Chapter 24
Liza
“Are you having fun?”
Turning toward Blue’s voice, I can’t help but smile. “It’s the winter carnival, we have the day off from classes, and there’s a stand selling chocolate covered strawberries. How can I not be having a good time?”
“Fair point,” he agrees, reaching into my cup and stealing a chocolatey berry.
“I’m supposed to be meeting Bridgette here, but I guess she got held up at the salon.” I take another glance at my phone, but there’s still no message from her.
Blue coughs, like the stolen berry went down the wrong pipe. “The salon, yeah. I bet she totally got held up with some perm emergency. Or she and Sparky are screwing like bunnies back at the very empty hockey house. But sure, we’ll go with your theory.”
“You’re just jealous that they thought up that plan before we did,” I say with a smirk.
“Accurate. But they’re on the third floor, so if we take the basement, nobody will ever know. What do you say?”
“I say you're delusional. And very bad at keeping secrets. We’re not supposed to be friends, and you definitely shouldn’t be walking around in public with me.
The whole freaking campus is here today, and somebody from the hockey team is bound to see us.
” Not that I mind walking around with Blue.
It’s crazy, but I actually like him as a person.
I’m the type of girl who has a few close friends and a million acquaintances.
I thought my tiny little circle was full, and I was fine with it because I happen to have an amazing group of friends.
But then Blue entered the picture. Sure, it took us a while to warm up to each other, but once we landed on the same page, things have been pretty great.
Are they great enough to level up?
I really don’t know. I’ve been thinking about it ever since he mentioned it last weekend.
Truthfully, I’ve been thinking about it longer than that.
Can you blame me? The man is gorgeous. And he’s funny.
But he’s also surprisingly sweet. When I’m with him, I feel like the only other person in the world.
But we don’t live in a bubble, as much as I sometimes wish we could.
Would a relationship between the two of us even work?
Aren’t we too different? And maybe sex really is the only thing between us.
Maybe it’s my imagination or my endorphins that are trying to convince me otherwise.
Maybe Blue’s caught up in all of it, too.
“Would it be so bad?” he asks, a frown marring his handsome features.
“Dating you?” I blurt, still lost in my thoughts.
“Uh, I meant would it be so bad if one of the guys saw us walking through the carnival together, but now that you mention it, let’s talk about the rhinoceros in the room.”
“I think you mean elephant,” I correct him.
Blue shakes his head. “Everybody’s got elephants in their rooms. I’m no follower. I’m a trendsetter. So I choose the rhinoceros.”
“Of course you do,” I mutter, flicking his bicep playfully.
He probably barely feels it, though. We’re strolling down a path filled with tents run by various student organizations.
The odds that someone will spot us are getting higher, but I can’t bring myself to care.
And even if they do, it’s not a crime to walk with someone.
Besides, I work for the hockey team and he’s on the hockey team.
We could totally be having a strategy session right now.
It’s possible.
“My earlier question still applies,” he says, stopping in front of a booth selling cider and hot cocoa.
“What question?” I ask. Being this close to Blue scrambles my brain sometimes.
“Would it be so bad? Dating me, I mean. Surely there are worse guys on this campus to be stuck with, right?” He punctuates his question with one of his trademark grins.
He looks like the heroic prince from an old cartoon.
All that’s missing is a little twinkle of light right next to his perfectly straight, gleaming teeth.
I shrug, feigning nonchalance when I am, in fact, chalant as hell. “I guess you’re not so bad. Your personality is mid, at best, but you are nice to look at.”
“Stop,” he teases. “You’re making me blush with all the compliments.”
Blue reaches for my hand, and I take it.
Part of my brain is ready to go into meltdown mode, but another, larger part of me craves the feel of his hand in mine.
We walk for a few more minutes, just enjoying the quiet between us.
There’s noise and movement all around us, but we aren’t paying attention to any of it. We’re back in our bubble.
“I’m serious, you know,” he says, seemingly out of nowhere. It takes me a minute to realize he’s still talking about the two of us dating. “We’re pretty good together, if you think about it.”
“I have thought about it,” I admit. “But all of my concerns from last week are still valid. We basically work together. And what we have now is so good. What if we mess that up by making it official?”
“What if it just keeps getting better?” he counters.
“What if one of us ends up getting hurt?” I ask.
“You worry too much,” he tells me.
“But why mess with a good thing?” I argue. “This arrangement we have works out pretty well for both of us, right? I mean, we hang out, we give each other mutual orgasms. It seems to me like everybody wins, and there’s no risk. That’s the beauty of it.”
“It is a good thing,” he agrees, squeezing my hand and looking me in the eye. “But I want more. I’m not suggesting we find a wedding chapel like Ollie and Fallon did, but I want to date you. I want to call this what it already is.”
It’s my turn to talk, but my brain and my mouth can’t agree on what to say. The truth is that I’m tempted to agree with him. I’m tempted to reach for him. I’m tempted to kiss him and never look back.
And that’s dangerous.
“I’ve got an idea,” Blue says, still holding my hand as he leads me toward the end of the path.
“What’s your idea?” I’m a little skeptical because Blue’s idea could be just about anything. He could have a sudden inspiration for a prank he’s roping me into, or he could have a craving for a boring cheese pizza. Who knows?
We stop in front of a red and white striped tent.
