It made no sense why that girl had me twisted in knots. I hadn’t even touched her, for fuck’s sake. But something in the way her eyes danced as if she had a delicious secret she’d only share with someone special drew me in. Her snark made me laugh. Then I thought about her hot little compact body, and I squirmed to find a more comfortable position on the cushions. Chessly had it all going for her.
The way she’d sneaked glances my way at the bonfire gave me hope. When she’d given me a second chance at our post-game party a couple of weeks ago and sat with me on the front porch, I’d sensed I was making progress with her. I ground my back teeth together as I remembered how Tory had come along both times and cockblocked the shit out of me. ’Han and Bax were right: that particular jersey chaser was bad news with a capital “B.” I’d just been slow to catch on.
Once again, instead of studying something—biology or football—I was thinking about a certain gorgeous physics major when the echoing chime of the doorbell nearly glued me to the ceiling. Scrambling to the foyer, I couldn’t imagine who was dropping by at eight o’clock on the Monday night of finals week. I hadn’t ordered any food, and none of my roommates were home. Without checking through the small window high up in the door, I jerked it open and blinked.
Did I conjure her with mythoughts?
“Chessly?”
“Hello, Finn.” She shifted from foot to foot. “Um, I didn’t mean to keep this so long.” Clearing her throat, she amended, “I didn’t mean to keep this at all. But—”
A gust of wind swirled snow across my stocking feet, and I stepped back, opening the door wider. “It’s freezing out there. Come in.”
“I can’t stay.” She glanced over her shoulder at a car waiting at the curb. “The Uber driver is adding to my fare even now.”
“I got it.” I slid my feet into a pair of Hey Dudes sitting beside the door. Then in response to the question on her face, I reached for her hand and tugged her inside.
“Finn, I can’t stay.”
“You have something for me, so the least I can do is offer you some hot chocolate.” Without giving her a chance to refute me, I bounded down the steps and out to the curb. When the driver lowered his window, I tugged my wallet from my pocket and handed him my debit card. He ran it through his machine, and I said, “Thanks, man,” before tapping the roof of his car twice and jogging back up the walk to the house.
“Did you just send my ride away?” She blinked at me with a mixture of surprise and maybe annoyance.
“He doesn’t need to wait out here while you tell me over hot chocolate what of mine you kept but didn’t mean to.” Gifting her my winningest smile I added, “Here—let me take your coat.”
Instead, she handed me the plastic grocery bag containing the mystery item she said she’d kept from me. I dropped it on the floor at my feet and waited for her to unzip her coat.
“You’re kind of pushy,” she grumbled.
“I’m trying to be a good host by offering you a chance to warm up after coming all this way from the dorms.” I let the corner of my mouth tip up and relaxed a fraction when she answered my half-grin with one of her own.
At last she pushed the hood off her head, revealing the cap of silky, honey-colored hair I was itching to run my fingers through. After she unzipped her coat, I stepped behind her and tugged it back while she pulled her arms out of the sleeves. When I slipped past her to hang it in the foyer closet, I might have accidentally brushed my chest over her side. I mean, the foyer wasn’t all that wide for a two people, especially when one of them was my size. The hitch in her breath told me she felt the same spark I did with that brief contact of our bodies.
“How do you like your hot chocolate? Plain or with marshmallows or with a shot of peppermint schnapps?” I asked as I led the way to the kitchen.
“With marshmallows.”
I could almost feel her heat as she followed me in.
“But Finn, I don’t need anything. Honestly. I only came by to return this because I thought you might need it when you travel to North Dakota this weekend.”
When I reached up into the cupboard to grab a couple of mugs, out of the corner of my eye I caught her extending the plastic bag to me again. I set the mugs on the counter and took the bag from her. Pulling out one of my hoodies, I smiled. “You’ve had this since the Bulldogs after-party.”
As Chessly stared at a spot on the counter behind me, her cheeks turned a pretty shade of pink. “Like I said. I didn’t mean to keep it.”
I tossed the hoodie over the back of a chair at the dinette in the corner of the kitchen and stuffed the plastic bag into the cupboard under the sink. “Don’t worry. I have others.” Busying myself with filling the reservoir on the coffee maker full of water, I said, “I kind of liked how you looked in it that night.”
“Finn.” She dragged my name out on a sigh.
“Facts is facts.” I shot her a grin as I stepped around her to grab the tin of chocolate powder from the cupboard above the stove. I set it beside the mugs and spooned some into each. “Do you like your hot chocolate more or less sweet?”
It didn’t surprise me when she said, “Less.”
With a nod I added half a teaspoon of baking chocolate powder to each of our mugs. Showing off, I slipped the coffee pot from beneath the still brewing hot water and slid in a mug without making a mess. When the cup was full enough, I slid it back out and returned the pot to the warmer while I stirred the mix and added a handful of marshmallows to it.
Waggling my eyebrows, I smiled as I handed her the chocolate. “For you, milady.”
She answered with an eye roll, but I caught the subtle upturn of her lips as she lifted the cup to them.
