Boys Like You

I followed the movement—what guy wouldn’t? Monroe had a really nice mouth. Her cheeks reddened even more when she noticed, and I grinned.

“What are you doing this afternoon?” I asked, taking a long gulp of lemonade. My eyes didn’t leave hers.

She shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jean shorts and shrugged. “I’ve got nothing exciting planned. Thought I might read a book or something.”

I drained the glass and wiped my mouth. “You wanna go swimming instead?” Okay, I hadn’t meant for that to slip out. “I owe you,” I said in a rush as I waited for her to shoot me down.

“You owe me?”

“Yeah, for being my taxi Saturday night and for, well, everything else.” I didn’t mention the bush party or how lame I’d been, and I was glad when she didn’t say anything about it.

Her eyes narrowed a bit. “Don’t you have work to do?”

I shook my head. “Nope. I only had to finish this fence today. Tomorrow I’m starting on the back porch at the main plantation house.”

“Oh,” she said softly, biting her mouth as her eyes fell away.

“At least your mistake is still alive.”

Her words had rattled around in my head since Saturday night, and I knew that there was a lot more to Monroe Blackwell than a hot body and amazing eyes. And maybe I was stupid for wanting to get to know a girl who wasn’t all that interested in me, but hey, I’d never been the guy to let something drop just because I thought my endgame wasn’t achievable.

I wasn’t even sure why I wanted to get to know her, except that sometimes when I looked into her eyes, I knew that she knew exactly what was going on inside me. And how crazy was that, considering I’d just met her?

“I know a really cool place, and it’s not far from here, though…” my words faded to nothing.

Shit. My suspended license was going to bite me in the ass over and over again. Frustrated, I yanked off my bandana and balled it in my fist.

That got her attention, and once more, those pale green eyes focused on me. “What’s wrong?”

“My car is still under house arrest, so it’s not like I can actually take you anywhere.” Pissed at myself, I offered her the glass back and shrugged. “Never mind. It was a stupid idea.”

“Won’t your girlfriend be mad if she found out you’d invited another girl to go hang at some watering hole? I mean, I’m not saying there’s anything going on between us, because we both know that’s not true, but still…”

Oh, there’s something going on. I just don’t know what it is.

“If I was the girlfriend of a guy who did that, I wouldn’t be happy.”

A shot of hope ran through me. So that was it. Her only thing was Rachel, and since Rachel and I had…

“I broke up with Rachel yesterday.”

Sunday had sucked. Not surprising, considering the epic failure Saturday had been, but waking up to find a very naked Rachel in my bed had been the icing on the worst cake ever.

I can’t lie. At first it had felt pretty damn good, but I guess that’s because I’d been half asleep, and though I wouldn’t admit it to anyone, in some far corner of my screwed-up head, I thought it was Monroe.

I’d been half asleep as Rachel kissed her way down my stomach and tugged on my boxers. I might have let her finish, but then she opened her mouth—and not in the way I’d been anticipating—and reality crashed in hard.

“Babe, I heard you went to the Peach Festival with some skank ho and then out to the bush party. Tell me it isn’t true.”

“Shit, stop,” I said, coming fully awake.

“You’re kidding, right?” She’d sat back, pissed and confused. “What the hell is wrong with you, Nate? On what planet do you turn down a blowjob?”

I pulled away and rolled out of bed, swearing as I tripped over her clothes and shoes.

What followed had been twenty minutes of listening to her scream and rant, and when she brought up Trevor and the accident, I blew her off and told her to leave. I especially didn’t want to talk about that night with her.

I couldn’t explain the feeling I got inside when I thought of the party and of Rachel and Trevor and his girlfriend, Bailey. Everything had been so great, and then in an instant, it was gone. All of it.