Page 60 of Game Changer
For whatever reason, I feel like I’m invading an intimate moment, judging from how these two stare each other down. Ethan must think the same because he steps around Mark’s body and jerks his head for the door. “Are you done for the night? I was going to walk you home.”
Butterflies erupt everywhere in my stomach. “You were?”
“Is that all right with you?”
“Yeah. I was going to ride with Tabi, but . . .”
“Please.” Tabi scoffs, ending whatever stare down she was having with Mark. “I’m three sheets to the wind. I won’t be offended if you walk home with him instead. We’ll have time to catch up on girl talk another day.” Her eyes linger on mine as if to say,We’ll have alotto talk about.
“Cool. Thanks, Tabi. I’ll see you next weekend?”
With a subtle nod from her, I follow Ethan into the chilly November air. Goose bumps pepper my skin, so I slip on the puffer jacket I brought and stay close to his side. Ethan’s hand brushes mine, tentatively seeking to see if I’ll hold it. It’s ridiculous since we’ve already slept together, but something so simple seems to hold more intimacy than him being inside of me.
I intertwine my fingers with his, loving the red that stains his cheeks in response.
“I should have had Mark drop me off at the dorm so I could grab my car,” he admits. “It’s cold out here tonight.”
I press my side fully against his and rest my head on his shoulder. “It’s okay. You’re doing a great job at being warm.” But as soon as the sentence leaves my lips, water droplets from the night sky above slowly hit my skin. I blink at the stars, cursing when the few plops become a drizzle.
“Damn,” Ethan mutters. “We can go back to Happy Endings. I’m sure Tabi and Mark haven’t left yet.”
“No, it’s fine. Annie needs her lamb or whatever. I don’t want to get in the way of that.” This damn jacket doesn’t have a hood on it, but hoods aren’t a necessity in Arizona. It hardlyeverrains.
“You hate the rain,” he says.
“I do not.”
“You do, or are you forgetting when you wailed like a child during lunch in the courtyard when there was a downpour? When was that, your sophomore year?”
I swing my head to give him an open-mouthed stare. “You saw that?”
“More like Iheardthat. It was impossible not to hear you scream.”
Ihuffand cross my arms over my chest. “Well, maybe I love it now.”
“Do you?”
I cringe when the water trails down my scalp. Although it’s not a downpour, it’s a steady trickle that has me breaking down and forgetting the front I put up. “Okay, I hate it, but in my defense, I have a thick head of hair! It takes hours to straighten it. By the time we get back to the dorm, it’ll be a frizzy, disgusting mess.”
Ethan chuckles, and I’m speechless when he strips off his jacket and passes it over to me. The rain is picking up its intensity, so Ethan pulls me under an awning on a side street to prevent me from getting drenched. The action makes my heart pound, and all I want to do is make the rom-com movies I love come to life and kiss him stupid in the middle of a rare downpour in Arizona.
“You’re going to catch a cold in this weather if you don’t wear your jacket,” I tell him. “It’s freezing, Ethan.”
“It’s a good thing I’ll have my girlfriend to nurse me back to health, then, huh?”
The sigh I give makes his brows furrow. “What?”
“Nothing.” I laugh at the absurdity of the weather and the perfect man standing before me. “You just surpass my wildest expectations. If I could have curated the ideal guy for me, you’d meet the criteria and then some.” I smile softly when he drapes his jacket over my head to cover my hair, ever the gentleman. “I used to think my standards were too high, but—”
He cuts me off before I can finish. “Your standards were never too high, Maya. You were just asking the wrong person.”
Dammit to hell. I don’t care if it’s the corniest move in existence, but I kiss him senseless beneath this awning with rain crashing down around us. He cradles the back of my head before pressing me against the brick wall of some random shop. I’m clutching his jacket over my head while trying to keep up with his lips, which leave a burning path from my mouth to my jaw and then to the column of my throat.
Ethan has embedded himself in my heart, and I’m afraid he’s staying there for good. I’ve never been in love, but if I had to take a wild guess, I imagine I am with him. It’s the only explanation for my frantic need to get his clothes off and show him how much I appreciate him. It’s the only reason I feel completely myself with him in a way I don’t with anyone else.
We’re both panting when we rip our mouths apart. Ethan stares out at the rain bordering on a monsoon before he grabs my hand with both eyebrows raised and says, “Well? Are we doing this or what?”
I nod, clutching his jacket over my head for dear life.
