7
MY TEENAGE WET DREAM
Ellie
This is just drinks. I only want to prove I’m not a bad-boy magnet. And if this date with a certified good guy goes well, perhaps he can be my plus one for Aunt Tilly’s party, complete with apple pies, lemonade, and lawn croquet—in pairs, of course. Mom and her sisters love a good lawn party. If Gabe goes with me, that’ll keep Mom from hounding me about my taste in men.
Gabe’s like a mom shield. That’s all.
I check my reflection in the full-length mirror in my bedroom. Cotton-candy pink ribbed tank, a black distressed jean skirt, and zip-up ankle boots.
Damn, I like the way I look. I bet he will too. The man seems to like pink. No reasonnotto lean into his color preferences.
I flip my head over, fluff my hair a final time, then pop back up in a cloud of chestnut waves. Yup, I’m ready to see my teenage wet dream.
A flare of excitement lights up inside me, but I do my best to keep it in check.
I don’t want to get too caught up in my girlhood crush.
This is just drinks.
I focus on the practical details. Gin Joint is about a mile away, so I’ll ride my scooter. I can have a drink and not worry about driving home. Grabbing my little shoulder bag, I leave the bedroom then find my fave four-legged person in the living room, this time curled up on her red velvet dog chair like a little queen. “Don’t get into trouble while I’m gone,” I tell Gigi.
She looks like she’s saying:I’m perfect, don’t you know?
“Yes, I do know that,” I say, then bend over her throne to tap her little wet nose. She licks my face, letting me know she forgives me for even suggesting she’d be less than a lady while I’m gone.
I head to the garage, tapping a note to Maddox on my phone as I go.Guess what I’m doing tonight? Taking the scooter you got me as I head out on a date!
His reply is instant.A datewith a bad boy?
I laugh, shaking my head. He’ll be so proud of me.I’m turning over a new leaf. I’m taking a good guy out for a spin. So there.
Enjoy the ride.And of course I mean the…guy.
As I sling on my helmet, I write back:Maddox, who’s bad now?
Then I tuck the phone away and dial into the moment.
Not the past and my long-ago lust for Gabe Clements. But the present and the challenge. As I ride through the neighborhood streets, I imagine leaving a trail of bad boys in the dust.
I’m living in a new town where I’m going to be a new woman. A woman who knows how to pick ’em. Not a woman who gets tangled up with cons, jerks, and thieves.
I turn onto the busy main road, then park on the sidewalk outside Gin Joint, hop off the scooter, and unsnap the helmet. I peer in the window, fluffing my hair.
But before I push open the door to the too-cool lounge, the butterflies flap wildly in my chest.
Again.
I’m about to have a drink with the guy I harbored a wicked, forbidden crush on when I was in high school. Back then, I was fifteen. He was twenty-five. He was all kinds of off-limits, and yet Gabe Clements sleeping on my parents’ couch in all his muscly, bearded glory was my goddamn sexual awakening when I was busy growing boobs.
Well, I sneaked downstairs, of course and watched him sleep. I had no choice!
The butterflies race through me, kicking up naughty fantasies again.
Oh, hell.
What have I done?