Chapter 13 #2
“No,” I said, giving her hand a firm squeeze, but not looking away from her eyes. “I mean it. I missed you this summer. Missed you like I’d miss my damn arm. Worse, because I had no idea why you were so determined to stay away from us. To stay away from me.”
If I were one hundred percent honest, I was hurt too. That was more about me than us.
“I’m serious, Frankie. You’re important to me. You’ve always been important to me. Not having you around, sucked. Not having you to talk to sucked more. If all we do today is hang out, swim, maybe order a pizza—then I’ll be happy.” Especially because we’d be doing it together.
“What about calculus?” She raised her eyebrows even as she squirmed a little in her seat. But she didn’t pull her hand away from mine. I’d take all the progress I could get.
“Okay, I might have to cave on that because I would like to graduate with a decent grade this year.” Though I had time to drop if I really needed to get rid of it.
Not that I wanted to drop. The stupid math class was the only one I had with her. This year sucked for how different all our schedules were.
“I think we can make that work,” she told me, and when she would have pulled her hand back, I wanted to tighten my grip and hold on.
That was why I made myself let go. As much as I wanted to push everything, I needed her to be on board with it. “Thank you.”
“Do you have more songs recorded?”
“Yeah, but not sure I want to play those for you.” They were all so dark the more I thought about it. “What do you say we throw ourselves in the pool? Take an hour where we just play. Then we can do homework and stuff.”
“And stuff,” she murmured, glancing to the side as if she needed to think about this. I held my breath when it seemed like this was an idea that she really seemed to struggle with. Her phone buzzed and she shot me an apologetic look before she tugged it out.
Her scowl was epic. Whoever just messaged her had pissed her off.
“What’s wrong?”
“Just more double standards,” she muttered, clicking her screen off and turning it face down. “You know what, I do want to swim. I didn’t get to spend as much time in the pool this summer.”
The words “well you should have come around more” burned on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them unsaid. “Then we should make up for lost time.”
Outside, I got to enjoy watching her tug off her shorts and lay them over a chair under the table’s umbrella. After I put our sodas on the table, I went ahead and dived in. The water was “cold” compared to the heat, but it felt damn good. I swam the length of the pool and emerged in the shallows.
It gave me a perfect view of her diving in. She really was gorgeous. For the next few minutes, we alternated between floating and swimming. When she drifted closer, I snaked an arm around her and pulled her back against my chest.
“Bubba?” There was just a note of warning in her voice. Warning and inquiry.
“Just let me say this,” I said against her ear. Maybe it was cheating to do it with her looking away from me. It was definitely shitty to make a move on someone else’s girl. But she wasn’t someone else’s girl. I didn’t care who she was dating.
Frenchy was the interloper. Not me.
“I’ve wanted to date you since I understood that guys could like girls and it wasn’t weird. You might be one of my best friends, but you have a body that I enjoy looking at and a brain I love learning from. You’re also funny and adorable.”
She’d gone completely still.
“For way too long, I didn’t think you were interested in dating anyone.
Not guys. Not girls. Nothing I did seemed to shift your opinion.
But now you are dating…” Fuck, I hated saying that.
“Dating someone we don’t know and that bugs me because I want you to be happy, and safe. More, I want you to date me .”
Her little jerk didn’t bruise my ego at all.
“This is a lot to dump on you right here and right now, but if I didn’t rip the Band-Aid off and just say it, I have a feeling I never would. So, this is me, Ian Rhys, telling you, Frankie Curtis, that I like you and I want to date you.”
“You have a girlfriend…” It came out almost a strangled whisper.
“No. I don’t. Sharon and I broke up. I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“But Mathieu and I…” She put her hand over mine on her stomach. I kept my hips back from hers even if her back was to my chest, cause my dick was all about broadcasting how happy we were to be holding her.
“Keep dating him,” I said, and almost couldn’t believe I was saying it.
“If you want to, just—don’t be exclusive.
Let me have a chance.” Then because that was enough pressure, I pressed a kiss to the nape of her neck.
One brush of my lips to the damp skin there.
“You don’t have to say anything now or decide anything. Think about it. Please.”
I waited, then let her go and pushed backward to swim to the far side of the pool again. I needed to burn off some of the desire that had me harder than a stone at the moment. Each time I passed her, I wanted to touch her, but I kept my hands to myself.
After a half-dozen laps, I headed over to where she sat on the steps. Time to face the music, literally and figuratively. She tilted her head as I approached and I straightened.
“Few more minutes,” she said finally. “Then we can order pizza, do math homework, and talk essays.”
I blew out a breath.
“If…” she continued, holding up a finger. “You play me another new song after.”
Relief crashed into me and I made a face. “You drive a hard bargain.”
“Those are my terms,” she quipped. “Take it or leave it.”
“Oh, I’ll definitely take it.” Take you. I was in.