The words “well you should have come around more” burned on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them unsaid. “Then we should make up for lost time.”
Outside, I got to enjoy watching her tug off her shorts and lay them over a chair under the table’s umbrella. After I put our sodas on the table, I went ahead and dived in. The water was “cold” compared to the heat, but it felt damn good. I swam the length of the pool and emerged in the shallows.
It gave me a perfect view of her diving in. She really was gorgeous. For the next few minutes, we alternated between floating and swimming. When she drifted closer, I snaked an arm around her and pulled her back against my chest.
“Bubba?” There was just a note of warning in her voice. Warning and inquiry.
“Just let me say this,” I said against her ear. Maybe it was cheating to do it with her looking away from me. It was definitely shitty to make a move on someone else’s girl. But she wasn’t someone else’s girl. I didn’t care who she was dating.
Frenchy was the interloper. Not me.
“I’ve wanted to date you since I understood that guys could like girls and it wasn’t weird. You might be one of my bestfriends, but you have a body that I enjoy looking at and a brain I love learning from. You’re also funny and adorable.”
She’d gone completely still.
“For way too long, I didn’t think you were interested in dating anyone. Not guys. Not girls. Nothing I did seemed to shift your opinion. But now you are dating…” Fuck, I hated saying that. “Dating someone we don’t know and that bugs me because I want you to be happy,andsafe. More, I want you to dateme.”
Her little jerk didn’t bruise my ego at all.
“This is a lot to dump on you right here and right now, but if I didn’t rip the Band-Aid off and just say it, I have a feeling I never would. So, this is me, Ian Rhys, telling you, Frankie Curtis, that I like you and I want to date you.”
“You have a girlfriend…” It came out almost a strangled whisper.
“No. I don’t. Sharon and I broke up. I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“But Mathieu and I…” She put her hand over mine on her stomach. I kept my hips back from hers even if her back was to my chest, cause my dick was all about broadcasting how happy we were to be holding her.
“Keep dating him,” I said, and almost couldn’t believe I was saying it. “If you want to, just—don’t be exclusive. Let me have a chance.” Then because that was enough pressure, I pressed a kiss to the nape of her neck. One brush of my lips to the damp skin there. “You don’t have to say anything now or decide anything. Think about it. Please.”
I waited, then let her go and pushed backward to swim to the far side of the pool again. I needed to burn off some of the desire that had me harder than a stone at the moment. Each time I passed her, I wanted to touch her, but I kept my hands to myself.
After a half-dozen laps, I headed over to where she sat on the steps. Time to face the music, literally and figuratively. She tilted her head as I approached and I straightened.
“Few more minutes,” she said finally. “Then we can order pizza, do math homework, and talk essays.”
I blew out a breath.
“If…” she continued, holding up a finger. “You play me another new song after.”
Relief crashed into me and I made a face. “You drive a hard bargain.”
“Those are my terms,” she quipped. “Take it or leave it.”
“Oh, I’ll definitely take it.” Take you. I was in.
Chapter
Fourteen
FRANKIE
My phone vibrated in my pocket more than once during my shift, but it was nonstop here. Kids poured in after practices had started letting out. Football players, cheerleaders, members of the band—though the band typically drilled in the morning.
If I wasn’t taking an order or delivering food to a table, I was making milkshakes. The grind and growl of the machine had become a constant chorus. My hand and wrist were both getting sore from fighting to scoop the ice cream. The freezer was broken, in that it had one temperature setting—subarctic.
Still, I supposed that was better than if it were more like the equator. If it wasn’t possible to keep the ice cream cold, we’d have to stop serving shakes. While my hand and wrist would appreciate it, the rest of me wouldn’t.
The bitching from the customers would be epic, particularly while Texas continued to play host to the seventh circle of hell. So, as much as my hand was cramping, I’d take the subzero freezer thank you very much.
