Definitely, Maybe in Love

things up.”

“You think of everything.”

He leaned toward me, a pouncing mountain lion look in his eyes. It was all I could do to hold up one finger to stop him. Over his shoulder, my eyes followed her. I could count the seconds in my head, the number of steps it would take until both Mel and Tyler were inside the store. My calculations gave us six seconds more.

Henry was on me in three.

What took him so long?

Chapter 25

“Mel said she’d be downstairs any second.”

“Yeah, right.” Tyler chuckled. We both knew it would be more like hours.

After returning from the kitchen, he sat on the couch and grabbed a Sports Illustrated, while I was cross-legged on the floor at the coffee table, attempting to skim a chapter in my Women of the Twentieth Century textbook.

Grueling.

I’d planned on napping on our two-hour drive back to Vancouver, but Henry’s little pit stop made that entirely impossible…

“I missed you,” he’d said the second Mel and Tyler were inside the mini-mart. A bit too preoccupied with his neck to notice, not until my feet hit the ground did I realize that Henry had actually picked me up in his arms, carried me out of the car and around to the back of the gas station.

We’d used every second of those five minutes: Henry backing me up and pinning my hands against the stucco building. Henry holding me still then running his mouth up and down my neck until my knees gave way. Henry intertwining his fingers with mine. Despite all the kissing that had gone on the night before, the simple, certain gesture of repositioning his grip so he could weave his fingers between mine felt hugely intimate.

“Time’s up,” he’d said into my hair, releasing me. But I’d made the scandalous decision to give us an extra ten seconds, by first pressing my palms against his chest, feeling his strong, pounding heart, then slowly sliding my arms around him. I lifted up on my toes, hooked my chin over his shoulder, then clasped my hands behind his back, sealing us together.

No lips, no tongues. We were hugging.

“Ahh, this is…very…” He exhaled a little moan when I’d squeezed tighter, making our bodies a single line. “Springer.” His breath hitched. “Now you’re making me purr—”

“Are we a tad sleepy this evening?”

My eyes popped open, suddenly realizing where my mind had been. Tyler was still across from me on the couch. I could practically hear the smirk in his voice.

“Maybe you and old Henry shouldn’t have stayed up all night, hmmm?”

“This is a boring subject,” I offered, tapping a yellow highlighter to my open textbook.

None of us would be getting much rest tonight either, because once Mel hauled her fashionable behind downstairs and Henry showed up, the four of us were heading to Portland to see a concert.

After reading the same sentence three times, I allowed my head to drop down on my book, resting on one cheek. If I had thirty seconds of quiet, I knew I would be out like a light.

“Sooo…” Tyler broke the silence again. I was amazed by how that single word was laced with so much insinuation. It was a strain to lift my head, but I managed. His big blue eyes twinkled, regarding me just as Henry had this morning. I wondered when it was that I’d become completely transparent.

“You and Henry, eh?”

My spine elongated indignantly. It was a natural reflex. “Me and Henry, what?”

“Hey now, I’m just shooting the breeze while we wait,” he defended. “I don’t like silence. But…you know what I meant.” He made slobbery kissing sounds.

I rolled my eyes. “Nothing happened between us.” But it was a ridiculous, useless attempt. If he was anything like his cousin, Tyler would see right through me.

I stared at the front door, fingers thumping impatiently under the table. I couldn’t wait to see him, couldn’t wait to hear the Jeep roaring up the driveway. If not for the overly interested eyes of Mel and Tyler, I imagined myself busting out the door the second I heard the grinding of gravel, maybe running and jumping into his arms like I’d seen in a chick flick.

Huh. I smiled to myself. And just like that, I’ve become a romantic. I blame Bruno Mars.

It felt much longer than five hours since Henry had left us at Mel’s to drive back to wherever he was staying this week. Had he mentioned a grandfather? And now, per his latest text, he was currently en route to the house. En route to me.

Butterflies.

I stared vacantly down at my textbook, trying to keep any kind of smile off my face, trying to not let every giddy, girly emotion show. When I looked up at Tyler, making sure my blank expression was firmly in place first, his smarmy grin had disappeared.

“Oh, I thought for sure.” He ran his fingers up the back of his baby blond hair. “Mel did tell me you guys were just talking last night, but I assumed…”

I had to bite my lip to keep from hooting out loud. Tyler actually bought that load?

“Just catching up. Like I said.” I confirmed my earlier fib. “Henry and I lived across the street from each other at Stanford, remember? And we worked on a paper together.”

Tyler nodded, fully convinced. “That’s cool,” he said. “For you, at least.”

“What do you mean?”

“You seem like a nice girl, and you’re Mel’s best friend.”

“So?”

He took a long swig of soda, like he was preparing to tell a lengthy story. “I didn’t think Henry hooked up with chicks, all casual like that.” He wiped his mouth with the back of a hand. “Well, he usually doesn’t.”

“Usually?”

He set down the soda can and linked his fingers between his knees. “Okay, so there was this one time, the beginning of last summer, right? Just after he graduated from Duke, Henry was about to go off to Sweden or wherever with his family.” He looked over his shoulder then back at me. “He called it filling his canteen. Ha-ha! I guess he figured he’d be away from American women for a while. So, anyway”— he leaned forward, his elbows on his knees—“right before he left, he hooked up for the weekend, just because he knew he wouldn’t be getting any all summer.” Tyler sat back and crossed his legs.

“Hooked up,” I repeated, not quite certain what he meant. I knew the term, of course, but I also knew its ambiguous definition. I waited for further explanation, also wondering if Tyler’s face was about to break into that stupid grin and he’d say he was yanking my chain.

But he went on. No stupid grin.

“Yeah,” he said, smiling approvingly. “Ya know, tapped that thing.”

“Oh,” I said, perfectly understanding him now. I leaned an elbow on the coffee table, feeling envious and a little jealous of some unknown girl, just because she had been with Henry first. I looked down and couldn’t help smiling, confident in the knowledge that our time would come soon enough. And I could wait.

“I think she was the sister of one of his buddies at Duke,” Tyler continued, pulling me from my daydream. “Oh, yeah!” He smacked his own forehead. “She was his roommate’s sister. Guess she was visiting her brother back east, and Henry took the easy in.”

Those happy little butterflies in my stomach flew up my throat and out my open mouth.

“It’s kind of a mess now for him,” Tyler added, lowering his voice like we were sharing a secret. “This chick won’t leave him alone. She’s at Stanford, too, I guess. You might know her.”

The yellow highlighter I’d been gripping slipped from my hand and rolled under the coffee table. “It’s a big