But the highlight of the night was thanks to Ethan and his photos as a mini figure skater. I'd forgotten that detail he mentioned on our first date and now I was simply enchanted.
"Look at him proud with his gold medal!" Maddie exclaims to Ethan's phone, where he'd gathered the photos in a folder and was passing it through everyone's hands. "And this little girl here is a cutie too. Do you still talk to her, Ethan?"
He shakes his head.
"No, she moved to Canada that year. I was in love with her and I refused to try another partner after she left. That's why my skating career came to an end," he says, and there's a collective "aww" from all the girls present. I run my hand over Ethan's chest as a sign of comfort.
"Was it your first broken heart, sweetie?"
"It was. For a while I even kept sending her love letters." The revelation is so cute that I hold his cheeks and squeeze.
"Oh my God, how adorable. I'm sorry for twelve-year-old Ethan's little heart," I say, and he laughs, shrugging.
"It's fine. The next year I discovered football and never let it go again," he explains, and I look at him fondly. "It wasn't bad discovering either that I could kiss the girls I liked," he adds, with a mischievous air, and we laugh.
"And in high school he met me. That's when I taught him how to really have fun," the blond man with his hands on my legs says, and Ethan shakes his head like he's saying "yeah, sure it was."
"I didn't know you two had known each other since high school, I thought it was from college," I exclaim, looking from one to the other.
"Yeah, I've been putting up with this pain since I was fifteen, when I moved to Dover, and he still managed to follow me here," Logan complains and takes advantage of his arm stretched along the back of the couch to deliver a little smack to his friend's head.
"Quite the opposite. I applied to Lexington first and he copied me. He even got into another university in California, but he clearly can't live without me," Ethan mocks, earning a tongue stuck out from Logan. "Not to mention he likes to have everything I have," he adds after a few seconds, and both the other player and I widen our eyes.
Ethan laughs, unbothered, and kisses my cheek. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch him give Logan a light head-stroke too, who looks at him with a certain disapproval, but doesn't pull away or comment on anything.
I disguise a satisfied twitch of the lips and snuggle even more against the two of them. I keep thinking about when theywould realize that they'd been touching each other much more since we started all this, and that they were dying to do it behind closed doors too.
I hoped it would be soon.
Chapter 30
Charlotte
A fun fact about the Lexington library is that it never closes. The college believes it encourages us to study on any day of the year, including holidays. All you had to do was scan your ID card at the turnstile at the entrance and have signed the liability waiver at enrollment. On a normal day, this place would be packed with people. People at the tables, at the computers, doing group work in the booths where we could talk loudly, and browsing the shelves looking for something.
On Thanksgiving night, though, there were no more than five people in the whole place. It was thinking about exactly that that, the moment we left the Gamma, I asked Logan and Ethan if they wouldn't be up for a little adventure. Since they said yes, here we are.
I go through the turnstile right behind my favorite pair and my spine shivers with excitement.
We have the decency to keep up appearances and start browsing among the hundreds of books. As I run a finger overthe spines, I feel comfortable like this is my second home. I've loved reading since I was little and my mom gave me a book of fairy tales. I went through the fantasy and dystopia phase, but in recent years I became addicted to romance novels.
Especially the dirty ones.
It wasn't something a lot of people knew besides Maddie, since I only brought a few favorite titles here whose cute covers didn't give away the indecent content. Since the poor things literally caught fire, along with my Kindle, all I had left was reading on the phone app.
I had a deal with myself: for every two hours studying for college stuff, I could allow myself the luxury of spending one hour reading about people falling in love and having wild sex.
And if there's one thing books taught me, it's that libraries can be a great place for an adventure.
I glance over my shoulder as I head up to the second floor. The hungry looks from my boys as they follow me are absolutely addictive. I go into an aisle already near the end of the floor and wait. Logan is the first to reach me, holding me by the waist. He tries to kiss me, but I dodge and earn his confused look.
"Take my boots off," I demand quietly, and his face lights up again with a sideways smile. Ethan arrives just in time and watches him get on his knees with an eyebrow raised in interest.
Logan braces on one knee and rests my foot on his other thigh, only then sliding the zipper of the boot down slowly. When I'm free of the shoe and the sock, he bites my calf beforedoing the same with the other foot, keeping his mischief-filled eyes glued to mine.
I bite my lip, but before he gets to his feet, I run in the opposite direction. I laugh when the two of them curse quietly, but don't hesitate to chase me.
I take off the belt I'm wearing under the dress and leave it along the way too, without stopping walking, only starting to walk backward every now and then, just so I can watch their reactions. Especially because the next piece I get rid of is the dress.
