Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CRUSHES AND SLOTHS
TUCKER
After the last boxes are safe and sound in the girls’ new apartment, I’m reluctant to leave.
With our summer training starting in full force and the cheerleading selections, we’ve been busy and I haven’t had a chance to spend time with Taryn.
“Thank you for helping us move everything up here.” She says with that smile that would make me do anything just to get my next fix. “Jodie and I didn’t have a ton of stuff, but without you and Colsen we would still be carrying boxes and bags.”
I smile. “You’re welcome. Besides, our help wasn’t completely selfless. Now you have time to relax and get ready for tonight’s party.”
“True. I’m excited for training camp. Even if we have Gen as a roommate.”
We’re by her front door and I should get going and leave Taryn to settle down in her new temporary home, but I’m not ready to say goodbye yet, not even for a couple of hours.
“Walk me downstairs, please?”
“Sure.”
Colsen comes running from Jodie’s room, where he helped Taryn’s best friend with her last two bags. “Hey guys, wait up.”
I almost told him to hurry up downstairs, but I can’t find a plausible excuse that wouldn’t make it more than obvious that I wanted to get rid of him.
We agreed that we can both date Taryn for now. I have no intention to go back on my word with him about that, but I’m anxious that I’m falling behind.
She spent the night with him.
I have very mixed feelings about that. Colsen didn’t give me any details other than it was the best sex he’s ever had. He didn’t even need to tell me that, though. The way he looks at Taryn says more than a million words.
And she looks at him the same way.
I’m not jealous. Or at least I don’t think I am. I’m not mad that Taryn is into Colsen. Col is a catch. He’s my best friend in the entire world.
It’s just that I want her to look at me like that too. I want to know how it feels to hold her in my arms, to kiss her.
Maybe I should have asked her to go on a date with me tonight rather than inviting her to the party.
But now it’s too late. I feel like the biggest idiot in town. It’s like my fucking feelings are spiraling out-of-control right now. I’ve just met this woman. We’ve only had a night out on the pier together—with Colsen in tow for most of it—and a couple of phone calls at night.
Why can’t I stop thinking about her? She’s in my thoughts every waking moment, and I’m worried because I’ve been there with Bex.
And I can’t let the same thing happen to me again. I need to get myself back in the game sooner rather than later.
Or she might choose Colsen before I’ve even had a chance to shoot my shot.
“Hey Tucker?” Her voice pulls me out of my own head.
I was so busy freaking out about fucking things up that I didn’t notice that we’re back at our apartment.
“Did you need something from me, or did you just want to be walked home safely?”
“Ha. You’re funny.” I tuck a wisp of golden blonde hair that escaped her ponytail behind her ear. “No, I just wanted to hang out a little more before tonight. Without all the noise of the party.”
The more I think about it, the more I regret agreeing to go and inviting her.
“Why don’t we get a soda and sit on the deck for a few minutes?”
I’m grateful to Colsen for the assist and for offering to get the drinks, leaving me and Taryn alone outside.
She leans against the railing, looking at the sand a few steps away. “This is so nice. She might be a pain in the ass, but I kinda understand why Gen was disappointed that we don’t get to live directly on the beach.”
“You can come and sit here any time you want.” I mean it. “I can ask for an extra key card and you can have it. So you can come in even if we’re at the rink.”
Taryn’s eyes look greener outside in the sun. When she looks at me, I fight the urge to pull her to me and crush those pink, soft-looking lips with mine.
“Are you sure? Your other roommates might not like having a stranger letting themselves into their place.”
I shrug. “I’m sure Colsen and Mack won’t mind. But you’re right. I should ask Nash before I give you a key.”
Something passes in her eyes at the mention of our new teammate. Nash ran to Taryn’s rescue during the audition, covering her with his suit blazer.
The memory of the very brief flash of Taryn’s perfect tits is forever burned in my mind. It’s the very definition of spank bank material.
I bite on my bottom lip as the desire to take one of her pink nipples into my mouth causes a zing of desire at the base of my spine. Blood rushes south and I need to stop thinking about her tits if I don’t want to have an embarrassing situation in my pants.
“Tucker?” Her voice snaps me out of my lust induced daze. “My eyes are up here.”
“Oh, fuck.” I groan. “I’m sorry, I was just…”
Imagining you naked.
Thank fuck I bit my tongue before I said that out loud. “You looked uncomfortable when I mentioned Nash. Did he do anything inappropriate when he whisked you back to the changing room? If he did, I don’t care that we’re teammates. I’ll kick his ass.”
