it too revealing?”
Yes. I clamp my lips together, shake my head. “Nope.”
“It’s just I haven’t bought any new ones since everything with Mom, so these are all, like, from when I was fourteen.”
Well, that explains it. “I mean, it’s a little… tight.”
Standing in front of a full-length mirror, I try to pry my eyes away from her ass as she looks over her shoulder at me. “Too small to wear out?”
Don’t be a dick, Connor. Don’t be a dick. “It’s fine.” It’s not.
“Connor, be honest, and stop looking at my ass!”
I lift my gaze. “I can’t help it.” I reach out, take two handfuls, and pout when she slaps my hand away.
“Well? Is it too small?”
“Honestly?”
She nods.
“It’s not that it’s too small. It’s just that maybe you’ve filled out a little since then, and I don’t know, Ava,” I grumble, “I’m already getting stabby thinking about all the guys seeing you in that, and I don’t want to stab my teammates because I want to get to state.”
“And the jail time would suck…”
“Yeah, I guess that, too.”
“I just won’t go in the pool.”
“But that’s fun. You said you wanted to have fun.” I groan. “Don’t listen to me. You shouldn’t be letting me tell you what you can and can’t wear anyway. But just… keep me away from knives.”
She giggles.
“And maybe pens, too; anything I can use to stab someone.”
“All right,” she murmurs, opening her dresser. She pulls out a pair of denim shorts, and I grip the mattress when she bends over in front of me to slide them over her legs.
I adjust myself in time before she turns to me, and now her boobs are there, and I squirm, the bulge in my pants painfully uncomfortable. “Are you sure we can’t just—”
“Have never-ending sex?” she says, throwing in an eye-roll.
“I wouldn’t mind it.”
Another roll of her eyes, and now I’m starting to feel insecure. “I’ll get better.”
She opens another drawer. “Shut up, idiot.”
“Again, you have the strangest love language.”
She pulls out a Wildcats jersey, mine, and shrugs it on. “There,” she says, turning to me. “Now everyone will know I’m yours. How’s that for love language?”
Reaching over, I grasp her hand and pull until she’s standing between my legs. Head tilted back, eyes on her, I say, “Tell me.”
She offers a smile, so genuine and sincere. “I love you, Connor Ledger.” Then she takes my face in her grasp, kisses me, her mouth already open when it meets mine. Tongue parting my lips, she holds me prisoner to her desire. When she pulls away, she adds, “And you’re incredible in bed. The best minute and forty-eight seconds of my life.”
Ava leads me by my hand to the “west wing,” even though I could’ve found my way there by the music blaring and the kids hollering. She wasn’t kidding when she said the indoor pool was more like a beach. Take away the obvious painted scenic walls, and I’d think I was down in Myrtle Beach during spring break.
As soon as Rhys makes my presence known, I’m bombarded by the guys from the team and a few girls I’ve seen hanging around them. Ava’s grasp on my hand weakens, and I hold her tighter, making sure she doesn’t get a chance to flee. To hide. It doesn’t take long for the guys to realize that she’s here, too, and they greet her with the same enthusiasm. And I don’t know if it’s honest or if they’re doing it for me, because they know how important she is to me, but I appreciate it. Karen shows up next, declares Ava as hers for the day, and I reluctantly release my hold and let them go off together. But I watch her. Closely. Because I can’t not. I love to see the genuine smile on her face when she sits with a group of girls I assume were once her friends. I love watching her eyes light up when she laughs, the way her head tilts back with the force, and the way her hands move in earnest when she’s the one talking. I love the way she glances up every now and then, her eyes searching for me, and the way her lips curve when she spots me.
I even love the way her hips sway when she walks toward me, ignoring the fact that I’m with a few of my teammates. She throws her arms around my neck, drags my face down to hers and kisses me with as much