Page 25 of Courting Clemson

Take care? What the hell did that mean in this context? It felt like a brush-off. Like a permanent one. And come on, be serious. How much could a college student have going on? When I was in school, my biggest worries were getting laid and finding where the best parties were that weekend.

That wasn’t fair of me. I knew that. I was pissed because rejection was a bitter pill to swallow. For all I knew, the girl was having family drama or health issues, or…hell, it could be any number of legitimate things.

And how was I supposed to respond now? Hey, thanks for turning me down? Something snarky like You have no idea what you’re missing? Or maybe it would be best to leave the message unanswered and walk away with my dignity spared. My vote was definitely in that last camp.

After dinner I finally came up with a response.

That’s too bad. Let me know if you change your mind. I’d love to take you out. Maybe I’ll see you at the shelter again sometime.

I hit Send without thinking too much more about it and closed the app. Before I could talk myself out of it, I texted Liam to see what he was up to. There was no way I wanted to sit in my lonely apartment for the rest of the weekend feeling sorry for myself.

My buddy took an uncharacteristically long time to respond. Turned out he had a one-on-one date that night and had been getting ready. The good news, though, was we made plans for the following day for some beach volleyball and maybe a barbeque.

I loved spending time by the ocean, and even though I lived in a city with more beaches than I could count on both hands, I barely went there. I went to bed in a much better mood and really looked forward to the next day.

Sunday late morning, I parked in the public lot near the lifeguard tower we used to mark our meeting place on the sand. This beach had permanent volleyball nets secured deep in the sand. But if you wanted to claim a spot, you had to have someone arrive pretty early. Especially when the weather was as perfect as it had been the past week. Everyone had the itch to get their toes in the sand—me included.

I slung my backpack over one shoulder and checked that I locked my car for the second time. I packed a cooler at the house and left it in the trunk until I could wrangle another friend to help me carry it down to the sand. I really needed to invest in one with wheels.

“There he is!” I heard Liam shout before I could make him out in the group assembled near the net. “I’m so glad you didn’t flake out. We should have the perfect number of players now that you’re here.”

“Hey, can someone give me a hand with the cooler I brought? It’s in my trunk and packed to the top. It would be a lot easier with some help.”

Most of the guys in the group looked familiar, either from the office or from other times I’d hung out with Liam and his friends.

“I’ll help you,” a tall guy said and jogged across the beach to where I stood.

He thrust his hand toward me and said, “I’m Matt. I think we met once before on a pub crawl or something, but my memory always takes a hit after one of those nights. You definitely look familiar though.” He chuckled.

“Luke,” I said as we shook. “My car’s just in the lot there. Should only take a minute.”

We shared small talk as we did the task and made our way back to the group in no time. After setting the cooler in the shade of one of those big pop-up canopies people often used for tailgating or camping, we were ready to play.

I overheard Liam telling one of the guys we worked with that a group of girls might join us. He hadn’t said anything to me about women being here, and I now figured that was intentional. He probably thought I’d back out if I knew, and it kind of irritated me.

I wasn’t opposed to meeting new people. I just didn’t want to party with a bunch of sorority pledges. Immediately I thought of Clemson and inwardly cringed. She was the same age as the ladies Liam was always trying to jam down my throat, so what was the difference?

It had more to do with the way he described the females than their ages. Plus, I got to know Clemson a bit before finding out how young she was, so that detail never played a part in my opinion of her.

What did it matter anyway? The girl turned me down, so I needed to stop thinking about her and keep an open mind to meeting someone else. We were in the last few minutes of our second game when one of the guys spotted the group of women heading our way.

“Hey, Liam, is that them?” he asked. “Dibs on the tall blonde,” he added with a grin.

The girls got settled on their towels and blankets near the net, and we stopped playing for a quick water break so introductions could be made for those who hadn’t met.

Some of the men had been out with some of the girls before—all part of the group Liam carried on about. For the rest of us, a quick round of introductions was made. I don’t know what I’d done to finally have karma smile down on me, but the tall blonde the other dude tried to claim dibs on was my bombshell.

Clemson Farsay.

Bombshell didn’t do this girl justice. She was a freaking angel. Her golden hair caught the sunlight in shades of gold and bronze. Even the way she had it piled on top of her head in some sort of messy nest reminded me of a halo.

And her bathing suit—Jesus Christ, that bathing suit. I don’t even know how to begin to describe the body on this girl. Her legs were long and lean. Defined muscles flexed beneath her tan skin when she walked. Hell, even when she stood still, you could see the incredible shape she was in.

Her swimsuit was a one-piece from what I could see. She still had on a very short pair of cutoff jeans—so short, the pockets hung below the frayed hem in front. I couldn’t wait to sneak a peek at her ass in those tiny things. By the way they were riding up front, there had to be ass cheek visible around back.

Privately, I congratulated myself for working out that morning, knowing that my own body looked damn good from hitting the weights so hard. I wasn’t a bulky guy by any stretch of the imagination, but I was toned and defined and had plenty of confidence to be one of the shirtless guys standing there.

When our eyes locked, a slow smile spread across her glossy lips. She gave me a quick perusal and stuck her hand out like we were meeting for the first time. I have no idea what possessed me, but I tugged her closer and pecked her left cheek and then her right for the other dude to see.

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