He slaps my hand away. “My eyes are up here,” he jokes, then pulls the collar of my shirt down and peers down. “Is there some sort of Dylan-gets-to-be-in-my-pants schedule you’re working with that I should know about?” He nuzzles his face into my neck, kissing it gently. “Throw a kid a bone here.”
My fingers part through his hair—hair that’s gotten longer since he came home. “You have to earn your bases, Rookie.”
He mocks an exaggerated sob.
I roll my eyes. “There’s no crying in baseball!”
“That reminds me,” he says, reaching behind me. He drops a book on my lap. “I got you this.”
I smile. “Part two of the pause?”
“Yep. Luce called this morning and said it came out today so I went to the store and got it. Now you can see how it ends.”
“You’re the bestest boyfriend ever,” I announce.
He laughs at that, just as his phone sounds with a text.
I reach for it before he can get to it and when I read the text, I wish I hadn’t.
Heidi: Hey… So, I’m in town for the weekend. I heard you were back. I’m free now. Just seeing if you wanted to catch up. For old time’s sake.
“For old time’s sake? What does that even mean?” I ask.
He moves away from my neck, his eyes already narrowed. Then he takes the phone from my hand and reads the text. He looks up.
“Have you been talking to her?” I ask.
“No. This is the first time she’s contacted me.” He’s still holding the phone. He wants to reply.
“I’m not going to stop you from talking to her. Or seeing her. Or doing whatever it is…” my voice drops to a whisper. “…for old time’s sake.”
He shakes his head. “It’s not like that, Riley.”
“But you want to see her.”
He shrugs, his response giving me nothing. “If it’s going to cause issues then I’ll just tell her no.”
“It’s fine,” I say, my tone clipped.
“Obviously not.”
“I just don’t get why you’d want to see her. Do you miss her?”
“No!” His head drops forward. “Jesus, Riley. You’re making this impossible. I could’ve lied. I could’ve ignored her message now and then seen her behind your back but I don’t want to keep anything from you.”
“Well, you are!”
“What?!”
“You are keeping something from me!”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Why do you want to see her?”
“Closure,” he yells. Then softer, “I just want closure. We left things at such a shitty point and after you and I talked about it, our relationship made more sense to me than it did when I was actually part of it. So I just… I don’t know why.”
I push aside my petty jealousy, just for a moment, and I think about him—how broken he was because of her—and I see things from his perspective. I jump off the bench and wrap my arms around his waist. “I’m being selfish.”
“Honestly? A little.”
I pull back and pout at him.
He smiles, running his grease stained thumb across my lips.
“Just don’t like… sleep with her. Or touch her. Or try not to even look at her.”
“You’re not being fair, Riley.”
“Yeah, but I’m also not blind and regardless of how badly I wish, I don’t have amnesia. I remember what she looks like, Dylan. And you’re a guy.”
He shakes his head with his intake of breath. Then he looks down at me. “I’m also a guy who’s madly in love with you, Riley.”
“What?” I whisper, my breath leaving me.
“You need me to repeat it?”
“No.” I try to suppress my smile. I can’t. “Maybe?”
He doesn’t skip a beat. “I’m madly in love with you, Riley.”
“Again?”
He laughs. “You want me to write it down?”
I can’t stop smiling. “Yes.”
With a chuckle, he releases me and gets a marker from one of the drawers on the bench, then grabs my arm. I watch his face as the pen presses down on my skin, marking me, making me his.
I love you, Riley Hudson.
Then underneath;
Semper Fidelis.
“Isn’t that the Marine Corps motto?”
He nods. “Know what it means?”
“No.”
“Always faithful.”
Dylan
There was always a level of fear when it came to Heidi. From the first time she talked to me sophomore year and even after we’d started dating. It’s completely fair to say she was the hottest girl in school, at least on my radar. When I finally took enough of her hints and worked up the courage to ask her out—I was still surprised she said yes. It was no secret she dated before me. Guys who were older, even Logan (if you can call what they did dating).
