Newly bloomed green leaves dot the oaks lining the main drive on campus. The end of spring fragrance is subtle in the air, giving tiny hints that summer is on its way.
“Did you get the call yet?” I had a feeling this would come up soon, although I can feel Minka fighting asking it as much as she could as we walk. On our way to the boy’s house, I am trying my hardest not to think about the ever-important phone call I am supposed to receive today.
SAB. Calling to tell me if I made it into the summer intensive or not.
“Not yet.” I can’t say much more, the anxious butterflies in my throat halting me from talking about it.
“Damn, they sure do wait until the last minute, huh? I take my last final tomorrow. This must be torture for you.”
“Gee, thanks. Rub it in, Minks.”
She gives me a guilty look, twirling a curl around her finger. “Sorry. I just … I want you to find out.”
I shrug, conveying that. “Yeah, I’d like to know too.” I only have two more finals left, both dances that I have to perform in front of professors, so I’m not sweating anything. I’m just stressed about my intensive, or lack thereof, and about leaving Miles for the summer.
Since our makeup in New York, things have been picture-perfect. We spend almost every night sleeping at each other’s places; he comes to sit and study in my studio when I dance until midnight, and I sit in the bleachers at his games with Minka, cheering our boys on. Since baseball started again, he’s been away more than usual on road games or tournaments. I try to make as many as I can, but sometimes it’s just not possible. Those three or four days away from him are excruciating. I can’t imagine what three months are going to be like.
“So, what are your plans for the summer?” I need to get my mind off of my anxiety.
“Well, I got an internship at the hospital close to Mitchum, so I’ll be living at home. It’ll be good, spending some more time with Dad. And Owen is in a really prestigious summer league, so he’ll be home when he’s not on the road for games.”
“He’s not entering the draft?”
“Not yet. He wants another year with me, he says, but I think he just doesn’t want the pressure yet. His dad has let up a lot, but once he makes it big, well … we all know he’s going to be a superstar. The cocky jerk. But it’s true. So I think he wants one more summer to just be a college kid. The majors will be there when he’s ready.”
“I get that. Part of me is so nervous for Miles. What if no teams sign him outright?”
“Oh, stop it! Miles is even better than Owen. Cocky jerks the two of them. He will get picked up and play right off the bat. Ha, get it?” She laughs sarcastically at her own pun.
“I know. I just … I’m scared I’ll lose him again, Minks. I don’t know how you and Owen did it last year, all the back and forth. That stuff is hard.”
Minka sighs. “Chloe, that boy loves you more than his own life. More than anything. You will both find a way to make it work because you love each other. You love what you have with him, how you feel with him, and you’ll make it work.”
I giggle, feeling better already. “Look at you, Miss Love Therapist.”
“Tell me about it. I make myself want to vomit.”
We walk the streets behind campus, pausing to say hi to fellow students drinking on their porches or playing cornhole in the front yard. It’s officially summer, classes are done, and everyone is partying one last time before they shipped home for the summer.
The clearing that holds the gravel driveway in front of the guys’ house comes into view, and I can see Miles’s big black truck sitting there. I want to run to him but restrain myself. The only thing that could make me feel less antsy about that phone call is Miles taking me to his bedroom and distracting me.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that is happening now, considering the core four guys from the baseball team and about forty of their closest friends are playing pong on the large, elevated porch.
Minka and I make our way up the steep wooden steps, and I instantly spot Miles and Owen running the pong table, per usual. I walk up to him, wrapping my arms around his waist.
“Hi, sexy. You got a girlfriend around here?” I tease playfully, rubbing his tight abs from behind.
“Shh … don’t say it too loudly! She might hear. Let’s go to my room, gorgeous.” He turns around and bends his long body to meet my lips.
I can taste the beer on his tongue when he pushes it inside my mouth, lapping at my own tongue and heating me up. When I start to hear whistles, I break away, flushed and turned on.
