Page 96 of Hard Hitter

“Here, I mean,” Rae said. “Tonight.”

“If you want me to.”

Her responding smile was contagious. He grinned down at her, wondering for what was likely the millionth time in his life why this girl wanted to be close to him, why she was letting him hold her like this.

“You know I love you, right?” she asked after a few silent beats. She was looking up at him from beneath her long lashes and he felt his heart flutter, and his stomach must’ve done some sort of backflip.

“You might’ve mentioned it before,” said Quinn, his voice low. Of course she just meant it as her friend. Rae told all of her friends she loved them. He always struggled to say the words back to her because she had no idea what weight they held for him.

For the second time that day, Rae reached up on her tip-toes and planted a kiss to his cheek, though with this one she lingered a moment or two before stepping back out of his arms. One of these days he was going to see those cheek kisses coming and turn his head to “accidentally” catch her lips on his.

All right, probably not. But it was a nice thought.

Everyone had comfortably posted up in the lawn on chairs, blankets, towels, and pillows for the movie viewing on the large projector screen. It hadn’t been much of a race betweenHarry Potter and the Order of the PhoenixandSuperbad, and in the end,Superbadwon out. Rae was particularly displeased, having been the only one to vote for theHarry Pottermovie, but made Quinn promise to watch a marathon with her the next weekend they both had available.

In a mass of pillows and blankets, Quinn and Rae had essentially made themselves a nest from which to watch the movie. Several others were coupled up, butactuallycoupled, and it was hard to ignore the fact that many of them were making out rather than watching the film. Rae and Quinn were loudly commenting and laughing at the movie and whispering to each other about the unlikely pairings that had come together, making bets on how long some of them would last.

After the show, Quinn said his goodbyes and thank-yous to everyone. He let Chris know he didn’t need a ride home because he’d be staying with Rae. He’d given Jett a back-slapping hug and whispered threateningly into his ear, “Fucking put your mouth on her again, man,” before pulling away and laughing at the wide-eyed expression on his friend’s face. Jett’s look of worry cracked into a grin, and he shoved Quinn’s shoulder, insisting he’d told Rae that he didn’t want to do it.

Quinn started cleaning up but Charlie waved him off, assuring him they’d get the rest later. He and Rae grabbed all the gift bags and hauled them up to the guest room across the hall from Rae’s bedroom before taking turns in the shower, cleansing themselves of chlorine and sunscreen and the remnants of summer.

There was a vanity dresser in the guest room that had socks, underwear, t-shirts, and even a pair of blue jeans he’d left behind. Some nights he had very little notice that he’d be staying at the DeRoses’ and after the third or fourth surprise stay, Margaux had reserved the drawers for him. She’d also made sure there were always new toothbrushes and tubes of toothpaste, even razors, shave cream, and any other toiletries he may need in the guest bathroom for these occasions.

Fresh out of the shower, wearing only a pair of gray sweatpants, Quinn folded his new clothes, trying to figure out what to wear the next day. He looked up at the sound of a knock on the frame of the open bedroom door.

Rae was leaning in the doorway, hair still wet, in a pair of pajama shorts and a spaghetti-strap top. His pulse tripped and his chest inflated. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen her like this, but it never seemed to be an image he could get used to.

It took him a moment to see that she was holding a gift bag in her hand. He narrowed his eyes and asked hesitantly, “What’s that?”

Rae pushed herself away from the door frame and entered the room. “Well, the stripper-gram I ordered didn’t show, so I suppose this will have to do.”

Quinn snorted a laugh and shook his head, reaching his hand out to take the bag. He laughed again when he realized the bag read ‘Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Animal!’ on both sides. He held it up. “Is this literally something you found laying around because you forgot to get me a real present?”

She shrugged, holding her hands up. “I just know you don’t like people going all out for you, so I didn’t want you feeling guilty that I spent five dollars on the bag alone.”

Setting the bag on the bed and beginning to pull out the tissue paper that also looked like it had been pre-used, Quinn remarked, “That’s actually oddly thoughtful, if you think about it.”

Rae plopped herself down on the bed. “Well, what can I say? Work smarter, not harder, am I right?”

Quinn pulled the wrinkled tissue paper out of the bag and reached to the bottom where there was a white jersey folded, with maroon and gold lettering. He pulled it out, shaking it to unfold it and held it up. It was a customized Arizona State baseball jersey, withDevilson the front in maroon letters, outlined in gold. The back read ‘CASEY’ with the number twenty-one underneath.

He looked at her and quirked up an eyebrow. “My jersey number is seven.”

“Right,” said Rae, “which is a lucky number because we were seven when we met. But I think your new lucky number should be twenty-one. Because it was on the twenty-first.”

Quinn looked at the jersey and back to her, smiling. “It’s also your birth date.”

“Happy coincidence. Now you’ll nevernotbe able to think of me when you wear that,” she replied, rather smugly.

“What if twenty-one isn’t available?” Quinn asked teasingly. He was absolutely elated that she’d thought to put something personal forheron his jersey. It was better than her adverse reaction to him having a new girl best friend.

She looked thoughtful for a moment and hummed. “Then I guess twelve would be okay. It’s the same two numbers. I think you’d still think of me.”

Quinn nodded, “I’ll see what I can do.” Looking back at Rae, sitting cross-legged on the bed, he bit back the extra-wide smile that threatened to show itself.

She stretched out on the queen-sized guest bed, leaning back on the pillows and was giving him the same look as earlier when he couldn’t quite figure out what she was thinking.

“Did you know Arizona is, like, the second highest ranked party school in the country?” Rae turned on her side and combed her fingers through her long hair.

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