Chapter Thirty-Seven
–Fletcher–
This living room is packed to the brim, worse than the club on Saturday night. My stomach is churning, my heart racing, my neck beginning to itch. The urge to turn around and flee the scene grows stronger with each pair of curious eyes that lands on me. But it’s too late. I’ve already decided. Angel is right. My only job right now is to tell Haley that I want to be with her. The rest will sort itself out later. But damn, I wish she hadn’t taken off like she did. It would be so much easier if we could have this talk at the club. On my home turf. Because a big high-school party at a football player’s house is so far from home turf for me, I might need a passport.
I spot Leslie standing near the sofa, but before I can ask her if she knows where Haley is, she points a finger at me, her eyes narrowed. “Hey…I know you!”
Her words mush together in a drunk and disorderly way. The chances of her being helpful are slim to none. “Yeah, you called me an elf once.”
“God, Haley’s right, I am a bitch,” Leslie says, and then because I needed more shit to deal with, she dunks her head and starts shaking with sobs.
Jesus Christ.
“Don’t beat yourself up over it.” I give her a small pat on the shoulder and quickly turn my back.
When I’ve got some distance from Leslie, I scan the room for Haley and come up empty. But right near the back door, my gaze lands on someone who I hadn’t anticipated being here.
Cole.
He’s got a beer in one hand and appears to be telling an animated story to one of our teammates.
This is great. Just great.
I release a frustrated breath and head straight over to Cole. The look on his face when he sees me, though, is almost worth all the discomfort of being here at this party. Almost. I snatch the beer from his hand and pass it to a girl standing a few feet away.
Cole’s face reddens, but he separates himself from the little group he’d been chatting up. “What are you doing here?”
“Babysitting you, apparently,” I say. “How did you get here—” I stop myself and refocus on tonight’s objective. “You know what? I don’t care. Just don’t move from this living room. No one at this party is giving you a ride home, got it?”
His gaze darts left and right. He scratches the back of his head, clearly embarrassed, but he nods.
Maybe I should just call Braden to come pick us up now and call it a night. But then I remember what Angel said about Haley stewing in her embarrassment or whatever for fourteen hours. Truth is, I don’t know exactly what’s going on in her head. I just know that she was with me and she left upset, and I can’t wait until the morning to fix this.
Even though it goes against all my instincts, I exhale and then say to Cole, “Have you seen Haley?”
“Yeah, she’s out—” He stops, his eyes wider than when he spotted me here. “That’s why you came? For Haley?”
“Maybe…I mean yes.” I scrub a hand over my face. “I just need to talk to her.”
Before he tells me where she is, I spot her through the glass back doors. She’s standing on a blanket in the grass, her cell phone clutched in one hand. My heart picks up speed. My hand is on the doorknob. But I turn quickly to Cole. “I meant what I said. Stay right here.”
By the time I get the door open, she’s spotted me.
And suddenly this is all so much more real. She knows I’m here. I came to say something. My chest tightens, my steps grow heavier, but my resolve is still intact. All the eyes at this party could watch me, and I’d still want to tell her what I came to say.
Claire had been sitting on the blanket in the grass, but she scrambles to her feet as if preparing to make an exit. Tate, who probably doesn’t have a clue what may have gone down between me and Haley, lifts a hand to wave at me.
“Hey, man. You came!”
Claire rushes over to stop him from coming closer, and soon I’m standing in front of Haley, scared as hell, but here.
Her hair is still tangled from our make-out session, her dress is a bit wrinkled now, but she looks gorgeous and perfect and so many other things I can’t seem to articulate. Freakin’ hell, Angel is right. I am definitely falling in love with this girl.
She stares up at me for several seconds, and I’m about to dive in to what I came to tell her, but then she says, “I was just going to call you.”
“You were?” That’s a little surprising.
“I’m sorry,” she blurts out.
“Sorry?” I feel my forehead wrinkle. “Don’t apologize for…what happened at the club. If you were feeling uncomfortable—”
Her face flames. “No, not for that. I’m sorry for asking you out. Especially the way I did it.”
“I shouldn’t have said no.” Before she can ask for clarification, I step closer and reach for her hand. Slowly, I tangle our fingers until they’re locked together. “What I should have said is that I don’t know if I can handle a town dance, but I want to be with you. I want to be able to call you and see you and talk to you and all the other yous that we haven’t even thought of.”
“What about—” she starts to protest.
I touch my free hand to her lips. “Can we do that? Can we just be together and figure out all that other shit later?”
She uses our linked hands to tug me closer and then lifts my fingers up for me to see them. “Your hand is shaking.” Concerned, she rests her other hand on my chest. “Your heart is racing.”
“Just nerves,” I reassure her. “I’m a little out of my comfort zone. And a little too close to a beautiful girl to keep my pulse in check.”
A hint of a smile crosses her face. She still hasn’t answered my question. “We should make a contract…”
“A contract?”
“You know,” she says, looking up at me. “So we can list all the things you’re open to and all of your hard nos—big town events, definitely no. Jock parties—maybe. Bondage, nudity, role play…probably.”
Relief washes over me. I bring her closer until her head rests against my chest, then I kiss her hair, her temple, her cheek. “No contract. I promise I’ll be much harder to get rid of from now on.”
The way her body relaxes against mine, I know that I’ve finally said the right thing. And even with the nosy onlookers, I lift her chin until she’s looking at me and then kiss her in a way that most people might reserve for when they’re alone.
Eventually, Haley pulls away, glances around, and then says, “Want to get out of here?”
“That would be a hard yes.”