With a sigh, I shift my body and get up from the couch. I turn off the TV, the tree, and make sure the front door is locked before I make my way to my bedroom.
I undress in my room and then head to the bathroom to get ready for bed. I’m in my boxers and still sporting a semi from waking up, snuggled against Brooke, and maybe I should be a little more cautious since there are females in the house, but Charlie and Brooke are at the other end of the hall, and Bo andChelsea are either sleeping or still making up for lost time. It’s pretty quiet now, so I’m guessing I’m in the clear.
When I get back to my room, my mind is awake, so I’ll need to do some reading or something to get back to sleep. Especially because thoughts of Brooke’s curvy body against mine are making it really hard to clear my head.
I slide on my glasses and grab a book from my bag—a novel I’m supposed to be reading for my English class—then pull out my phone and open the audiobook app. I hit play and flip to the page where I left off.
When you struggled to read growing up—when the lines zigzagged and your eyes couldn’t quite keep their place—you learned to use whatever tools you could.
I follow along as the voice pours into my ears, eyes tracking the page.
It should be enough to distract me.
It isn’t.
My mind keeps drifting back to Brooke.
To how a woman who isn’t mine—won’t ever be mine, and honestly shouldn’t be—has somehow taken over every spare corner of my thoughts. I can’t remember the last time someone got under my skin like this.
Frustrated, I toss the book onto the floor and switch my phone to music instead. I let the songs carry me under—music about brown-eyed girls who smell like cupcakes, with lips I’d give anything to kiss.
Yeah …
It’s good to dream.
CHAPTER
TWO
SILAS
It’s finals week,so the campus has been pretty quiet, and I just finished one for my Biomaterials class. It was fucking hard, but as a biomedical engineering major, it’s a requirement. Sure, I hope to be drafted, but I also want to have a life after football.
When my dad had a heart attack while I was in high school, the pacemakers they tried wouldn’t work, and it took a while to get one to fit and work properly. So, through that process, I became interested in biomedical engineering. I want to help build better instruments that are more universal and also cost-effective. The whole process and all the medical bills nearly wiped out my family’s farm.
I’m still dwelling on the last answer on my exam when I walk into the house and smell something sweet. I set my backpack down, and I can hear Charlie and Brooke talking in the kitchen. They’re giggling about something that I can’t make out.
It’s pretty common to come home to them baking or cooking for the house. We still rotate weekly for family dinner, and even though Brooke doesn’t live here, she added her name to thecalendar at the beginning of the school year. She’s just as good of a cook as Charlie is, but her desserts, specifically her cupcakes, are my favorite.
“How are my favorite girls doing?”
They’re standing next to each other, so I walk over and step between them and wrap an arm around them both. Brooke has her long brown hair in a ponytail, falling down her back. She’s wearing a Walker T-shirt that is way too big for her—hanging off a shoulder, exposing a bra strap—and some loose gray sweatpants. It’s a typical college-girl look, but somehow, she makes it sexy.
“Favorite girls, huh?” Charlie looks up at me with a smirk.
“Absolutely.” I drop my arm from Charlie’s shoulders, but leave the other draped around Brooke. “The only ones that count. Arbor and Lily are cool too, I suppose.”
“Why don’t you make yourself useful and help make a salad? I’m finishing up the pork tenderloin, and Brooke needs to frost her cupcakes.” Charlie elbows me in the stomach, which doesn’t hurt, but I place a hand on my abdomen, acting like it did.
“Okay, I gotchu.” I reluctantly let go of Brooke, but I don’t miss her smile when I glance down at her. “What do you need me to add to it? The usual?”
I’ll admit, I wasn’t much of a cook—or any help really—in the kitchen when I first moved in, but I’ve learned a lot from my roommates, and I’ll go as far as to say I’m pretty decent now. I can work my way around a kitchen.
“Yeah, just carrots, cucumbers, and maybe some red pepper if we have any.” Charlie takes a knife out of the butcher block and hands it to me.
“You got it, tiny terror.”
I move to the refrigerator and start taking out all the vegetables I need, lay them on the cutting board, and get to work. As I cut, I keep glancing over at Brooke as she ices the cupcakes she made. These ones are pink, and when she licks her thumb to geta smidgen of frosting off, I inwardly groan at how cute but sexy she looks doing it.
