Page 4 of The Love Playbook

The color in his cheeks deepens, but he clears his throat again and nods once, just a slight dip of his chin, but it’s enough.

Unable to stop myself from smiling, I lead him out of his hiding spot and into the living room. Advertising that we’re together—at least for now, and no one else needs to know the details of why, exactly, we’re entering this arrangement—will only serve to make him more attractive in the long run. Which will help him with his future endeavors once I’ve taught him all I can and turn him loose on the world.

How exciting.

I’ve never done anything like this before. The offer was made on a whim a few months ago when I saw another dejected girl walk away from him. I’d noticed it happen again and again throughout the course of the year, and when we got to know each other working on scenes in our theatre class last semester, I thought maybe I’d get a clue as to why. He’s shy, of course, which would explain why he doesn’t approach anyone. But I’ve watched so many girls come onto him. Why wouldn’t he go for any of them? Yet every party and game night, I watched him brush them off like he wasn’t interested at all.

Was he just not interested in girls? Or was there something else at work?

With a couple of drinks in my system and maudlin thoughts chasing me through the party, I let my curiosity get the better of me and asked him point blank if he was gay or asexual, and he denied both things.

Which only left clueless.

So I figured I’d offer to help him out. I like Jackson. He’s cute with his baby face and easy smile—once you get to know him, at least. Sweet. And he obviously cares about his appearance. His hair’s nearly always done and he gets it cut regularly because I’ve never seen him shaggy. He shaves. And he dresses reasonably well. Not designer clothes or anything, but clean and neat and they fit. Even when he’s dressed down in athletic gear, his shirts hug his chest and broad shoulders just right, falling loose around his trim middle. And his joggers stretch tight across a biteable ass.

Honestly, my offer was semi selfish too. He’s the only guy I know on the football team who hasn’t hit on me. Which of course intrigues me even more.

Obviously if he’s not interested or attracted to me, I won’t pursue him. But if he just needs a little … push?

Which is why I decided to mention it again, though partly it was because I knew I’d get him to blush too. Maybe it’s not very nice, but he’s just so adorable when he blushes like that, and sometimes I can’t help myself.

I figured he’d turn me down, though. He’s so sweet and shy and buttoned up that I couldn’t see any way that he’d ever take me up on my offer. I mean, I thought he was going to swallow his tongue the last time I suggested it.

But now that he’s decided he wants to do this, I’m going to have to figure out a plan of action. Of course I need to know what he has and hasn’t done first—I have my suspicions, but knowing for sure is important—and where his hard limits lie.

This is going to be a blast.

* * *

As soon as we’re back home, Ellie closes the door behind her, locking the deadbolt, then crosses her arms and stares me down. The look would work better if her reddish brown hair weren’t falling out of its ponytail. And the smattering of freckles across her nose from time spent in the sun over the summer gives her too much of a girl-next-door look versus the severe taskmaster she’s trying to embody. Not that either of those things stop her from trying. “What is going on with you?”

I give her a quizzical look, cocking my head to the side. “I’m sorry? I don’t know what you’re referring to.”

Piper laughs, and even Dani ducks her head to hide a smile, like she’s trying to hide behind her hair. But her dark wavy hair is pulled back in her customary ponytail as well, so it doesn’t really work.

“Is there a joke I’m missing here?” I ask.

“Please, Autumn,” Piper says, flipping her long black hair over her pale shoulder, exposed by her red tank top. “We all saw you spend the entire evening with Jackson Lancaster, the boy who never does anything.” She sits on the end of the couch and kicks off her flip flops, pulling her feet under her, propping her elbow on the arm of the couch and her chin on her hand as she surveys me, eyes narrowed. “What’s your game with him? He’s a sweetheart.”

“Yeah,” Ellie puts in, dropping her purse on top of the coffee table and claiming the spot next to Piper. Like they’re presenting a united front. Against me.

Surveying my three roommates and taking in their nearly identical expressions, I purse my lips and squint my eyes. I’m not quite used to this new dynamic, and I don’t think I like it.

While we’ve all known each other since we were freshmen, Ellie’s the only one I’ve lived with before. But after two years in the dorms, we were all ready to move off campus. I think Piper and Ellie especially wanted to live off campus after spending so much time at their boyfriends’ house last year. Access to a kitchen and laundry that you don’t have to share with an entire building is really nice.

But houses are more expensive to rent, so we asked Piper and Dani to join us. We found a nice four bedroom with an early August move in date, which gave us all plenty of time to work over the summer and visit our families plus a little time to settle in before classes started this week.

I could’ve done with a little less time at home, personally, but I made the best of it by filling my schedule with online tarot clients and signing up for a booth to read tarot at various summer festivals in the area. That led to booking a few private parties too, which is always fun.

But apparently Piper and Ellie have kept in touch over the summer, bonding over their respective boyfriends getting drafted by the NFL and going off to pursue their glamorous new pro football player lives, leaving the women they love behind to finish their degrees.

On the one hand, I admire their drive to finish school ahead of schedule and their unwillingness to sacrifice what they care about for a guy. On the other hand … life is short. If the person you want to be with has to move across the country, why wouldn’t you find a way to go with them?

I can’t imagine dropping everything to follow a guy, personally. But I can’t imagine being in that kind of long-term relationship either. No, my attachments are all short lived and based around fun. Just the way I like them.

But Ellie and Piper both want and have something deeper and more serious. So I don’t understand why they’d stay here when the people they love are thousands of miles away. I mean, look at Tiffany, Piper’s soon-to-be sister-in-law. Maybe it’s not official, but … she and Gray have a kid together. She figured out a way to follow him to Florida, of all places, so she could be with him. And from what she was saying before they left, she has every intention of finishing her degree no matter what.

If she can do it, why can’t Piper and Ellie?

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