“Can we please get back to the game now?” Owen whines, his arm wrapped around Minka, pulling her close to his body.
“Celeb shot for me, babe?” Miles holds the ping-pong ball out to me, indicating I should take his shot.
I haven’t partied in weeks, been too caught up in rehearsals and studio time, but I feel like letting loose a little. I’ve earned it.
“Sure, thanks, baby.” I take it from him, sticking my tongue out at Owen when he rolls his eyes. He wants to win, and he doesn’t think I’ll sink them. I concentrate, closing one eye and line the ball up, squaring my hips and holding my pinky out like I always do.
Shooting my boyfriend a look, I wink, can’t help it when he looks so hot, and let the ball fly. When I hear the tiny splash from the other side of the table, I know I’ve sunk the ball. I turn back, seeing Clint on the other side playing with one of the other baseball players, and take a bow as the people around me cheer.
“God, you’re so sexy.” Miles scoops me up, spinning me in his arms and planting tiny kisses all over my face with his very skilled lips. “Play the rest of the game for me.”
“All right, as long as Owen deems me a worthy partner.”
“As long as you keep shooting like that, bucs, you can stay.”
We go back and forth for a while, missing and sinking cups at the same rate Clint and his partner do. I sip on the beer Miles brought me, not wanting to drink out of the nasty pong cups, and try to push the lack of a phone call out of my brain.
“I know you’re not playing pong without your favorite partner.”
A familiar voice pulls me away from the game, and when I turn, there stands Kelsey, the crowd parted to allow for her full personality to shine all over the porch.
“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Minka runs to her, slamming into her with a giant bear hug.
I feel in a daze, having all of my friends back together. I run over to them and join in the jubilation, wiping some of the tears from my eyes. I hadn’t realized just how much I missed Kels this year, how much I could have used her around when all the turmoil had been wracking my life.
Pulling back, I finger her newly short bob. “So, you didn’t want to give anyone a heads-up that you were coming home? Typical, Kels.”
Minka rolls her eyes. “What kind of Kelsey move would it be if she told us? When did you get back? And your hair, I love it!”
Kels pulls back, emotion shining in her round, hazel eyes. She’s not typically the emotional one, so I’m a little surprised. Her auburn hair is chopped to her chin, making her appear older than usual. She’s always had hair almost down to her butt, it’s hard adjusting this new her to the old her. But, her clothes are pretty much the same, a festival crop top made of sweater material covering her boobs, which are proportionally huge compared to her tiny waist. Harem pants cover her short legs and bountiful derriere.
Kels has one of those Coke-bottle figures, the body every girl envies and could only be achieved naturally. I’d been so jealous of her in high school, where big boobs and butts were what every guy wanted. Not that that stopped after high school.
“Well, I flew in last night on a red-eye from Europe, and lord knows my parents don’t give a fuck where I am, so I came to see my best girls! And get drunk! You won’t believe what they drink over in Africa. Shit is like moonshine.”
We all laugh, Owen coming up to give her a hug, and Miles hanging back.
Kels motions to him and he walks over like a kicked puppy, then pulls her into his arms while she shrieks. “Don’t worry, mini-one, I’ll never hurt her again. I promise you can kick my ass though, if I go back on my word. Which I never will.”
We all laugh, and I can’t put my finger on exactly what is different about Kels. She seems older, more mature. Which clashes with her always spunky attitude, but then again, she’s been helping impoverished children and endangered animals for a year.
“You didn’t save a hug for your best friend?”
Clint comes out from behind us, a wide smirk on his face. Speaking of someone who changed. He’s probably lost close to eighty pounds since August. He’s leaner, muscular, and extremely hot in that scruffy, lumberjack kind of way. If I wasn’t so in love with the blond giant to my right, I’d actually think Clint was a great catch.
Kels squints, looking at half of what used to be Clint. She must not have realized he was trying to slim down, or at least she doesn’t recognize him yet.
