Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 71915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
“Some of it, maybe?” I admitted. “Like the pieces of me flying apart when I’m trying so hard to hold it all together.”
“Damn, I get that. It’s a stunning piece.”
I could feel myself flush. “It’s not quite done, but thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He pushed his plate away, leaving one piece on the pie tin.
“That painting might even have a little of you in it too.” My tone was tentative, hoping I didn’t overstep, but he was easy to talk to.
“True.” He sighed. “My parents went through a lot—obviously Zoey too. But she’s got the diabetes under control now.”
“It was awesome seeing her again. She seems great. I may not have hung around your house like Bailey did, but I was aware of stuff going on.” I met his eyes. “I was aware of you.”
Alex shivered, and the fact that he hadn’t realized how cognizant of him I was, made me want to show him with my lips and hands. Dangerous fucking territory.
By the time we walked back to campus, it was late and deserted, but damn, it’d been a nice night.
“Thanks for hanging out,” Alex said in this shy voice as if he’d encroached on my time or something.
I pulled him into the shadow of a building, hemmed him against the wall, and pressed my lips against his for a slow, long kiss that made my stomach feel like butterflies were having a dance party.
When I finally dragged myself away, he looked a bit wrecked but had this dreamy smile on his face I couldn’t help returning.
“Night, Carl,” I said with a laugh as I forced my shaky legs to walk the hell away.
12
Alex
It was late when I got back to the dorm. The light was out, and Bailey was in bed, but it didn’t stop him from questioning me like he was a dad waiting up for a teen. “Where have you been?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him I was with Remy, but it was a bad idea, especially at this hour when we had to be up at the crack of dawn. “I told you already. I wanted to ask Jordan about the teen center. Guess the time got away from us. No big deal.”
Fuck, I felt bad for lying and using Jordan and the center as an excuse, but Bailey would be really pissed if he knew I was consorting with his supposed enemy. Besides, it was only a hookup, and we both admitted we weren’t interested in anything more. It was convenient, really. And super freaking hot.
“Jordan, huh? I thought you said—”
“Tired. Wanna go to sleep. Talk in the morning.”
I quickly changed and slid into bed, but it took me several long minutes to fall asleep because I couldn’t stop thinking about the blowjob and the dinner conversation and that fucking kiss at the end of the night. And the art, which was competing with everything else swirling in my brain.
Only a few short hours later, our three alarms sounded, and we rolled out of bed to head to practice in near silence outside of tired grunts about not forgetting our bags.
We warmed up with the rest of the team, some looking worse for wear than others, namely the seniors who seemed to burn the candle at both ends even more than the rest of us. Or maybe it had something to do with living in a party house.
After weight training and morning practice, we finally sat down to eat breakfast, a bit more awake all around.
I had all but forgotten the lie I’d told last night until Bailey leaned across the table, catching Jordan’s eye. “So you and Alex, huh? Hanging out last night?”
I nudged Jordan with my foot and threw him a pointed, imploring look to play along. He caught on quickly. “Yeah, what about it?”
I breathed out in relief. Christ.
Bailey grinned like he was in on a secret. “Nothing, only think it’s cool, that’s all.”
Jordan’s eyebrows drew together. “O…kay. We’re teammates, so…”
Suddenly Andrew pounded the table to get our attention. He was one of the more obnoxious seniors and liked his captain-of-the-team status a bit too much. But he was also pretty cool to us. Most of the teasing came from Carter, who was always trying to get the freshmen to carry his bag or do him special favors. “The whole team is invited to hang at our place tonight.”
“You’ll have to chip in for pizza, though,” Carter added. “You get the food. We’ll supply the drinks.”
“Sounds good to us,” Tim said and smirked at Dave, who seemed giddy about the invite.
An excited murmur resounded around the table. I was beginning to realize that Thursday meant more to this team than the weekend, which made a ton of sense since you didn’t mess around on the nights before a meet.