“Oh. That’s good. It makes sense they’d cut you some slack since you just moved here.” She frowned again. “But what does that have to do with Payton?”
“I’m getting to that. One of the projects she told me about is mentoring kids from the middle school, teaching guitar, talking about music, whatever.”
Jordan’s eyes lit. “But that’s perfect! Do you think they’d let you work with Payton?”
“I don’t know, but it’s worth a shot to ask.”
Jordan squee-ed, a completely uncharacteristic sound coming from her. “And you’ll ask? You’ll see if she’ll let you mentor Payton?”
“Well, yeah. Of course.” Because, as mentioned, I had a feeling I’d do just about anything for this girl and she didn’t even know it.
“Thank you!” She threw her arms around my neck. “Thank you.” Her voice choked on the last word.
Slowly, tentatively, I put my arms around her waist. “You’re welcome. But I haven’t done anything yet.”
She shook her head, her face glowing. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to find a way to help him and haven’t come up with anything. For the first time in months, I feel hope. Even if this doesn’t work out, even if it does and nothing changes, I’ll feel better knowing we tried.” She hugged me again. “Thank you.”
I hugged her in return, inhaling deeply. Who knew when I’d get the chance to hold her again. Jordan’s hair smelled fruity and girly and I knew I’d be dreaming about it that night.
All too soon, she pulled back, withdrawing her hands from around my neck. Even in the dim light of dusk, her cheeks were visibly red. I wanted to reassure her she had nothing to be embarrassed about. I wanted to hold her. I wanted to help her. I wanted her.
“I should go,” she said, rising to her feet. I scrambled to follow. She took a step to leave and then stopped. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yes.” And every day after if she’d allow it.
“Bye, Asher.”
I watched as she picked her way across the lawn, exhaling a deep breath while hoping and praying with all my might I wouldn’t let this girl down.
Chapter Ten
Jordan
Maybe I’d misjudged Asher. Or maybe I’d been too quick to judge because he’d unwittingly threatened my two greatest loves on that first day we met, my family and my game. He still posed a threat on the ice, but after our conversation the night before, I felt more hope than I had in a long time when it came to my family, because of him. If Asher could help Payton discover a love of music maybe he’d stop hanging around kids who were a bad influence. And if that happened? It would be a miracle for our family.
We showed up to school at the same time the next morning.
“You stalking me now,” I asked as he fell into step beside me.
“Absolutely,” he answered. “Is that okay? I mean, you did eavesdrop on me for a whole two weeks without my knowledge.” He nudged my arm with his elbow.
“You should have stayed inside if you didn’t want anyone to hear you.” I nudged him back.
“Oh, I don’t care that you listened.” Without missing a step, he leaned down to murmur in my ear. “In fact, it’s kinda hot.”
Oh, wow. I swallowed hard. But I couldn’t let him know how much he affected me.
“Don’t get cocky, Sloane. It was either listen to you or listen to my parents chew out my brother.”
“Oh-ho!” He held his fist in front of his mouth. “Burn. You are mean.”
I patted his arm. “Don’t be so sensitive. On second thought, it wasn’t that bad. Kind of like getting serenaded every evening.”
Asher wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me around in front of him. He kept us moving, me walking backward with both his arms around me. His dark, heavy lidded eyes met mine. “Serenaded, huh? That’s what it takes to get your attention? Because if so, I’m down.”
I bit my lip to hold back my grin. I could get down with flirting with him, but he didn’t need to know that.
“Oh, no. It would take a lot more than singing outside my bedroom window to get my attention.” I stepped out of his hold and left him standing in the middle of the sidewalk. “See you later.”
“What the heck was that?” Natalie came out of nowhere, or maybe I’d been too distracted by Asher to notice her. “I thought we hated him?”
“We do,” I said.
“Uh-huh. You keep telling yourself that, Jord.”
“He’s doing me a favor.”
Natalie lifted a brow.
I pushed her shoulder. “Not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter.”
“Hey, you were the one hugging him.”
“Who hugged who?” Kelly asked as she joined us.
“Jordan and Asher,” Natalie said.
Kelly’s eyes widened. “I thought you couldn’t stand that guy. Are you guys going out now?”
“What? No. Absolutely not.” I shook my head, back and forth.
Natalie nudged Kelly. “They were totally hugging for like a long time.”
“Really?” Kelly’s eyes lit. “You totally like him!”
“I do not!” Ugh. I hated my friends right now. “He’s helping me-”
“Right. Helping you.” Natalie winked.
“I’m serious. He’s going to see if he can mentor Payton for his community service hours for graduation.”
That shut them up.
“Okay, that’s cool of him,” Kelly said.
Natalie nodded. “Yeah, it is. But how did he find out about Payton?”
I hadn’t told them about Asher living behind me or about listening to him play his guitar and sing outside my bedroom window. I hadn’t told them what happened after school when Asher gave me a ride and we ran into Payton skipping practice to hang out with his friends. And I hadn’t said a word about talking to Asher last night.
So, I rectified the situation by telling them right then.
“Asher’s your neighbor?” Kelly asked.
