“I still can’t believe you’re married,” Bex says, slurring and shakes her head, sending her unruly brown curls into her face. “The only thing I’ve ever been in love with is chocolate and snakes,” She picks the label off her fifth wine cooler. “I’m going to be single forever.”
I’ll be the first to admit I know nothing about girl-talk but I don’t think falling in love with reptiles is usually part of it. “So? What’s wrong with being single?”
“Absolutely nothing.” Rowan sips on her beer. “You don’t need a man to make you happy.”
Bex pushes up her thick glasses, the lenses smudged with fingerprints. “This coming from the married girl and the practically married girl…” She sniffs and rubs her nose. “I did go on a date last semester with a guy from my zoology class. He loved snakes. But when we started making out…” Her face twists in disgust. “He talked dirty in snake language.”
I look at Rowan who seems just as confused as I am, but she’s too polite to ask so I do it for the both of us. “Snake language?”
“Yeah, you know, drawing out his sssssss’sss.” How she said that with a straight face, I do not know. “‘You’re sssssoooo ssssssexy’ and ‘I want to ssssssssssssuck your—’”
“Okay,” Rowan says. “We get the idea.”
“I don’t get the idea.” I swallow back my burst of laughter. “Tell me more.”
Rowan elbows my side and I bite my lips to keep from laughing.
“It’s hopeless.” She drops her head back dramatically. “He was so perfect until then.”
“Why don’t you just tell him that you don’t like it when he…” I clear the laughter from my throat. “Talks to you in snake.”
She lolls her head to the side, eyeing me through crooked glasses. “You don’t think he’d get offended and hate me?”
I shrug. “What do you have to lose? You like him, right?”
“Maybe we could introduce you to one of Carey and Spider’s friends.” Rowan looks excited about being Bex’s matchmaker.
“No.” Bex shakes her head so hard she nearly loses her glasses. She smudges them up to get them back on her face. “I hate jocks. They’re arrogant, and pretty, and I can’t get naked with a man who has a better body than me.”
“You have a beautiful body,” Rowan says.
Not that anyone could make out her form beneath her baggy clothes. She does have big boobs, that much is obvious.
There’s a knock on the door.
“Come in!”
Theodore walks in looking gorgeous as ever, the colorful tattoos on his arms and neck standing in stark contrast to his black clothes. “You ladies coming down?” His devilish green eyes simmer on me. “It’s almost midnight.”
“Yes.” Rowan and I say in unison.
Bex groans, “No.”
He holds a hand out to me. “Come on, Kitten.”
“Kitten.” Bex sticks her tongue out and blows a raspberry sending spit particles into the air. “You guys are disgustingly cute.”
He pulls me to my feet then reaches for Bex. “Come on. Let’s get you some water.”
“I can stand on my own, jock.” She folds forward to all fours and struggles to get upright. “Fine.” She holds out a hand and Theodore helps her to her feet. She brushes herself off and holds her chin up high. “Thank you.”
His lips twitch. “’Welcome.”
The sounds of what has to be close to one hundred people hit us at the top of the stairs. We head down and Theodore’s towering, wide body parts through the people as we trail behind him holding hands.
“There’s my woman!” Carey says from his spot poolside. He pulls Rowan onto his lap and kisses her.
“Hey!” Kaipo smacks Carey’s bicep. “Break it up, it’s not midnight yet.”
“Seriously, Bex?” Riley, Bexley’s cousin and president of her sorority, is wrapped up in Loren’s big arms. “We’ve been here for three hours and you’ve found no one to kiss on New Years?”
Bex’s cheeks turn bright red. “No, but I found something for you to kiss.” She turns around and sticks out her butt. “My ass!”
I laugh against Theodore’s chest and feel his rumbled chuckle against my cheek.
“Jeez,” Riley says. “It’s a wonder you’re still single.” The sarcasm is thick enough for everyone in the vicinity to understand.
“I’ll kiss you!” Kaipo holds out his free arm, the other wrapped around a pretty dark haired woman. “So long as you don’t mind sharing me.” He winks.
Bex holds her hand up. “No thanks.” She shakes her head and hisses, “Jocks.”
“Ten! Nine! Eight!” The entire backyard explodes with people counting down the last ten seconds of the year.
At six, Theodore’s lips come down on mine. He kisses me long and thoroughly, his hands in my hair, his body folded over mine, and he doesn’t stop until long after Happy New Year is shouted and fireworks explode.
He finally pulls away and I gasp for air, breathless, heart pounding, I give him a soft, lingering kiss.
“I couldn’t wait until midnight.” He rests his forehead against mine, his big hands running up and down my back.
“Do we have to stay down here, or can we finish celebrating upstairs—whoa!”
He scoops me into his arms and takes me back through the house and to our room. He sets me down and presses my back to the door, caging me with his body. “A lifetime isn’t long enough for me to get my fill of you.”
“Then I guess we’ll have to last longer than a lifetime.”
His serious expression holds my gaze for a few long, silent seconds.
I kiss him and whisper, “I love you too.”
On the Sideline
BSU Football Book Three
Chapter 1
Bex
Matter is defined by anything that has mass and takes up space. Mass is the amount of matter in an object. Volume is the amount of space something occupies.
According to science, I exist. And yet, I’m completely invisible.
A sorority party might seem like a strange place to contemplate my existence, but with every party the Eta Pi house hosts I find I blend into the walls.
Is it possible
