8. Nolan #2
“I have a game tonight. There’s no way in hell I can spend the day puking. Want me to take a bit from all of them?”
Hadley drags her teeth along her bottom lip, and I study that, too. “That’s a little too much sharing.”
A dozen innuendos fill my thoughts, considering all the things we could share—should share. But I swallow that and my lust down. It’s been seven months since I’ve slept with a girl, and suddenly that feels like an eternity as I strive to keep my gaze from straying from hers. “Is it?”
Those glacier-colored eyes lower. “You didn’t have to do this.”
“Does that mean you’re not mad?”
“I wasn’t mad before.”
I sit in the seat beside her, though I should pack my own food up and head for the facility –nine miles away from her watchful eyes and rounded lips that have me ready to risk living here for a mere week in exchange for testing the bounds of this attraction that has my pants growing tight.
“Try one,” I urge, reaching for a breakfast sandwich.
She gives me one more cursory glance, then closes her laptop and pushes it away from her. She reaches for the pancakes.
“You like sweet foods for breakfast?”
“Actually, I’m usually a savory fan, but pancakes are my weakness.”
The fact stores itself in my memory, burrowing next to automaton, lasagna, and the way her eyes light up when she finds something amusing.
Hadley opens the small tub of maple syrup tucked in beside her pancakes and drizzles it across the short stack of pancakes. I watch every movement as though I’m studying tape, trying to read her as well as I do a defense.
When she pauses, I realize we don’t have silverware. I push my chair back to fish two from the drawer. Hadley’s lips are pressed together, eyes still curious as she accepts one of them. “I didn’t dip them in anything,” I tell her. “I swear. No pranks this morning.”
She nods. “I know, but I might have.”
I raise a brow as I hold her gaze. She folds first, looking away as she silently laughs. She takes a bite of pancake and her eyes round and she leans forward as she moans a soft and erotic sound that has my blood heating and my cock hardening.
“Oh my god. These are amazing.” She takes a second bite and releases another quiet moan.
I want to hear it again. I want to be here every fucking time she eats. I want to be the cause of that sound.
I take a pull from my coffee and stare at my sandwich. I need her to talk. I need benign words that won’t have me leaping across this table and clearing it with one arm and laying her across it.
“What was the prank on your brother-in-law?”
Hadley swallows her bite and shakes her head. “Why?”
“Why won’t you tell me?”
“How do you have three sisters and still ask that question? Women are meant to have their secrets.”
“Are you as close to your brother as you are to your sister?” I ask.
She nods.
“That’s all you’re going to tell me?”
“Are we sharing?”
“You know one of my sisters. It seems only fair I learn a little about you.”
“You met Lanie.”
I scoff. “You’ve lived with my sister for a year. I met yours over a video chat for ten seconds.”
Hadley grins. “My brother and sister are a year and a half apart, and I’m nine years younger than my brother, but my parents started a company when my mom was pregnant with me, and so my parents needed my brother and sister to help out and babysit me.
We never really had the option to be anything but close.
” She takes another bite of her pancakes.
“What about you? How much older and younger are your other two sisters?”
“Alena is the oldest. She’s two years older than me, and then Bree is four years younger than me, three years younger than Katie.”
“Are the four of you close?”
I shrug. “At times.”
Her blue eyes stare at me, working to read between the vagueness of my reply. “Do you miss Chicago?”
I shake my head, my mouth full of breakfast sandwich. Hadley takes a drink of coffee, waiting for me to swallow before asking, “Not at all?”
“Not at all.”
She stares at me, waiting for an explanation or details. “Do you miss Vegas?” I ask, instead.
Hadley nods. “I miss the energy.”
“Why’d you come to Camden?”
She glances at me too fast, revealing there’s a story, but just as quickly she looks away, stabbing at her pancakes again. “Why did you come to Camden?”
“Their football program.”
She nods. “Have you always played?”
“Since I was seven. Why did you come?”
“To try something new. Both Lanie and Geoff went out of state for college.”
“And you just rolled the dice?”
“I threw a dart.”
I chuckle, unwrapping more of my sandwich. “How did you and Katie meet?”
“A class.”
“And Hannah?”
Hadley’s eyes flick to me. She says nothing, but her gaze becomes distant, detached.
I’m immediately curious as to what I said or did that caused the reaction.
“Same class.” She turns her attention to the table and pulls the container of biscuits and gravy to her before opening the lid.
She leans in and takes a deep breath of the savory scent of sausage and the sweetness of the honey biscuits.
“This smells so good.” She slides her fork into her mouth, licking the tines clean.
God, watching her could be a sport.
She moans again. “Those pancakes were amazing, but this is ridiculous. It’s so good. The balance of salt, sweet, and savory is perfect.” She takes another bite.
“Okay, let’s make a couple of rules for our prank war.”
“I thought you hated rules?”
“I do, but after last night, I realized a few would probably be a good idea.”
“Rule one, no more weapons. That axe was real. If he had tripped, I’d probably still be pulling glass from my face.”
I wince as I nod.
“And, no adding stuff to the food to make a person sick—that includes laxatives.”
“Deal,” I say instantly. Anticipation races through me, and it’s not for tonight’s game. “Anything else?”
“How about we put it in the parking lot and add it if necessary.” I’m inclined to shake her hand or make a joke, ask her more questions, but footsteps on the stairs have us turning toward the living room where Hannah appears.
She brushes her blonde hair back and eyes the table and then Hadley and me.
She’s wearing a pair of shorts and a cut-off shirt that reveals most of her stomach.
She’s a hot nerd, enunciated by the glasses she pushes up her nose.
At a party, I’d probably flirt with her.
It’s a feeling entirely different than the intrigue and motivation I feel toward learning more about Hadley, which has my attention returning to my coffee.
“Morning,” Hadley says. “There’s a fresh pot of coffee.”
Hannah flashes a smile as she veers into the kitchen, straight for the coffee machine.
I wad up the wrapper from my sandwich and push my chair back. “I have to head to campus,” I say.
“Thanks for breakfast,” Hadley says, taking a fleeting look at my suit again. “And good luck tonight.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you later.”
“Before you go…” Hannah says, looking nervous and hopeful at the same time.
Shit.
“Okay. I’m going to shoot my shot,” Hannah says. “Are you friends with Ethan James?”
Relief floods me. I don’t expect women to fawn over me or always be interested, but Hannah’s been asking questions and giggling every time I’m in the room, making me work to gain distance to avoid the offer of a date proposal I’d have to decline which would likely have me packing for another set of reasons. “The kicker?”
Hannah nods.
Ethan’s a sophomore, and likely won’t ever start. He has a goofy sense of humor and mostly sticks with the other two kickers on the team. “Yeah, sure.”
“Would you maybe introduce me to him?”
Hadley takes another drink of her coffee, peering at me over the top of her cup.
“He’ll want to go out tonight.” I point at her and then Hadley. “If you guys go to the game, you could come out with us.”
“Where are you going?” Hannah asks.
I shrug. “Does it matter?”
Hannah turns to Hadley. “Will you go with me?”
Hadley lowers her coffee and raises her eyebrows, looking as shocked by the turn of conversation as I am. “Um, yeah.” She nods.
Something too similar to victory warms my chest.