“What does that mean?” he growled.
“I can’t drop everything I have going on so my calendar is clear for whenever you want someone to hang out with. Occasionally, you’re going to have to find other ways to entertain yourself.” A vision of him surrounded by football groupies seared my brain, and I faked a cough at the sudden pain that erupted in a gasp.
Patting my back, he said, “Easy there, sport.”
“Sorry.” I swallowed. “That came out of nowhere.”
His hand lingered between my shoulder blades for long enough to make goose bumps pebble my skin and for my nipples to stupidly tighten. Crossing my arms to cover the evidence of how his impersonal touch had affected me, I angled away from his hand.
“Tell me about football. Are you sore after your first day of practice?”
A weird expression flared in his eyes before he dropped his hand to his thigh and glanced out toward the quiet street in front of us where the streetlights were coming on. Somewhere over by the dorms a couple blocks away, loud laughter echoed off the buildings, carrying through the still twilight.
“I had a blast in practice. It felt right to be back out on the field. The guys are cool.” He smirked. “A few of them invited me to playCall of Dutyafter the morning session.”
Knowing his competitive nature, the corner of my mouth tipped up. “I can imagine how that went.”
Snorting a laugh, he said, “Yep. I reminded ’em what I’ve been doing for the past four years, but they insisted. So I kicked the shit out of them.” He shrugged, his tone nonchalant. “It had to be done.” The real side of him he never hid from me came out on a self-deprecating grin. “Lucky for me, we don’t scrimmage for a while. Two of those boys are defensive starters. I’m pretty sure they’d have let me know all about what they thought of me kicking their asses in a video game if we’d have met on the field afterward.”
“Eh,” I scoffed. “They’re probably all your pals already. Bet you’re all hanging out and drinking beer together by the weekend if not before.”
“Nah. After four years of living among people who take their partying as seriously as they take defending their country, I’m kind of tapped out on that whole hard-drinking scene.”
As he stretched his arms over his head, I shuddered at the sound of his vertebrae popping and realigning. Then he did something truly disturbing—he dropped his arm across the back of the bench. It was such a manspread thing to do, but not something he’d ever done around me.
The nearness of his body to mine was wreaking all kinds of havoc on my emotional well-being. My instinct was to take advantage, snuggle up close to all that sculpted muscle and delicious-smelling skin. But this was my friend. The guy who’d never shown one second of interest in me. Seriously, I needed to get a grip.
A nebulous fantasy of an incident at Christmas during sophomore year of college niggled at the back of my brain, but I couldn’t chase after it while simultaneously admonishing my body to quiet the hell down. This wasDanny,for crying out loud, not some hot guy who might reciprocate my romantic interest.
I slid a little forward on the seat. “Well, dude, I have homework waiting for me back at my place. No doubt you have to wake up at dark-thirty for practice.”
“Sleep is an illusion on that excuse of a bed they give you in the dorms.” He groaned. “Trust me, no matter what time I go to bed, I’ll be awake in time to practice.”
Giving his knee an affectionate pat, I commiserated. “Let me guess. You don’t fit on a single.”
“The springs left marks on my back last night, I’m sure,” he complained.
“Maybe once classes start, you can ask for a new mattress. Some of the dorms have extras they keep for overflow housing. If they’re not using them, you can probably talk your RA into trading you out.”
“Coach said my nontraditional status will make it easy to skip the whole dorm living experience. I’ve let some of the guys on the team know I’m looking for a place.”
I shot him a side-eye. “Lucky you.” A passing car briefly drew my attention. “I met some fun people when I lived in the dorms. But I can see how it might be a pain to live among guys who are all so much younger than you.”
“My roommate for camp is this monster of a guard whose feet almost touch the floor while his head rests on the opposite end of the bed.” He chuckled. “He’s already lined up a place to live off-campus.”
“Does he have room for you?”
“Nah, but I’ll figure something out.”
Twilight was quickly darkening to night, and while I’d mentioned I had classes, my heart was dragging its feet to catch up with my head. But talking about beds and living arrangements wasn’t the best idea for my new resolve.
Giving him a little smile, I said, “You always figure something out.”
Standing, I tossed my keys in my hand. Danny snagged them out of midair. “You really have to go?”
Planting one hand on my hip, I extended the other palm up, wiggling my fingers for the keys’ return. “My homework isn’t going to read itself.”
“I could read it to you.” Now he was one-handed tossing my keys.
