Page 69 of 4th Degree

One corner of my lip twitches.

New goal: make Skylar understand that there’s a reason people vie for her company.

“Alright, I’ll just come whenever,” I repeat, knowing full well I’m going to be there before seven o’clock. “Just text me the address, and I’ll meet you there.”

“Okay,” she agrees, and the sound of a door opening can be heard in the background. “I just got home, so I’ll text you in a minute.” There’s a pause, and then she adds softly, “I don’t know why you’d want to suffer through a high school basketball game, but I’m excited to see you.”

And just hearing the change in her voice—from confusion to happiness—is enough to make me feel like a kid on Christmas.

24

SKYLAR

The third time I catch myself craning my neck to look the length of the hallway, I have to acknowledge that I’m a little nervous.

I’m nervous. Because of a guy. A guy is making me nervous.

But it’s not just any guy. Dominic is making me nervous. Dominic is the one who got a yes out of me after an offer of hanging out.

I’ve said no to my coworkers so many times, it’s become a running joke, complete with an exaggerated mimic of my voice. If I ever said yes, they’d likely be too shocked to react.

I wanted him to come hang out with me. If I had given myself time to think about it, I probably would’ve second-guessed everything and drawn my usual boundary. Instead, I’m standing in a high school hallway, twisting my jacket in my hands as I wait for the man I’m sleeping with to appear at my little brother’s basketball game.

What has my life turned into?

But before I can disappear down a whirlpool of doubts and stress, a familiar head of black hair appears at the end of the hallway. And the second he catches sight of me, a smile lights up his eyes.

God, that man is beautiful.

Usually, when we leave the gym, he’s wearing joggers and a T-shirt or gym hoodie. And he’s still hot enough to melt iron then, but Dominic in real clothes is enough to stop traffic.

He’s wearing faded jeans and a white t-shirt, with a blue flannel unbuttoned over top of it. And I don’t know if it’s because of the blue of his shirt or because I’m mesmerized by the sight of him, but the blue in his eyes pierces right through my soul. I can’t look away from him.

He strides toward me, his gait confident and his eyes never moving from mine. I’m too hypnotized by his appearance and attention to even muster a smile when he stops in front of me.

“Hey,” he says, his lip quirking in response to my frozen expression.

“Hi,” I squeak.

“You look cute when you’re out of your element,” he says with a chuckle. “You’d think fighting would bring it out of you, but apparently it takes a date to a high school basketball game.”

I don’t know whether to be offended that he called me out on my nerves, or shocked that he just referred to this as a date.

His smile turns into a grin, seemingly delighted to be making me feel this way. “Let’s go find our seats. Before I pull you into an empty classroom and we miss the whole game.”

That finally draws a reaction out of me. Because I’m tempted to let him do it, especially since I probably shouldn’t kiss him out in the open.

“Look at that blush,” he murmurs, the pad of his thumb lightly brushing over my warm cheek. “You’d think I had you on your knees again.”

My breath whooshes from my lungs, all thoughts rushing back to my brain. “Jesus,” I gasp. “Are you going to be like this all night?”

Dominic throws his head back with a laugh, then slings his arm around my shoulders. “Come on. Let’s go watch a basketball game.”

As soon as we walk into the gymnasium, the reality of my decision to say yes to Dominic fully sinks in.

I realize quickly that my usual habit at these games is to pull out my textbooks and finish some homework while I wait for Joey to get tagged into the game. And it’s not that I want to do that right now, it just never really hit me that I’m so locked into my routines that not following them feels startling. Which once again just emphasizes that I was reacting instinctively when I agreed to this. Switching things up shouldn’t stress me out this much.

“So…” Dominic drawls. He leans his elbows back on the bleacher behind him, his focus on the basketball game that’s now starting. “Are you freaking out about this?”

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