Page 66 of Playmaker

If he doesn’t find out and break my nose first.

“All right, I’ll let you continue your afternoon,” he adds with a wicked grin. Then he shouts at the closed bathroom door, “Hoping to meet you soon, mystery girl!”

Christ.

My face is bright red when he shuts the door to my bedroom behind him, and I wait until the front door closes, too, before I finally open the bathroom door. “He’s gone,” I say. “You can come out now.”

The shower curtain is thrown open, and then she steps out with only a towel wrapped around her. Eyeliner from last night is still smudged beneath her eyes, and her curly hair has already started drying. It’s frizzy and all over the place, but it’s how I like her best.

Mine.

“Howdareyou mock pop music!” Standing in front of me, she jabs a finger into my chest while trying to be intimidating, but it just makes me smile instead, which only seems to irritate her more. “I told you last year, and I’ll tell you again: country music makes my ears bleed.”

“Funny.” I take the finger on my chest and wrap her hand in mine. “You pitched a fit for almost an hour, but as soon as I started singing you dropped the argument.”

“That’s different,” she whispers.

“How so?”

“Because your voice is . . .” She trails off, finding her words. “You were relaxed and content singing those songs, and I hadn’t seen you like that in forever, so I allowed it.”

Her palm is flat on my chest, mine covering hers, so I know she can feel the rapid beating of my heart. “And what if I told you my mood that day had nothing to do with the music choice, Maddie? What would you do then?”

“I’d—” She gulps, her eyes dipping to my lips for a split second before she says, “I’d say my brother was right, then. I’m good for you.”

The steam evaporated from the shower a while ago, and yet my body still feels surrounded by nothing but heat. “And I’d say you’re correct.” With one hand I tug at the towel around her body and watch it fall to the floor between us. “I’d tell you that I picked a fight with you because I missed you, and fighting with you was better than no contact at all.” My chest rises and falls rapidly from speaking about my feelings, and now that I’ve started, I’m sure as hell not stopping.

“Being with you is like that first gasp of air after being beneath the water for too long, Maddie. You’re a reprieve from the negativity that surrounds me. You always have been.”

She lets out a shaky breath, but neither of us moves an inch from where we’re standing.

Finally, she lifts her eyes to mine and says, “And if I said you were the same reprieve for me, what would you do then?”

I flick my gaze to her mouth before my lips tilt into the flirtatious grin she always claimed to be annoyed by, but I know the truth. She loves this grin, whether she’ll admit it or not. “I’d take you back to bed so we can show each other just how much of areprievewe can bring.”

The giggle that fills the room makes my cock stir beneath the towel, and it’s standing at full attention when she walks into my room and falls back on my comforter, a flirtatious grin of her own teasing her lips. “I only have an hour before I have to leave, so we should probably get started, right?”

With just those words alone, I no longer worry about Ethan figuring things out between us. I don’t care about my dad and his opinion about her being a distraction. He’s wrong, and I didn’t go into depth about our conversation with Maddie because it’s not going to change anything between us. My dad isn’t going to win on this, and if anything, it makes me want to rebel even more, thus why the McDonald’s purchase this morning was made on the same card that I purchased the pizza with, and which got me into trouble.

The bottom line is that for the first time in my life I’m choosing my happiness. Not my friends’, my dad’s, my mom’s, butmine.

And I choose Maddie.

The towel falls to the floor beside hers, and it takes me hardly any time at all before I crawl to her on the bed, more than willing to get that hit of reprieve if only for an hour.

Twenty-seven

Maddie

With only two days left before we leave for the Grand Canyon, time only seems to become more pressing.

In forty-eight hours Cameron and I will be surrounded by my family, and these moments of blissful serenity tangled in his sheets will all come to an end. Granted, Cameron agreed totry, but what does that mean? I’ve been too afraid to ask since he was the one who wanted to take this thing between us slowly. Is putting a label on it too fast? Is speaking of the future too much pressure?

I hate that I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to relationships, but as much as I wish I could regret not having more experience, I don’t. Waiting for Cameron was the greatest decision I’ve ever made, but there are so many insecurities I have about this being my first time with someone, and I don’t know how to shake them.

Maybe that’s why I decided to have Maya over for a sleepover tonight even knowing this is using up one of only two nights I have left with Cameron before we’re thrust back into secrecy.

Well, more secrecy thanusual, I should say.

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