Loving Mr. Daniels

“You’re an idiot,” I chuckled.

“You love this idiot.” I did. “But back to the important things. Theo is having another party soon and I…” He grinned widely and reached into his back pocket. A plastic card came out and his smile grew bigger. “Have a fake ID.”

I snatched it from his hands and smiled. “Where the heck did you get this?!”

His eyes shifted back to Avery. “I know people who know people.”

“Burt Summerstone?” I asked, reading his name off the card.

He took it back from me and slid it into his pocket. “It’s not about the name, baby girl. It’s about the date. I am officially a twenty-one-year-old high school student. And we are officially getting drunk and crossing that item off of your bucket list. Bow down, bitches.” He pulled out a fake ID for me and I grinned.

Summer Burtstone. How creative.

“But I hate Theo,” I frowned. He had been the biggest jerk to Hailey.

“Even more reason to show up and give him a big middle finger,” Ryan smirked. “I do it all the time.”

Ryan had a way of always making people smile. It was a natural gift of his. I felt lucky enough to have moved to Wisconsin and be living with Hailey and him. I didn’t know if I would’ve made it if it hadn’t been for my built-in housemates.

I remembered back on how mean and harsh I’d been to Henry when I’d first arrived into town. How much I hadn’t wanted to be here in the first place. I hadn’t called it home since I’d arrived, but lately I’d thought it could be my home. Because maybe home wasn’t a location. Maybe it’s simply the people who you were surrounded with that made you feel as if you could be whoever you wanted to be.

Maybe home was friendship.

After class ended, I smiled at Mr. Daniels—who was really just Daniel in a suit. My Daniel. My blue-eyed, handsome, loving Daniel. He grinned back at me. The class filed out and I slid all of my books into my backpack. Tossing the bag onto my back, I stood from my desk.

“You’re not wearing one of her dresses?” Daniel asked, moving to sit on the front of his desk. His eyes traveled over my body until he met my stare and I felt warm all over. I loved the way he looked at me. As if each and every part of my being were perfect. As if I were imperfectly perfect for him.

“Nope, not today.” I was dressed in blue jeans and an oversized sweater that hung off my left shoulder. For the first time this school year, my outfit was actually mine…and it felt good to be me.

“This is my favorite look,” he said.

I glanced down at my outfit and grinned. “Mine too.”

“My roommate’s gone tonight.”

I chuckled. “Thanks for the random bit of information.”

“I want to make you dinner.”

Raising an eyebrow, I laughed. “You cook?”

“I cook.” His words were simple yet so dreamy, and I realized I would eat anything he would make. “I do a lot more than cook though…” My eyes fell to his lips. I loved those lips. I loved so much about him.

I bit my bottom lip and glanced toward the classroom door to make sure no one was walking by. “Are you trying to seduce me, Mr. Daniels?”

His thumb brushed against his bottom lip and he eyed me up and down. “I guess you’ll have to wait to find out, Ms. Jennings.”

“Meet me behind the library after school?” I suggested.

“I’ll be there.”

The way his eyes danced across my body made me feel at ease, comfortable. What I loved the most was that he’d never looked at me the way he had today. Today he’d seen me for who I really was, and the way both his lips and eyes smiled toward me made me realize that he liked me the most when I was myself.

I was one hundred percent Ashlyn Jennings.

And I was one hundred percent his.

I’d never been to his house before. I’d never been in his Jeep before either. It was a day filled with firsts. I had to admit that lately my mind had been thinking about other things we had never done together. We’d never gone out on a date. We’d never danced. We’d never had sex. We’d never said ‘I love you.’

I stepped into his Jeep and my breath caught when I saw Daniel. He was wearing a baseball cap, and I blushed alone at my thoughts. I’d never seen him in a baseball cap until now. There were so many sides to him, looks to him, characteristics of him, that I hadn’t yet discovered. He smiled my way, took my hand, and kissed my palm. My eyes shifted to the floor mats and I chuckled lightly.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

My head rose and I shook it back and forth. “Nothing. It’s just—there’s so much to look forward to with us, isn’t there?”

“Yeah, I think there is.” He didn’t let go of my hand after he kissed it. He held it as he pulled away from the curb of the library.

“Tell me the boring facts,” I said, growing comfortable in my seat. “Tell me the things that would put most people to sleep.”

He arched an eyebrow. “The boring facts?”

“Your favorite color, your favorite ice cream, your favorite movie. You know, the boring things.”

“Ah, of course. My favorite color is green. Um…” He furrowed his brows, deep in thought. “My favorite ice cream is the one with the waffle cone chunks in it and the chocolate pieces. Don’t ask me if I’ve ever eaten an entire container in one sitting—you don’t want to know the answer. And my favorite movie is a tossup between Lethal Weapon and The Hangover.”