Page 20 of Crazy Pucking Love
He spun around, and the slow smile that spread across his face made my heartbeat pick up its pace. “Hey.”
How could one word turn me into a puddle of a girl? I sat in the booth next to him, bumping my hip into his. “Scooch over.”
He scooted—a little too far—but it gave me plenty of room for my books. Only the second after I set them down in front of me, Dane pushed them to the other side of the table. When I shot him a look, he said, “We have to eat first. I’ll never be able to study on an empty stomach.”
He glanced back and lifted his hand, and Larry rounded the corner, coffee pot in hand.
“So glad you’re back.” Larry filled a mug for me, then topped off Dane’s. “You ready to order, or do you need a few minutes?”
All day I’d been thinking about French toast, so I rattled off my order, and Dane said he’d have the usual.
“There’s something cool about saying ‘I’ll have the usual,’” I said. “I think I need a usual.”
One corner of Dane’s mouth kicked up. “The last thing I’d call you is usual.”
“I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
“Good. It was one.” He reached out and flicked my earring. The thin chains rattled together and the mini spikes on the end swept across my neck, still cold from being outside.
We didn’t talk much as we ate. I wanted to bring up the game and ask him what had happened, but I was sure it was a sore topic. So once I finished eating, I pushed my plate aside and moved to his other sore topic.
“Okay, time to study.” I reached across him for my textbook, my body bumping into his arm, and I told myself to ignore the firm muscles and the heat radiating off him. A quick glance at his face revealed his gaze was on my cleavage.
I cleared my throat as I straightened, and he quickly jerked his eyes up to mine, a sheepish grin tugging at his mouth.
“Sorry.” He reached for his book—and I noticed he had quite a pile, biology and human anatomy and physiology stacked in with the calculus—but then his phone rang. He gave it a half-hearted glance, and his eyes widened. “I need to take this.” He practically hurdled over me to get out of the booth.
“Lissa, hey. It’s about time you called me back,” he said, and I tried not to wonder who Lissa was. And totally failed. A few more footsteps, and I couldn’t make out his words anymore.
I made a half-hearted attempt to start on our assignment but ended up doodling on my notebook instead.
When Dane came back a few minutes later, a grouchy version had replaced the happy one I first met tonight. “Is everything okay?” I asked, as I moved over so he could sit down.
He sank into the booth, twisted the backward blue baseball cap so it was facing forward, and tugged the brim lower. “Let’s just get through this calc homework.”
In other words,don’t pry, because I’m not going to tell you.So I showed him how to do the problems, explaining each step. In a little over an hour, we’d completed the assignment and had gone over the quiz he almost failed.
Dane had written down the answers and nodded in all the right places, but I wasn’t sure anything had sunk in.
“Okay, that’s it,” I said, slamming my textbook closed. “You don’t have to tell me what’s going on, but clearly something is.”
“I’m sorry, Megan. Maybe this was a bad id—”
“You’re coming with me.” I shoved my books in my backpack. “This diner might be good for food and coffee and sugar packet field goal contests, but tonight we need more.” My attempt to push him out of the booth didn’t do much—getting a tall, muscular hockey player to move when he didn’t help was pretty much impossible.
At my second big push, he gave in, grabbing his books as he stood. “Where are we going?” he asked.
“No questions.” I extended my hand. “Just take my hand and follow me.”
The sounds of the kitchen drifted over to us, along with the scent of fried foods and coffee, and for a second I thought he might leave me hanging.
Then he shoved his stuff in his backpack, slung it over his shoulder, and grabbed my hand.
…
“So the other night, when I couldn’t sleep, I looked up fun things to do in Boston,” I said after I turned my car down the road the GPS told me to. “I’ll admit that most of them sounded a bit intimidating alone, which is why I haven’t quite gotten around to checking out any of them yet, but luckily, you and I are friends now, and friends go check out places together.”
Dane looked at me, the streetlights sending stripes of light across him in intervals. I waited for him to tell me he wasn’t in the mood to go anywhere, or that he didn’t have time for silly things like visiting Boston hot spots, and I promised myself I’d hold strong instead of getting offended. Instead, he asked, “What’s first?”
