Chapter Fourteen Summer
Chapter Fourteen
Summer
I haven’t stopped smiling in two hours. My face actually hurts from it.
“Nice job.” Vaughn holds his hand up to me and I slap my palm against his.
“I’m going to need you to step up your game,” Austin says with a grimace as he side-eyes Rowan.
“You try to guard her,” Rowan tells him. “She has bony elbows.”
I fight a laugh and lose.
“One more game?” Rowan asks. We’ve been playing two on two. Me and Vaughn vs. Austin and Rowan. I never dreamed of playing with Vaughn, but if I had, this would have exceeded my expectations for it.
“I have to meet Lacey and her dad for dinner,” Vaughn says.
“My parents are expecting me.” Austin shakes his head.
I should go home too, but I’d skip all my meals to play with these guys a little longer.
They’re so good. Playing with them is surreal.
Although despite what Rowan said, he was not guarding me as hard as he could.
I know it, and I’m sure his friends do too.
I’ve seen these guys in a game, and they’re more relaxed out here than they were in a real situation.
Still, I kept up with them, and I am going to be on a weeklong high because of it.
“This was fun,” Austin says to me with a flick of his head. “You might be the secret weapon the girls’ team has needed to get into the playoffs this season.”
A warm flush creeps up my neck and onto my cheeks. Rowan slings an arm around my shoulders.
“‘Might be’?” he scoffs.
Austin and Vaughn chuckle. I’m too aware of Rowan’s fingers brushing against my arm and his body pressed up against mine to do anything as natural as laugh.
You’d think I would have gotten used to it by now—the little touches and the easy way he flirts with me in front of his friends—but instead it’s like each time adds to the building tension between us.
Except I’m the only one who seems to be affected.
“See you guys tomorrow,” Vaughn calls, and he and Austin head off the field.
Rowan pulls back, taking his heat and a little more of my sanity with him. He hits me with a wide grin. He’s all playful and charming right now, and I am struggling to remember he’s not, in fact, my boyfriend but only a guy who I’m pretending to date so he can get back with his ex.
The thought of Amanda does the trick of reining in my emotions, and I glance away from him.
“I should go too.”
“What? No. Stay a little longer.” He kicks the ball up and catches it.
When I force my gaze back to his face, he’s giving me a hopeful and boyish puppy-dog stare.
“Fine.” I laugh. “But I need water first.” I should probably dump it over my head. I cannot lose sight of what this is between us. No matter how fun it is to be with him or how nice he’s being to me, it’s not real.
We sit in the middle of the field. He leans back, propping himself up with his elbows, and I sit, legs crossed, next to him.
I guzzle my water and refrain from the cold shower I really need.
Rowan is quiet, staring out at the empty field.
I stare at him. His dark hair is thick and shiny and a little too long, but I find myself wanting to reach out and touch it.
He’s in an old, faded Frost Lake High soccer T-shirt and black shorts.
They’ve ridden up slightly due to the way he’s sitting, and part of a tattoo peeks out.
“What is it?” I ask before I think to stop myself.
“Hmm?” Rowan asks and glances back at me. When he turns his focus to my line of sight, he sits up and lifts the hem of his shorts higher. The linework is simple and the tattoo itself isn’t colored in. It looks like a paper bird.
“Is it a bird?” I ask, tilting my head to get a better look.
“A crane.” He nods.
“Why?”
“I got really into origami one year. I learned how to make all sorts of things. Frogs, boxes, ninja stars, flowers, and—”
“Birds,” I finish for him.
“Yeah.”
“Is this how your fortune catcher obsession started?”
“I’m not obsessed. They’re fun.”
It was fun, and somehow I can picture Rowan sitting in class folding paper into all sorts of creations. Probably instead of studying.
“Do you still do origami?” I ask, then add, “outside of fortune catchers obviously.”
“No, not really. What weird hobbies do you have?” he asks me.
“Soccer is my only hobby.”
“Come on. Seriously?”
I nod, feeling a small bit of embarrassment admitting it.
“What about when you were younger?”
Glancing up, I think for a moment. “I wanted to be a pop star for a hot minute.”
He barks out a laugh.
I glare at him.
“I’m sorry. It isn’t funny. I’m just surprised. I’m sure you would be a great pop star. I’m just imagining you onstage with that hair all big and sexy. I’d have bought tickets to watch you.”
The word sexy settles like a hammer in my stomach. “You have a weird obsession with my hair.”
“That I do.” He lets out another small laugh. “What else?”
“Umm…” I bite the corner of my lip and go back farther in my memories. “Silas and I tried basketball one summer, and then there was swimming.”
“You didn’t like either of those?”
“Not enough to do them on my own. Not like soccer. I could play all day every day.”
“I’ve gathered that.” His eyes crinkle with another big smile.
“Not you though?”
“I like soccer, but it’s fun to me because I get to do it with my friends.”
“That’s true of most team sports.”
“Yeah, but I’m good at this one.”
That he is.
His gaze drops to my ring. “Purple again. Every time we’re together, it’s purple. I think your mood ring is broken.”
“Every time we’re together, it revolves around soccer, and we’ve already established my love of that.” My cheeks burn hotter.
“Not yesterday,” he says. “At the career fair it was purple too.”
“How do you know that?”
He shrugs. “I notice things.”
I pull my hand back so he can’t see the bright purple color on my ring.
Rowan gets to his feet, talking so low I almost miss it when he says, “Especially when it comes to you, Lindsey.”