Music from a not-great marching band blared from the stadium behind us as Jay and I headed through the deserted parking lot toward his car. I couldn’t help but think about Chuck as the band murdered the song. This high school was further proof that OSU had “The Best Damn Band in the Land.”
“So,” Jay said, “do you get thrown out of every place you go?”
“I don’t know why the coach would offer if he wasn’t serious.”
I should have been embarrassed how the game had to be stopped while I was escorted off the field, but I wasn’t. The coach was the one who should be embarrassed. He was doing a disservice to those kids.
Something large and calloused curled around my hand, and I felt my eyes widen. I stared down at Jay’s fingers tangled with mine. Hand-holding. It made me all warm inside, and I told myself I didn’t like the feeling. Tonight was making a disaster of my ‘get over Jay Harris’ strategy.
I steeled my voice so he wouldn’t hear how flustered he made me. “I’m sorry I ruined your plans.”
I was tugged to a stop, and it forced my gaze up. All the way up, until I was staring into his deep sapphire eyes. “Who said that was my only plan?”
I swallowed a breath as he leaned down and captured my lips with his. Just like last time, I didn’t know what to do or how to feel, but my body had it covered. I acted on instinct, leaning into his kiss. Heat flooded down my spine, pumped outward by my thundering heart. Could we just stay like this all night? Time stood still as he kissed me at a high school halfway between our schools and on neutral ground.
It was over way too soon, and I was dazed as he resumed the walk to his car, pulling me along.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see soon. It’s not far.”
He opened the passenger door of his car for me, showing off his manners once again. I got in, put on my seatbelt, and folded my nervous hands into my lap. The air around us swirled with electricity as he slid behind the wheel. Although I didn’t know what he had planned specifically, I felt down to my bones it would involve kissing, and maybe . . . more. The sexual tension was thick between us, filling every spare inch of his car.
What would happen between us if we parked somewhere secluded this time? I was hot and needy between my legs. His tame kiss in the parking lot had turned me on terribly. I wanted his shirt undone and imagined him tugging mine off. We’d press our bare skin together, where I could feel every ridge and curve of his chiseled form touching my breasts, which were heavy and aching.
Okay. Maybe it had been a really long time since I’d had sex.
I pinched my knees together and turned away to stare out the window so Jay wouldn’t see the heat burning on my face.
“Your car’s nice,” I said. “It looks brand new.”
He laughed. “It’s not. I like keeping it looking good. It was a high school graduation gift from my parents.”
That was a spectacular gift, and I tried not to be jealous. My parents had helped Cooper and me out when we’d bought our used cars, but Jay’s had to cost more than five of my Rios.
He’d interrogated me about my family, but I’d been rude and hadn’t asked about his. “Do they still live in Indianapolis?”
“Yeah. It’s a long drive for them, but they try to come to all of my games.”
“Siblings?”
He paused, and the silence was strange. “No.”
Since he didn’t elaborate and his mood shifted, I tensed. This subject was off-limits. Outside, mailboxes whizzed by, the reflectors glowing in the car’s headlights.
“I’m bummed I got us thrown out before we could get a carcinogenic hot dog,” I said. “True story. During one of our high school games, Marcy and I saw the boxes those dogs come in. It said ‘Grade D Meat—Still Edible’ on it.” I shuddered. “It legit said that.”
His eyes stayed on the road, but he cracked a smile. “It might kill me, but I’ll take it over tofurkey.”
The drive was short. He turned off the road and into a park, climbing a hill and following the drive past a large playground. It led to a parking lot, which was empty and surrounded by trees. It was closed in. Secluded.
Anticipation needled over my skin, and made breath tighten in my lungs.
He shut off the car and pointed to a footbridge I hadn’t noticed in the darkness. “Let me grab some stuff out of my trunk, and then we’re heading that way.”
It was quiet in the unlit parking lot. I shouldn’t want to be here with him, but when I forced myself to forget the jersey he wore was yellow and blue, he morphed into a guy I wanted to know more about. I stood beside the car and listened to its faint settling noises while Jay went to the trunk, got whatever he needed, and came to me. He carried a rolled-up blanket and a cooler bag.
“Did you . . . cover up the logo?” I asked. There was a duct tape X on the front, but a corner of yellow peeked out beneath.
He acted indifferent. “Maybe.”
I grinned widely. He really had planned this, even making an attempt to put me at ease. Maybe I was na?ve, and this was all just an effort to get him laid, but I doubted it. I hung out with the football players at OSU. They couldn’t step out of their room without running into a girl willing to take them for a spin. It had to be the same for Jay. So why was he putting in this effort to be with me?
Our feet made soft thumps across the wooden slats of the footbridge, which was wide enough for a golf cart to drive through, but not a car. The water in the small creek below looked black in the moonlight.
Once we’d cleared the trees, there were three youth soccer fields side-by-side. Jay walked into the center of one, set down the cooler bag, and unfurled the blanket.
“How’d you know about this place?” I asked.
“One of the guys I worked with at ARC is from around here. He told me about it.” Jay sat down on the blanket and gazed up at me. “Care to join me? I can sweeten the deal by telling you I have beer in my cooler.”
He was lit by silvery moonlight and was the most inviting thing I’d seen. I sat down beside him, only for him to lie on his back, his eyes turned up to the sky. I did the same, staring up at the stars and the bright moon.
It took a moment to get comfortable on the blanket beside him, and we were close enough our shoulders touched. When I set my palms flat beside me, my fingertips inadvertently grazed his wrist, and his breathing picked up.
It was quiet, and peaceful, so I felt compelled to whisper. “Are we seriously out here stargazing right now?”
“Yeah.” His voice was low as well. “Hey, you know what I just noticed?”
“What?”
“There’s a lot more room out here than there is in the backseat of my Charger.” He turned and propped himself up on an elbow, while his hand slid over my belly and came to rest on my hip. My gaze went from the stars to him.
His eyes were intense, and he stared down at me with an expression of longing. Or desire. I couldn’t tell because it was getting hard to think about anything but the way his hand on my body made me feel.
My mission of purging Jay from my thoughts burst into flames.