Games We Play (Thistle Cove 2)

“I missed this,” I tell her after swallowing a bite of steaming hot lasagna.

“What? Dinner?”

“Having you at my house.”

“Not much has changed.” She looks around until her eyes settle on me. “Well, other than the fact you’ve grown two feet and put on fifty pounds of muscle.”

I’m irrationally proud that she’s noticed. I worked hard to get in shape and transformed my body from skinny and fast, to far more muscular, and strong.

“Well, you’re not the same girl either.” I don’t comment on the changes, but my eyes wander down to that tight sweater. Cool it bro.

“You still eat like a pig,” she declares, shaking her head. “Always hungry.”

I don’t deny it, just grab the last piece of bread and take a big bite. It makes her laugh, and I tear it in half, offering it to her.

“Thank you,” she says, taking the buttery bread, and I watch her eat it, feeling like a lovesick loser. I can’t tell her—I can’t tell anyone—but the way I feel about Kenley is completely different than I felt about Rose.

Maybe one day.

We finish dinner and clean up the mess.

“Want some ice cream?” I ask, remembering it’s her favorite. “Mom has a whole stash. She calls it her guilty pleasure. That along with reality TV.”

“Sure,” she says. “Are the bowls up on the top shelf?”

I start to grab a few options from the freezer but stop. Kenley likes one kind of ice cream over the other. Peanut butter and chocolate. I grab the tub and say, “I can get them—”

She’s already pushed up and is on her knees, giving me an excellent view of her backside. Then another when she reaches for the shelf, revealing a strip of the soft, pale flesh of her stomach. She grabs two and looks down, handing them both to me.

Her eyebrows furrow. “What?”

“I told you,” I say, feeling heat warm my cheeks. “I like having you here.”

She eases down and sits on the counter. I get a spoon and scoop out the ice cream and put it in the bowls. I pick up one, hold it between us, and offer her the spoon. She takes it from me and eats a spoonful, licking her lips.

I laugh darkly and reach for my own bowl.

Again, she asks, “What?”

“I promised myself tonight would be dinner and studying. No fooling around.”

She takes another bite of ice cream. “Exactly why did you come up with that decision?”

I lean next to her. “Because I want you to know this is more than just me being attracted to you—which, for the record, I am. I respect you Kenley. I like you. And everything between is mired in convoluted history, as well as a lot of other complications, that make this move both way too fast, and way too slow, at the same time. I don’t feel like I’ve apologized enough—accepted the responsibility for my own actions in what happened between us. I was stupid, and if I could take it all back, I would.”

She touches my chin and holds my eye. “I’ve waited years for you to say something like that.” Her warm thumb runs across my cold bottom lip. “And I accept your apology. We all screwed up, and lost time, and have regrets.”

Can you want a girl too much? Scare her off? Move too fast? Hell yeah, you can. I’m not blowing this a second time.

“How about this,” I say, searching for a compromise. “I give you a kiss now, and then another before you go home.”

She tilts her head and licks the back of her spoon. It’s like she’s trying to shatter my resolve. “How about you kiss me now and before I go home, and after every homework problem we get done?”

“I have like fifty problems in math.”

Her eyebrow raises. “Then we probably need to get started.”

She sets her bowl down on the counter and touches my shoulder, guiding me to stand in front of her. Her legs part and I step between them, moving my hands on either side of her, knowing if I touch her, absolutely zero studying will get done. She doesn’t care, because her hands link behind my neck and she tugs on my hair, sending a shiver down my spine. I bend forward, brushing my lips over hers, tasting the chocolate on her mouth, the peanut butter on her tongue. She tastes like the girl I used to know—the one I want to know better, in every possible way.