“I understand that. I know what it’s like to feel that kind of pressure.”
He pulls me into his arms and hugs me long and hard, cocooning me in a safe place.
? ? ?
At the bowling alley, I rent a pair of red, white, and blue shoes and put them on. Ezra does the same. He’s the only guy I know who can make ugly bowling shoes look hot.
I sit down behind the computer to type in our names. Tee and Ez appear on the TV screen above our lane.
“Should we flip a coin to see who goes first?” I ask.
“Ladies first.”
From the racks of balls behind the lanes, I choose a neon-orange one that doesn’t weigh too much. My arm muscles are good enough to throw a soccer ball in during games, but that’s about all they’re good for.
Lugging my orange ball, I approach the lane, aim, and roll it toward the pins. Seven fall down on my first try.
“Yay!” I yell, hopping up and down. Ezra gives me an easy smile. When I bend over to pick up my ball from the return, I catch him checking out my butt. I grin, pushing my auburn hair over my shoulder to get it out of the way.
I knock down two more pins on my second try, leaving one. Bollocks.
“My turn,” Ezra says and proceeds to knock nine down on his first try. Damn.
I cup my hands around my mouth to shout at him. “Show-off.”
When he retrieves his ball from the return, I let him catch me staring at his butt. That makes him laugh, but then his gaze grows more heated, and I know he’s thinking about what we did last night.
I can’t believe how lucky I am. Sophomore year, Steph had a crush on this guy Gordon. She talked about him constantly and went out of her way to run into him in the hallway. This went on for months until he finally caught wind that she wanted him. The next weekend at a mixer in Harvey House, Steph and Gordon finally made out.
Later that night when we were getting ready for bed, I asked her how it was.
She stuck out her tongue and proclaimed in her fancy British accent, “It was like kissing white bread. Boring and limp!”
Madison and I giggled with her, but I remember freaking out inside. If I ever got to kiss Ezra, would it be like white bread?
Now I know. He’s like mint chocolate truffles: succulent and rich. And I want another helping already.
Right as I’m about to go steal a kiss, I hear, “Taylor, hey!”
I twirl around to find Chloe approaching our lane.
Ezra sets his chin on my shoulder, hugging me from behind. His large masculine hands grip my waist. “I changed my mind,” he says in a low rumble. “Let’s forget bowling and go find a bed.”
Chloe walks up right in time to hear Ezra’s colorful suggestion. Her eyes flash with amusement.
“Hi, Chloe,” I choke out. “Um, this is my, um, my Ezra.”
Over my shoulder, he stretches out a hand to Chloe. “I’m Tee’s boyfriend.”
Chloe laughs. “Does she know that?”
He holds me tighter. “I hope so. Otherwise, I just struck out.”
I pat his hand that’s on my hip. “Chlo, this is my boyfriend, Ezra. Ez, I know Chloe from Hundred Oaks. Who’re you here with?” I ask her.
She points at three people bowling a couple lanes down from us—Alyson and two guys from the basketball team. I wave at them, and they wave back.
“How are you?” Chloe asks, studying my eyes.
“It’s been a long couple of days. I’m glad it’s Friday night.”
“I’m sorry about what happened with the team yesterday. It really sucks. We need you.”
I nod. There’s nothing else to say, so I just stand here in an awkward silence. Ezra kneads my shoulder.
“Do y’all want to join us?” Alyson calls out.
Ezra bends down and whispers in my ear. “It’s up to you.”
“Yeah,” I tell her, excited about the prospect of hanging out with them. “That’d be great.”
Ezra and I retrieve our balls from the ball return and move down two lanes, where we meet Alyson, Thomas, and John. Thomas adds our names to their computer.
Ezra has always been competitive, so he gets a little too into the game with Thomas. “I bet twenty bucks I’ll beat your score,” Ezra tells Thomas.
“You’re on.”
According to Chloe, Alyson and John are on the verge of getting together, so they spend most of the game flirting and chasing each other around. That leaves me to chat with Chloe, which is a little nerve-racking, because she hasn’t been totally welcoming so far, but I’ve also missed being around girls. I haven’t seen Madison and Steph in forever.
“I was surprised to see you here,” I tell Chloe. “And without Nicole.”
“Honestly? Lately, Alyson and I feel like Nicole is acting really immature.” She shrugs. “And a bunch of our friends graduated last year.”
“But you still have friends on the soccer team, right?”
“Yeah, but I’m not really enjoying this season. What’s the point in playing if Nicole doesn’t pass me the ball?”
I nod in understanding. “I try to pass it to you whenever I can.”
She grins at that. “I know. It pisses Nicole off when you do that. I love it though.”
We laugh together.
I change the subject. “So are you here with Thomas?”
Chloe bites her lower lip and musses her short hair. “We’ve hooked up a few times, but it’s not serious. I kind of like it that way.”
“Yeah?”
“I like that he isn’t looking for forever. I want to travel after graduation, and I don’t want to be tied down by a boyfriend.”
That’s different. Most girls I know want relationships.
“My brother and Ezra traveled after they graduated,” I say. “They bought Eurail passes and spent three months getting lost in Europe. I was so jealous—they went to a bunch of museums I can’t wait to see one day.”
“That sounds amazing.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“I’d love to backpack around Nicaragua and Guatemala. I want to take a year off before going to college. My parents aren’t wild about that idea, but I feel like I need to do it. What about you? What are you doing after you graduate?”
“Going to college…I hope.” I trace a line on my palm to avoid looking at her.
Her voice drops to a whisper. “We don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want, but are the rumors true?”
I lower my head. “It’s not as bad as people are saying.”
“I didn’t figure it was. I mean, I don’t know you very well, but you seem so…normal.”
I give her an amused smile. “Thanks, I think.”
Alyson and John are staring deep into each other’s eyes and whispering God knows what, and Ezra and Thomas want to play one-on-one, because the rest of us are not serious bowlers, so Chloe and I decide to get some nachos from the concession stand.
While waiting on the fry cook to serve them up, we sit on bar stools and swirl in circles like we’re little girls. Chloe cracks up when I nearly fall off my stool. I catch myself on the counter, giggling.
The fry cook rolls his eyes at me, flipping his spatula up in the air and catching it as if he’s in the Chef Olympics.
Chloe twirls around again, then suddenly grunts and grabs her knee. She stretches her leg out in front of her and bends it carefully.