“Oh my …” Her jaw drops open, and I see her intake of breath. Kels’s porcelain, flawless skin turns the color of a Maraschino cherry, and it all clicks into place. Something has been going on between these two.
Clint is looking at her like she’s the sun and he’s been standing in the pouring rain for the last twenty years. Like the world has been black and white, and someone just turned on the color.
“Hi, Clint.” She walks to him, marveling at his newly slim figure, and I know, in Kelsey-language, that she thinks he’s hot. I’ve watched my best friend hook any guy she’s wanted for years, and I know this look means she wants him. Clint. I mean, I knew they were talking while she was away, but this is just so strange.
He wraps her in his arms, and I see both of them visibly shudder from the contact when their skin touches the others. I want to look away, this moment is so intimate.
“All right, back to pong everyone!” Miles clears his throat, slapping me gently on the butt. I throw him a mischievous glance.
“Better not do that while my boyfriend is around.”
“Enough of this. I’m your man, and no one is getting near that pretty ass but me.” He smiles, bending his head to nuzzle and place a wet, open kiss on my neck, and I feel the jolt right to my sex. God, what he does to me.
“I love you, Miles Farriston.”
“And I love you, my princess ballerina.”
We stand there, smiling at each other like idiots when I feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. Pulling it out in its hot pink case, I turn it over to see a New York area code flashing on the screen.
Miles looks down and brings his understanding eyes back to mine. “Go take it in my room.” He kisses my forehead before turning me around and starting me on my feet, which have just about gone numb by now.
I scurry away into Miles’s room, the hum of noise from the porch dissipating as I close the door. Taking one giant deep breath, I press accept on the call.
“Hello?”
“Hi, can I please speak to Chloe Trabucco?”
“Yes, this is she …”
“Hi Chloe, this is Natalie Pinroe from SAB. How are you?”
My nerves actually shake as I sit down on the edge of Miles’s gray comforter. “I’m good, how are you?”
Natalie clears her throat. “I’m good, thanks for asking. So, as you know, we had a huge entrant pool this year for our summer intensive program, which is extremely competitive.”
She breaks off, causing my stomach to take a dive all the way down to the floor. This can’t be good. She’s going to tell me I wasn’t accepted.
“That being said, we’d like to extend a spot to you. You impressed us, Chloe, and we think you have what it takes to be someone big in the ballet world. That is, if that’s what you want.”
You know when you get pummeled by a wave in the ocean, only to come up and get hit by another giant wave? The way your senses go haywire, the rushing sound of water in your ears. That’s how I feel right now. Shell-shocked, pummeled. The happiest I’ve ever been in my life.
“Chloe?”
I realize I haven’t answered Natalie. “Yes! Yes, of course, yes. It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted in my life. Thank you … thank you so much. I can’t wait.”
I hear her smile through the phone. “Great, then. We will see you in June, Chloe.”
She cuts the line dead, and I collapse back onto the bed, kicking my feet in a happy dance over my head. I hug myself, rolling around in my pure bliss bubble for just a minute longer.
Collecting myself, I stand and look in the mirror over his dresser. Today is when it all starts happening. And all I want to do is share it with the one person who will be unequivocally happy for me.
I run through the house and out onto the porch, searching like crazy for wherever Miles went. And then I spot him, leaning against the railing, talking to our friends. His eyes find me at the same time, and as soon as my purple meets his blue/green, he breaks into a grin, knowing exactly what I’m thinking.
Miles has me in his arms in two long strides, holding me above his head by my hips, my arms clutching his massive shoulders.
“YAHOOOO!” he shouts like a wild man, making our friends laugh behind him. When he finally puts me down, he grazes my lips, fusing our bubbly energy together and creating one perfect bliss bubble.
“Um, what’s going on?” Kels is still standing with Clint, talking and ogling him like a huge piece of meat.
