Prologue
Logan
The countdown to graduation was on, and I was ticking off the days now.
There’d be no more getting up at the ass crack of dawn or staying up until my eyes started burning, working on papers about stuff I was never going to need to remember.
No more juggling life with football or teachers who spoke down to us like we were idiots.
Tonight we were having a party to mark the starting point of the end of school, and staring at the fire we’d started as I lifted my beer to my mouth, I worked out the number of days I still had to fake it for.
Seven weeks left. Seven times five days a week at school was… Shit, what was it? That’s how exhausted I was, I’d forgotten basic math. Thinking a little harder, I got it—thirty-five days.
A movement behind the flames caught my attention, and I watched as my dad’s best friend’s daughter laughed at something one of my teammates had said.
I’d known Bexley since we were babies. We’d spent every birthday, holiday, most vacations, and whatever else had come up together. She’d been my constant shadow from day one, and it hadn’t bothered me up until about two years ago when things had changed overnight.
We’d parted ways as the Logan and Bexley who were best friends, but then I’d had a dream about her. I’d kissed and touched her in it, and it’d been so vivid that I swear I felt how soft her skin was and how great she smelled.
The next morning, I’d noticed the changes in her.
Gone was the gangly and petite girl I’d always thought was pretty, and in her place was the new Bexley Heath. Long dark hair that reached to the middle of her back, tits that were slightly too big for her frame, an ass that would fit perfectly in my hands, and curves that made my brain go blank when she walked up to me in a freaking basic black tank that I’d seen her wear many times.
That’s all it took.
I didn’t want anything tying me down, so I’d tried to pull back from her, but our parents’ friendships didn’t allow me to do it completely.
Since then, I’d dreamt about her and watched, but I’d also changed how I was around her as much as possible. There was no more touching and no seeking her out. Instead, I’d thrown myself into football and everything else I could, and I’d gotten a ‘girlfriend’ seven months ago with no strings attached to the relationship.
It was the last thing on that list that’d had the most significant impact. Renna hated everything about Bexley, including her name.
See, Bexley was named after where her grandad—my grandad’s best friend—family came from, a place in London called Bexley Heath. It’d started as a joke when her mom was pregnant seeing as how his last name was Heath, but then her grandad had fallen in love with the sentimentality of it and it’d stuck.
Renna thought it was dumb and tacky, and she also hated the amount of time I spent with her outside of school, regardless what excuse I gave her for it.
And at that moment, I’d never seen anything more beautiful than Bexley Anne Heath.
Her head was thrown back as she laughed, with her hair was just tickling the top of her ass. Skimming my eyes down her, I stopped when I saw her tits bounce in the white t-shirt she was
wearing, that showed her white lace bra off more clearly than she likely realized.
Shaking my head and mentally kicking myself for being such a dick, I continued down her body and then noticed how her toned legs flexed in her cut-off shorts as she steadied herself.
It was just my luck the shadows from the fire emphasized all of the bits I loved the most.
And that was the crux of my problem—I wasn’t just a horny teen. I had a crush on Bexley, but I didn’t want to.
Arms winding their way around my neck almost made me jump, as the almost suffocating stench of cheap perfume mixed with the flavor of the beer I’d just sipped. There was a point where you wore that much cologne or perfume that people could taste it, and that’s how much Renna sprayed on herself. I swear my clothes and car were going to stink of it until I burned them or got rid of them.
“Hey, handsome,” she giggled in my ear. “What are you up to all on your own?”
I was breathing fresh air and enjoying life.
Grinding my teeth slightly, I muttered, “Nothing, just thinking.”
With her arms still around me, she sat down heavily on the log I was on, facing backward so that she was almost on my lap.
“About our future?”
This was her recent thing. She wanted us to be together forever. I was eighteen years old, for fuck’s sakes, I wasn’t settling down now. I didn’t know what career I wanted when I left college, or even if I wanted to go to it, but I did know I wanted to experience life. I couldn’t do that with someone I genuinely didn’t see a future with.
Her.
No matter how many times I told her or ignored her when she started, she just kept pressing it.
When I didn’t answer, she went straight to her next favorite subject.
“Is she still following you around?” she asked, looking where Bexley had been standing. “I heard she begged you for a ride tonight. That’s just pathetic.”