Page 20 of Levi

She forgets—I know where she’s ticklish.

Walking up the stairs to my front door, I hear music coming from inside and peek through the front window. I can’t help but smile at what I see. Quinn is standing in my living room, listening to music and using a remote as a microphone. Honestly, it’s cute as fuck. I can only assume she just finished working out because she’s in a sports bra and spandex shorts.

It’s hard not to notice how natural this feels…how her being in my home, dancing around and putting on a one-man show feels right. And I’m already starting to forget why we weren’t going to hook up while this arrangement was going on in the first place.

I can’t get attached to her again. The one time I did…well that was around the time Nana started to struggle, and feeling like I was losing them both at the same time nearly destroyed me. I’ll never forget the cold glare in Ally’s eyes when she looked at me and broke my heart. “Quinn’s not interested; in fact, she’s out on a date with Kyle right now.”

My heart shattered, and I dropped the bouquet of flowers I was holding and turned around and walked away. It just hurt knowing that she never cared about me the way I thought she did.

But that is all in the past. We’re older, wiser…okay, maybe just older, but I’m wise enough to know that I need to protect myself.

I need to protect my heart so that it doesn’t get trampled on again.

It’s why I don’t date. I haven’t dated anyone since I split up with Ally, and even that didn’t feel like a full-blown relationship, even though we were engaged. It felt more like an arrangement, like I was trapped in some sort of horror show, forced to put on an act. It was all just pretense, and when we were at home and away from the eyes of everyone else, we were strangers.

Does it suck that she cheated on me instead of just breaking up with me? Fuck, yeah. But honestly, it hurt my pride more than anything, not because I was sad about losing Ally. I mean, I cared about her; I’m not a complete fucking dick. I just wasn’t in love with her.

“What are you looking at?” Martin, my neighbor across the street, shouts from his yard. He’s a really good guy, albeit a little nosy. I swear to God, that man knows about every single thing that goes on in this neighborhood.

Shaking my head, I laugh as I turn to him. “Just thinking about some ideas I have for the place,” I fib.

He gives me a weird expression, like he doesn’t quite believe me. I’m not sure why, but I don’t want to tell him about Quinn. I want to keep this little façade we have going on to ourselves, at least as much as possible. There’s no way I can keep this from the team, especially since the whole point of this is to get Coach to leave us both alone.

“But…you’re just staring? Did you get hit in the head at practice today, boy?” he shouts louder, like he’s worried I’m injured or hard of hearing. No, Martin, that’s you, my friend.

“Yeah, I’m heading in now. I just had to picture some things in my mind.”

Like what it would look like when I bend her over that couch and slam my dick inside her tight, wet cunt until she screams my name loud enough that my neighbors can hear her from here.

“Alright…you have a good night then,” he says before waving and turning back to walk to his mailbox.

Chuckling at his awkwardness, I turn and open my front door and get to experience Quinn belting out a Christina Aguilera song, doing the “Genie in a Bottle” dance…not that I even know what that is…

Fuck, she is hot.

“Working on your backup career?” I say as she finishes her performance. She jumps about thirty-five feet into the air and screams, throwing the remote directly at my face. “What the fuck, Quinn?” I shout, grabbing my eye that just got rocked.

“Don’t ‘what the fuck’ me, Levi. What the fuck are you doing?” she shouts right back at me.

“Me? Ma’am, I was just watching you put on your performance in my living room. Is that a crime now?” I say as I rub my eye.

“Shit. Did I hurt you? I’m sorry. I sort of freaked out and just threw whatever I had, and unfortunately, it was the remote.”

“Don’t you mean the microphone?” I deadpan, and she slaps my arm before looking at my eye. Her fingers graze over the tender skin, spreading warmth wherever she touches.

“I’m going to get you ice. Go sit down on the couch.”

Ignoring her, I stand there and watch as she moves to the freezer and pulls out an ice pack before grabbing my hand and dragging me to the living room.

“Sit,” she demands before sitting on the couch next to me, immediately pressing the ice on my eye while simultaneously trying to check the bump…with the ice covering it. It doesn’t make sense, but it’s cute that she’s concerned.

“What are you doing?” I grumble as I lean back on the couch.

“Checking your eye out. My uncle will have my ass if I hurt one of his stars.”

“Your uncle couldn’t give a rat’s ass if I’m injured or not,” I tell her before opening my eyes just a bit. Her face is now even closer to mine as she inspects me like I was just in a serious accident, not just getting pegged in the face with the remote. “You think I’m a star?”

“God, you’re so cocky,” Quinn says before scooting up on the couch, leaving me to hold the ice.

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