Page 29 of Dibs
My heart rate kicked up a notch at the thought of seeing Gage again. It had been a couple of weeks since I’d had dinner at his place, and I’d thought the more time that passed since I’d seen him would help with the images swirling in my head since Thanksgiving when I’d watched California Thunder perform. Except every time I would lay my head on my pillow, I couldn’t stop thinking about his hands or his arms orhim.
If we hadn’t fooled aroundthat nightall those years ago, would I be thinking about him the way I was? Would I be making more of an effort to rekindle our friendship? I had to believe I would want to hang out with him, but none of those thoughts would be in my head if a line had never been crossed.
But they had been, and I was torn about whether I wanted to think about him or if Ididn’twant to think about him.
* * *
The doorbell rangan hour or so later. Jase raced from his bedroom and beat me to the front door, even though I was engrossed in the Broncos game a few feet away. Right away, the boys took off for Jase’s room.
“Hey,” I greeted Gage with a handshake and peered around him to his Tahoe. “Where’s Tyler?”
“Spending the night at a friend’s place too.”
“So, you have the house all to yourself or is Heather coming over?”
“Nope, have the house to myself.” He smiled.
Given Lisa was an absent mother, I figured Gage appreciated the quiet when his boys were away. However, I found myself asking, “Want to come in for a few beers? Broncos are in the fourth and then the Chargers play.”
He hesitated for a beat and then replied with a little bounce to his head, “Yeah. Sure.”
After I gestured for him to come inside, he took a seat on the couch while I went to the fridge for a Coors.
“Here you go.” I handed him the can with the blue mountains on it. “So, what’s new?”
Gage cracked the top. “Well, I broke up with Heather the other night after you had dinner at my place.”
I balked slightly as I plopped onto the opposite end of the sectional. “Really?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. Just wasn’t working out.”
“Sorry to hear that. You guys seemed good together.”
He gave me the side-eye and then took a sip of his beer.
My brow furrowed. “What?”
“Let’s just say ever since she met you, she reminded me of Lisa.”
My eyes widened. “You broke up because of me?”
“Do you remember how Lisa was that night …” He trailed off and cleared his throat. “The, ah … The night she showed up on campus.”
I thought for a moment, trying to remember anything other than what I had been thinking about for the past several weeks. “You mean her whining about wanting to dance?”
“I mean that once she found out that you were probably going to go pro, she got all cozy with you.”
“She didn’t get cozy with me.” I grunted a small laugh.
“As soon as it was mentioned you might go pro, she was all over you. Then she moved on to Richards after you left.”
I shook my head, still snorting a laugh. “The only thing I remember from that night is getting puked on by that chick.”
Gage and I stared at each other and I swallowed hard.Thatwasn’t the only thing I remembered.
“Is that really the only thing you remember?” he asked as we continued to lock eyes.
“No,” I exhaled.
