Page 71 of Hound Dog
“Ugh,gross!”
Haylee rolled her eyes and tossed me a bottle of hand sanitizer from her backpack. “Quit whining. It’s just a little sneeze juice.”
My face twisted. “Sneeze juice? That makes it evenworse.”
I ignored her laughing and sanitized my hands just in time for Nick to bring out our beers and the mozzarella sticks, complete with ranch dressing.
If the snot attack from Tyson wasn’t enough to make my stomach roil, then watching her dip that mozzarella stick into ranchwas.
“Ugh,” I said.
“What? It’s not like I’m putting pickles in ice cream. Lots of people eat ranch with mozzarella sticks.”
“Yeah, sociopaths.”
This time, when she dipped the half-eaten stick, she glared at me and slowly traced the dripping ranch over her lips with an exaggerated moan.
“How do you sleep at night?” I teased.
“Naked with a weighted blanket,” she blurted out.
Visions of Haylee naked and asleep rushed into my thoughts, and thank God I was sitting with my lower half hidden under the table because I felt my pants get tight around the zipper at the thought of Haylee curled up naked with a soft blanket draped over her body.
Just as quickly, her cheeks flushed coral and she wiped her lips with the napkin. “Sorry,” she muttered. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
She was flustered.
Hell,Iwas flustered. “It’s okay,” I said. “I was giving you shit, and you were giving it right back to me. I deserved that.” I tried to laugh it off, but inside, I was sweating.
How long had it been since a girl made me sweat?
I didn’t get nervous around beautiful women. I didn’t stutter around them, not knowing what to say.Iwas the one who made girls flush and stutter. Not the other way around.
Maybe I’d met my match with Haylee Rogers.
We’d just met way too young… and now, I was too damn late.
Or was I?
Her text message popped into my head, not for the first time today.Trying not to touch myself as I stare at his Facebook photos…
“Still,” she said. “I shouldn’t make jokes like that when I have… Ben.”
Right. Ben.
Fuck Ben.
Of course, I didn't evenknowBen. But what kind of guy lets his girlfriend, or fiancé or whatever the hell they were, move to a different town for the summer without finding a way to come with her… or visit? Why wasn’t he at least here that first week helping her with Meryl?
Yeah, not everyone had flexible jobs like Haylee’s, but he could have at least helped that first weekend.
She brought the beer to her lips but lowered it without even taking a sip. “Can I ask a personal question?”
“Sounds like you already did.”
Other than a roll of her eyes, she ignored my comment and asked anyway. “Why don’t you ever talk to your dad when you call him? Why do you always hang up?”
I didn’t answer right away and bought myself an extra moment by taking a long sip from my beer. “I don’t know. I was so young when he left, I don’t remember a whole lot about my dad.”
