Stars Over Alaska (Wild River #4) - Jennifer Snow Page 0,18
desperate not to read too much into her standoffish coldness.
Seeing her had made him anything but cold.
The image of her getting out of her car in just a towel was likely to plague him for a long time. He’d add it to his inventory of memories. The ones he didn’t want to try to forget. Yes, some of them were painful and full of heartache, but there had been a lot of good times too.
Even if he’d been the third wheel.
And unfortunately, he couldn’t help but question if maybe he wouldn’t have been the third wheel if he hadn’t frozen on the day that had changed everything...
Since that day on the playground, the three of them had been inseparable. Leslie and Dawson’s passion for movie making had never really rubbed off on Levi, but he accepted the roles they gave him without complaint. Then as they got older, even as their interests changed and new friends were made, they were all still close.
And with Dawson involved in every sport imaginable, it had been he and Leslie who had spent more time together going to movies, hanging out at Dawson’s sports games, studying... He remembered the day he felt the shift. At thirteen, they were starting to get interested in dating and kissing and she’d been the one to initiate the conversation as they’d collected their books from their lockers after school.
“Have you kissed anyone yet?” she asked.
He wanted to be cool so badly, but he knew there was no point in lying to her. His palms had sweat and his mouth was chalky as he’d shaken his head. “You?”
“No...” She twirled a piece of her blond hair around her finger as she stared at her high-top sneakers. “I was thinking that maybe it might be a good idea to learn...practice with a friend before either of us tries to kiss someone we really like and mess it up.”
His heart was beating so loudly in his ears that she had to have heard it. She wanted to kiss him. But not because she really liked him—because she wanted to practice on someone safe. Unfortunately, he really did like her and if he was going to kiss her, he wanted it to be special. He didn’t want to be the trial run guy, the safe friends-only guy...
While he struggled with the words to form a confession, to finally tell her how he felt and put himself out there, she’d misread his silence as being not interested.
Her cheeks had flushed and she’d laughed. “I was totally kidding, Levi. Man, you should have seen your face.”
“Oh...um...”
She’d turned and hurried away as the bell rang. And he’d stood there so long in shock, regret and confusion that he’d gotten a hall slip from the monitor.
All day, he’d replayed it, kicking himself for not agreeing to it and for not making his own feelings clear.
He had to stop being such a wimp. Leslie had wanted to kiss him and he’d made a huge mess of it. Now he had to make things right. He’d ask her to the winter formal dance, then if it seemed like she was into him too, he’d go in for a real kiss. One he was prepared for. One that conveyed his true feelings for her. Move away from friends-only and have the relationship he’d been wanting with her since that first day on the playground.
After school, he caught up to her as she was unpacking her locker.
Play it cool. Apologize for freezing earlier that day and ask her to the dance.
But as he approached, he saw Dawson heading down the hall toward them from the other direction. He slowed his pace a little. Damn, he didn’t want to ask in front of Dawson. That part of things was going to be potentially awkward as it was if he and Leslie started dating.
How would their dynamic change if two of them were more than just friends? Would Dawson want to double-date with them? If he ever got serious about anything other than sports? Or would they spend more time apart?
Dawson reached Leslie first and Levi’s stomach knotted as his buddy produced two winter formal dance tickets from behind his back.
Two. Not three.
Shit. No. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Since when was Dawson into Leslie that way? He’d never shown any interest... Was he asking her to go as friends? But then, he would have bought a third ticket and they would all have gone together.