17. Jordan
JORDAN
“Nice game tonight.” Gavin steps out of the circle of guys he’s with when I approach. His lips pull into an easy smile, and we slap hands.
“Thanks.” I take a long drink of beer. “I heard you guys won too.”
He nods. “We did. One more for the W column.”
“We might both be playing in April next year.”
“God, I hope so,” he says. “Did you just get here? I saw Liam and McCallum come in, but you’ve been MIA.”
“Nah, I’ve been here. Been… around.”
He waits for me to elaborate, smiling like he thinks I was off hooking up or some shit. Don’t I wish.
“I came with Daisy. We were doing century club for a while.”
“Daisy? Violet’s cousin?” His brows raise in question.
“Yeah.”
“Really?” Gavin tips his head toward where she and Liam sit together, laughing. “I thought those two were a thing.”
“Nope, but that might be on me. And you.”
“What the hell did I do?”
“New girlfriends are the worst kind of distraction,” I mimic his tone, repeating the words he said to me that night at the bowling alley. “I stopped him from asking her out.”
I stare at her, cataloging how happy she looks. Daisy’s drunk, I know, but still, she looks so fucking happy. They both do. I want to squash it. I want her to only look like that with me.
“If you’re trying to keep them apart, maybe you shouldn’t have brought her to a party and then left her alone.”
“Doesn’t matter. He likes her. She likes him. It’s inevitable.” I take another drink of beer, wishing it were something stronger.
Gavin laughs, and it snaps my attention back to him.
“What?”
“You should see yourself. You look like you’re about to spit fire. You have a thing for Daisy?” He brings a fist to his mouth and keeps on laughing. “Oh man, the great Jordan Thatcher has fallen hard for a girl. She’s cute but not your type. Like at all.”
“She’s…” I stop myself from pouring my heart out on the lawn of the party. “Whatever.”
“The night is young, and the booze is flowing.” He steps back. “Go get the girl, Thatcher.”
He juts his chin, and I follow his gaze back to Liam and Daisy.
He’s filling her cup with another beer. Fuck, what she needs is a water.
Her eyes flit up, and she smiles right at me.
I swear it hits me like a bullet to the chest, and I can’t breathe for a second.
Earlier, when she took my hand, I was transported back to middle school like it was my first time all over again.
I don’t immediately move toward them. Maybe I should just duck out and let things happen with them.
Liam is finally playing well, but I want him to be happy. The decent thing would be to walk away.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I pull it out, smiling at the text from the last person I expected. I choose dancing now!
I look up at Daisy to find her grinning at her phone.
Daisy is drunk. So am I, but that’s status quo for a Friday night.
Instead of replying, I move toward her. Whatever good intentions I had are gone. I can’t walk away from her. Not tonight anyway.
She sees me at ten feet away, says something to Liam, and then walks from him to me. I catch his eye and give him a head tip to let him know I have her. We’ve both been keeping an eye on her by some unspoken agreement.
When she reaches me, she takes my hand again and presses her tits into my bicep.
Yeah, she’s definitely drunk.
At the outskirts of the dance area, I face her. Her gaze darts around to the others dancing, but she doesn’t move.
“Change your mind?”
“No. It’s just, I’m not a very good dancer.”
I lift our joined hands and force her to do a spin. Graceful, she is not. But this isn’t Dancing with the Stars.
“Nobody cares. Just move however you feel.”
Slowly, she sways to the beat. This is not on my usual adventure map, but I’ve been pulled out here a time or ten.
Plus, I don’t give a shit if I can dance.
I’m sort of in awe of Daisy. She cares deeply, yet she still puts herself out there.
Mostly for Liam’s sake, but I’m trying hard not to think about that.
Or how I’m lusting after a girl my buddy likes.
With each song, she gets a little more into it. When the DJ plays a slower song, she looks at me awkwardly and fans her face. “I think I need another drink.”
“You need water.”
“I’m fine,” she insists.
“All right, sweet Daisy. Pick your poison. Beer or liquor?”
Her face scrunches up. “No more beer.”
In the kitchen, our options are limited. Empty cans and nearly empty bottles line the counter. I make her a Sprite with a splash of vodka. She notices but only rolls her eyes.
“Thank you.”
I grab a water and lead her back outside.
“You’re not drinking anymore?”
“I’m plenty drunk. Don’t worry about me.” This is true, but I also realize that she’s on the verge of needing someone to hold her hair back.
Liam and a few guys are still in our spot playing cards. The others are most likely in the pool trying to hook up.
Daisy takes a chair next to Liam, and I fall into the one beside her.
“Do you want to play, Daisy?” Liam asks her.