“You’ve been hanging out with him in your backyard,” Natalie said.
“We’ve hung out twice.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Kelly asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. There really hasn’t been anything to tell.”
“Um, I’m pretty sure you just spent the last five minutes telling us a whole lot.”
When she put it that way…
“Okay, when you put it all together, it seems like more than it really is, but I promise, there’s nothing going on.”
Kelly leaned her shoulder into Natalie’s and spoke out of the side of her mouth. “Do you think she’s lying to us or herself?”
“Whatever,” I said, turning my back on them, heading toward my first period class. “You guys suck.”
“See you at lunch?” Natalie called after me.
I waved over my shoulder. Their giggles followed me down the hall and I had to smile. Natalie and Kelly were good friends. They always had my back and rarely let me off the hook.
Of course, the small amount of hope I’d been feeling about Payton’s situation, thanks to Asher, couldn’t stomp out another source of anxiety that had nothing to do with my brother or the hot guy who had the voice of an angel.
As much as I tried to ignore bad behavior, Leo Jessup just wouldn’t let well enough alone. It occurred to me I’d been right and pasting me into the walls on the ice translated into flirting in Leo’s world because even after Asher laid into him at practice, Leo didn’t given up. Instead of messing with me on the ice, he did it at school.
Every time I turned around, he’d be right there making stupid comments and leering. He’d managed to keep himself in check for the most part, but I dreaded each encounter. I’d become an expert at avoiding him.
Unfortunately, my desire to avoid Leo often conflicted with my unwanted desire to run into Asher. Like a junkie looking for her next hit, I’d been searching the halls between passing periods for any small glimpse of the boy I
couldn’t seem to get enough of.
“Hey, hey, Jordan.”
Oh, no.
Distracted as I’d been with thoughts of Asher, I’d missed Leo walking up behind me.
He slung his arm around my shoulder, the aroma wafting to my nose from his armpit making me gag a little.
“Get off me, Leo,” I grunted, shoving his arm off my neck. I hadn’t grown up with three brothers for nothing.
“Aw, come on, Jordan. You and me. What do you say?” He tried to put his arm around me a second time. I pushed him away again.
“In your dreams, Jessup. That’s what I say.” Was he crazy? What made him think I liked him like that? I didn’t even like him not like that. Where were Natalie and Kelly when I needed them? But I knew where they were. On the whole other side of the school on their way to the cafeteria.
“Why you gotta be like that?” he whined leaning over me, his hot breath disgusting on my cheek.
Had Leo always been so gross?
Then suddenly, from my other side an entirely different sensation. A strong arm, heady scent, and sweet breath.
“Babe. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Asher’s arm settled around my waist, fusing our sides together in a newly familiar way.
Babe?
“Wha-” I looked up into his gorgeous face to find him glaring at Leo.
Asher’s gaze shifted until our eyes met. “I was looking for you,” he said, his voice lowering to a timber I recognized from the hours I’d spent listening to him sing outside my bedroom window. Deep. Sultry.
My mouth went dry. “You were?”
“Yeah, I have something to tell you.” His nose dipped toward my hair and I heard him inhale.
He’d caught me off guard. My knees felt weak. “Tell me?”
“Wait a second? What’s going on here?” Leo asked the question I couldn’t quite seem to form myself.
“Take a hike, man. Jordan’s busy.”
Was I?
Definitely.
“Busy doing what?” Leo asked obviously just as confused as me.
“Busy hanging out with me and not you. Now, go away.” Asher’s surprisingly hard stare had Leo backing up, his hands held up in surrender.
“Fine, man. Whatever.” It didn’t take him long to disappear into the crowd.
Asher and I watched until we couldn’t see him any longer.
“What the heck, Jordan?” Asher asked in a tone that made my hackles raise. It felt like whiplash after being so affected by his nearness.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, still trying to shake off the haziness.
He snorted impatiently while herding me to the edge of the hallway. As hockey players, we knew how to use our bodies to get people to move.
“Stop that.” I might be used to getting pushed around, didn’t mean I liked it.
“We talked about this. Why are you letting that guy bother you?” Asher towered over me, his body casting a shadow, giving the illusion of being secluded. “It’s bad enough on the ice, but now he’s doing it at school, too.”
“He’s just being annoying.” Not entirely true. I just didn’t want Asher to think he had to fight my battles. He was already doing enough, helping with Payton.
Asher frowned. “It’s more than that and you know it. Why haven’t you told Joe? Or your dad? I can’t believe neither of them have noticed.”
The stuff on the ice wasn’t that bad until you added in the school element. “I’m fine.”
His dark eyes searched mine. I wanted to be mad at him for interfering, but I couldn’t. What he’d done was kind of sweet.
“You called me ‘babe’.” Did he see my pulse pounding in my throat? He stood so close, how could he not?
Asher’s eyes darkened, his expression softening. “I had to get him away from you. I didn’t know how else to do it without getting into a fight.”
“Yeah, but now, he probably thinks we’re, you know.”
His lips turned up and the desire to reach out and touch them became almost impossible to resist. I didn’t go gah-gah over boys. But something about Asher lured me in. Maybe his song. Or his willingness to help my brother. But what about my rule. Falling for Asher could be catastrophic.
