‘I couldn’t sleep.’ Not that I’ve even tried.
‘Me either. I just… I needed to say I’m sorry again. About earlier. I totally assumed something about you, and it was wrong of me to do so.’
I feel like he’s rehearsed that sentence a few times. Not that it sounds disingenuous, just that I detect that same trepidation in his tone.
‘I’m sorry I walked out. I shouldn’t have done that either. I guess I kinda panicked that you didn’t really know me. That we didn’t really know each other and already we were… you know.’
‘I agree with you one hundred per cent.’
I believe him. I feel like he’s being honest with me. And, though I can’t be fully honest with him, I need to get to the bottom of something.
‘Can I ask you something?’ I say.
‘Anything.’
I dip my head and pull my hair over one shoulder. ‘Do I make you, like… nervous?’
He makes anuhhhsound before I hear his awkward laugh. ‘Honestly? I thought I’d cracked the whole talking-to-girls thing in high school. I never met a woman who turned me into a complete mess before.’
There he goes, being all cute again. ‘Do I take that as a compliment?’
I hear him exhale. ‘Yes. That’s definitely a compliment. You are… seriously, you’re the most beautiful woman I ever laid eyes upon. And the sweetest. And I don’t say those things lightly. All I wanna do is get to know you. Spend some time with you. And we don’t have to… you know… worry about anything else.’
Most guys I’ve been with, they’re not shy to talk about sex. Who’d have thought a rugged football player of all people can’t even say the word? ‘Okay. I think I can handle that,’ I tell him.
He sounds excited. ‘Seriously? Are you free tomorrow night?’
My heart plummets in my chest. Saturday, I work a day shift at the diner, followed by another long shift at Surly’s. There’s no way Kale will let me have the night off on a Saturday.
‘How about Sunday?’
He sounds unsure. ‘I have curfew Sunday night, before Monday’s game. My mom likes me to accompany her to church in the morning. I could get to the cabin, but we wouldn’t have long.’
‘It’s just that… tomorrow is… it’s gonna be difficult for me.’
‘I can be at the cabin two o’clock Sunday?’
‘I have practice at the Danube Sunday morning. What time is team curfew?’
‘We gotta be at the hotel by eight-thirty.’
‘Then we’ll have a few hours, right?’
I can tell he’s masking a degree of disappointment in his tone. ‘Right. Okay.’
‘So…’ I hum, ‘I’ll see you Sunday. Two o’clock. And don’t be nervous.’
He laughs at that. ‘I’ll try not to be. See you then. Get some sleep.’
‘Night, Jake.’
I hang up and fall back against my pillows. The phones were a good idea.
But meeting up with him again at the cabin on Sunday? Maybe not so much.
Because I can feel it in the butterflies in my stomach.
The ones that tell me I’m falling.