It looks the same as some of the others, but this one has about a million stuffed animals hanging from every flat surface available.
A guy with frat letters on his hoodie and a name tag that says Jake spares us a glance before gluing his eyes back to his phone. “Three balls for five bucks,” he says.
Blue hands over the cash and then looks at me. “Let’s make a deal. If I win one of these stuffed animals, you agree to go on a date with me. A real one.”
“That’s too easy,” I protest. “You could probably knock those bottles off even if you were blindfolded.”
“Blindfolds are on the list,” he says quietly.
“They are, but I don’t have any on me right now.”
“That’s a shame. But it’s fine. We can save those for later. What do you say?” he asks, turning around. “I won’t even look. But if I knock all those bottles down and win you a turtle, you agree to one date with me.”
This is crazy. It’s ridiculous. If we decide to date, it shouldn’t be because Blue’s got great hand-eye coordination.
It should be because we like being together and want to spend every spare minute in each other’s company.
It should be because we drive each other a little crazy—in and out of the bedroom—in the very best way.
It should be because our chemistry is off the charts and we can’t imagine being with anyone else.
It takes my brain a minute to process that all of those things are true. No matter what we call it or how we label it, Blue and I are together. I can deny it or pretend all I want, but that doesn’t change the truth that we’re more to each other than just a hook up or an unlikely friendship.
I tap my lips, pretending to think for a minute. “Make it a koala and you’ve got a deal.”
Keeping his eyes trained on the crowd in front of him and not the target that’s behind him, Blue launches the first ball in the air. It makes contact with one of the bottles, but it glances off too quickly and falls to the floor.
“Bummer,” the frat guy in the booth laments.
Blue tosses the next one over his shoulder and misses entirely.
“Ouch,” I say. “Maybe it’s for the best that I’m seeing this now. How could I ever go on a date with a guy who can’t even win at a rigged carnival game?” I tease.
Before I can finish my sentence, Blue pops his final ball in the air. It sails across the counter, hitting the center milk bottle and toppling the tower. Jake the frat guy blinks in surprise. “Holy shit, dude. You actually won.”
“I sure did,” Blue agrees, plucking the koala off its hook and handing it to me.
“You were faking that whole time?” I ask, practically screeching.
Blue laughs as we walk away and wander back into the crowd. “I had to make it look good, build up the suspense. You were pretty worried there for a second, weren’t you, Tiger? You can be honest with me.”
“I was only worried for your reputation,” I tell him. “I mean, how embarrassing, you know?”
“Nope,” Blue says, not buying my lie as he settles down on a bench near the fountain and pulls me in close so I’m cuddled up next to him. “I saw it with my own eyes. You were worried. There’s no sense denying it. Hell, you were terrified at the prospect of losing out on a chance to date me.”
“Where are you taking me?” I ask. “Maybe we should see if there’s a concert in the park that night. I’m just thinking it’d be safe to do something outdoors, you know, since your ego probably wouldn’t fit through the doors of a restaurant or museum.”
“Oh, it’ll fit.” Blue winks at me. “I mean, it’s big, but you handle it just fine.”
“Your mouth is filthy,” I scold, smacking him in his rock-hard chest.
“What are you going to do about it?” he asks, baiting me.
I could tease him back or swat at the brick wall that is his chest. I could go back on my promise to let him take me on a date. I could take my last remaining chocolate covered strawberry and plop it in his mouth just to shut him up.
Instead, I lean forward and press my lips to his. He’s stunned for a moment, but then he cups the back of my head, deepening the kiss. He’s drinking me in, consuming me, right here in the middle of campus, and I don’t mind at all.
Until the clapping starts.
Followed by the whistling.
The wolf howl is what has me pulling back and breaking the kiss. And when I do, I see half the hockey team staring at us like we’re exotic animals at the zoo.
“You crazy kids are too cute,” Ollie says, and I swear he wipes a tear from his eye.
“How long has this been going on?” Dime asks, pointing his finger back and forth between Blue and me.
“Officially?” Blue clarifies. “About a minute.”
“Seriously?” Dimes grumbles, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out his wallet. He counts out a few bills and hands them over to Ollie.
“How about unofficially?” JT asks.
“A little over a month,” I answer honestly, since there’s no point in pretending now. JT and Mickey high-five each other while the rest of the guys hand money over to Ollie.
“Hold up,” Blue says. “You bet on us getting together? How was that a good idea? Until recently, all we did was bitch at each other.”
“Oh, hell no,” Ollie scoffs. “Nobody bet on if you two would get together. That was a given. We bet on the when. A couple of the guys figured it happened that first weekend that everybody moved in way back in August, and a couple others had you two down for a holiday romance, but that’s mostly because you gave her a reindeer vibrator for Christmas. ”
We don’t even bother correcting him because we’re both too stunned. “You knew?” I ask, still unable to process the information even though it’s right in front of my face.
“You two aren’t nearly as subtle as you think you are,” Leo says.
“Yeah, and you’re not as quiet, either,” Deano adds.
“Besides,” Ollie says, wedging himself between us and taking a seat on the bench. “Love is in the air at the hockey house. And you can blame me because I’m a natural born matchmaker. It’s a gift. I have a knack for pairing people up.”
Blue laughs. “You can’t take credit for this one, Ollie.”
“Of course, I can,” our captain corrects him. “I take credit for lots of things I had nothing to do with.”