“Unfortunately, I have a lot of schoolwork to finish before tomorrow too,” I said. “And now that I can kiss you freely, I’m not sure I would be as productive with you here as I was last time.”
“Let’s be honest.” Her green-gold eyes traced my face, pink lips tipping upward. “You weren’t trying to be productive then, either.”
Was I that obvious? Damn.
“I may have been buying some time,” I admitted. “But Ward has consistently bad timing.”
Her jaw dropped, her mouth forming a little O. “So you were going to kiss me.” She swatted my arm playfully.
I smiled. I was busted and I knew it. “I was sure going to try.”
“You can kiss me now if you want,” she said, her voice turning breathy.
Coming closer, I twined a hand in her hair, pulling her to me. Our lips came together softly. She placed a cool hand along my jaw as she kissed me back.
I could only describe it as a shut-off switch for my brain, because everything else faded away. The moment stretched out forever. All that existed were her sweet lips moving against my lips in the most achingly perfect way and her body pressed up against mine.
Slowly, we broke apart. Her lips curved into a shy smile again. Then her expression turned serious, and she studied my face.
“Speaking of schoolwork, how’s that probation going?”
“Thanks to you and to the good grade I got on my essay,” I said, “I am officially out of the woods on that one.” And I was trying to keep it that way. Unless I lost my cool and beat the shit out of Morrison in the near future, which was a strong possibility and would absolutely be worth it.
Ideally, though, I’d clobber him on the ice, thereby helping the team while avoiding jail.
“Really?” Bailey’s face brightened and she squeezed my hand. “That’s great.”
“Yeah, but I still have to watch myself. Like at the game against you guys this week.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that part. Coach Miller had been giving me regular “stay the fuck in line” pep talks—which we both knew were warnings.
Her brow creased, and she shifted her body weight. “Are you sure it won’t be worse if I’m there?”
“No, it’ll be fine.” I shook my head. That didn’t come out the way I wanted it to. Having her there would be so much more than fine. “It’ll be great,” I assured her. “I’m looking forward to you coming. I can keep my cool.”
I think.
Dallas strolled into the living room. “Dinner? Yes?” He raised his dark eyebrows, pointing at Bailey, then me. “I can cook.”
“Wait. You guys go away all weekend, work your butts off, then you come back and cook for us?” Bailey asked.
I mean, Dallas would be doing all the work in this scenario, but if I got credit by association, I wouldn’t complain. Grilling wasn’t really a two-man job, but I guess I could stand beside the barbecue and pretend to help.
Two hours later, we had perfectly grilled steaks, loaded baked potatoes, and a masterpiece of a Caesar salad, compete with fresh bacon crumbled over top.
The company wasn’t too shabby, either.
Bailey set her fork down on her plate and took a sip of water. Her lush lips landed on the glass, drawing my attention. All I could think of was her mouth on my mouth. Or, well, other places.
“You know,” she said, “I haven’t heard any embarrassing stories about you from your friends yet.”
I swallowed a bite of medium-rare steak with trepidation. There were embarrassing stories, and then there were embarrassing stories. But I could trust Ward not to throw me under the bus. Didn’t need some of those tales getting out, least of all to James.
Some of the guys on the team might need a small reminder.
“Hmm.” Dallas furrowed his dark brow. “That’s a tough one. I feel like most of them implicate me too.”
“All the better.” Shiv leaned over in her seat, nudging him with her elbow. She pushed her curtain of dark hair over her shoulder and looked at Ward expectantly. “Start talking, Dal.”
He glanced over at me. We shared a brief, silent understanding that he wouldn’t completely ruin my life, and I would do the same for him. Thanks, man.
“I don’t know,” he said, drumming his fingers on the wooden table. “There are some good ones from that juniors tournament in Finland. Like the restaurant thing.”
Ah, that was a fun trip. It was the summer before freshman year, the first time we’d been afforded any real freedom while we were away for a tournament—with the trouble to show for it.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “That was kind of funny.”
And low on the embarrassment scale, comparatively speaking. At least my clothes stayed on in that one. Nice save, Ward.
Bailey tilted her head, pausing with a fork full of Caesar salad. “Why, what happened?”
“On our first night there, they let us go out on our own,” I said. “Ward and I headed downtown, far away from the touristy stuff near our hotel. You know, to get an authentic local experience.”
“Obviously we didn’t speak a lick of Finnish,” Dallas added, taking a bite of his loaded baked potato.
Shiv and Bailey watched us, rapt, as we continued.
“We rolled up to this restaurant, and it was packed, so we figured it had to be good.” I tossed back.
“But with the language barrier, communicating with the hostess was an issue,” he said. “She pointed at a table, then to a group of people who were already seated. We nodded and were like, yeah, we want a table too. Then she seated us at the end of this long table, right along with these other people. We thought it was strange, but we were like, okay, maybe communal dining is the Finnish way.”
I huffed a laugh at the memory. “The other people were giving us funny looks, but we thought it was because we were American. The server kept bringing us courses of food, one after the other. We didn’t get the chance to order off the menu. Again, it was odd, but we rolled with it.”
“They even poured us wine without asking,” Dallas added. “When we were finished, we went to pay, and they wouldn’t take our money.” He paused, taking a sip of his beer, his lips curving against the mouth of the bottle. “Because we crashed a wedding reception by mistake.”
“We left a huge tip and booked it out of there,” I said, snickering.
Shiv tipped her head back, letting out a throaty laugh. “How is this the first I’m hearing of this?” She recovered partially, shaking her head. “Oh, it’s a good thing you two are pretty.”
“Sure is.” Bailey bit her lip. Her shoulders shook beneath my gray hoodie as she attempted to fight back a fit of giggles and failed.
I waved them off, fighting a sheepish smile. “Yeah, yeah.”
Dallas looked down at his plate, cutting off a piece of steak before glancing up again. “There was also the Amsterdam thing on the way home.”
Bailey turned to face me. “Amsterdam…？” Her brow knit together, expression turning wary.
I laughed, squeezing her thigh beneath the table. “We did edibles, James. Magic brownies. We didn’t hit the red-light district.”