The Valley campus is truly beautiful. When we dropped Adam off before his freshman year and I got a look at the campus for the first time, I knew that it’s where I wanted to go to college too. The buildings are mostly old and historic looking, green grass makes it feel a little less like the desert, and there’s a huge fountain in the middle of campus.
“Ginny,” Adam calls out, catching me by surprise while I’m lost people watching.
“Hey.” I turn to see him and his friend and teammate Rhett with him.
“You remember Rauthruss?” Adam asks and runs a hand through his still-damp hair. Even wet it looks better than mine.
Rhett grins and steps forward with his hands shoved in his pockets. “Hey, Ginny. Good to see you again. Welcome to Valley.”
Rhett Rauthruss is a giant man-boy. He’s tall and built. His legs are like tree trunks. Seriously, his thighs could crush my head. But he’s got this baby face and pouty mouth that keeps him from looking too intimidating. He’s also got a really great Minnesota accent that I absolutely love.
He and Adam have been teammates and roommates since their freshmen year, so I’ve met him a few times over the years and he came home with Adam once last semester for a weekend.
“Hey, Rhett, good to see you too.”
He grins a little shyly.
“Are we ready?” Adam asks. “I’m starving.”
My dorm doesn’t have its own dining hall, so we cross the street to Freddy Dorm to eat. I follow Adam and Rhett inside, and we fall into the long line of people entering the dining hall, scanning their student ID cards as they go.
The smell of burned toast hangs in the air as we shuffle inside the busy dining room. Rhett heads off at a near jog for food, but Adam hangs back with me. “Grab food and then meet us at the big table in the right corner. You can’t miss us.”
With that, he rushes off too.
I do a lap while I check out the food options. Five or six different stations are set up with varying breakfast foods ranging from yogurt to omelets and everything in between.
I decide on waffles, get at the end of the line, and pick up a tray. The guy in front of me drums his fingers on the back of his tray impatiently. His fingers are long and strong-looking… somehow just really attractive. I let my gaze move up to his forearms and appreciate them in the same way. Tan and toned. The gray T-shirt he’s wearing hugs his back and the short sleeves are snug against his biceps. Muscular but not too beefy.
When it’s finally his turn, he sets the tray down and grabs a plate. With his profile to me, I take in his straight nose and sharp cheekbones. Dark, messy hair that I have the ridiculous urge to run my fingers through, sticks up on his head.
I think maybe I spent too many days in my dorm room crying over Bryan. I’m flat out gawking at this point, but it’s a little hard not to. This guy is attractive without even getting a front view. He has this whole look about him that feels like he didn’t bother glancing in the mirror this morning. Actually now that I think about it, it’s a little frustrating that I spent twenty minutes taming my hair while he rolled out of bed and managed to look like that.
Damn. Welcome to Valley, Ginny.
He proceeds to fill his plate with four waffles. These aren’t the size of the small, frozen waffles that you pop in the toaster, they are huge, bigger than my head waffles. He grabs a second plate and fills that one with bacon and eggs farther down the line. He glances between his plates and the food still left on the warmers ahead like he might not be finished.
I chuckle and he glances back at me. My breath hitches when his blue eyes meet mine. Not blue, a thousand shades of blue. He gives me a sheepish smile.
“Can you hand me another plate?” His deep voice washes over me, vibrating my insides. He’s a lot to take in, but I do, not able to stop myself. His hair isn’t only dark brown, it has hints of lighter strands too. It’s like no part of him could decide on being one thing and instead he’s made up of varying shades and depths.
He has an athletic build, tall but not towering over me like Bryan did. My ex was six foot four, which made him a great height to see over a mass of bodies on the football field, but not so great for kissing without standing on my tiptoes. I’m standing here wondering if I could kiss this guy flat-footed.
Aaand he asked me a question.
“Are you serious?”
He doesn’t bat an eye, so I grab another plate and hand it to him.
“Thanks.”
I fill my plate with one waffle like a reasonable human and continue to scoot down the line behind him. He’s added four pieces of toast and a handful of grape jelly packets to the third plate, and he’s still eyeing the food ahead of us.
“Are you feeding a family of bears?”
One side of his mouth pulls up. “Just one very hungry dude.”
We reach the end of the line and he slows like he’s waiting for me. He eyes my tray. “Barely four hundred calories on that plate. How are you going to make it to lunch?”
“Somehow I think I’ll manage.”
We start walking, both in the same direction.
“Are you following me?” I ask when we’ve walked shoulder to shoulder for three steps.
“No. I think you’re following me.” We reach the table where Adam and Rhett are seated with a group of guys.
“Yo, Heath!” one of the guys calls to
