Her cheeks colored. “Stop. I don’t recall much of the conversation but I remember telling you something about adventurous nights. Yeah, that was so me propositioning you and I never do that sort of thing.”
“So you’re telling me you don’t want that. With me.” He could walk away from her right now. End this flirtation that was screwing with his head and his body, because yeah. He throbbed in all the right places and he had no business asking her to take care of his, uh…problems.
“I don’t know what I’m saying.” She shook her head, her delicate brows furrowed, her lips pursed in a tiny frown. “Okay, I know what I want but I’m too embarrassed to admit it.”
This sounded interesting. “Tell me, Chloe. It can’t be that bad.”
“It’s silly.”
“I won’t know until you tell me,” he coaxed.
She blew out a harsh breath. “Fine. Remember the summer before your senior year, when you were dating Melanie Michaels?”
A summer he’d rather forget. The summer he’d fallen in love with Melanie, only for her to rip his heart out of his chest and stomp it into the ground. All for an older guy, some jackass who was in college and had a freaking brand new convertible. “Yeah, I remember,” he said somewhat bitterly.
He’d believed they had the perfect relationship. And Melanie had shattered that illusion to bits with a few choice words.
“I was so jealous.” She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m admitting this but I wanted that. So badly.”
“Wanted what?”
“What you and Melanie had. You treated her like gold. Took her everywhere. Hung out in your father’s boat on the lake at night under the stars, bought her ice cream at Mitchell’s Landing. You guys were together everywhere that summer. Like my favorite teen romance books come to life.” She blew out a harsh breath. “I sound like a stalker, but the whole town saw you two that summer. Plus, I spent a lot of time with Jane.”
He remembered. Chloe had been over at his house almost every day during the summer, unless Jane was over at hers. “We broke up pretty badly two weeks before school started.” He’d taken Melanie’s virginity in the middle of the lake on his dad’s boat in mid-July. By early August she’d already grown bored with him. Started avoiding his calls, and then bam.
She dumped him.
“I know,” she said somberly. “I guess what I’m trying to tell you is, I want a sweet summer romance as my adventure.”
“A sweet summer romance,” he repeated. It sounded like a cheesy made-for-TV movie.
“Yes. With lots of dates and nighttime boat rides on the lake, kissing each other under the stars.” She sighed dreamily. “I never had that.”
“You never had a boyfriend in high school?”
“No one that counted, all short-term stuff. A date here and there. I didn’t have my first serious relationship until college.”
He remained quiet for so long she finally spoke again. “It’s a stupid idea, huh? I should’ve never mentioned it.” She started to get up but he placed his hands on her slender knees, keeping her in place.
“It’s not a stupid idea.” A little quirky, but definitely not stupid. “We won’t be able to keep it secret, though. Not if we go out the way you described.”
“In public, we can just be friends, right? Two people who’ve known each other for a long time hanging out.”
Was she that clueless? The gossips would have them engaged by the end of the summer. “They’ll read into it. They always do.”
She shrugged, the bra strap slipping now. Damn it. “Let them. I really don’t care.”
He found that hard to believe but decided not to argue. “So you want me to bring you wildflowers I picked along the road and take you for a cheap burger dinner over at Mitchell’s. Can’t be The Tree because it’s a sweet summer romance and that place is a trashy bar.”
She laughed, her cheeks flushing. That he could make her blush astounded him. “Exactly.”
“And you want me to hold your hand and tell you all my hopes and dreams for our forbidden future? Oh, and take you out on my dad’s boat with a blanket so we can lie on the bow and watch the stars while I feel you up?”
That described pretty much everything he’d experienced with Melanie that summer.
Her cheeks burned bright pink. “Is that what you did with Melanie?” she asked.
“That and a whole lot more.”