Tease (Tease 1)

“Oh? And what is so important?”

“Law and Order triple night,” I said as a matter of fact.

She snorted. “Of course. Why doesn’t it surprise me that you’re into Law and Order?” she giggled.

I pretended to look wounded. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked. “You’re killing me here.”

“Come on, Liam. You’re not the most…well, you can be a little nerdy…at least you used to be.” She chuckled, her green eyes sparkling.

“Give a guy a break, I was fourteen! What fourteen-year-old boy isn’t nerdy?” I groaned, throwing my arms up. This girl knew exactly how to break a guys confidence, and it made me want her even more.

“Well, Steve Guinness wasn’t.” She grinned.

Steve Guinness?

My mouth dropped open and I shook my head, trying not to smile. “Steve Guinness had too few brain cells to be anything other than a quarterback for our high school football team. Where do you think he is now? Living in an upscale Manhattan apartment?” I retorted, raising my eyebrows. I smirked at her.

She giggled. “Uh, no…he was signed to the Atlanta Falcons and is making several million a year.”

He was? Shit, well that knocked me off my high horse. I rolled my eyes at her and walked over to the sofa, slumping down, trying to cover the fact that I had no response to that.

Still giggling, she joined me, throwing herself down beside me.

Focus on the TV, Coop, and not on the fact that she is less than an inch away from you.

Of course, that was easier said than done. Her perfume was intoxicating. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her bare legs, one crossed over the other, her black cotton skirt riding up and showing enough of her thigh to make my heart race. She had a tiny scratch just above her right knee that when paired with the two freckles above it, made a little smiley face. I fought back the urge to run my fingers along it.

“I’ve seen this one already,” Mia muttered.

“Yeah, so have I,” I said, my eyes glued to the screen.

She glanced at me sideways and laughed. “So you’d rather watch a repeat of this than catch up with me?” she asked lightly.

I turned to her, amused. Reaching for the remote, I turned the volume down. All she had to do was ask, and I was ready for whatever she was thinking.

“And what did you have in mind?” I asked suspiciously.

“I don’t know. We could order some takeout, talk and stuff.” She shrugged.

I nodded, not letting on how curious I was about exactly what “stuff” entailed.

“Okay.” I stood up and walked over the TV, sliding open the cabinet drawer. Grabbing the handful of takeout menus, I handed them to her. “Knock yourself out.”

She shuffled through them, finally deciding on Chinese.

Mia ordered a few different dishes for us to share while I went to get us some drinks. I grabbed two beers from the fridge, handing her one. She popped open the top and took a sip.

“A girl who can handle her beer,” I chuckled. “I love it.”

“Come on, you know I’m more of a guy than most men are. That hasn’t changed much in the last twelve years,” she laughed.

That was true. Part of the reason I’d been so smitten with Mia was that she wasn’t a girly girl, by any means. She’d do anything, and make sure she was having fun while doing it.

Most girls would’ve avoided rabbit chasing in the dead of winter after a storm. Not Mia. We had gone out early to hunt and had come home covered from head to toe in mud—with no rabbits. And she’d been the only girl I knew who could still look hot in doing so.

“I still can’t believe you knew I had this massive crush on you,” I muttered. I thought back to fourteen-year-old Coop and some of the things he’d done around Mia thinking she had no idea how he felt. It made me want to cringe.

“What are you thinking?” she asked with a smile, taking in my pained expression.