“Holy Toledo!”

He was in his glory, hamming it up for her. I was onto him now.

She was sitting so close to me that I could smell the rain on her body mixed with her perfume. The urge to kiss her was overwhelming, and I wished I could erase the memory of what it actually felt like.

“I’m sorry. I’m getting you all wet, aren’t I?”

My breathing was erratic now. “What?”

“I should probably get out of these clothes.”

Fuck. What? No.

My dick heard that loud and clear.

“Do you have something I could change into?”

I do. I just can’t stand up right now, or you’re gonna see how much I want you.

“Yeah. Um…go into my closet and pick whatever you want.”

“Thanks.”

She returned Seamus to his cage before walking over and taking a long, white t-shirt off a hanger.

Continuing to be paralyzed by my erection, I stayed on the bed and pointed to my chest of drawers. “There are some shorts in there. My pants would be a little too long for you.”

She looked back and smiled at me. “You think? Just a little.” She grabbed a pair of shorts with a drawstring. “Where can I change?”

Right here. On top of me.

“The bathroom downstairs.” That was the safest place because it was the furthest spot from my cock, who was now standing in line for front row tickets to Skylar’s wardrobe change. I needed as much time as possible to get rid of his excitement before she came back.

“I’ll be right back.”

“Take your time.”

When I could hear that she was downstairs, I got up and tried to rationalize with my dick.

“Come on. We can do this. Go down.”

Nothing was changing. She could not see me like this.

“Fucking boner. Go down!”

I paced the room, continuing my attempt to reason with it.

Seamus was flapping his wings. “What are you looking at? I suppose you think this is funny.”

“Holy Toledo!”

“Yeah. Fuck you.”

I decided I had no choice but to jump in the upstairs shower. I’d have to make up a story for the sudden need to bathe. “Skylar, I just shit myself waiting for you to come back upstairs…”

She was still downstairs when I turned the shower on to the coldest setting and got in. It wasn’t working, so I warmed the water and did the only thing I could. I let myself think about undressing her and sucking every ounce of water off her body as I jerked myself off and came all over the tile wall. It was one of the most intense orgasms I had ever given myself.

I dried off and now, I was definitely ready to go back. She’d be out of that wet uniform, dressed in my baggy clothes, and we’d be good to go.

When I returned to the bedroom, she was sitting back on the bed holding Seamus. She had brushed through her wet hair and still looked so f**king beautiful. I loved seeing her in my t-shirt, even though it looked more like a dress.

“You were taking a shower?”

“Yeah…um…sometimes I do that in the afternoon. It’s…refreshing.”

She laughed with a look of disbelief. “Okay. That’s weird.”

I changed the subject. “You want to do some homework?”

It was almost four. Where the hell was Davey?

We opened our books, and I moved over to the desk while Skylar lay on her stomach on the bed.

We fell into a nice, comfortable silence as a Coldplay song played from my iPod dock on low volume. Despite my obvious discomfort over my physical attraction to her, these were really the moments I loved best with Skylar, just sitting around, spending quiet time together.

“Fucking boner. Go down!”

Skylar hopped up from the bed and turned toward Seamus. “What was that? What did he just say?”

“Fucking boner. Go down!”

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I tried my best to play dumb. “I don’t know what he’s saying.”

“It sounds like he’s saying ‘fucking boner…go down?’”

“Yeah, that’s what it sounds like, doesn’t it?”

I knew I repeated those words several times when Skylar was changing downstairs. It figured Seamus would take this opportunity to suddenly regain his ability to mimic just so he could screw me over.

She covered her mouth in laughter. “That is nuts. He’s so unpredictable lately.” She walked over to the cage and took Seamus out. He flapped his wings and turned his head slowly toward me, in his own silent way telling me to “fuck off.”

I laughed along with her, but really, I wanted to hide in the closet. She was smart and knew damn well where he must have learned his new phrase.

My phone chimed.

“It’s Davey. He’s downstairs.”

I welcomed the opportunity to get out of that room for a minute. Today was definitely not my day.

“Yo,” he said, as he entered, carrying a stack of books up the stairs.

Skylar was still playing with the bird when we returned to my room.

“Hey, Davey.”

“Fucking boner. Go down!”

“Hey, Skylar. Uh…” He looked at me. “What the hell did that bird just say?”

I shook my head and glared at him in a silent warning not to push it. Davey gave me a knowing but amused look.

Skylar returned Seamus to his perch in the cage and lay back down on my bed. “Are you guys cold?”

“Not really,” I said.

“I have the chills for some reason. I think I’m coming down with something. Do you mind if I use your covers?”

“Not at all.”

My sheets were going to smell like her tonight.

The three of us opened our books and quietly got to work. From time to time, I would look up at Skylar in my bed. She was still shivering. Davey seemed to catch me staring at her at one point and rolled his eyes. I gave him the finger, and he didn’t return it like he usually did. He would get back at me later in his own special way.

“When it comes to Skylar, I can’t figure out if you’re Himeros or Pothos, Mitch.”

“Say what?”

“I’m studying for my Greek mythology test. We have to memorize some of the Gods.”

“What does this have to do with me?”

His dreads flew around as he just laughed hysterically and didn’t say anything.

Skylar looked up from the bed but didn’t seem too affected by the comment. She continued to shiver.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Not really. I’m feeling kind of achy. I think I have a fever. I should probably go home.”

“Let me walk you.”

She took one of my coats, and we walked across the street. It was already dark, and light snowflakes were starting to fly. We could see our breath.

Skylar continued to shiver as she knocked and rang the doorbell. “She’d better be home.”