“She got it!” Miles is still just staring at me, a huge smile splitting his perfect, tan face.
“No! You got it? Yes!” Minka breaks Miles and me apart, jumping up and down hugging me.
“Got what? Duh, this girl has been in Africa for like ten months. Fill me in.” Kelsey’s usual attitude comes out, making me snort.
“I got the summer intensive at SAB that I auditioned for. I’m going to be dancing at the number one company in the United States for three months.”
“Fuck yeah!” Kels comes over and wraps me in a huge hug.
It’s perfect, this day. This gorgeous, sunny, almost-summer day, with all of my friends around me, celebrating my dream. And the best part? The wonderful, handsome, chiseled man standing by my side for it all.
So, I said I didn’t need the fairy tale, but if I wanted it, I’d say this was pretty darn close.
Epilogue
Miles
Four Months Later
The smell of stale clothing, sewer grates, and cheap perfume fill my nostrils as I board the A train uptown. I sit down, seeing a mostly empty car, and set my bag in my lap, dirt coming off the bottom of it.
The subway stops once, twice, and then on the third stop, she gets in.
Her frame sheathed in light pink, all of that beautiful hair slicked back and piled on top of her head. I’m trapped, staring at her is like an addiction. Every day on this train, at the same time, I see her. And I can’t breathe.
Just like every morning, when I wake up with her in my arms, study her face, and thank my lucky stars that she chose me. That she believed in me.
Chloe glances around, finally spotting me sitting a few benches down. Her plump lips split into a beautiful, happy grin, and she waltzes toward me, her pointe shoes dangling from her hand, flip-flops on her damaged feet. She slides next to me, not touching me, but I can feel my flesh instantly heat up as the air between us crackles.
“So, do you live here, in the city?” I turn to her, studying her beautiful lines, the tiny hairs that dot her hairline.
“I do. I dance for a ballet company. Do you live here?”
“I do. I play for a minor league baseball team.”
“That’s cool. Are you … seeing anyone?”
“I am. This great girl. We actually live together.”
&nb
sp; “Bummer. You’re really cute.” She drops the act, leaning across the seat to fuse her lips to mine.
And just that little move fills me with so much bliss, such pure fucking unadulterated happiness. I miss her so much during the day that when we finally meet on the subway to go home together each day, all I want to do is bury my face in her neck and inhale her, sit with her in my lap for hours on end.
“Mmm, hi, baby. How was practice?” She runs her fingers through my curls, and I hold her earlobe while the train rumbles underground toward our apartment uptown.
“Good. Exhausting, but good. There is a rumor that the MLB team is going to be calling some people up in the next two weeks.” My stomach wigs out at the thought of that. Standing on a major league field, being a part of the real show.
Not that it hasn’t been an adjustment playing for the Manhattan Thunder Cats. Stepping onto that field is a bigger rush than anything I’ve ever felt, aside from Chloe telling me she loves me. The noise of the crowd, the elite level of the players. I knew as soon as I stepped onto the third baseline that I didn’t belong anywhere else. Getting an even bigger dose of that? I’m anxious but ready.
“Baby! That’s great. We’ll keep our fingers crossed. But, just know you’re in a great place now.”
She throws her arms around me; her pink pointe shoes bouncing off my shoulders. And man, does she bring those things everywhere these days.
After her three-month intensive, SAB loved Chloe so much that they offered her a minor position in the company. She’s working on climbing her way up, but it’s an honor just to be accepted into their program. She was over the moon, though it took some persuading on my part to get her to stay. Leaving Grover and Minka and Kelsey was not easy, and she was hesitant to drop everything. But, luckily, Tony and Isabella are the most supportive parents ever and helped give her that last extra push.
We both left Grover and haven’t looked back. Well, except to visit for a week in August when everyone came back to party.
“So, are we getting Thai food or pizza tonight?” I ask her, and so un-Chloe-like, she rolls her eyes.
Over the Fence Box Set Page 40