"Where were you off to in such a hurry?"
"To the dining hall, I'm starving," I confess, and the dark-haired guy lets out a short laugh.
"Why don't I take you to lunch, then? Since we missed that breakfast?" he offers, crossing his arms and showing off the muscles and the veins standing out.
I lose my train of thought for a second, but recover in time to nod in agreement.
"Sure, why not?" My answer is followed by a smile I hope comes off as seductive. "I have to study for a test, but I'm free until around two in the afternoon," I let him know, and he nods.
"Two whole hours of your company? Sounds perfect." His gallantry gives me a little flutter in my stomach, which only gets worse when he reaches a hand toward me and gently lifts the backpack off my shoulder, then slings it onto his own.
Good Lord, who was this guy's mother? I was going to have a mass said in her honor. Or maybe ask her for a book of recommendations for the day I decide to have kids.
I murmur a thank you and we start walking again, side by side now toward the parking lot. A few people watch us with curiosity, but I ignore them completely.
"What do you think about Italian food? Violetta's isn't too far from here," Ethan suggests one of my favorite restaurants, and I break into a huge smile automatically.
"I like the way you think, Ethan Clarke. Violetta's is absolutely perfect." It's my turn to give a compliment, and I earn a wink from him.
"Good, Miss McCarthy. You'll soon find out I have a lot of good ideas when it comes to you," he promises, and I laugh.
Inside me there's a mix of wariness and growing anticipation that I still don't know how I'll manage to control, but I decide to leave that to think about later.
The lunch that afternoon was delicious. Beyond the good food, Ethan really was great company. We talked about a little bit of everything: our college programs, his dream of making it to the NFL, mine of opening a coding school just for girls to encourage the growth of women in the field, our favorite things and the ones we hate most, and even a little about our families. I found out he's the youngest of three siblings and that his dad was also a football player in his youth, but got badly injured back in high school and ended up in a business career, owning a big textile factory and being a partner in a few other smallcompanies. I told him about Maddie and our twin parents and even about my cat Felix, who'd died three years ago.
It was so easy to talk to him that I was amazed. It wasn't really like me to open up that easily. There had to be some kind of magic in those brown eyes of his, or maybe in the way he always found an excuse to touch me, whether stroking my hand across the table or resting his fingers gently on my lower back before opening the car door for me to get in, feeding the bonfire of this attraction between us.
Either way, the result was that I really wanted to kiss him. To climb that six-foot-three frame of his like a bear up a tree and not let go until he satisfied every last bit of my craving. Which hadn't happened yesterday. The jerk left me at the library door with just a lingering kiss on the cheek and a smile that said he knew exactly what he was doing.
Damn it. I hated men who knew the power they had.
I spent the rest of the day thinking about the bastard and woke up sweating after dreaming I was making out with him something good. Luckily my torture didn't last long, because the first message I opened the next morning was from him, asking how I was and whether I was up for another date before he had to travel for the first game of the season.
The invitation was to the movies, and of course I said yes. And of course I spent the whole day looking forward to it.
I stare at the bathroom mirror and try to decide whether I look good enough.
The pink cardigan my cousin had helped me pick out was cute and comfortable, and the jeans put my butt on display. Underneath I was wearing a white cropped top that was one of my favorites. My hair couldn't decide whether to be straight or wavy, as usual, and I didn't have the patience to spend hours trying to straighten it, so I just brushed it, put in an oil to take the frizz out of the ends, and tied the top part up with a little bow scrunchie I thought was cute.
Or would it come off as childish?
Ugh! I don't know!
For God's sake, I hadn't been on a first date since high school and I had no idea how to act or what to expect. I look at my furrowed brow in the mirror and huff, giving up on changing anything. There were only about two minutes left until the time Ethan said he'd come pick me up, so I'd better settle down. I looked nice, but comfortable, and if the player didn't like the way I looked, he could screw off. I wasn't going to change to please anyone anymore, least of all a man!
With my confidence renewed, I lift my chin and march out of the bathroom, coming face to face with Maddie sitting on my bed. She smiles and whistles.
"Look at you! He's going to drool," she compliments me, and I smile.
"Thanks," I say while walking over to the hooks behind the door to pick out a small bag. "Check my phone to see if he texted asking me to come down, please?"
My cousin takes the device off the charger and unlocks it while I busy myself putting a gloss, a card, and my ID in the bag.
"Nothing yet, Lottie," she says, and I make a little pout.
"I hope he's not the type who's always run..." My sentence gets cut off by a knock on the outer door of our room. Maddie and I look at each other, unsure, for a second, but I snap out of it first and hurry to answer.
An Ethan Clarke in a T-shirt and black leather jacket, plus gray-wash jeans, is what waits for me on the other side of the door. To top it off, his hair is still a little damp and he smells divine.
