Page 38 of Along Comes Trouble

TESSA

L ater that night,I’m curled up in bed, propped up by my favorite pillows. My white down comforter is tucked around me, the Christmas lights hanging around the room are on, and all I can think about is Colton. I’m stuck somewhere between feeling like a kid again, fantasizing what high school would have been like if he’d been there to save me from the crippling loneliness that defined my teenage years, and being so proud of him for submitting his resume with the school .

Colton will make a great coach. He’s charismatic and funny. The way he taught me to throw a dart and hurl a football shows that he understands how to explain things in a way that anyone can grasp. I don’t know how long he’ll have to wait to hear anything, but I hope it all falls into place for him soon. He’s so talented and his skills are wasted in that trailer .

Feeling nostalgic, I thumb through the pages of a book, an old favorite that’s kept me company throughout the years. My phone buzzes. A text from Colton that reads miss you. I hug the phone to my chest before pulling up his contact info and initiating a call .

“Tess?” He sounds worried. “Everything okay ?”

“Everything’s fine. I got your text. I miss you, too, and wanted to hear your voice .”

“I’m glad you called because I wanted to hear your voice, too .”

A grin hijacks my voice and I sink into my pillow. “I’ve been sitting here in bed, thinking about you. About us. Being so happy for you about that coaching position and daydreaming about what it would have been like if we’d known each other in high school .”

“I don’t actually have the job, you know. All I did was apply .”

“I know.” I shift a pillow behind me and stretch out. “That doesn’t change the fact that I’m happy for you .”

“You know? I’m happy for me, too. It’s such a small thing, but, sometimes it’s the small stuff that matters most .”

“Exactly.” I sit quietly, content to have the open connection between us. “I’m sorry to have bothered you,” I say after a few seconds of silence .

“Believe me, Blue Eyes. You’re not bothering me at all. Don’t take my silence the wrong way. My imagination ran away with me. I was picturing what you were like in school .”

I burrow deeper into my comforter. “It’s probably for the best if you don’t think about it all that much .”

“I have this image of you, so pure and virginal, the quintessential good girl .”

“That was me. Nose in a book. Straight A’s. No sex. No drugs. Almost robotic in my adherence to the rules .”

“I have to ask. What would that Tessa have done if I asked her for a blow job under the bleachers after a game ?”

“This Tessa would have blushed from head to toe and worried about getting caught. Teenaged Tessa’s head would have exploded from the sheer mortification of it all .”

“So, tonight. If our kiss had turned into more. Would you have turned me down ?”

“Tonight?” I think back to our kiss on the bleachers, the way his hands tangled in my hair, the feeling of his rough skin against my cheek. “I don’t know,” I murmur, although I’m pretty damn sure I would have let him do whatever he wanted to me .

“Come on, Tess. This is me. Don’t be shy. If I had undone your pants and slipped my hand inside, would you have stopped me ?”

I don’t even have to think about my answer. “No .”

“How far would you let me go ?”

That one I do have to think about, so I turn the question back around on him. “How far would you want to go ?”

“I don’t think you really need to ask that question, do you ?”

“No. I really don’t.” I am sure that both teenaged Colton and current day Colton would be happy to go as far as I’d let him .

“Would you let me finger you?” he asks. “Let me stroke your clit and slip inside you until you came right there on the bleachers, out in the open for anyone to see ?”

“Yes.” The word is hoarse, but it’s the truth .

“What else ?”

“I’d have gotten down on my knees. Taken your dick in my mouth.” My voice quavers, barely more than a whisper. “I would have licked and sucked you until you came .”

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