Noah’s hand slips into mine and I look up at him as he watches Rivers manhandle the thing, trying to pull it off…and not in the good way. “Do I even want to know where you’ve been hiding that thing?”
Noah looks down at me before sending a devastatingly sexy wink my way. “Would you think differently of me if I told you it was in my bedside table?”
“I guess it depends on why it was there?” I laugh, raising a suspicious, accusing eyebrow.
“Hey,” he warns. “I like chicks.”
“Uh huh.”
Tully calls out to Rivers, dragging my attention from my possibly closeted boyfriend. “You’re being too rough,” she tells him. “He doesn’t like it.”
“Fucking watch it,” Rivers snaps back at her.
“Do you need some help?” she grins wickedly. “I can show you a few things.”
“Fuck me,” Noah groans beside me
Rivers eventually gets the dildo unstuck and does so without recruiting Tully’s help, though my guess is that it was a pride thing or maybe he just wanted to prove to the world that he could handle the big fucker. Who knows?
Our morning pretty much gets back to normal and before I know it, I’m sitting in Mr. Carver’s biology class, looking down at the completed scholarship application form on my desk in front of me.
The end of class bell sounds but I hang back in my chair, waiting for the students to file out as Tully waits by the door. “Ah, you filled it all out?” Mr. Carver inquires fondly.
“Yep, I sure did,” I tell him.
“Great timing,” he says before digging through the papers on his desk. “I printed off your recommendation just an hour ago and spoke with your other teachers. They’re all working on their plans to get you the extra credit you need, and hopefully, we can make this happen.”
“Thank you,” I say as he hands me the recommendation. My eyes desperately want to look down and read through it, but with the guy standing right before me, it feels a little too personal. I’ll read it when I get home.
“No drama,” he tells me, walking back to his desk and organizing his things. “There should be some instructions on the application detailing how they expect it to be submitted, so make sure you do all that and let me know how you go.”
Wow. Ok, shit. This is actually happening.
“Thanks,” I tell him again. “I’ll go over it at lunch and get it submitted.”
“Good work, Henley,” he tells me. “You deserve it.”
With that, I file out of the room until Tully is looping her arms through mine. “Well, let’s see it then,” she tells me, slipping the recommendation out of my fingers. “It’s almost unbelievable that someone here would have something good to say about you.”
“Shut up,” I laugh. “I’d like to see any of the teachers here give you a recommendation.”
“Whatever,” she huffs. “I don’t need a recommendation from those bitches to know how fucking cool I am. All I have to do is walk into a room.”
I roll my eyes as she scans over the recommendation. “Ugh, are you sure Carver just isn’t trying to get into your pants?” she says, taking in what he’s written.
“Get lost,” I tell her, snatching the letter back out of her fingers. “He is not. He’s just trying to help his students make something of themselves.”
“Yeah, after he gets a slice of your cherry pie.”
“Geez,” I groan. “It’s no wonder your brother hasn’t adopted you out yet.”
“I know. We’ve gotten close a few times, but he just can’t seem to get rid of me.”
“Oh well, here’s to hoping.”
The rest of the day goes by in some kind of a blur and before I know it, I’m walking down to the student parking lot, searching out Noah’s car, but not able to find it anywhere. “Where’s Noah?” I ask Rivers as he drops down in his car beside the spot Noah usually parks in.
“On a job,” he tells me.
“What?” I grunt, my head whipping towards him. “Without you?”
“Yeah, no big deal,” he says though the look in his eyes suggests otherwise. “We go solo all the time.”
I scrunch up my face. “I don’t know if I like that.”
“You don’t gotta like it,” he tells me. “Just deal with it knowing he’ll come see you as soon as he’s done. Now, get your ass in. I’m taking you girls home.”
Well, that’s one way to shut down the conversation.
Tully walks down and comes straight over to Rivers’ car as though she already knew he was taking us home. I let her take the front and when Rivers doesn’t instantly start reversing out of his spot, Tully snaps at him. “What are you doing, dickwad? Get a move on.”
Rivers face scrunches up in a way that I’ve never seen before. “Don’t hate me, ok,” he begs, turning to Tully. “I sort of promised Alyssa I’d drop her home too.”