I stare up at the building. Above the door, engraved into the stone, it says Peabody Institute.
West meets me on the pavement.
“You know, where I’m from, institute means a place where the mentally ill go.” I slide my eyes to his. “I know I act a little crazy. Even talk crazy sometimes. But please tell me that you’ve not brought me to a mental institution.” I’m only half-joking.
“No.” He laughs. “It’s not that kind of institution. This is one I think you’ll like.”
Taking me by the hand, he tugs me forward, and I follow him up the steps. He pushes the door open and leads me inside.
And holy mother of God.
My heart actually stops with true happiness.
I step a little farther inside, my hands pressed to my chest. “It’s a library.”
But it’s like no library I’ve ever seen. It’s huge. I count up five stories high. All filled with shelves that are loaded with books.
There is a heaven after all, and I’m standing right in the entrance of it.
“You like it?” West steps behind me, a hand sliding to my waist.
“I love it,” I breathe, unable to take my eyes off it. I can’t stop staring. It’s just so beautiful. “You literally couldn’t have brought me to a better place.”
I can practically feel his smile.
“Well, I figured a writer would want to see the library that we have here.”
I turn so that I’m facing him. “This isn’t a library. It’s paradise. And you are frigging awesome.” I plant a kiss on his lips before I whirl back around. “I’ve never seen anything like this. When I was a kid, I used to spend a lot of time in my local library, but it was nothing like this. The whole library could fit in the reception area here.”
His fingers sweep my hair aside and brush over my neck. “Such a little book nerd.”
“I wear that badge with pride.”
“Lucky for you, I like nerds.”
I glance back at him. “Lucky for you, I like okayish-looking American football players.”
“You can just call it football, you know. And okayish-looking?” He lifts a brow.
“Fine. Better than okayish. And, no, I can’t just call it football. Because football is a game played with a round ball and said ball is kicked around by the feet. You carry the ball.”
“You know, we kick the ball sometimes too.”
“Still not football. More like rugby. Except you guys wear all that protective equipment and rugby players don’t.”
“It’s nothing like rugby. It’s football.”
“Beg to differ. You know, if you weren’t so much older than me—”
“Four years, Double D. I’m hardly your sugar daddy in this scenario.”
“And if I’d lived in America and we’d gone to school together,” I continue, ignoring him, “you’d have been the hot football player, and I’d have been the book nerd who you didn’t give the time of day to.”
“You sure about that?”
“That you wouldn’t have given me the time of day? Yep.”
He stares down at me, the ball cap shading his eyes. “You look anything like you do now when you were at school?”
“Nope. I had braces and a bad haircut.”
“Then, yeah, you’re right. I wouldn’t have looked at you twice.”
“Ass,” I murmur, bumping mine back into his hips.
He hisses, gripping hold of my hip. His lips come to my ear. “Do that again, and I’ll find a dark corner to fuck you in.”
A thrill runs through me. “I bet there’re a lot of dark corners in this library. But what about Nick and Aiden?”
“I don’t want to fuck them.”
That makes me laugh. “I meant, they have eyes on you at all times.”
“Not all the time.”
Well then …
“Let’s go exploring then. Let me see all of the books and pick them up and smell them and—”
“Smell them?” He looks mildly disturbed.
“It’s a book-nerd thing. Books have a smell to them, new and old. Especially old. They smell of history.”
“Book-smelling? Well, that’s killed my hard-on.”
I snort and then smother the laugh with my hand. “Sorry.”
“Come on,” he grumbles, tugging on my hand, leading me into the library. “Let’s go and look around, so you can smell some musty, old books.”
twenty-five
West
“You taking a nap over here?”
“Fuck off, Brooks.” I chuckle as he takes a seat on the bench next to me. “Just having a water break.”
Kai Brooks is our resident quarterback and the closest thing I have to a best friend. We joined the team at the same time. He’s good people. All of the guys are. We’re lucky to have a great team of people around us. It can be hard, having friends when your old man runs the fucking country. It’s hard to know who’s real or kissing your ass because of him. But with these guys, I know they’re real. First off, I knew most of them before my dad became president. And none of them kiss my ass. But they always have my back on and off the field. Especially Brooks.