“Oh, it’ll fit.” Blue winks at me. “I mean, it’s big, but you handle it just fine.”
“Your mouth is filthy,” I scold, smacking him in his rock-hard chest.
“What are you going to do about it?” he asks, baiting me.
I could tease him back or swat at the brick wall that is his chest. I could go back on my promise to let him take me on a date. I could take my last remaining chocolate covered strawberry and plop it in his mouth just to shut him up.
Instead, I lean forward and press my lips to his. He’s stunned for a moment, but then he cups the back of my head, deepening the kiss. He’s drinking me in, consuming me, right here in the middle of campus, and I don’t mind at all.
Until the clapping starts.
Followed by the whistling.
The wolf howl is what has me pulling back and breaking the kiss. And when I do, I see half the hockey team staring at us like we’re exotic animals at the zoo.
“You crazy kids are too cute,” Ollie says, and I swear he wipes a tear from his eye.
“How long has this been going on?” Dime asks, pointing his finger back and forth between Blue and me.
“Officially?” Blue clarifies. “About a minute.”
“Seriously?” Dimes grumbles, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out his wallet. He counts out a few bills and hands them over to Ollie.
“How about unofficially?” JT asks.
“A little over a month,” I answer honestly, since there’s no point in pretending now. JT and Mickey high-five each other while the rest of the guys hand money over to Ollie.
“Hold up,” Blue says. “You bet on us getting together? How was that a good idea? Until recently, all we did was bitch at each other.”
“Oh, hell no,” Ollie scoffs. “Nobody bet onifyou two would get together. That was a given. We bet on the when. A couple of the guys figured it happened that first weekend that everybody moved in way back in August, and a couple others had you twodown for a holiday romance, but that’s mostly because you gave her a reindeer vibrator for Christmas.”
We don’t even bother correcting him because we’re both too stunned. “You knew?” I ask, still unable to process the information even though it’s right in front of my face.
“You two aren’t nearly as subtle as you think you are,” Leo says.
“Yeah, and you’re not as quiet, either,” Deano adds.
“Besides,” Ollie says, wedging himself between us and taking a seat on the bench. “Love is in the air at the hockey house. And you can blame me because I’m a natural born matchmaker. It’s a gift. I have a knack for pairing people up.”
Blue laughs. “You can’t take credit for this one, Ollie.”
“Of course, I can,” our captain corrects him. “I take credit for lots of things I had nothing to do with.”
25
Blue
Ishouldn’t be nervous. Liza and I hang out all the time. We’ve shared meals and watched movies dozens of times, so tonight is no different.
It’s a little different.
Actually, it’s a lot different because this is our first real date as a couple, and I want to make sure I get every detail right.
“You made reservations, right?” Dutton asks. He and Bridgette are lounging on the sofa outside our bedrooms, making me feel like a teenager going to my first dance. I swear if they want to take pictures, I’ll scream. Okay, that’s a lie. I’ll pose for pictures, but I’ll be making weird faces and obscene gestures in all of them.
“Yep, dinner is at seven o’clock, which means I need to get?—”
“And you bought the movie tickets, too?” he prompts.
