Juicy Rebound (IceCats 1)

I snort. “She’s funny.”

“She’s an asshole! She just said, maybe if I had found her and told her I was leaving, she would have told me. Jesus!”

“She’s an adult,” I remind her.

“Well, duh, but she shouldn’t be sleeping with random guys.”

I shrug. “She’s a big girl and Merry said he’s in love with her, so that’s probably a good thing. She has a male suitor.”

She gives me a dry look. “She doesn’t need one, not when she is completely obsessed with Aiden.”

“Brooks?”

“Yeah, she used to have this journal, and it said ‘Shelli and Aiden. Shelli Brooks.’ It was so cute. My aunt used to have to hide it from my uncle ’cause he thinks she’s an innocent little princess. Little does he know she’s sleeping with random guys dressed as creepy gym teachers.”

I laugh loudly. “You’re silly.”

“She is impossible! Now she’s saying there is nothing to talk about and that I need to focus on my own sex life rather than hers.”

I smile. “I happen to enjoy your sex life.”

She rolls her eyes before throwing her phone back into the console.

With a grin, I ask, “So you guys will still come to my game?”

When I glance over at her, she flashes me a grin. “I said I would. I might leave Shelli, though.”

I don’t care what Amelia does as long as she’s there. “Great. You’ll have a blast.”

“I have been watching games.”

“That’s my girl,” I say, kissing her wrist once more. A sweet little grin sits on her lips as her eyes sparkle such a spectacular blue. The insanely needy part of me wants to believe she is happy because of me, but I know a lot of it has to do with the life choices she is making. She is trying so hard to be happy. Fixing things with her mom. She talks with Ryan and Sofia daily. She’s being herself and enjoying life. Plus, we have lots of sex. That can do wonders for a person—I know it does for me. But it’s killing me that she still won’t go to that gym and get a job. I feel like she’s almost there, and I just have to be patient.

When the acoustic version of James Arthur’s “Say You Won’t Let Go” starts, she squeals, turning it up. “I love this song.”

“It’s a good song.”

“It’s the best. Reminds me of my parents. My mom would cry when she heard it because it reminded her of my dad. She said she wished she had been able to dance with him to it.”

I glance over at her, and she has this unbelievable look on her face that knocks the air out of me. It sucks knowing that Mrs. Justice didn’t get to dance with her husband to this song. That cancer took him before she was given that joy. This need bubbles inside me, and I want only one thing. Without really thinking about it, I pull the truck over.

Amelia looks at me, confused, before I throw open the door and come around the truck. I open her door as she asks, “What are you doing?”

I reach over her, turning the music all the way up before I help her out of the truck. “I want to dance with you.”

I lace our fingers together and pull her in front of the truck. The headlights shine on us as I take her in my arms, and she comes willingly. I wrap my arms around her, pressing my lips into her hair as we sway to the music. The music envelops us as we rock back and forth, almost in a circle. Her hands slide up my back, clasping behind me as she holds me. I kiss the top of her head and then thread my fingers through the back of her hair as she tips her head back, looking up at me. Her eyes are so soft, so wanton, and I don’t think I’ve ever had this intense an ache in my chest.

Only Amelia does it to me.

“This is incredibly romantic,” she says. Her presence leaves me breathless.

“I don’t ever want to regret not doing something with you,” I admit, my eyes burning into hers. “I don’t want to look back on that moment when I was riding with you and realize I had the perfect opportunity to dance with you but didn’t take it.”

She leans her head into my chin, and I kiss her forehead. I squeeze her in my arms and realize that I don’t want to be anywhere else. She lifts her head to look at me, and I’m not sure of her expression. There is happiness, yet a little sadness too. It confuses me, but then she whispers, “I love when you hold me like this.”

I nuzzle her nose with mine. “Well, that’s really good since I love holding you.”