We watched sports, we talked, and we laughed. We ended up ordering another bucket because he claimed to still be starving, which makes sense because he’s the size of a small vehicle.
We’re in the truck now, headed back to the arena where my car is still parked. There’s a glowing warmth within me that I’m trying to ignore, but it feels as though it’s consuming me.
He pulls his massive truck up beside my car, tears out of his door and around to mine to help me out. “You know I can do that myself, right?”
He nods, still smiling. “Can andshould have toare very different things.”
“Do you ever not smile?” bursts passed my lips, shocking even me.
The uplift of his lips falls for a second before he regains control. “Sometimes. But I just like to smile. Smiling’s my favorite.” He exaggerates his words with a smile so big it looks painful, making me throw my head back and laugh.
His body stills. His expression turning serious, his eyes burning withhunger. My body answers the look on his face,my core betraying me by begging for his touch, and my pulse pounding.
He inhales dramatically and leans me against the side of his truck, his nose running along the length of my neck. I don’t mean to gasp but I can’t explain what’s happening to me.
His eyes meet mine once more, an unasked question brewing in his black irises. I don’t give myself a second to debate—or talk myself out of it.
Using both hands, I fist his shirt and yank his body against mine, slamming our lips together.Oh my god.His hands are everywhere. Not feeling me up like a drunken frat guy in a bar though. It’s like he’s outlining and memorizing the shape of me.
A trail of tingling goosebumps follow his touch as our mouths fight for dominance. When his hand sneaks just under the hem of my T-shirt and his skin is touching mine, I moan into his mouth feeling like I could come just from kissing him while he touches me.
Suddenly, Kodi stills and . . . growls? I search for my awareness—pulling myself out of the trance his kiss dragged me into—opening my eyes and find him glaring at someone with their phone pointed at us.
“Fuck, I’m sorry.” His pained voice wrecks me, his face turned, not looking at me, but I can see from the side of his stupidly beautiful face that he’s not smiling.
I lay my hand on his cheek and pull his face back to mine. “Why are you sorry?” I ask softly, dropping light kisses on his dimpled chin.
“You were just starting to like me, and now I’m fairly certain you’re gonna be in the news because of me. It just doesn’t seem like something you’d be happy about.”
Honestly, he’s not wrong. That would normally bother me. He is a professional football player after all—you know, neanderthals. A sound somewhere between a scoff and a laugh slips past my lips. “Are you trying to keep me hidden?” I mean to ask it teasingly, but he doesn’t hear my jest, only words.
“Of course not!”
“Hey, hey, I was kidding.”
This time I’m the one searching his eyes, obnoxiously aware that the person is still standing there watching us. I decide to do something a little crazy.
“Catch me,” I whisper a millisecond before I jump, wrapping my legs around Kodi’s tree trunk of a waist, take his face in my hands, and give them a kiss worthy of making the news.
It’s been weeks since I’ve seen Kodi, and I’m annoyed at how much I miss him. When something happens or I have news, he’s the first person I want to tell. I find myself missing his touch. His smile. Between my classes, and each of our practices and games, our schedules have been a mess.
He was right. We made the news. Headlines like: “Kodiak Northerly Taking a Liking to Hockey?” “Who Is Northerly’s Mystery Woman?” and “Has Football Lost Another Bachelor?” ran rampant for a solid week before they gave up hounding us.
I thought it would bother me to see my face alongside his plastered all over social media, stealing our private moment, but a bigger part of me saved the pictures and can’t stop staring at the way his hands are holding me, the way we look together. It’s almost enough to make you believe in the cinematic love stories they sell us.
Since we haven’t been able to spend any time together, we’ve been video calling and texting nonstop. Every free moment of time we have is spent with each other virtually.
We’ve talked more about our families, but not entirely. I complained about the holidays, which he let me vent about. He thinks he can change my mind. Really there’s not much we haven’t talked about, but we also somehow never run out of things to discuss. I even told him all about my childhood of solitude due to my parents being so incredibly absorbed in their work that they seemed to live their own lives apart from mine.
I gave the girls on the team one day to heckle me and ask their questions, then it was time to get over it and get to work. We’ve got a big game tonight and Kodi is coming.
I’ve never had someone I care about at one of my games.I wonder if that goes both ways.I may have to try to make it to a football game here soon. I have been watching them, and I can’t deny he’s good out there. He’s an offensive lineman and no one gets through him, ever.
Morning practice is ending now, and it’s time for my afternoon pregame nap so I can crush it on the ice tonight for my—
Is Kodi my boyfriend?
At the absolute least, he’s easily become my best friend.
