First and Goal (Moving the Chains #1) (16 page)

I heave a deep sigh as I watch him whisper in his partner’s ear. “He’s a good guy, just misunderstood like the rest of us.”

“What’s not to understand about that operation?”

“Remember what I told you about Neveah? He didn’t
have
to do that, you know.”

“I’m still not sure I believe he actually did. Did you think about your first answer yet?”

Someone’s eager to change the subject today. That could mean something…or nothing at all.

“Uh, I read the question. It’s actually your turn to answer.”

“Oh, right.” She takes a deep breath. “I guess I’d want to know if there was anything different I could have done up until now. You know, to have a different outcome.”

More suspicion piles up in my brain. “You mean about last year?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

And…she’s back to her nervous habit. That poor, abused notebook.

“You wanna tell me what really happened?”

Every muscle in her body tenses up. “You know what happened.”

“I know what Eddie said happened. I already told you that I never believed that for a second. So what really went down?”

“I already gave my answer to the question,” she says on a sigh. “Do you need more time to think about yours?”

“No, but I guess I need more time to earn your answer. That’s all right.”

The look she gives me can only be described as grateful.

“I would want to know if…last year had to happen at all.”

She doesn’t call me out on my vague answer. “Fourteen: Is there something you’ve dreamt of doing for a long time, and if so, why haven’t you done it?”

The level and volume of my laughter borders on insane. “Yes, and because I’m an absolute coward.”

“What is it you haven’t done?” Her level of curiosity stifles the surrounding air.

No way in hell am I about to tell her that. If I had the guts, I obviously would have already. “That’s not part of the question. You’re up.”

She rubs her pen against her lips while she thinks about it. “I can’t think of anything, actually.”

I would kill to be that pen. Putting my tongue back in my mouth is probably a safer option. “Moving on. Fifteen: What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?”

“I feel like we’re at an unfair disadvantage as high school students to answer that. What have any of us really done yet?”

“I guess you’re just supposed to think of something up until now. So for me, it would be making starting QB last year.”

“Okay, then. Being drum major. Question sixteen: What do you value most in a friendship?”

“Loyalty,” I answer immediately.

She taps that damn pen against her lips again. “I don’t know. This is another one of those questions that might take a while to think about. Loyalty is a good one, but it’s more than that, you know? You need to have things in common, important things. You need to be able to talk openly and freely, but on a level playing field. Like how you said talking to girls reminds you of having a conversation with a horny moron?”

“Yeah…”

“I get that. Because seriously, if I have to hear one more of Jess’s gross sex stories, I am going to lose my shit.”

“Oh shit, I know. Now I know what you’re thinking, that the stories all come from Alex. But Mike is worse.”

Her musical laughter is back. “Dear Lord, I can’t even think about that.”

“What, he doesn’t share with you? Lucky.”

“Oh thank God, no.” Her shoulders shake as she laughs.

I’m gonna keep this rolling as long as possible. “You know what the worst is though? When both Alex and Mike start talking about it, trading stories, and I’m just sitting there, looking back and forth, like a total foreigner to the land of sex and honey…”

She grabs my biceps, probably because it would be a stretch to reach my shoulders and shakes me, actually shakes me. “Yes!”

We both dissolve into a fit of obnoxious laughter. This is definitely a far cry from the beginning of class.

“And, then…” she tries to talk while catching her breath. “And then, Jess and Alyssa go on and on about ‘you should try this position,’ or ‘you should hook up with so and so because I hear he’s very talented.’ And I’m all like, hello? Not interested…” She collapses on the desktop in a heap of shaking limbs.

Well, that sobers me up quickly. Her friends are trying to get her to date again. I don’t want to think about her trying any kinky positions with anyone but me. Just the thought of her lips on someone else’s is enough to make my blood boil. I can’t do another repeat of last year, but I have no clue how to move things forward without her just shutting me down or pulling away.

“Seventeen,” I’m all too eager to change the subject and move on. “What is your most treasured memory?”

She rises onto her elbow, casting me a curious glance.

“This is another one that’s hard. I actually have a lot of good memories from my childhood, in spite of…everything.” Her eyes take on a dreamy quality. Beautiful.

“Just pick one.”

“Um…okay. The time we went to visit my family in Crete. I was fourteen. It was the summer before high school.” A slow smile spreads across her face. It’s obvious that this is, in fact, a good memory.

“So you still have family there?”

“Yeah. I still keep in touch with my cousin, Leda. We grew really close that summer. We were there for over a month.” She laughs at the memory, doodling in her notebook. “This one time, she wanted to take Tini and I to the beach. But since she lives there, she didn’t want to go to one of the touristy places. She said she knew a special private cove that was absolutely beautiful, but we’d have to hike to it. So of course, we were game. The beach was an hour away from the house by foot. My feet were killing me by the time we got there, and I couldn’t wait to get them in the water. I thought we were going to splash around in the surf and play in the sand because we hadn’t packed our bathing suits or anything.” She trails off, lost in thought.