She shakes her head. I’m momentarily pleased that she’s choosing not to do something Liam asked her to, but then it hits me there’s probably another reason she said no.
I lean closer. “Want me to teach you?”
“No,” she says quietly so only I can hear. “Please don’t make a big thing of it. I’m fine not playing. You can if you want.”
She finishes her drink and then closes her eyes. “I’m kind of tired. I should probably go home soon.”
“Want a boost over the fence?”
Her blue eyes pop open and narrow.
“Kidding. I told you, I like my nipples.” I stand and say bye to the guys.
Liam gets up, and I hold out my hand to pull him into a side hug and talk into his ear. “I’m going to walk Daisy home and make sure she’s okay. She’s pretty drunk.”
I half expect and half hope that he’s going to tell me to stay and that he’ll do it. That’s just the type of thing Liam would do even if he wasn’t interested in the girl.
“Yeah.” He chuckles lightly. “She’s fading fast. Let me know if you need anything.”
“Will do.”
By the time I’ve said goodbye to the rest of the guys, Daisy is fighting to keep her eyes open.
I help her to her feet and wrap an arm around her waist.
“I’m fine,” she protests even as she leans into me. “But you smell good.”
“Another compliment. A guy might start to think you like him.”
“I do like you,” she says. “We’re friends, right?”
I pause inside of the house and find her big, blue eyes staring up at me from only a few inches away. It’d be so easy to kiss her, show her how not friends we are.
“Sure we are.” I tighten my grip on her. “Did you bring anything else with you tonight?”
She shakes her head.
“All right. Come on, let me walk you back.”
“No.” She straightens. “I haven’t seen the house yet. If this is my only chance ever to be inside, then I have to see it all.”
“All right then. Let me be your tour guide, sweet Daisy.”
“I need a new nickname.” She huffs as I lead her through the kitchen, stopping in the theater room briefly where I wave to Jenkins and more people sitting around watching the giant TV on the wall.
“But this one suits you so well.”
“Sweet makes me sound like a twelve-year-old girl selling cookies and lemonade.”
I bark a laugh as we head upstairs.
“Is that how you see me?” She stops on the top step and faces me.
“No.” I tuck the dark blonde hair hanging in her face behind one ear. The air crackles between us, but a couple is coming up the stairs, and we move forward out of the way.
“This is the gym.” I point to the locked door.
“They have their own court?” Daisy asks as she peers inside through the little window.
“Yep, and the rest of upstairs is bedrooms and bathrooms.”
“This is so much nicer than our house,” she says.
“It’s nicer than most people's houses.”
“True, but they don’t have an epic tree house like we do.” She walks the length of the hall and then comes back. “Thank you for indulging me. I can cross this off my bucket list now.”
“You don’t think you’ll come back sometime?”
“With who?”
“With me.”
She stops again. Her blue eyes narrow on me, and then she takes the railing in one hand and steps down the stairs. “You and I don’t make any sense.”
“Why’s that?” I ask as we step out the front door.
The breeze blows against us. She shivers and ducks her head into my shoulder.
“I’m a wallflower. You’re a popular jock.”
“Liam is a popular jock.”
“Yeah, but he’s different.”
There’s no denying it, he’s definitely not your average popular jock, but it still nags at me. She pulls away at her front door and digs through her purse for a key. It takes her a few tries, but she lets us inside and flips on a lamp near the doorway.
“Thank you for walking me home.”
“Do you have any Tylenol?”
“Advil is better when you’ve been drinking.”
I lift a brow.
“See? I know things.”
“Okay, smarty pants. Take some and drink a full glass of water.”
“You drank as much as me.”
“Yeah, but you weigh like half as much.”
“I don’t weigh half as much as you.”
“God, you’re exasperating. If I drink a glass of water too, will you drink one?”
She nods. “I’ll get the Advil. It’s upstairs.”
I walk toward the kitchen, find two glasses, and fill them with water. I need to make sure she’s okay and get the hell out of here. It feels like a betrayal of Liam just thinking the things going through my head.
She hasn’t returned when I get back to the stairs. I wait, then call up to her. No answer. Dammit, Daisy.
I take the stairs two at a time. I check the bathroom first. Empty.
All the lights are off upstairs, but her bedroom door is ajar.
Light from the closet spills out. I set the glasses on her desk and then move toward the closet.
I’m expecting her to be passed out on the floor, but instead, she’s grunting and flailing with her dress up around her chest.
“Oh shit,” I say and turn around. “Sorry. I yelled up but got worried when I didn’t get a response.”
“Help me,” she whines.
“Uhh. What?”
“I’m stuck.”