“Thank you for waiting,” he said in voice nearly as husky as the one he’d sported earlier. I kept my gaze above the waistline. There was so much to admire on him, but for now, I wanted to meet his gaze. “I needed to…”
“Put the horse back in the barn?” I have no idea why I popped off with that. My mom had said it a few times when talking about guys needing to tuck it back in their pants.
Ian snorted, then laughed. “Yeah, I did. Cause damn, Frankie. You’re hot. Kissing you rocked.”
Heat scorched my face all over again and his grin grew. “So that conversation we were having earlier? Yeah, I want to date you. No, I’m not going to say you have to only see me. But I’m not going out with anyone else.”
Oh.
He spread his arms. “I’m going to date you, Frankie Curtis. I want to. Will you let me?”
There was no chance in Hell I’d say no. Not to that. “I want to date you, too, Ian.”
Clapping his hands together, he looked up at me like he was praying. “Call me Ian from now on?”
“I thought you didn’t like that name.”
“I never cared. I was just always Bubba to everyone else, but you—I like how Ian sounds on your lips.”
Mouth dry, I took a sip of coke before I answered. “I can call you Ian… though the guys are probably going to make fun of us.”
He smirked. “Let them. I’ll know when the first time you called me Ian was, and I’m going to think about that kiss every single time you say my name. What they say? I don’t care.”
“Well, when you put it like that…”
“Come swim with me Frankie? Come play?” He curled his fingers.
“We still have homework and stuff to do.” Not that I was in any rush, except I did enjoy listening to him play and sing.
“It’ll be there.”
He wasn’t wrong. I set the coke down and ran over to jump in the pool before my courage fled. I landed in the deep end and I went down almost to the bottom before I pushed off and surfaced. As the water cleared my eyes, Ian wrapped his arms around me.
I half-thought he was going to kiss me again, but he said, “Whatever happens with you and me? This right here? This—the friendship? The fact you will play with me even when you’re scared? I don’t want to lose this part, okay, Frankie?”
I didn’t want to lose that either. I didn’t want to lose it with any of them.
“I missed you,” I confessed. “That’s why I came to your birthday party. I missed all of you.”
“Then you saw us with other girls…” He made a face. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize.” They really didn’t. It wasn’t like we’d been dating then. We hadn’t even really dated yet, but… “But if you want to make it up to me, I’d love to go for another ride…” Okay, maybe I was a little mean because I paused there until his eyebrows rose. “On your motorcycle,” I added.
Ian laughed, and then he lifted me up. I squealed as he tossed me. I landed farther in the water and then came up laughing. He launched toward me, and I streaked away.
He played football, but I was no slouch in the pool.
I also didn’t mind when he caught me and tossed me again.
I really didn’t mind when he caught me and kissed me. Nowhere near as intense as the first, our second kiss was playful, nipping and brief. Then he kissed the tip of my nose.
“You’re going to get a sunburn.”
“I know,” I told him. “I don’t care.”
The third kiss—I really don’t know who started it, but when it ended, Ian had to do more laps, and I headed up to shower and get back in my clothes before I did something really crazy.
When we were both showered and dressed, we ate and went over calculus homework and then his essays. Doing homework, just like we always did—except I sat in his lap for half of it and he kissed me every time I gave him a compliment.