The recollection of one particular bathing suit that Evie owned makes me smile. When I wasn’t busy with various football camps, I worked as a lifeguard at the local pool. My first year on duty, she laid out in plain view of anyone who cared to look in a gorgeous blue bikini. And look I did. It was a miracle no one drowned on my watch. But the next summer,
oh the next summer
. Evie was suddenly all grown up. That year, she wore a white, lacy bikini that stood out against her tan skin and left very little to the imagination. I still dream about that white bikini sometimes.

“Anyway, it’s like ninety degrees, super humid, we’re covered in sweat and dust from the trail, and all of our feet hurt. Leda tells us to strip down and dive in,” she pauses to laugh again, but I’m gone.

Forget the white bikini.

Evie. Naked. Ocean.

Vivid images race through my brain of her completely nude in the waves, salt water dripping from her hair down her gorgeous tits, and…hard-on. “Oh my God.”

I must have whispered it aloud because she starts laughing even harder as she continues her scribbling. “Stop picturing my sister naked.”

“Not thinking about your sister.” Holy fuck. I think I just said that out loud too.

Evie turns her whole body to look at me. My brain finally decides to check back in and shit, fuck, piss. My dick is absolutely raging in my pants in the middle of biology while I think about my wet, naked partner. The one who started this week telling me she hates me. The one who I’m starting to be more and more convinced was date-raped last year. The one who is currently giving me a curious look. What the fuck is wrong with me?

My head’s already spinning, but what happens next absolutely floors me. She takes one look at my wide-eyed expression, glances down, gasps, and turns back to her notebook, her eyes wide and a blush staining her cheeks. Where’s the slap across the face from the girl who’s convinced I’m only trying to get in her panties?

“Uh, sorry. Just excuse me a minute while I jab my pencil into my leg, and I’ll be good.”

And she just laughs harder.

What. The. Fuck?

“No, wait. Just listen to the rest of the story, and it’ll help with your little…problem.”

If that’s supposed to be an insult, or a reference to the rumor that she knows bothers me, it’s wasted on me. Embarrassment and guilt wrap around my lungs like a boa constrictor until all I can do is gape at her and wait for the other shoe to drop.

“So we’d snuck out to go this private little beach and had been gone for, I don’t know…maybe four hours. Eventually my older cousin, Ioannis, Leda’s sixteen-year-old brother, comes to find us. Tini and Leda are butt naked in the surf. He rounds the corner, and oh my God,” she bursts into another fit of laughter.

“Wait, so he sees his sister and cousin totally naked?”

She nods her head. “He was more mortified than you are right now.”

My dear God. She might not kill me.

“He turns to glare at me like it’s my fault or something. I’m the only one with my clothes still on because all I did was wade in the shallow water to cool off. Next he’s yelling at them to get dressed before someone sees them. They’re freaking out and running for cover because they already know that he’s seen them naked. It was just the funniest thing ever.”

“I don’t know…I think seeing my cousin naked would be the most scarring thing ever.”

Evie was right about one thing. My little problem deflates pretty quickly. Just the thought of seeing any of my cousins naked gives me the creeps.

“Ioannis drags us back to the house and everyone is just freaking out that we were gone. He tells them what happened when he found us. He’s completely red-faced and looks like he’s going to throw up. All the adults go ape shit. My grandparents lit into them so hard, I wondered if they weren’t going to have an aneurism. And I’m just sitting there the whole time, laughing my ass off because no one saw me naked. I swear, Ioannis couldn’t even look at Leda or Tini for the next two weeks. It was hysterical.”

Evie continues laughing for a while until she finally catches her breath. I expect to face her wrath, but no. She just looks at me expectantly.

“Is there more?”

She smiles brightly. “No, that’s it. What’s your best memory?”

Holy shit. Evie just busted me with a raging boner for her, and she isn't even calling me out on it. If this is her idea of trying to be nice, I’m going to run as far and as fast with it as I can.

“I dunno,” I blow out a breath. “I’m still stuck on your best memory. I think I forgot all of mine.”

“I wasn’t naked,” she says emphatically, tapping that sweet, sweet pen on my nose with each syllable. “I’m totally telling Tini you were picturing her naked today, and that she was right about your…ego.” She grins at me and glances down again.

Jesus H. Christ. She’s toying with me now. I hope she at least gives my body to my mom for proper burial when she’s done with me.

“Okay, okay…lemme think.” God, I really can’t think right now. “I got it. All the times I spent with Pops helping him build the Mustang.”

“Pops?”

“Yeah. You call your grandfather Papou. I called mine Pops.”

“So…the one who passed away last year?” Her careful treatment of the subject isn’t lost on me. There’s my old Evie again. “You actually helped him
build
that car in the parking lot?”

“Yep.”

She appears to turn that information over in her head then peeks at me with a sly grin. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

No. No, I do not.

“Not only are you a dumb jock but you’re also a grease monkey.” She wags her brows at me, laughing at her own little joke. Her eyes sparkle with mischief.

I wonder if they’re the same color as the ocean she
wasn’t
naked in.