Page 43 of Full Coverage (Boys of Fall)

Nolan couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “I’ve been trying to get Quinn out of my system for twelve years. I can tell you, it ain’t easy. Add in a girl you’re crazy about and yeah…good luck.”

He paused in lifting his beer to his mouth.Dammit. He should listen to himself. Quinn still meant something to him, even after all the years of being away, and avoiding the ties. Now Randi was making it mean even more. Seeing Randi with her friends made him happy—becauseshewas happy. Taking her away from this wouldn’t be easy.

“Think I have a little Quinn in my system too.” Glen’s gaze was fixed on Lorelie. “But I’m not so sure I mind.”

Nolan looked at Randi. “Yeah, I hear you.”

“So what are you gonna do about it?” Glen asked.

There wasn’t much he could do right now. He couldn’t walk away from her, and that was about the only way to keep this from getting even more complicated. So he was going to cling to simple for a little longer. “I’m going to go ask my girl to dance.”

Glen nodded. “Good plan.”

“How about you?”

“I think I’m going to take my girl home.”

Nolan liked that idea too. “You’re just going to walk right over there, in the midst of all of those people who have been looking out for Lorelie all her life, and pull her away?”

Glen finished off his beer, set the bottle on the table right behind him and nodded. “Yep, pretty much.”

Nolan approved. And he wanted to do the same—step into the middle of it all, everything that represented Quinn and his past here—and claim Randi. But did he want to pull her out? Or did he want to get right in the middle of it with her?

Fuck. It was already complicated.

Chapter Six

“Go for it,” he told Glen, hoping he was able to hide his conflicting emotions.

Glen started forward and Nolan moved to follow, but just then Randi extricated herself from the group and came for him instead.

“Let’s go make out,” she told him, taking his hands and starting toward the door.

He pulled her back to him, wrapping his arms around her and linking his hands at her lower back. “Hang on there, Ladybug.”

He wanted to make out with her. Of course. He wasn’t an idiot. Or dead. But she’d had four shots and she was in a weird mood.

She had been ever since they’d left the community center. She’d been quiet on the five-minute drive between the two places, almost seeming lost in thought, and she’d sat clear over on her side of the car. He’d been hoping she’d be plastered up against his side, frankly.

The dance had been nice. The elementary school students helped decorate, and he’d seen the way Randi had looked at the construction paper X and O decorations on the walls and the heart shapes dangling from strings from the ceiling. She’d liked the dance. He’d liked being romantic with her. Tonight and over the last few days. It was important to him that she know this was more than sex. More than a date to the party in New York. More than football. And over the past few days, spending time together, talking and laughing at the shop, the conversation evolving from football to a multitude of other things, he’d thought she was getting that. They hadn’t had sex again. He’d kept his hands to himself. He hadn’t even hinted at wanting to spread her out on top of the car she was working on so he could make her scream with his tongue.

He was trying todateher, like a normal couple, rather than just fucking her brains out, and he’d thought she was on board with that. A girl who got stars in her eyes over a Valentine and heart-shaped sugar cookies should be on board with that.

So he wasn’t sure what had happened between the door to the community center and the door to Pitchers.

“We can make out in here,” she said, pulling back and looking up at him. “Obviously.” Her gaze went to the dance floor, where there was a lot more groping going on than actual dancing. “But I was kind of thinking that it would lead to a blowjob and that would probably be better out in the parking lot, if not somewhere even more private.”

He couldn’tnotrespond to that. Again, not an idiot or dead. But there was something in her eyes—and it wasn’t whatever the liquor was that was now coursing through her bloodstream—that made him hesitate.

“Let’s dance for a while,” he said, turning her toward the dance floor.

“I’m done dancing. We danced at the community center,” she said, resisting. “Let’s go get naked.”

He frowned. “Randi, you know how much I love being naked with you, but—”

“No, I don’t know. I’m going to need you to prove it.” She took his hand and again started toward the door.

Something about her saying she didn’t know bugged him. He figured she was simply using it as an excuse to get him to leave with her, but it nagged at him.

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