Tish answered the door. “I got your text. You lost your keys?”

“I think I left them in my locker.”

“Hey, Mitch.”

I waved to Tish and followed Skylar inside.

“I am not feeling well, Mom.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I think I might be getting the flu or something.”

Tish felt Skylar’s forehead. “You should go to sleep early tonight.”

She took off my coat and handed it back to me. “You gonna head back?”

“I’ll hang out for a few minutes.”

For some reason, I just didn’t want to leave Skylar. She rarely got sick. In fact, I couldn’t recall a single time before this. I followed her into her room, and as she got under her covers, I sat at the edge of her bed by her feet.

“You should get back to Davey.”

“You kidding? He’s probably having a field day searching my drawers and raiding the fridge. He’ll be fine.”

Her teeth chattered as she laughed.

“Do you have any NyQuil? That shit will knock you out until tomorrow.”

“Oh, good to know. I’ll have to be sure to take some with me down to Florida for Oliver’s wedding.”

“You decided to go?”

She closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. “I think so.”

“That’s the right decision. It sucks, and it might give you angina, but you’ll get through it.”

“It might give me what? Vagina?”

“Angina! My grandmother says that all of the time. It’s like chest pains or something. You have a dirty mind, girl.”

“You love that about me, though.”

“You’re right. I do. Nothing gets past you, and nothing bothers you. I like not having to walk on eggshells when I talk to you.” I playfully squeezed her feet.

“That felt good.”

“What?”

“When you squeezed my feet like that.”

“You want me to do it again? Give you a foot rub?”

“No, I don’t want a foot rub…said no one ever.”

“Okay.” I laughed and repositioned both of her feet onto my lap, squeezing her toes with both of my hands in firm pulses.

“Speaking of dirty mind…what was up with our bird talking about boners?”

“I have no idea.”

“You sure about that?”

My phone chimed. Saved by the bell. Maybe not.

Stop going down on her and get back here and make me a sandwich.

“Fuckin’ Davey.”

“What? What does it say?”

“I can’t tell you. It’s—”

“About us?” She put her head down for a bit then looked straight into my eyes. “You told him we kissed, didn’t you?”

I stopped rubbing her feet, and my heart was pounding. “Yeah.”

“I told Angie. I had to talk about it with someone because we weren’t talking about it. You know?”

I swallowed, unprepared to discuss this. “Yeah, I know.”

She held out her hand. “Show me the text.”

I laughed nervously. “No.”

“Show it to me.”

My tone was serious now. “No, Skylar.”

She got up from under the covers and grabbed my phone. She was sick and shouldn’t have been exerting herself. I knew she wouldn’t back down, so I didn’t fight her.

Fuck.

She read it and rolled her eyes.

“I’m sorry he’s being a dick,” I said.

“You think that bothers me?”

“No…but it’s disrespectful.”

“I don’t care what anybody thinks. I just care about you. Did you forget that I can sense what certain people are feeling? With you, it’s stronger than most, always has been. You think you’re hiding stuff from me, but you’re not, not earlier today in your room, not any day. Himeros and Pothos…”

“What?”

“The Greek Gods Davey was studying that he said reminded him of you.”

“Yeah…what about them?”

“I studied them, too. Himeros is the God of desire and unrequited love. Pothos is the God of yearning and wanting.”

Shit.

I let out a long, shaky breath. “Oh.”

“Was he right? Were you just trying to stick it to Aidan with that kiss, or do you really want me? Please be honest.”

Her eyes were searing into mine, and I felt like she could see right through me. If that were the case, then she knew I wanted her more than anything in my entire life. There was no point in lying. I may never muster up the courage to make good on my feelings, but I couldn’t look her in the eyes anymore and deny what was painfully obvious. I looked down for a moment, and my tense hands formed into fists when I whispered it. “Fuck yes…I want you.”

It felt good to finally admit it out loud.

I was sweating, but she was still shivering when I looked up at her. Her lips spread open into a slight, sympathetic smile. It took every ounce of strength in me not to cover her cold body with mine.

“Thank you for being honest.”

I nodded, unable to take my eyes off her now. “It’s the truth.”

She adjusted the blankets over herself and sat up when she said, “I’ll talk about almost anything, but it’s not easy for me to talk about my feelings for you because getting rejected by you is about the only thing that could destroy my pride. But you mean more to me than my pride, more to me than probably anyone ever has. I don’t want to lose moments with you. I don’t want you to push me away like you have been because you’re afraid. I need you to know that if we screw up and fail, no matter what happens, you won’t lose me, okay? I’ll always be here.”

Hearing her say that meant everything. Now, I had to work on believing it.

“Okay.”

“I’m going to go to sleep.”

I left her bedroom in a daze.

Her scent was all over my bedding that night as I played her words in my head over and over again.

Over the next several months, that conversation in Skylar’s bedroom would haunt me. I don’t want to lose moments with you. I’ll always be here.

I wondered if she sensed something that day, because I could have never predicted that the possibility of losing Skylar would take on a whole new meaning.

CHAPTER 9

SKYLAR

I perused my closet for just the right outfit. Even though it wasn’t technically a date, Mitch had asked me to go to the movies with him, and it would be just the two of us. There was a new Adam Sandler flick he really wanted to see, and he’d be driving us there in Janis’ Accord.

It was a Saturday night, but Mitch hadn’t been going out on dates with the girls from school lately. We never discussed why. It was obvious that he’d been making excuses over the past few weeks to hang out with me on weekends, too. Normally, we stayed in with Angie and Cody or with Davey. Tonight would be the first in a while where Mitch and I were going out somewhere together alone.