CHAPTER FOUR
LEIGH
All I wanted to do was celebrate the end of studying for this terrible calculus exam. We knew we'd hit a few bumps after the football game, but never did I expect to run into the same jerk who made Natalie cry and who threatened Sealy. Every other week, I'm sure we walked past a half-dozen football players and never noticed, but this week had to be different. Of course it did.
This is the week the universe decided to karmatically kick my ass. Messages from my dad, my brothers, my ex-boyfriends, and now this. There isn't enough cheap wine in all of College Station to get me through this.
"Leigh, wait!"
I almost turn at my name but immediately recognize the voice. Great, now he knows my name and will never leave me alone. It's like reverse Rumpelstiltskin disease—they never go away after they get my name. I veer down an alley just before passing a group of cheerleaders and hope he gets distracted.
"Hey, come on. Don't leave your friend back there with some guy she's never met! What kind of friend does that make you?"
I wheel around on the hulking football asshole behind me, mace extended. "What the fuck is your friend going to do to her?"
"What? Nothing." He holds his hands up, sort of, but I don't think he looks terribly intimidated. I should mace him on principle. "I just wanted you to stop."
"What do you want? No bullshit."
"No bullshit? Fine." He has a weird look on his face and I don't particularly like it. "My boy Clark really wants to hook up with your blonde friend. It's my job to play wingman and keep you happy. She isn't fucking happy with you walking out of the place so I need you to come back to Antonio’s with me."
"Not a chance." I pull my phone out of my pocket to text Sealy that I'm going home. "Now leave me alone before I have to use this."
"I'm not trying to pull anything freaky, okay? All I want is for you to go back and eat some pizza." He takes a step towards me, unfazed as I level the mace at his eye level. He's so much taller than me it's ridiculous. "I won't even touch you. You can put that away."
I eye him. He's an attractive guy... for a meathead. He doesn't look very threatening and mostly looks genuine. It doesn't add up, though, and I've seen the nasty side of him that can flare. I don't exactly want to see it again.
"Please?"
The politeness surprises me more than anything else. The mace stays in my hand, but is no longer aimed at his face. "Aren't there a bunch of frat parties you're supposed to crash?"
"I don't care for that shit." He waves the notion off like it's a fly. "Bunch of dumbasses in frat houses and the cops get called too often. Kind of a buzz kill after kicking ass on the field."
"Yet here you are, talking to me."
"I wouldn't call you a buzzkill, exactly." He flashes a dimpled smile at me. "Come on, I'm really not an asshole. Let's go eat some pizza and pretend to like each other for an hour or two. Play wing woman. Be a good friend."
I scowl at him because that is precisely the thing I don't want to hear from him. Sealy doesn't need any help from me, but the thought of leaving her alone, like I was absolutely going to do, sours in my stomach. I can't leave her, which means I can't get away from him.
"Who are you, anyway?"
"Me?" He looks shocked and glances behind him. "Surely you aren't talking to me."
I don't even humor him with a response to that.
"Heath Davis. Quarterback for the Aggies. Nice to meet you." He winks and offers his hand and another dimpled smile. He nods slowly at me.
Despite everything, I almost laugh. "Leigh." I don't shake his hand because I don't trust him. "Waitress at Wings ‘N Brew."
"What's your major, Leigh of Wings ‘N Brew?"
"Astronaut."
He blinks at me and I think he thinks I'm serious. Who thinks who is the bigger dumbass, at this point, is impossible to say. Finally, he cracks a wide smile.
"I think I'm going to like you."
"You won't." I brush past him and head into a more brightly lit area of the street. "What's your major, Quarterback?"
"Accounting or something. I just sort of picked at random." I stop and stare, but Heath only shrugs. "Going pro is all I've ever cared about. The degree doesn't matter. I'm just here to play."
I mutter every curse I know under my breath. He's the biggest cliché I've ever met. He’s every part the big dumb farm boy the Aggies seem to pull in in droves.
"What are you studying? For real?"
"Aerospace engineering." I immediately hate myself for answering. "That's the only reason why I'm in this one-horse town."
"Have you seen the Ag department here? There's at least two hundred horses in this town."
I have to swallow a smile because I really don't want to like him. "Funny."
"I have a lot of excellent attributes and a robust vocabulary."
The tables are turning and I don't like it one bit. I walk a little faster to put some space between us and my heel catches a hole in the concrete.
"Oh shit!" The world turns sideways and I brace for impact, but it never comes. Instead, I'm moving higher.
Heath freaking Davis caught me. There is no god. This confirms it. This beast of a boy cradles me in his arms and is entirely too close for comfort. He even smells good, instead of sweaty gym socks, and it really pisses me off.
"Gotta be careful." He sets me down gently. "So many horses in this town, they've torn up the streets."
My heel is blessedly intact, though I can't say the same for my pride. Now he's going to think he saved me and really won't leave me alone. This is worse than the Rumpelstiltskin disease. This is hell.
"You okay?" Heath is only a breath away and backs me into the brick wall. "Didn't break anything?"
"No." The air is full of him. The heat of his gaze ignites something deep in my veins that I haven't felt in a long time. It's both intoxicating and infuriating. Those fuzzy little bubbles, that instant wallop of sensuality—it catches me off guard. "I'm fine."
"You strike me as the kind of girl who forgot how to have a good time." His voice lowers just enough to rumble in my ear. "All those books and studying makes Leigh a sad girl."
"I'm not boring." That comes out with half the ferocity I want.
"I never said boring. You said that." His dimples bathe in the light of streetlamps. I forgot how much I love dimples. "I just said you needed to have a little more fun."
Despite my brain screaming at me, I manage to say, "Define fun."
He's eclipsed my senses and bit by bit, parts of my mind and my body are marching into his lane, eager to hear what he has to say. The dissenters are alarmingly quiet. When I look up, he's closer than before, no more than a sigh, no less than a breath.
Heath's nose brushes against mine and he whispers against my lips, "A little fun starts like this."
In that exact instant, someone nearby violently throws up, shattering the tiny world we'd created underneath the streetlights. We both jump back and everyone on the street gathers around the guy hurling in the trash can.
My body unchains my brain and common sense floods me once again. The hell was I doing? Heath is scum and I have standards. Impossibly high ones.
"Go fuck yourself." I spit out and storm back into Antonio’s. Just before the door closes, I can hear him laughing behind me.
I don't know that I've ever hated anyone more in my entire life. Sealy owes me so much I may as well become the real Rumpelstiltskin and take her first born, and every baby thereafter, except babies are terrifying. Heath Davis isn’t worth that. Not now, not ever.