“Come on, Bailey,” Autumn goads him. “You’re a growing boy, and this is the off-season. Enjoy it while you can.”
“Trust me. I have been. Parker and I had spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner last night, and I had two helpings.”
“Oh, did you?” Autumn asks.
“Mom’s baked spaghetti doesn’t last long in our house,” he replies.
“It was really good,” I agree.
“Sounds like it.” Autumn gives me a look that lets me know she knows I held some information from her and that she’ll be grilling me about it later. That’s fine. At this point, I’m in this, and my bestie is great at giving advice and keeping me out of my head. I’ll tell her everything. I told her we had dinner. I just failed to mention it was at his parents’ place. There’s not much to report. He was the perfect gentleman. But he is Holden Bailey, and I was in the inner workings of his home, so yeah, there’s that.
We make small talk while we eat, and when we’re finished, Holden insists we keep the leftovers and helps us clean up the kitchen. Something else I could never really imagine him doing.
“Well, I’m out of here. You kids have fun. I’m going to visit with my parents and disappear in their basement to get some studying done too.”
“You can join us,” Holden offers.
“Thank you, but I do better closed off on my own. I’m too easily distracted. I could never study at Cup of Joe like Parker does. Later.” She waves, grabs her bag, and rushes out the door.
“You ready?” Holden asks.
“Let’s do this.” We move from the small kitchen island to the table, and I hand him my first study sheet.
CHAPTER 14
Holden
“I can’t do it. I’m done.” Parker leans her head back and groans. The sound does things to me that it shouldn’t. “This chair is hurting my ass. I’m tired, my brain is on overload, and I’m hungry.”
“Do you want to go out or order in?” I don’t give her the option not to have dinner with me. We’ve been sitting here for hours going over her study guides, and I’m not ready to end this day yet. If you’d have asked me six months ago if I would have been happy to spend the day studying, I would have told you that you’d lost your damn mind. Yet here I am. I have a feeling I’d do just about anything this girl asked of me. It’s a scary thought, but not scary enough to walk away.
“I don’t want to go out. I want pizza.” Lifting her head, she grabs her phone from the table and looks at me. “What do you want?”
“I’ll eat anything.” I bite down on my cheek to keep from smiling. The fact she’s including me instead of trying to get me to leave says I’m growing on her.
“Meat lovers it is.” I watch as she dials the phone and places it to her ear. “Hi, I need to place an order for delivery.” She pauses. “I need a large meat lover, an order of breadsticks with cheese, and twenty boneless wings, mild.” She rattles off her address and hangs up. “It’ll be here in thirty minutes.”
“Come on.” I stand from the hard-ass chair and offer her my hand. She places hers in mine and allows me to pull her to her feet. I lead her to the living room and sit on the couch, taking the spot next to her. “Turn toward the kitchen.” She does as I ask without complaint. My hands settle on her shoulders as I begin to knead her muscles.
“Oh God.” She groans, and the sound goes straight to my dick. Two words and a moan from her, and I’m hard as steel and ready to go.
“Feel good?” I ask, my voice gruff. It’s a dumb question as questions go. Her moan is proof enough that it feels good.
“Mmm,” she replies.
Every noise that comes out of this gorgeous girl does it for me. Hell, she could cough, and my dick would stand up and salute her. I’ve never had this kind of reaction to a woman before, never been turned on just because she’s breathing.
Removing my hands from her, I move to rest my back against the couch, spreading my legs wide.
“Wait, why did you stop?” She looks at me from over her shoulder.
“Come here.” I pat the spot between my spread legs. “I can get a better angle this way.”
She hesitates for maybe a second before she moves to sit between my legs. Her ass is pressed up against my dick, and I realize this was a bad idea. No way is she going to miss what she does to me. Not in these sweats. I knew we were having a day of just hanging at her place, so sweats and a long-sleeve T-shirt are what I’m wearing.