you doing at my dorm? And how did you know where I lived?”
His rough chuckle pulls a smile from my lips. “Good. Agreed. I wanted to see you and…” He leans in closer. “I can’t reveal all my secrets.” He’s full-on grinning at me with a mocking glint in his eyes. “Come on, take a walk with me.”
“A walk?”
“Sure. You got something better to do?”
“I was planning on taking a nap.”
“Sleep’s boring. Come on, am I really having to talk you into this? It’s gorgeous outside and we can stop at the dining hall to feed you.”
“Me?”
“Now that you mention it, I could eat.”
He doesn’t move and I relent. “One minute.”
I leave him in the hallway, shut the door, and change out of my comfy yoga pants and into a pair of shorts. I swipe on lip gloss and a dab of mascara. When I pull the door open, he’s leaning against the wall, one ankle crossed over the other and hands in his pockets.
“Ready?”
He pushes off the wall and motions for me to go first. “If you are.”
We cross the street to the dining hall in silence. Heath seems perfectly at ease with the quiet, while I have a million questions on the tip of my tongue. He holds the door out for me.
“I should have assumed spending time with you would mean eating.”
“Always,” he says. “Plus, it’s where we met. We have history here.”
I huff a laugh and grab a tray. Now that we’re here, I am kind of hungry. Heath gets a much smaller portion of food than normal and I raise a brow.
“I already ate lunch once,” he admits.
We take our food to our usual table.
“What time did you sneak out this morning?” he asks.
I hesitate with a chip up to my mouth. “I didn’t sneak out.”
His left brow rises as he takes a bite of food.
“Okay, fine. I very quietly left at a ridiculously early time. Happy?”
“Obviously not since I tracked you down.”
“I’m fine, okay?”
He shrugs. As we eat, he tells me about his morning with the team doing community service and I tell him about running with the girls.
“Congrats on being drafted, by the way. Adam mentioned it this summer, but I didn’t piece together it was you until Reagan mentioned it last night.”
“Thanks.” He sits back in his chair, drinking his water and studying me.
“What?” I ask self-consciously.
“Trying to figure you out. What are you into?”
“Everything and nothing. I didn’t play sports in high school or anything like that.”
“Had to have been into something.”
“I was into socializing. Turns out you can’t make a career out of that unless your parents are rich and famous.”
“Damn those Kardashians.”
“Right?”
“Genevieve, Genevieve, Genevieve.”
I love the way my full name sounds when he says it. I was always sort of embarrassed by it. Teachers would comment on how beautiful it was, which to a middle schooler, is super humiliating. Kids would taunt me with it, at least until I got boobs, then it became some sort of bad pickup line. “Genevieve, huh? Cool name.”
Cue swooning. Not.
Except, I’m sort of swooning now and all he did was say my name. And I’m also staring at him when I’m supposed to be saying something. Anything.
“Heath, Heath, Heath.”
His playful smile makes my stomach flip.
“I’m going to get ice cream.” I stand before he can comment and take my time at the dessert bar creating a perfect sundae.
He’s picking at the chips on my tray when I get back. “I assumed you were done.”
“They’re all yours.”
“What is that?” he asks, face twisted in disgust as he eyes my bowl of ice cream.
“Neapolitan with sprinkles and gummy bears.”
“All the flavors are touching.”
I laugh and bring a big spoonful of all three flavors to my mouth. He continues to watch on horrified.
“I don’t understand Neapolitan flavor. It’s ice cream for people who can’t make a decision.”
“Not true. The decision is we want all three and don’t want to settle for one boring flavor.” I offer him my spoon. “Wanna try it?”
His mouth pulls into a tight line and he shakes his head.
“Come on.” I sit forward and lean over the table to get the spoon closer to his mouth. He opens and I feed him, which turns out to be a surprisingly intimate thing. His throat works, eyes locked on mine, as I sit back and study his reaction to the food.
“Well?”
“I think I swallowed a gummy bear whole,” he says, voice tight.
We finish the rest of my ice cream and if Heath eating more