Then she is gone and am alone in the darkness. It takes me a moment to gather myself after those kisses. After feeling in her in my arms again, after touching her silky skin and feeling the dampness of her panties. It takes me a minute to formulate what I need to do next.
We joked about me stalking her, but that is just what I intend to do. I am going to find track her down no matter what it takes—and Iwillconvince her what we found on the top of the world together is worth grabbing a hold of.
Chapter Five
Debi
Being small town famous has perks—it also has drawbacks.
Everyone knows who I am in Pine Grove. With less than five thousand people, it often feels as if everyone knows everyone else. That means we know all the gossip about each other. With it being a smaller town, any piece of news seems salacious until it makes the rounds and is forgotten.
A few years go the hot news was one of the cheerleaders getting married to her best friend’s dad. It was forgotten fast before she divorced him and married his son. It is actually the sweetest story ever but when it made the rounds, it was blown wildly out of proportion.
When our band started making a mark, we were town fodder for a few months. I was labeled a wild rebel who had stolen the boys in the band from their good families. It could not be further from the truth—though I do have wild rebel tendencies—but none of us cared we were being gossiped about.
Right now, the hot gossip features me once again—and the sweet schoolteacher trying to lock me down.
“This is the cutest thing ever,” Jenna gushes as she sees Devin watching us from across the street.
It is cute, I won’t disagree. For the past few days, that beautiful boy has followed me all over town. I told him I kind of enjoyed the idea of him stalking me and I was not lying. When he showed up at the mall, I was thrilled to see him, but I bailed on him again. That night I saw him at a bar we had a show at, and it made my performance that much better.
After the show, he cornered me in a dark hallway, and we made out like drunk teenagers after prom. It was so hot I almost let him take me home with him. I am still terrified of him and what he makes me feel, so I walked away again. Every day he shows up where I am, and I love seeing him sitting there watching me with that hungry look in his pretty eyes.
Crossing the street towards him after telling Jenna to go to her birthing class without me, I am on edge. Each time I see him, I grow a little weaker. I know soon my fear will be no match for what he makes me feel. Grinning as he sees me coming, he stands from his perch on the bench, reaching for me.
“Morning rockstar,” he hums, pulling me to his chest as he bends his head to brush his lips over mine. I sigh against his mouth before the kiss becomes something more, his tongue tracing my lips, my little moan eaten up by his hungry kiss.
“Morning handsome,” I husk once I can breathe again, my fingers tangling in his golden hair as he holds me tight. God, he is so cute, and I love his preppy look. Hell, no one else could pull off a sweater vest and chinos the way this man can. He looks delicious in everything, he smells so good, and I adore his crooked smile and perfect lips.
“Could I take you two to lunch? I figure I ought to try impressing the best friend if I want a real shot with you,” he teases me before kissing me again, his hands sliding beneath my tank top.
Feeling his hands on his skin makes my brain malfunction. He is so sweet and shy until he touches me. Then he becomes hungry, his kiss turns demanding, his words grow filthy, and it turns me on until I am aching with it. How can I fight this man when he gives me no reason to want to fight?
“I mean you have impressedmeso shewouldbe the next step. Why do you want a shot with me, handsome? We don’t make sense, do we?”
And there it is, the thing that has kept me running from him. We do not make sense. I think we’re both aware of that. I am wild and reckless. He is cool and collected, he makes good choices, and has his life figured out. I am a mess still trying to figure myself out.
Part of me hopes it doesn’t matter to him that we don’t make sense. When I am with him, when we steal these moments together, everything makes sense for the first time. That empty ache inside of me is overflowing when he holds me or tells me how much he wants me, or when he kisses me until we’re both breathless.
“Few things in life do make sense, baby,” he responds, brushing his mouth over mine again. “This does not have to make sense for it to work. I am here all summer, Debi. Let me have you this summer. We can figure it out as we go. Let me take you out, let me spend every minute you will let me have with you. That makes sense to me, baby.”
“Have you really been telling anyone who will listen that you’re searching for Debi the rockstar?” I ask with a smile before I answer.
“Yes, I have. Because I am searching for you every single day. The whole town is near my side, if I can’t find you, they tell me where to look. They all love a good romance it seems. Can’t let Pine Grove down, baby.”
Laughing as I hook my arms around his broad shoulders, I nod. He is not wrong about that. Everywhere I go, they ask about him. About the handsome man looking for me at the mall, at the arcade, he even went to a new dance club and not only asked about me but gave them some of our records that he had gotten his hands on.
“No, I guess I can’t let the whole town down, can I?”
“Give me the summer,” he sobers, his pretty eyes serious as they hold mine. “If I get this right, we might not want it to end once summer does.”
Inside my chest, my heart thuds to a stop before taking off at a risky pace. That is what I am afraid of. Because he is not like anyone I have met before, nothing like any of the boys I wasted time hooking up with before. He does have his life figured out and it scares me that he might see a place for me in that life.
How can he see me in his life when I can’t see him in mine?
Oh, Icansee him in my life, and I love what I see. It’s just that I am not sure it would be fair to him. It might help me grow up a little and find the path I keep straying from. What I am afraid of is wrecking his life. His plans. Shaking up the life he decided on long before we met at that fair.
“Let’s start with summer, handsome,” I tell him, letting him kiss me again as he backs up down an alley.
