I reach up and pull the tab off the sewing one. At least that’s out of the way and now I can go to my first class.
Owen grabs one too. “Sewing?” he asks as he pockets the small piece of paper into his jeans.
“Yeah. I need to sharpen my skills if I’m going to follow in my dad’s footsteps. I can’t be a surgeon if I’m unable to sew.” I shrug my shoulders. “There a reason you’re going to do sewing club?”
“Make my mom an apron or something. She loves crap like that. These hands can do other things besides catch a football.” Now he teases me. Him saying he wants to make his mom something only makes me like him more than I should. We’ve fallen into easy banter with one another. Too easy. It seems like we’ve known each other longer than we really have. Our shoulders rub together—or my shoulder rubs against his arm. He doesn’t move away and neither do I. I already regret telling him he couldn’t put his arm around me because it was a nice weight and warm. The air conditioning inside the school is making me chilly.
Conversation ends as we reach the classroom. I head for a desk toward the back of the room in keeping with my plan to blend in. Owen’s hand snakes out and pulls out a chair. It’s either sit down in it or crawl over. Not wanting to make a commotion, I sit down and Owen actually lifts the whole thing—me and the chair—off the ground and slides it out of the aisle and under the desk. I guess I hadn’t realized the muscles in his arms actually did something. My sex clenches between my legs. Fuck. A hot guy that can lift me up like this is doing bad things to my body.
He takes the seat directly beside me. I wish I’d worn my hair down today. My blush is probably on full display for everyone to see and I’m noticing people are looking.
I reach into my bag, getting my laptop out to take notes. I concentrate on facing forward and pray that this class will start soon. My mind is all over the place about Owen McCoy.
“Owen.”
“Yeah, Ace?”
I look over to him. He’s staring right at me, not trying to hide his clear interest. There is no game playing. He’s putting it all out there.
“I don’t date. My mind is on school.” For some reason I have to let him know that. Maybe I’m only reminding myself.
“Friends then. You do that, don’t you?”
I lick my dry lips. I don’t do anything but my traitorous mouth opens and says, “Yeah. Friends I can manage.”
He grabs my desk chair with his foot, hooking it to the bottom and pulling it and me closer to him a few inches. “Then we’re going to be best friends.” He holds his fist up. My eyes go there as I fight another smile. “Come on, Ace, don’t leave your best friend hanging.”
I reach out, bumping his fist and wondering how I’ll ever manage just being his friend.
6
Owen
She’s smiling. That’s all that’s really important at this point. I can make her smile. Plus, we’re sitting next to each other and it’s clear to everyone in this classroom that has eyes that I’m claiming her. Already people are making a little bubble of space around her.
I wish I knew some of the girls so I could set up a good friend group for her. I try and think of the guys on the team who are dating. I haven’t really paid attention to the SOs in the group because that shit didn’t interest me before, but now that I’ve got Ace, I’m probably going to be hanging out with those guys more.
Don’t get me wrong. The other guys are the shit, but they’ve got girls crawling all over their dicks. Ace would not be down for that. And, frankly, neither am I. If another guy so much as breathes near her, my hands will turn into fists. For example, JJ Anderson has been staring at Ace about two seconds too long.
“Yo, Double J, eyes forward,” I bark.
JJ’s head turns toward me as if I yanked on a string. His eyes narrow. “Who the hell are you?”
I’ve been going to training camp with the guys since July so I’d forgotten I was a newbie here. I stretch my legs out and plant an arm across the back of Ace’s chair.
“The guy who’s bringing home your championship trophy, that’s who.” I arch an eyebrow at him. According to the class yearbook that I memorized in my downtime, JJ is on the crew team, which means he has good upper body strength but probably skips leg day. In any event, I can take him. I’m not worried.