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I always found myself kind of in awe of her beauty and presence. Being with her was intimidating, to say the least. Maybe that’s why I kept my mouth shut around her—in fear that I’d say something dumb or try to joke around and she wouldn’t find it funny like Riley does.
But as I hear her car door close a good half hour after Riley left, followed by the clicking of her heels against the concrete of my driveway, I don’t feel intimidated. I don’t feel afraid. In fact, I don’t feel much of anything at all.
I wipe my hands on the rag and pop my head out from under the hood of the Honda, faking a smile as she walks toward me, her familiar hips swaying from side to side. She hadn’t changed much in the few months since I’d seen her. Not that I expected her to. I guess what’s changed is my perspective. Not just of her, but of us.
“Hey,” she says, her perfectly applied red lipstick curving with her smile. Her bright blue eyes take me in as she flicks her hair over her shoulder—hair that seems to glow gold from the orange of the sunset.
I stand next to the car, my hands in my pockets and I nod once. “Hey.”
“You still messing around with the cars, I see.”
Maybe I should be annoyed at her choice of words, but I’m not. That’s just Heidi. “You home to visit your parents?” I ask.
She nods and looks around the garage. “I don’t think I’ve ever really been in here.”
“You haven’t,” I say curtly. It comes out harsher than intended but I don’t back down.
Her smile falls, just for a moment, before returning. “How’s your dad?”
“He’s good.”
“Eric’s home now, right? How is he?”
“Also good.” I lean back against the car and cross my arms. “And you?”
She inhales a breath through her nose, her hands by her sides. Her jeans hug her waist and continue that way all the way down to her ankles. “I’m okay. You know, senior year. Getting by. You miss college?” she asks, a slight laugh bubbling out of her. Probably because she already knows my answer.
“Not a single fucking minute of it.”
Her smile drops, her hands now clasped together in front of her. “I’m sorry, Dylan. I didn’t think it would be this awkward.”
I shake my head. “It’s not.”
“I just wanted to see you, I guess. Make sure you were okay. I heard you got—”
“You heard?” I cut in.
She shrugs. “I asked. I knew the guys were coming to see you so…”
“So you could’ve contacted me yourself.”
“I wanted to, Dylan,” she says, her tone pleading. “I didn’t think you’d want anything to do with me after the way we left things.”
“I was angry back then.”
“And you had every right to be,” she rushes out. “I betrayed you in the worst possible way, not just by what I did but by not telling you about it to begin with. I was scared—”
“I don’t really care,” I interrupt.
“Dylan.”
“No.” I exhale loudly, trying to kee
p my emotions in check. “I don’t mean I don’t care about your apology or whatever this is. I’m just saying that I don’t care about it; what happened in the past. I’m not mad. Not anymore.”
“You’re not?” she asks, clearly surprised.
“I’ve moved on from it, Heidi. I had to.”
She blows out a shaky breath, her hands at her sides again. “We never really talked about it, you know… what happened to us?”
I shrug. “We grew apart.”
“That’s it?”
I nod.
“Before or after you broke up with me?”
I shake my head, slightly annoyed. “I didn’t break up with you, Heidi. I enlisted.”
“You asked if I wanted to stay with you even though your future was uncertain!”
“Exactly!” I take a calming breath. “Heidi, I asked you. I did it for you. I didn’t say I wanted to break up. You read into that what you wanted. And you can’t deny that even after that there was a part of you still holding onto us like I was because you broke up with me in a damn letter while I was deployed!”
Her mouth opens. Her eyes widen. It seems like words are caught in her throat and for a few seconds, she stays that way. Then, slowly, her features soften, as if she’s remembering the conversation for exactly what it was. “When did we grow apart?” she asks.
“I can’t answer that, Heidi.”
She frowns, her gaze dropping. “Did I do something, Dylan? Was there a certain incident that made you wake up one day and realize I wasn’t enough for you?” When she looks back up, her eyes are clouded with tears.
