Page 17 of Big Nick Energy

With his eyes closed, his white teeth were almost blinding. The streetlight cast a soft glow into the car and his face was highlighted in both shadow and light. It was amazing how good he still looked even though half of his face was muted by the night.

His eyes danced when they met mine again. “I was asking you real questions because the person you described didn’t seem to line up with the person I was looking at.”

Lifting my eyebrows, I leaned toward him. “Same! The man I’m looking at right now doesn’t seem to have an aversion to fun”—I pointed at the house we were about to go into— “or one-on-one interactions”—I gestured between the two of us— “so let me find outyouare the shy, wallflower.”

He chuckled. “Don’t do me like that.”

“I’m just trying to figure out who Nick Williams is,” I mused comically. “From our conversation, I’m gathering that you’re a man who is passionate about work and community but doesn’t ever go out except for Homecoming weekend. No dates, no hangouts, no friendly meetups, just going to work and planning to move.”

“Yooooooo!” He was hunched over toward the door as he laughed. He covered his face with his hand as he collected himself. “It’s not like that.”

I sat back in my seat and grinned. “So tell me what it’s like.”

He held my gaze for a moment and let the humor seep out of the car. “I got out of a relationship last year and restructured my priorities. I knew I wanted to move back to the east coast, so I put things in place to make that happen. Going out wasn’t high on the list because of my personal goals.”

Nodding, I stared into his brown eyes. “And this weekend would be your first night back out?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

I turned the car off and pulled the key out of the ignition. “So, you came to homecoming brand new?”

He smirked. “Something like that.”

I picked up my phone. “Then we should document this.”

Leaning toward him, I hit the camera button and then flipped it, so the front camera flooded my screen with our image. Realizing what I was doing, he put his arm around my shoulders and moved closer. As soon as we were both settled in the shot, I snapped the picture.

I was smiling brightly, and he had a sexy little smirk.

“Okay let’s do it again because you look cool and I’m smiling like I’m in a toothpaste commercial,” I told him.

He started laughing and I snapped another photo catching us both with huge smiles on our faces. It was unposed, slightly chaotic, but the immense joy in the photo made it beautiful.

“Okay one more time.”

The two of us smiled and as soon as the picture was done, we cracked up again. I flipped through the three pictures, nodding my approval. “You like?”

“I do.”

Pleased with myself, I put my phone in my bag. “My friends always joke about me taking pictures before we do stuff but then they always want them later on.”

“I never take pictures.”

“You should,” I told him. “It’s important to commemorate the moments we have and cement them in time. Tomorrow’s not promised.”

“You’re not wrong.”

We stared at each other, sharing a moment before a loud noise grabbed our attention. We both swung our heads in the direction of the house and saw someone burst out the front door. Two people were chasing him and once he tripped, he was caught and tackled. The loud hooting and hollering that followed made it clear that the scuffle wasn’t serious or violent.

“This is the shit I was talking about,” Nick said, pointing at the people in a pile on the front lawn. “You sure you want to do this?”

I gave him a look. “Ordinarily I’d drive the fuck off.” I paused, jutting my thumb toward the kerfuffle on the lawn. “But I’m very interested in seeing brand new Nick Williams in his first weekend out.”

He grinned. “Then let’s do this.”

Climbing out the car, we walked past the commotion and entered the house. The music was loud, but not loud enough that we couldn’t hear each other speak. There were plenty of people around, but not so many that the place felt overcrowded and sweaty. There were many people I recognized but more people that I didn’t. There were so many rooms on the way to the kitchen and as we passed through each, Nick introduced me to his frat brothers. In turn, we were introduced to whoever they were with.

It was sexy watching him navigate a crowd firsthand. I’d seen it from afar, but it was my first time experiencing it with him.

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