“Understandable.” He opened a trash bag that was further down than I could have reached on my own and stuffed the pack of cigarettes in it. “There—they’ll have to do some serious dumpster diving to get them now.”
“Thank you.” I looked down and smiled.
“I was actually coming over to see you—I just didn’t expect to find you digging through the trash.” He chuckled under his breath.
“You were coming to see me?” I lifted my head and my eyebrows at the same time.
“Yeah, I have this plate of amazing cookies at my house, and despite my best efforts, I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to finish them on my own.” He tilted his head and smiled.
“Oh.” The smile disappeared from my face. “Your girlfriend doesn’t mind?”
“Girlfriend?” His face twisted into a look of confusion. “The woman that was here earlier? No, that was my sister. She was giving me some tips on interior design—I don’t have a girlfriend.”
He really is single…
“Okay, maybe I could be tempted to eat a couple of cookies.” I looked down at my hands. “Although I feel like I need a shower after digging in the trash.”
“I’ve got soap. You don’t have to shower—I’ll show you how to scrub in like a doctor.” He motioned for me to follow him.
Everette didn’t have a girlfriend. I was still trying to process that as I followed him to his house. I pushed him to the back of my mind the second that Amelia told me there was a beautiful blonde woman at his house—and she turned out to be his sister. My heart started beating hard in my chest as I walked up the steps and entered his house—the spot where he almost kissed me—the spot where I wanted him to so bad. It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t like a kiss would ever lead to anything. I couldn’t even go on a date with him if he asked since I was about to leave for college. A kiss would be nothing more than a tease for something that could never happen between us. He was sinfully gorgeous with a stupidly sexy smile that made my panties try to melt off my hips, but there was no way I was going to let a guy that I just met take my virginity—I just wasn’t that kind of girl.
That’s an amazing fantasy, but it’s not reality…
“Start with your hands.” Everette led me to the sink and squeezed some soap out of a bottle. “Then work your way up to your arms—like this.”
“I’ve seen this on Grey’s Anatomy.” I smiled and leaned forward to squeeze some soap into my hands.
“They probably skip over the part where you have to do this for five minutes.” He looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
“Five minutes? Seriously?” I blinked in surprise. “Yeah, I think they fast-forward through that.”
“If I was actually going to perform surgery, I would have a pick for my nails and a brush to scrub my skin.” He moved his hands along his forearms—god, they were so muscular and thick.
“They definitely leave that part out…” I stared at his hands as he continued to scrub his arms.
“Need some help?” He looked down at the soap, still sitting in my hand.
Everette didn’t give me a chance to respond. He put his finger in the center of my palm, rubbed the soap into a lather, then started moving his hands against mine. His touch made me tingle from head-to-toe and practically sucked the oxygen out of my lungs. It was sensual and soft, even though I could feel a couple of callouses—especially when he started to caress my arms and spread the soap to my elbows. I got a head rush that was almost as strong as the one I got when I was high—but it was a totally different kind of intoxication. Five minutes was a really, really long time. I’m not even sure he was timing it. He just kept his hands moving against my skin while our eyes slowly met. I was still struggling to breathe, and when I finally drew a full breath, I heard a light squeak in my throat. I broke away from his stare and immediately pulled my hands towards the water.
“That should be good enough. It’s not like I’m going to actually be taking care of a patient or anything.” I pushed my hands underneath the water and started rinsing the soap off.
“You missed a spot.” Everette cupped his hand and let some water run along the back of my elbow.
“Thank you.” I smiled and reached for a pa
per towel while he rinsed his hands and arms.
“You might not be clean enough to perform surgery, but I think you’re good enough for a cookie or two.” Everette grabbed a paper towel. “Want some milk to go with them?”
“Yeah, that would be nice.” I nodded.
My head was still spinning when we sat down at the table and started eating our cookies. His touch did something to me that I didn’t quite understand—it was certainly different from anything I felt when I was clumsily experimenting with the Henderson brothers in the tree house. We started talking as we ate our cookies, but the words just seemed to blend together—and the ones coming out of my mouth didn’t match what was in my head, but I kept the conversation moving without drawing attention to the confusion that was swirling around inside me like a cyclone. My taste buds didn’t even seem to register the cookie when I ate it. All I could think about was how his hands felt when they were on my skin.
“Thank you for inviting me over again.” I looked up at Everette and smiled. “I wish I could stay a little longer, but I’ve got some more cleaning I need to do before my parents get back tomorrow.”
“Ah, did you do a lot of partying while they were away?” He raised an eyebrow.
“No, but I still want to tidy the place up some.” I shook my head and laughed.