Her smile is soft, but she averts her eyes. “No, it’s nothing like that.”
“But there is something. Right?” Colsen’s voice comes from the doorjamb as he steps out onto the deck with a couple of cans of soda.
He picked up on Taryn’s reaction too.
“Not really.” She looks worried. “I don’t know. Maybe?”
Colsen and I look at each other, and he asks the same question on the tip of my tongue. “Care to elaborate?”
“I knew Nash from college. We had a class together last year.”
I don’t know if I like the sound of this. “Did you two date? Or hook up?”
I feel like an asshole when she hesitates. “No. Absolutely not. Or at least, I had this huge, embarrassing crush on him. But we ran in totally different circles. He was one of the most popular athletes on campus, if not the most popular. I thought he wouldn’t even remember me or know my name.”
Again, Colsen comes to my same conclusion. “But he did?”
“Yeah.” Her voice is soft, barely above a whisper.
“He would have had to be an idiot not to remember you.” I say honestly.
I don’t like where this is going.
“So what happened?” Colsen is braver than me when he asks that question.
I’m shitting myself right now that she’s gonna say that she likes Nash and he likes her back and that they’re together. “Did he ask you out?” I force myself to utter those words, bracing myself for the answer.
“No. He didn’t. He just told me he remembered me and I…”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Colsen voices the same thing I think Taryn is struggling to admit. “You still like him.”
“I do.”
If I thought my unrequited feelings for Bex caused me pain, nothing could have prepared me for the way I’m feeling right now. I can feel my heart breaking in my chest. Taryn’s words cause me physical pain.
Throw me a bunch of hundred miles per hour shots and I’ll step in their way to defend my goal. But right now I’m defenseless against the feelings I’m starting to have for Taryn.
I clench my fists, furious with myself for letting this crush grow into something that hurts so much. What the fuck is wrong with me?
My first instinct is to walk away and lock myself into my room to wallow. But my feet refuse to obey my wishes.
“Are you telling us this because you want to be with Nash?” I have no right to feel bitter about this. And I really don’t. Like with Bex, I want Taryn to be happy, even if that’s not with me.
She shakes her head. “I don’t know. Maybe? But I don’t think he even likes me. And besides, I feel like the worst person on earth because my crush for Nash doesn’t change the way I’m starting to feel about the two of you.”
Colsen and I look at each other.
This has the potential to be a fucking mess. But despite everything, Taryn didn’t say that she didn’t want me. I decide to focus on that.
“So you like Nash but you still like Colsen and me?”
“I understand if that makes you mad.” She turns her head to the side, tormenting her bottom lip with her teeth.
Things went wrong with Bex because I let my feelings grow out of proportion without letting her know how I felt.
Except for a drunken, inappropriate advance during a collegiate event that got me almost kicked off the team.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Coach Harrison that furious.
And my teammates and I have pushed our luck plenty of times in my four years as a Cove Knight.
“Baby,” I take her hand in mine, encouraged to open my heart to her when she doesn’t resist my touch. “I could never be mad at you for being honest with me about your feelings.”
Colsen agrees. “Same. You could have chosen not to say anything.”
“Exactly.” I nod. “And first off, let me tell you something. I don’t know Nash too well, but if I had to guess how he feels about you, I’d say that he likes you.”
“I don’t know.”
I tell her what I think. “The second that button snapped off, Nash was by your side with his blazer on your shoulders.”
“He moved faster than during a breakaway on the ice.” Colsen chimes in. “And that guy can skate fast.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“It does.” I interrupt her. “If he didn’t like you, he would have stayed in his seat and enjoyed the view.”
Taryn smiles for the first time since she admitted crushing on Nash. “Did you enjoy the view?”
I like it when she flirts with me. “Fuck, yeah. But I was two seconds slower than Nash. I was taking my own blazer off to come to the rescue, for the record. He just beat me to it.”
“And me.” Colsen says before turning to me. “By the way, Tuck, you should have quicker reflexes than anyone else. Maybe we should change your nickname on the ice from the Panther to the Sloth.”
I flip him off. “Fuck off, dude. I was just mesmerized by Taryn’s choreography. It was so lyrical and beautiful.”
It was. Taryn is a beautiful dancer. To the point that Carole and Lexi didn’t even debate if her style was too different from what they need for the team, like they did with other contestants who prepared slower pieces.