For a second, I almost go to her. Almost. “No, Heidi. It wasn’t anything you did. But it wasn’t anything I did either. It was just us. We weren’t working. You knew I didn’t want to go to college but I went for you, and that life—” I take a breath. “That life is perfect for you. It wasn’t for me. And that’s how we would’ve spent the rest of our lives had I not made the choice to leave. We would’ve both been unhappy.”
“I didn’t ask you to follow me there,” she says.
“I’m not saying you did.”
“Then why do it?”
“Because I loved you, Heids.”
She wipes her tears. “You did?”
“Of course, I did. I don’t regret being with you all those years.”
“Do you regret how it ended?” she asks.
I shrug. “I really only regret not telling you sooner.”
“Telling me what?”
“That I thought we’d fallen out of love.”
“I still loved you,” she says quickly.
I shrug again. “Yeah, but it was a different kind of love. It was familiar and—”
“Safe,” she cuts in. “You always made me feel safe, Dylan.”
I find myself smiling, though I don’t really know why. “Why’d you really want to see me, Heidi?”
Now it’s her turn to shrug. “Closure, I guess. Why’d you let me see you?”
“Same reason.”
“So you don’t hate me?”
I shake my head.
Then she says, “You look good, Dylan.”
And I look away.
She sighs. “Your dad helping you with the car? That was something you did together, right?”
“Yeah, it was.” I smile again. “Riley’s helping me with the rebuild.”
“Riley’s… a guy from your unit?”
I chuckle. “No. Riley’s my girlfriend.”
Her eyes widen. “Your girlfriend?”
“Uh huh.”
“Sorry.” She laughs. “I thought Riley was a guy.”
“Common mistake.”
“So…” Her shoulders relax. “How’d you meet?”
I jerk my head toward Riley’s house. “She’s the girl next door.”
“How cliché.”
“Says The Prom Queen.”
She laughs louder and pats her hair. “I still wear my crown when I want to relive my greatest moments.”
Shaking my head, I tell her, “That doesn’t surprise me at all.”
“You’re such a jerk,” she jokes. Then adds, “So can I meet her?”
I pull my phone out of my pocket and shoot Riley a text.
Dylan: Come over.
“Whoa, you learned how to text?” Heidi asks.
“Yeah. Riley’s a texter. Besides, it’s about time, right?”
“You must really like her.”
“You have no idea, Heids.”
Riley shows up a minute later, stopping at the end of my driveway when she sees Heidi in the garage. She’s dressed exactly as she was when she left: a plain white shirt underneath one of mine. I make her wear them when we’re working on the car so it doesn’t ruin her clothes.
Slowly, she walks up the driveway, her gaze everywhere but on us.
“Hey babe,” I say in greeting.
She glances at Heidi quickly before looking back at me. “Hey. I’m sorry. I thought you meant to come over now. I didn’t know you still had company.”
“I asked him if I could meet you,” Heidi cuts in, raising her hand in a wave. “I’m Heidi.”
“I know,” Riley rushes out, then recovers, “I mean, I know you—recognize you—from high school, I mean.” She presses one foot on top of the other—a sign I’ve learned means she’s trying not to run.
“We were in the same class?” Heidi tilts her head as she looks Riley up and down.
“No. You were older,” Riley answers. She’s so nervous.
I speak up. “Riley was a sophomore when I was a senior.” I say I instead of we, because I want Riley to know that when it comes to Heidi and I, there is no we.
“Oh cool,” Heidi responds, smiling at the both of us. I don’t know if it’s fake. I don’t care if it is.
“I was just telling Heidi how you were helping me with the rebuild,” I tell Riley.
She nods. “Just the things his injury prevents him from doing. He’s got the rest under control.”
“So you’re into cars?” Heidi asks her.
“Not before Dylan,” Riley says, her voice louder and more confident. “But it’s his thing and it makes him happy so of course I want to be part of it.” It’s for sure a dig at Heidi, though Heidi wouldn’t have a clue.
