She puts her hands on the metal engine casing in front of her and leans forward on them, her brown eyes staring right into mine. “You’re a catch, Devin Garrison. It’s such a shame you’re going to deny the world that.”
“What makes me a catch, my big paycheck?” I say, feeling sorry for myself.
Callie gives me a look like I’m an idiot. “I’m not going to lie—that’s a bonus to some girls because most twenty-one-year-old guys can’t afford a used car, let alone much else. But screw the money. You’re good-looking. You come from a loving family. You’re built like a fucking Greek god and you’re a sweetheart when you aren’t so focused on overachieving…or cock-blocking my hookups.”
I laugh out loud at that. It echoes off the barn walls. She’s grinning widely. “What were you going to do, Callie? Bang him right here on the tractor?”
“No, but there’s nothing wrong with a little harmless groping on the tractor, is there?”
I smile despite myself and shake my head.
“Not all girls have to be about romance and soul mates and all that crap,” she contends, pulling her legs together to dangle off the front of the engine casing.
“How old are you again?”
“Eighteen.”
“How many guys have you been with already?”
Her big brown eyes flare in shock at that question and then she looks at the floor of the tractor, embarrassed. I instantly feel like shit. “Contrary to popular belief, I’ve only had actual sex with one guy. Sure, I like to make out a lot, and maybe fool around, but there are tons of ways to get a guy off without actual sex.”
There is something very wrong, yet very accurate, about that statement. A hundred things run through my head—blow jobs and hand jobs being at the top of the list. And as I think about Callie doing those things, I feel my shorts getting tight. I have always thought she was hot as hell.
“I’m sorry, Callie,” I say and I mean it. “It’s not that I think you’re easy or anything. I just…you’re wild. And I guess I just don’t want you to get hurt or anything.”
She looks at me now with a confused expression, and I lean forward and grab her hand as if to prove how sincere I am. “You worry about me?”
“Yeah. Of course,” I reply and tug on her hand. She slips off the engine casing and stands in front of me once again. It’s weird to have her looming above me, so I stand up too.
“See, the cool part about being wild, as you call it,” Callie says, tilting her head to look up at me, “is that I never get all emotional over some stupid guy, so I don’t get hurt.”
“How do you not get emotional? How do you not fall for someone?” I can’t help but ask because every girl I’ve hooked up with I’ve dated. I don’t just screw for the sake of screwing. It’s never been something I’ve tried.
“Just never go for the ones you know you could really like,” she explains with a small smile.
“So you hook up with people you hate?”
She laughs and squeezes my hand, which I just realize is still holding hers. I also realize it feels good. “No, you don’t hate them, dumbass. You’re just in lust with them instead of in like with them.”
I don’t know if I get it. It seems ridiculous. My face must reflect my confusion because she continues to try to explain it. “Devin, have you ever seen a girl and just thought, man, she’s fucking hot?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“Who?”
I think about it. There’s obviously been more than one hot girl I’ve admired in my life, so I’m trying to narrow it down. And then I decide to do something really dumb and also very honest. “You.”
She blinks and her mouth drops open the slightest bit. She turns her hand around in mine so now we’re full-on holding hands. “So have there been times when you just thought, man, I would love to bang Callie?”
Holy fuckballs, she did not just say that!
“Callie…”
“No, seriously,” she insists without any embarrassment visible on her pretty face. “Hypothetically. Have I ever come over in, like, a short dress, or a tight pair of jeans, and you’ve just wanted to give it to me, hard?”
I swallow but there’s barely any saliva in my mouth suddenly. I use my free hand—the one she isn’t holding—to take back the remainder of my beer and finish it off in one gulp.
“Yeah. Of course.” There. I finally answered. She smiles.
