Page 15 of Totally Geeked

I head upstairs and make a start on packing, and Gordon arrives about an hour later.

“Please tell me you were joking about Noah before?” he asks, plonking down on my couch while I finish gathering my things. If I am staying there, I’ll need my sketch pads, laptop, notebooks, and drawing supplies. Wow, this really would be easier to just stay here.

“If it makes you feel better, he looked about the same age as him.”

He rubs the back of his neck with one hand. “I guess so. Well, how did the reading go?”

“It was actually good. I mean I got through it okay.”

“See, I told you that you had nothing to worry about. When’s the next one, I might be able to take you. If not, I can call you a car.”

“No worries, I've already arranged a ride,” I say, awkwardly looping my hair into a messy bun at the back of my head. “Harrison is taking me.”

Gordon’s eyebrows rise.

“Why?”

“He said he had nothing better to do and he had fun today. It was good for me having him there. He sat with the kids, and itwas like it took the edge off or something, knowing someone in the room. I could focus, I guess.”

“But he didn’t hit on you?”

I laugh. “I don’t think you have to worry about him hitting on me. Guys like Harrison don’t hit on geeks like me.”

“I love Harry, but trust me, if you’ve got a dick, he’ll hit on you.”

My cheeks warm, and I turn away and pretend to look through my bag so he doesn't read anything into it. Harrison is fucking hot as hell, and if he did hit on me, I can’t say I’d even remotely try to stop him. But I meant what I said. Guys like that, hot, athletic, muscly, big men with perfect smiles and sweet-as-fuck personalities, don’t look for short, skinny book nerds like me.

“I’ve only got to grab one more thing. Can you carry the bag with the laptop in it please?” I ask, opting to carry the heavier, but safer bag with my notebooks and clothes.

“I’ll grab both, you lock up and meet me at the car,” he says, and he carries them out.

I eye the sketches covering my table. The ones that didn’t make it into the book. I move them around searching for one in particular, the sketch I did of Harrison, in a sort of handstand position clapping his cleats together. I spot it under another of him from behind, hands on his hips, ass out as he’s wriggling to the music. That one was probably never going to make it into a children's book. It would look amazing as one of those nudie cartoons. An image flashes in my mind of what both sketches would look like if I eliminated his uniform. Sometimes, I love the way my mind works.

I grab a new sketchbook and slip them both in between the blank pages.

Something to work on later.

Chapter seven

Harrison

Gordon texted that Arlowould be staying with him and I could pick him up there for the reading. The message was followed by a second text reminding me “tokeep it in my pants.”Like I need reminding his little brother is off limits.

I arrive early, but Arlo is already waiting, pacing the front deck of his brother’s house, hands wringing in front of him. Something’s up.

“Hey,” I call, climbing from the truck and heading over.

“They’ve moved me to a bigger room,” he blurts.

“Huh?”

“The reading today. It was supposed to be in the kids’ section, in the little kids’ section, like the same as the last reading, but my publisher called and said they moved it to the big room.”

His hair is out and hanging over half his face, hiding him from me, from the world.

“And you are worried about how many people might fit into this new room?”

“Exactly,” he says, turning to face me. “I did okay last time because it was small.”

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