Or it could be incredible.
Asher
“Yeah, but now, he probably thinks we’re, you know,” she said, her eyes widening.
Oh, yeah. I knew.
“And that would be a problem?” What could possibly be the point of denying my attraction at this point? Jordan hit all my buttons in all the right ways. I noticed her. All. The. Time. That’s how I noticed Jessup messing with her. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her.
After interfering at practice and getting my butt handed to me about it, I held back from saying anything, doing anything. But it was there. Every practice, I’d grit my teeth against the desire to paste that guy into the boards, but I understood. Jordan had something to prove. She didn’t need me flying in to protect her. Hockey was a physical sport. Besides, her dad and her brother were both there every day, making me think I’d been overly sensitive because I wanted to kiss her.
Watching her shove Jessup’s arm off her shoulder and then seeing him try to put it back, well, I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to do something.
Now, Jessup was long gone and Jordan stood with her back against the wall in the now empty hall, staring up at me with those huge blue eyes of hers, her pulse pounding in her neck, and I did something crazy.
With my hands braced on either side of her head, I dipped my head until my nose brushed the soft skin at the back of her jaw. Jordan looked tough, but she smelled like the most feminine thing I’d ever encountered.
“You smell so good,” I murmured, inhaling deeply.
Her breath came out short and choppy. “I do?”
“Mhmm.” I nodded and my nose brushed back and forth over her skin.
“What are you doing,” she asked, breathlessly.
“I don’t want to be your enemy, Jordan.” Stepping closer, I brought our bodies in contact with each other.
“You don’t?”
“No.”
“What do you want, then?”
I thought she’d never ask.
“I want to kiss you.”
Her breath hitched. “You do?”
I nodded again. “Can I?”
She nodded.
Yes!
But first, we had to clear the air.
“Ms. Jackson said she’d talk to whoever’s in charge at the middle school about Payton.”
Jordan’s hands gripped my sides. “She did? When?”
“I talked to her a few minutes ago. I really was looking for you. I explained the situation to her and she thinks it’s a great idea.” Unable to wait any longer, I pressed my lips to her neck.
Jordan shivered, her fists clenching my tee shirt. “Asher-”
“I’m happy to help your brother if I can, but kissing you can’t be about that.” I lifted my head, needing to see her eyes. “I want to kiss you more than just about anything,” I whispered. “But don’t kiss me as a favor. Kiss me because you want to.”
I drew my hands away from the wall and used them to frame her face. Her skin felt soft against my calloused fingertips, and with more patience than I knew I had, I waited.
“Jordan?”
“Oh, just do it already.” Lifting onto her toes, Jordan brought her lips to mine.
It had been building, this need to hold her, kiss her. I couldn’t hold back if I tried. My hands abandoned her cheeks to find her waist while our lips worked together, pulling, tugging, tasting.
I bent my knees and lifted her off the ground, gasping into her mouth. Her fingers threaded through my hair and my knees weakened.
Did that happen to guys?
I turned around and leaned my back against the wall. Jordan slid down my body, never breaking the seal of our lips. My arms and hands roamed over her back, into her hair. I’d never experienced such a passionate
kiss.
One second, there, and the next, gone.
Chest heaving, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Man, I wanted to pull her back and kiss her again.
“I should go.”
“Jordan-” I said, but she stopped me.
“I’ll talk to you later. I have to go.”
I fell back against the wall and watched her leave. What the heck just happened? Did I kiss Jordan?
The tingling in my lips and the melody in my heart said yes.
What now?
Hell.
I had no idea, but I needed to play my guitar.
Chapter Eleven
Jordan
Holy smokes!
Did that just happen?
Did I just make out with Asher Sloane outside the cafeteria?
I needed some space.
No, I needed my friends.
Me: SOS
I ran into the restroom and waited for a reply. It didn’t take long.
Hannah: What’s up?
Alex: What’s wrong?
Me: I did something stupid.
While I’d been hush-hush about Asher to Natalie and Kelly, I’d told Alex and Hannah everything. They didn’t go to my school and wouldn’t judge no matter what.
Alex: OMG what?!?!
Hannah: Girl, what are you talking about?
I took a deep breath even though neither of them were around to appreciate my anxiety.
Me: I kinda, sorta, maybe kissed Asher.
I closed my eyes and waited for their reactions. It took long enough I imagined them staring at their phones in stunned silence.
And then my phone. Blew. Up.
Alex: You did WHAT?
Hannah: You go, girl! *kiss emoji*
Alex: What about Rule #1?
Hannah: Forget Rule #1. This guy must be HAWT *flames emoji*
Me: Looks aren’t everything. But yes.
Hannah: I need pictures!
Alex: Jordan!
Hannah: Calm down, Alex. This isn’t a bad thing. Jordan hasn’t liked anyone. Ever.
Alex: Yes, I know, Hannah. But he’s her teammate!
Hannah: So what? At least they’re on the same team and not rivals.
Playing to Win (The Trouble with Tomboys Book2) Page 9
