Page 7 of Playing to Win
“It’s almost midnight.” Her smile is now overly bright. “We can ring in the new year together.”
“Maybe.” I pull my phone out of my pocket to check that yep, it is close to midnight. “I need something to drink too.”
“Let’s go then.” She shifts away from the door and opens it for me and I have no choice but to walk out, the redhead right by my side.
I need to lose her. Fast. I need to find Ruby.
Where the hell did she go?
THREE
RUBY
Once I makeit to the kitchen I lean against the counter for a moment, running a shaky hand through my hair as I focus on my overactive heart rate, mentally telling myself to calm down. But wow.
Wow.
That moment with Ace shouldn’t have felt so intense, yet it did. I’ve been kissed before. By plenty of guys. I’ve even been felt up in a bathroom a time or two. But there was something about the way Ace touched me. The way he looked at me.
A shiver moves through me and I close my eyes for the briefest moment, willing myself to stop. I’m reading too much into it. Our encounter was a potential hookup in a bathroom, only to be rudely interrupted. I need to compose myself.
But it’s like I got close to him and he put his hands—wait, only hisfinger—on me and my senses went haywire. Completely out of control.
It’s weird. I don’t like feeling out of control. I sort of hate it.
I also sort of want it—that moment between Ace and me—to happen again.
“There you are!” I turn to find Natalie approaching me, two fresh Truly cans clutched in her hands. She gives one to me and I take it gladly, cracking it open and practically draining it with a couple of gulps. “Where were you? Getting felt up by the cutie QB?”
“Sort of,” I answer, lifting my can toward her in a cheers gesture.
She nailed that a little too closely for my liking.
Natalie laughs, clinking her can against mine before we both drink. “I need all the details.”
“There’s not much to share.” I glance around the room, hoping to catch a glimpse of Ace again. Hoping against hope that he followed me out here, though he better not be with the redhead.
I mean, it’s possible he could be looking for me. The tension between us was strong. Palpable. Did he feel it? When he touched me, I wanted to melt. I sort of did.
Remembering the moment now, I want to melt all over again.
“Don’t be shy.” Natalie’s smile is sly. “Please tell me you at least kissed him.”
“Hey, everyone! It’s almost midnight!” A tall, beefy football player is standing in the middle of the kitchen, his hands cupped around his mouth as he makes his announcement. “Get ready to celebrate the new year!”
Natalie sends me a panicked look. “I need to find someone to smooch on at midnight. It’s bad luck if you don’t kiss someone!”
“Are you serious?” She doesn’t even hear my question. Just hurries away from me, her head swiveling left and right as she moves through the house, as if she’s on the hunt for a man.
Which she totally is.
I watch her go before leaping into action myself, on the search for a specific someone to ‘smooch on,’ as Natalie put it. And that someone is Ace Townsend.
This is probably a terrible idea, but what does it matter? I’m leaving in a matter of days. I might be coming back to this campus as a student next fall, though what are my chances of running into Ace again. Knox will be graduated and gone, so I’ll have no reason to spend any time with the football team. No access to them whatsoever, which is fine by me. I get enough of that in my homelife. My entire family is made up of football players. I don’t date them.
I swore I never would.
Exiting the kitchen, I move through the crowded house, but I don’t spot him anywhere.
