Chapter Five Everleigh #2
“Part of the time. My dad joined me for two weeks.” He shrugged like it was no big deal. But the idea of camping alone in the bear-infested wilderness felt like a huge deal to me. “My dad is a park ranger, so I’ve spent a lot of my life in the wilderness.”
“Were you born in California?” I asked.
“No. Kalispell. It’s south of—”
“I know where Kalispell is.” I laughed. “It’s basic geography.”
“Basic geography?” Will shot me a quick sideways glance.
I adjusted my purse strap. “It’s on a map.”
He chuckled, shaking his head, then he slid his hand around my waist to pull me closer while we squeezed past a group of cackling women standing in the middle of the sidewalk. I liked how tiny and protected I felt tucked under his arm.
“That’s more than basic geography. I bet most people who don’t live here in the West have never heard of Kalispell,” he said, releasing me after we passed the women.
“I’m just trying to be sexy. You said smart women are sexy.”
“Touché, Everleigh. What else do you know that I might find sexy?”
That was a trick question. How was I supposed to know what information was sexy versus intimidating? My intelligence often intimidated men. Will’s finding it sexy was not only thrilling, it was rare.
“What are you into?” I asked. “Sports are my weak area. I’m not saying I’m weak. I have athletic skills, I just haven’t taken the time to study any particular sport.”
I loved Will’s laugh. It wasn’t like he was laughing at me. No, there was genuine joy in his reaction. “Well, I don’t study sports, but I love watching them. Are you hungry?”
I was starving, but I thought we were supposed to have sex.
“I could eat,” I said instead of mentioning sex.
“How do you feel about clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl?”
“I feel like you’re speaking my love language.”
He playfully nudged my arm. “Good answer.”
I felt his body heat cling to me like lava sliding down a hill.
For someone who didn’t live in the area, Will led me straight to a place with outdoor seating. He ordered us drinks and two clam chowders in sourdough bowls.
“Have you considered a specialty other than dicks?” he asked.
“Stop.” I giggled. “I’m considering psychiatry.”
His eyebrows jumped up his forehead. “You’re going to medical school to counsel people?”
I averted my gaze, thinking about my answer, and then I just said what came naturally. “I’m going to medical school because my dad expects me to become a doctor. I’m specializing in psychiatry because I find the mind more tolerable than any other part of the body.”
Will barked a laugh. “You don’t really want to be a doctor.”
“It’s an okay profession. Do you really want to be a firefighter?”
He sipped his water, then nodded. “Absolutely.”
“Well.” I drummed my fingers on my legs. “Good for you.”
Will had a way of smiling without really moving his lips. It was all in his expressive blue eyes, and the way the small mole under his left eye almost disappeared when he squinted. Were we really going to have sex?
Would it make me a better doctor? I thought it might. How could I genuinely understand patients with sexual issues if I had yet to experience a penis inside of me?
“Does your family live in California?” Will asked.
“No.” I paused for a moment, thinking about Will spending two weeks in Yosemite with his father, and I felt a pang of envy. “My father is a brilliant neurosurgeon in Delhi, and my mom is an artist in New York. They never married,” I said.
His brow furrowed. “That’s interesting. Who raised you?”
I liked Will so much, and I wanted him to like me back. “Both. I traveled back and forth. Three months with one, three with the other.”
“That’s a lot of time on a plane.”
“Yes. Sometimes one or the other would make the trip with me, but most of the time, a flight nanny escorted me. There were two I got to know pretty well.”
“How did your parents meet?”
I drew lines with my fingertip in the cool condensation on my water glass as dishes clinked and clanked behind me.
This was my favorite story. “My father spoke at a medical conference in New York. One of his colleagues invited him to a private exhibition at an art gallery where my mom’s ‘tastefully painted’ nudes were on display. ”
Will’s eyes widened a fraction.
“She said she was thirteen when her obsession with painting the human body in its truest form became her whole life.” I shrugged.
“I’m not embarrassed by it. She’s very talented.
Anyway, it was a one-night stand. That’s it.
Two parents on two different continents.
No siblings. Neither one has ever married. They’re married to their jobs.”
Will gave my words time to settle. I liked his patience. He never cut me off, which meant he was a good listener. And I felt like he found my story fascinating in the best way.
“What about you?” I asked. “Do you have the all-American dream? Great parents? Siblings? A hundred cousins?”
He picked off a piece of his bread bowl and dipped it into the chowder. “I have a younger sister. My parents are happily married. Yes, I have a few cousins. So I suppose in comparison, my family is the all-American dream. Whatever that means anymore.”
“That’s nice.” I tried to smile past my jealousy. “I think at least one brother or sister would have been fun. Even just parents who tried to make a marriage work.”
“Well, maybe you’ll have what they didn’t.”
“Slow down, William. We just met.”
Will’s grin engulfed his face. “No marriage proposals tonight?”
As hard as I tried to act cool, I wasn’t. I giggled and fidgeted. Did I look like a seventeen-year-old virgin with a crush on a sexy firefighter? Probably.
“So, you and Tyler were childhood friends?” I asked as the server refilled our waters.
“Yes.” He rested the napkin on his leg. “His family moved from Kalispell to Oakland just before his sixteenth birthday. There were four of us who hung out. He broke the pack.”
“Like a pack of wolves?”
He chuckled. “Sort of. What about you? How did you go to school if you were living three months in the US and three in India?”
“Oh.” I cleared my throat, skimming my spoon along the surface of the hot chowder. “I had private tutors.”
“You were privately tutored for twelve years?”
It took me only six years. But that wasn’t important. Will didn’t need to do any math that night.
“It wasn’t so bad.” I blew on the spoonful of soup before taking a cautious sip.
“That must have been lonely.”
He had no idea. Starting college at twelve made it hard to find friends. Not that I had no friends. Most of them were adults.
“I made friends online,” I said, picking at the top of my bread bowl.
“Social media?” Will asked.
“Gaming.”
“You’re a gamer?” He perked up.
“Yeah, why?” I sipped my lemonade through the straw.
“I’m a gamer too.”
His confession shook my composure. I had a million questions, per usual. What did he like to play? What system did he have, and what were his favorite platforms? Did he enjoy single or multiplayer games?
“Would you like to play with me?” I asked.
After swallowing his soup, he licked his lips. “Are we still talking about gaming?”
“Of course, what else would we be talking about?” I bowed my head for the next slurp of soup. As soon as it touched my lips, I got the innuendo.
Oh my god.
I cleared my throat, trying to figure out what a mature young woman would say to his suggestive reply.
“Um . . .” I dropped my spoon in my soup, then pressed my napkin to my lips, keeping my chin tucked. My heart rattled my chest as much as his words rattled my composure.
I couldn’t imagine what a twentysomething woman would say. Being a genius didn’t expedite certain life experiences. When it came to flirting, I was no more experienced than any other seventeen-year-old. If anything, fast-tracking through school robbed me of even the average experience.
“I’m kidding. I know we’re talking about gaming,” Will said.
I nervously laughed. “It’s fine if you’re not.”
Yes. I said that.
Maybe my sex CV was empty, but always being the youngest in every classroom had made me very brave, even when that bravery got me in over my head. That was the case with William Landry.
I peeked up at him.
“Check, please,” Will said, holding up a finger to get the server’s attention.
Then, the most embarrassing thing happened—tears welled in my eyes. I was on the verge of becoming a full-fledged woman, and it hit me all at once.