Page 37 of The Sky Between Us

A wicked grin spread across my face, causing her to want to smack me once again. I dodged her hand and laughed. “What do you expect from me? My mind is dirty, all I think of is being inside…”

“… a Starbucks,” she finished when the waitress re-appeared to check if everything was okay.

Hazel’s cheeks burned and I shook from a silent laughter as she waved Terry away.

With my grin still plastered on my face, she shook her head. But she couldn’t fool me, her lips were tugging upwards and her walls were crumbling.

“Why don’t you like soccer? You used to play for a while,” I asked, returning back to my mission of finding out more about her.

She shrugged. “It was quite boring, and having your father as coach makes it even more miserable. It’s just running after a ball.”

“It’s a strategic team sport,” I wiggled my brows. “You don’t do well in teams, I bet. Less opportunity to shine.”

Hazel frowned at me. “Then why do you play soccer?”

Tilting my head, her question got me thinking. “I played soccer all my life, while other kids dreamed of football, basketball and baseball, I loved soccer. Being a small kid, this was ideal for me. No heavy equipment on my back, just me, the grass and the ball. My teammates were my brothers, which, after growing up with a little sister, was a blessing. I loved the sense of belonging, the tactics of the game and succeeding together. We all had a part to play on the field and when we worked together, we always won. Over the years, teams changed but the feeling remained the same. By the time I was a junior in high school, I desperately wanted to play for LA Galaxy. I needed to get on top of my game to catch their eyes, but despite soccer not being as huge as football in America, the competition was cutthroat. My parents didn’t have the money to pay the tuition for the academy and told me I needed a backup plan. So, I trained harder to be that one in a million who could maybe make the move across the ocean and play in the real game.”

There was something sincere in her expression that made me open up and share my vulnerable side with her. I got to get real with this girl, but I didn’t mind it. Not for one second. She seemed to be a good keeper for my secrets, and maybe she would end up reciprocating the favor.

“I bet that’s how you felt about dancing,” I risked adding, as I studied her dreamy look.

A small smile creeped on her face and she shook her head. “I liked it because I was good. I loved the attention and the trophies. I wanted to go on beauty pageants and my mom desperately wanted to send me there too. Tiaras were always my thing but my dad was going to flip out, so we settled on dance. Tiaras, tiaras all the same, I’m just not all about world peace.”

I chuckled, but I could see her walk down the catwalk while cameras flashed. Yet the thought of her in a tiny bikini or sexy underwear got me hot and upset. This girl wasn’t even mine yet, but I already wanted to kill everyone who laid an eye on her.

“When you danced you seemed like you enjoyed it. It wasn’t…” I searched for the right word, but she beat me to it.

“Fake.”

The sound of her walls crumbling was louder than the background noise of the diner. I saw the dust as they broke down, and I watched the real Hazel emerge from under it. She tugged a loose strand of hair behind her ear, her sleek ponytail messier and a sad half smile painting her beautiful face. The fluorescent light of the diner reflected on her face, but my eyes got stuck on hers as they started shining in a different way.

“Once you start playing roles it’s hard to stop,” she muttered, her gaze dropping to her half-eaten burger as she toyed with the napkin. “Somewhere along the way, I played so many different roles, I completely lost myself.”

“So, who is the real Hazel?” My hand reached under her chin and with a gentle nudge I lifted her head.

“I don’t know,” she shook her head. Moving my fingertips along her jaw I caressed her cheeks. Hazel sunk into my touch and her eyes fluttered close.

I loved how responsive she was to my touch, even if it was the smallest, most innocent one. Her body responded to me, like it already knew what we were just figuring out, too scared to admit.

She belonged to me.

Secrets or no secrets, our bodies and hearts made that decision for us, only our brains were too slow catching up.

“But we can figure it out… together,” Hazel said, her voice fading away at the last word.

My heart lunched in my chest, like it was about to sprint to campus and back, my heartrate picking up from that one stupid word.

Leaning closer to her, I pushed my nose to hers, our lips brushing. Hazel grew motionless, and stopped breathing altogether, but didn’t pull back. “I would love that,” I said as my lips curled into a smile and she immediately returned it.

“Just… let’s take it slow,” she muttered against my lips, tiny goosebumps rising on her arm as she shivered from our contact.

“As slow as you want it.”

I kissed her gently. Cupping her soft lips with mine as I tasted the sugary coke, mixing it with my own drink. She kissed me back with one sloppy, slow kiss that was the most innocent one I’ve shared since my first kiss in high school. My body ached with need that has been building up inside me ever since the day she walked into the Starbucks. If it was any other girl, I would have taken things to a whole different level and have her stripped and pinned under my body in the back of my car. But I wasn’t in a rush. I had all the time in the world with this girl by my side. And I didn’t want to ruin it.

Chapter 9

Isaid: “One date only, to feel normal.”

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