to the edge of his t-shirt. “If that’s the only reason you’re going, I can just take my shirt off now and save you the trouble.”
He lifted his shirt, revealing the smallest sliver of tanned skin.
“But…” I pulled my gaze away from the hint of toned abs to look at his face. “It only seems fair that I get to see something in return.” He dropped his shirt and ran his hand over his chin that was starting to get a little stubble. “If I make you wait until tomorrow, I’ll get to see you in a bikini.”
I sucked in a breath at the thought that he’d want to. “Unless I wear my muumuu.”
“Do I even want to know what a muumuu is?” He laughed.
“Think loads of fabric, no shape, no skin showing.” I wagged my eyebrows at him. “You won’t be able to resist me.”
“I have no doubt.” He ran his hand over his comforter. “But it’s supposed to be eighty-five degrees tomorrow. I don’t think your muumuu would last too long.”
“Damn.” I snapped my fingers.
“I guess you’ll just have to come up with a new plan.”
“To keep me covered?” I asked.
“To keep me from wanting you.”
Eight
I pulled into the parking lot that my GPS directed me to. There were trucks upon trucks parked there with boat trailers attached, and I pulled around the lot until I found a spot that looked like it was safe enough to not be in their way.
The lake was the same shade of green as the trees that surrounded it, and the smooth water was begging me to climb in as sweat already clung to my skin. I looked down at my phone to make sure I was at the r
ight place. Easton had texted me the address this morning after I turned down his offer to ride with him.
I didn’t want to field Dillon’s questions about what the hell I was or wasn’t doing with my TA when she saw me climbing into a car with him, but I knew I would have to answer to her tonight when I got home. She was still asleep when I quietly left the dorm this morning.
I spotted a group of guys near a large dock, and it was impossible not to spot Easton even though the guy standing beside him had the exact same shade of hair.
I climbed out of my car and took a deep breath as I grabbed my bag. I should have asked him who was going to be here. I should have done my research, but after him telling me that he wanted me, I couldn’t function even if I wanted to.
Easton Cole said he wanted me.
He played it off after he said it. Not because he didn’t mean it, but I think because he saw how much him saying it affected me.
Because all I could think about after that moment was how much I wanted him.
When I had gotten home last night, I had shaved every surface of my body and scrubbed my skin like I was getting ready for the Olympics of touchably soft skin.
But when I pulled on my bikini this morning, I was glad I did. I had almost considered running to Target to grab a one-piece, but that was ridiculous. I had always been self-conscious about my body, but suddenly, I felt self-conscious about every inch of skin.
Easton spotted me as I made my way toward the dock, and he smiled as he left his group without a word and made his way toward me.
“That’s one hell of a muumuu.” He looked down at my tiny blue jean shorts and white tank top, and the way he was looking at my legs was distracting.
I patted my bag that hung at my side. “I brought an extra just in case.”
“Uh huh.” He reached out and touched his fingers to mine before pulling my hand toward him. “Come meet the guys.”
I took a step in his direction as he took a step backward. “Am I the only girl here?”
“Uh.” He looked back toward his friends. “Yeah. I didn’t really think that through.”