“I’m glad things went well with Keira, man—on all fronts.” Tank gave me a big smile and clapped me on the shoulder.
“Thanks, man. I—she’s pretty amazing. On all fronts.”
“Nothin’ to be ashamed of, you know.”
“I know. I shouldn’t have jumped on Kirby like that, but it’s not like anything I had with Vanessa, or any other girl for that matter.”
“I don’t guess it would be. Good for you, Buck. So what’s next? She your girlfriend now?”
I blew out my breath in a rush.
“Not exactly. I promised her that whatever this is wouldn’t get in the way of the tutoring she’s giving me. I’ve got to do my work at all costs, and she knows I can’t let anything fuck with my scholarship, which would mean I can’t play football, which would mean no chance at the pros.”
“But?”
“But we’re so fucking hot for each other.”
“Well, apparently it wasn’t just you jerking yourself off up there in the Crow’s Nest tonight. So, what’s the problem?”
“There isn’t one. The sex was great. And I also like her—a lot.”
“Cool. So back to my original question. She your girlfriend now?”
“Like I said, not exactly. I told her I want to date her, and we did talk a lot tonight, so we’re getting to know each other. I doubt we’ll be able to keep our hands off of each other. But the only thing I know that’s next for sure is another tutoring session in a couple of days. That, and I told her I’d take her out for burgers sometime this week.”
“Sounds good to me, brother. Study hard, play hard. As long as she’s cool with it all, you got this.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Now what the hell am I going to tell coach?”
“First, you tell doc. Seems like it’s gonna be fine, and when he confirms that, it’s better to lead with doc’s report than telling coach how you fucked up and decked Kirby. Also, we all screw up, and you’ve been squeaky clean compared to some of the other guys on the team.”
“Well, I found myself in the hot seat my freshman year. As the team captain, I can’t very well party my way through school.”
“My point exactly. You’re still human, so count this as your one big fuck-up, and don’t do it again.”
Wise words, I decided. I took an ibuprofen and crashed. My last thoughts were of doing great work in class so Keira would be proud of me—and then kissing her senseless.
Chapter 6
Keira
I should have known Gwen would be waiting for me when I got home. Actually I was glad, because I was still too wound up to sleep. She tossed her book on the floor and sat bolt upright on her bed when I came in the door.
“Well, well, well, Cinderella. How was the ball?”
“It wasn’t a ball. It wasn’t even a date, and you know it.”
“Keira, please. This is me you’re talking to. There’s never been a tutoring session in the history of mankind that’s lasted until 1:30 in the morning.”
“Gah!” I said, and I flounced on my bed without even taking my coat off.
“Spill it, girl!” She popped up, and like the gem she was, she clicked on the hotpot and pulled the mugs and tea down from the shelf.
“Well, first of all, we did get a lot of work done, believe it or not.”
“I don’t doubt you. That’s great. And what happened after work?”
“I… we… God, Gwen, it was so good!”
“I knew it!” She squealed.
“Okay, but I still have to start at the beginning, because we were both trying to hard to ignore the fact that we both wanted each other and badly. When I got there…I mean, who looks that good in a T-shirt and a pair of jeans?”
“Um, The Bu—Nate does. That’s what I’ve been saying all along. So you got there, and then what?”
“He looked at me like I was an ice cream cone in his favorite flavor. But it was all business at first. I was actually impressed with how focused he was. I got a look at his textbook and his current grades. He’s going to do some extra credit. And I’m going to make up some scenarios for him to practice in preparation for his final. We did great as tutor and student. I even pulled my hair up in a bun.”
“But?” Gwen slurped her tea and stared at me like I was telling a ghost story around a campfire.
“But then he undid my bun.” I just let that little piece of information fall and took a sip of my tea. A huge smile spread across Gwen’s face. Now, I wasn’t the kind of person to just lay out every single detail, and thankfully, Gwen wasn’t the kind of person to ask for them. I just confirmed that he was as good at extracurricular activities as he was at football.
“Well what do you know. Little Keira Wells bagged a quarterback,” she said, grinning. “Who knew that the math nerd and the superstar would be a couple?”
“You should talk! I never would have thought you and DJ would end up dating.” DJ was the mutual friend of one of my honor society friends. He’d been at a couple of parties Gwen and I had gone to, and we’d all started hanging out together. DJ was from India, and his initials were short for a name that no one could pronounce. He was tall, lanky, and brown, and he and Gwen made quite the striking and unusual couple. They had a lot in common (mainly a killer intellect—DJ was a biology major, so they had some classes together too) and DJ treated her really well. They also seemed to have a lot of fun together and be good companions to each other. I knew Gwen had been inwardly rolling her eyes ever since that Sunday night when I’d spoiled Vanessa’s party in the hall, waiting for me to admit my attraction to Nate.
“So, what, are you guys official now, or are you just having a little fun?”
There it was. A spotlight on the butterflies I’d had in my stomach since Nate had loaned me his gloves at the pep rally back in high school, the same ones I’d felt talking to him as he walked be home tonight—the ones I’d just plain avoided.
“We’re… in exploratory mode,” I said.
“Oh. Well does further exploration include more sex?”
“I sure as fuck hope so!”
We both dissolved into peals of laughter and finished our tea. We chatted some more with the lights out and eventually Gwen drifted off to sleep. I replayed my time with Nate in the Crow’s Nest at least a half dozen more times. There wasn’t any part of it that didn’t make me smile. I meant it when I told Gwen that I was proud of us for working hard on Nate’s class. I was still a little in shock that he actually wanted to get to know me and date me. And I was thrilled as hell at the amazing sex we’d had. And that’s when I decided that I was wearing a skirt to our next tutoring session.
Three weeks might have sounded like a long time. But it flew by, and with my own classes and finals to think about, not would I not have time to attend last game before the break, but Nate never got to take me out for that burger either. It was so hectic for both of us, that we had to postpone our next in-person session for a week. Academically speaking, that was okay, because I sent Nate his practice assignments and reviewed the first one by email. I also reviewed his first extra-credit assignment that way too. But he had one last test that was reflective of the more advanced questions that would be on the final. We needed to get together. And physically? I didn’t know about Nate, but I was going to be homicidal if I didn’t have sex again soon. Self-help just wasn’t cutting it, even with the vivid memories and the horny text messages we’d exchanged to inspire me.