Heidi looks between us, before pointing to Riley’s arm. “What’s that?” she asks.
Riley lifts her arm, my messy hand written declaration of my love prominent for all to see.
Seconds of silence pass while I look between the two girls. Heidi—with her so-called perfect hair and perfect make-up and perfect clothes, and then I look over at Riley, whose hair is a messy knot on top of her head, make-up free, wearing my shirt and a pair of old workout shorts, standing barefoot in my garage. They couldn’t be more opposite if they tried and if you asked me a thousand times over to choose between them, my answer is and always will be Riley. Because while Heidi might seem perfect, she’s not perfect for me. Riley on the other hand… well, she’s my Riley.
And I’m madly in love with her.
Obviously.
Twenty-Six
Dylan
With my eyes closed, I blindly reach for the phone on my nightstand. I’d gotten used to Riley’s messages in the middle of the night so it didn’t surprise me at all when her name popped up. What did surprise me was the message.
Riley: Are you up? I’m outside. Let me in.
Dylan: kjd
Riley: It’s cold, Dylan.
I kick the covers off and stumble down the hall and toward the door. “I need you,” she says as soon as I open it. She presses her freezing cold hands against my bare stomach and I squeal—like a girl—and swat her hands away. She laughs and grabs my hand, then drags me through the house and into my room. Keep in mind, I’m still half asleep, so I don’t really realize that I’m back in my room and she’s thrown me on the mattress and started removing her top until she says, “I need you, Dylan.” And then everything becomes clear, even in t
he semi-dark of my room. I sit up, my heart racing and my dick already at half-mast when her bare breasts come into view.
I smack my cheek, forcing myself to wake up because I don’t want to miss this. Not a single second.
Now she’s standing in front of me, wearing nothing but bright white panties and holy fucking shit.
I smack my cheek again just in case this is a dream.
“What are you doing?” she asks, wrapping her fingers around my wrist to stop me from doing it again.
Now her bare legs are between mine and I don’t think I’m breathing. At all. I run my thumb at the sweet spot between her legs, feeling the heat emit against my skin. She moans softly, her forearms on my shoulders and her head tilted back, her eyes closed and her tits on full display. I reach up with my free hand and cover one, then dip my head and replace my other thumb with my mouth, tasting her over the fabric of her panties. They’re silk—soft and wet against my lips.
“Wait,” she whispers. She must be fucking crazy. There’s no way I’m waiting. Instead, I run my hands down the arch of her back, to her ass, beneath her panties and I squeeze hard, bringing her mound closer to my open mouth. She’s gripping my hair now, squeezing her legs together and trying to push away.
Yeah, she’s fucking insane if she thinks it’ll stop me.
I lower my hands, past her ass and to her thighs, pushing her panties down. I bite my lip when they drop to the floor, giving me a perfect view of her pussy only inches away from me.
“Dylan, I’ve never—” She breaks off on a moan when I kiss her there, tasting her for the first time. I grab her leg and place her foot on the mattress beside me, opening her up… just for me. Then, like a man possessed, I dive in. She pulls on my hair, but she’s not pushing me away this time, she’s holding me to her… as if there’d be anywhere else I’d rather be.
I run a single finger between her folds, touching our combined wetness. Then I put it inside her, feeling her contract around me. She’s so tight. So fucking wet. So perfect. “Jesus Christ,” I groan between licks. I take my finger out, replacing it with two, while my mouth moves up and covers her clit.
She moans again, her hips rocking back and forth, matching my fingers as they move in and out. It doesn’t take long for her release and the second she’s done she drops her leg back to the floor, and then drops to her knees, her hands already on the band of my boxers. I lift slightly; just enough for her to pull them down and free my cock. Her eyes widen slightly and inside I’m fucking beaming with pride. Outside, I’m forcing myself to breathe. I lean back on my arms; grateful she makes me do those fucking shoulder exercises so I can actually hold my weight. Then she looks up—her eyes hazy, filled with lust—the tip of my cock an inch from her mouth.