19. Jordan #2
Her eyes narrow in a playful glare. She lifts her beer and starts drinking.
I count. Slowly. I reach three as she looks like she can’t swallow another drop.
With a grimace, she sets the can down. I pass the cards back to McCallum, and the rest of the table joins back in.
“How many nights a week do you go out?”
I shrug. “Depends, I guess.”
“On homework and stuff?”
“On what’s happening that week,” I say.
She laughs at my answer.
My friends and teammates are important to me. Losing Mark put things in perspective.
“I could get better grades, but after graduation, am I really going to care if I got an A instead of a C?”
“Umm…” She holds back more laughter as she considers my question. “I’m not sure. I’ve never thought about it like that, I guess.”
“Were you always super into school?” I ask.
She gets a slight blush to her cheeks. “Yes.”
“No shame in being smart.”
“I know, but it isn’t like I set out to be super smart. I was just bored enough that it was something to do.”
I want to ask her more, but my phone buzzes in my pocket.
“It’s Liam,” I say as I read his short text, Something came up. Tell Daisy I’m sorry I couldn’t make it.
“He isn’t coming.”
I watch her for the disappointment that I’m sure is coming. Instead, she smiles. “That’s okay. I really just wanted to hang out with you.”
Not even being mistaken for Shawn Mendes could compare to the way that makes me feel.
I slip my phone back into my pocket. “Same.”
As the party gets bigger, Daisy and I make our way outside to the deck. Music from inside drifts out, and a few other couples are making out or cuddling under blankets, hands suspiciously missing from view. Daisy takes it all in, and her cheeks flush.
“Cold?” I rub my hands along her arms.
“I’m okay.” She nuzzles against my chest anyway.
I tuck a strand of windblown hair behind her ear and bring my lips down to hers.
Her mouth molds to mine, and she kisses me back, though tentatively.
When I pull back to read her expression, she glances around, and it hits me.
PDA is not her thing. And while I could tell her that no one out here is paying any attention to us, having her to myself sounds pretty damn good too.
“You wanna get out of here?” I ask.
She nods.
Dallas is sober tonight, and I get him to give us a ride. We take off toward Daisy’s, both of us in the back seat. Her chest rises and falls in anticipation. I keep my hands to myself, but I am dying to touch her.
I know I need to talk to Liam, but if he was really interested in her, wouldn’t he be here tonight? All Daisy has to do is look at me, and I want to say fuck it all.
Her house is dark from the outside. She pauses on the front stoop.
“Meet me in the tree house.”
I raise a brow.
“If my roommates are awake, they will ask a million questions that I don’t want to answer tonight.”
“Hiding me from your friends, sweet Daisy?”
“Go.” She pushes me lightly, and I head around the back of the house. I use my phone for light as I climb up into the tree house. I wasn’t lying. I really dig it up here. It’s so Daisy. Scraps of paper with unfinished sketches line the walls.
“Little help,” she calls up while I’m still enjoying her art.
Daisy stands on the bottom rung with a big blanket in her arms. She lifts it over her head to me, followed by a pillow and a flashlight.
“Look at you. You’re a regular camper.”
She reaches the top, and together we put down the blanket so we can lie on top of it. “I’ve never been camping. Unless you count sleeping up here because I did fall asleep up here once.”
“I love camping.”
“Surprise, surprise,” she sits in the middle and places the flashlight off to the side so it gives us a little light to see each other.
Sitting next to her, I ask, “What does that mean?” I mock her tone. “Surprise, surprise.”
“It seems like you’ve done everything. What are your parents like?”
“They’re cool. My dad is a high school baseball coach.”
“Baseball?”
“Yeah, imagine his disappointment.”
Daisy smiles and hugs her legs to her chest, then props her chin on top of her knees. “And your mom?”
“She’s a dietitian.”
“And were you always this…”
“Charming?” I lay on my side next to her. “Handsome?”
“Yeah. Those, too.” She stretches her legs out, and I wrap an arm around her waist to pull her down, so we’re facing each other on the blanket.
“I was into sports and video games, anything outdoors.”
“I bet you had lots of friends and girlfriends.”
“Lots of friends. Only one serious girlfriend. In high school.”
“You had a serious girlfriend?” Her tone is filled with surprise.
“Serious-ish. She went to college in New York. We lasted all of a week into freshman year.” I breathe her in. “What about you? Was young Daisy as sweet as this one?”
Her shirt’s lifted an inch above the waist of her jeans, and I run a hand along the soft curve of her waist.
“I guess I was the same, yeah. My parents worked a lot. They’re both professors and researchers, so academics are sort of everything to them.”
“What’d you do for fun?”