by Kelly Oram
It was so hard to be cool when Kendrick freaking Abbey had just complimented my skateboarding. Libby giggled again, so I must have been blushing. “Nah. I just spend most of my spare time here at the park.”
“Because he kept getting chased by the cops off the elementary school grounds,” CJ joked.
“And out of the mall,” Dex added, making everyone laugh.
Of course, Rafe couldn’t leave it at that. “And don’t forget last winter, when he snuck into Seven Peaks Waterpark in Provo and went to town on all the waterslides.”
My friends all lost it, while Joey and his group gasped. “That was you?” Joey asked, looking at me with a new sense of awe.
I tried not to act too proud, because that had been a stupid move that almost landed me in jail. I hadn’t had Kate with me then, and I’d been a lot more reckless. But still, I’d owned that waterpark. It’d been the ride of a lifetime. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “There’s no proof that was me. It could have been any kid in a hoodie.”
My friends lost it again, and Joey just shook his head, still fascinated. “Man, they played that security footage of you dropping into the Boomerang for a week. That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”
“No shit,” Kendrick said, blinking at me. “You dropped into a three-story half-pipe waterslide on your skateboard?”
I held up my hands and shook my head. “Hey. I don’t know anything about that. And my days of trespassing are long over.” I had a kid sister to take care of now. I couldn’t afford to be stupid anymore.
My response got another round of howling laughter, and Kendrick flashed me a grin of total understanding. The guy had definitely been chased out of a few places by the cops himself before. “You know, Zumiez is doing this competition series through the summer. They’re coming to Salt Lake. You should give it a shot. Winners make some decent cash.”
If only life were that easy. “I would totally love that, but I can’t afford to compete. Entry fees, the right gear, transportation, time off work…it all adds up pretty fast, you know?”
Kendrick nodded and said, “That’s tough. I remember those days,” while Sean said, “I could help with that, if you were interested.”
I immediately shook my head. “That’s awesome of you to offer, but no thanks.” I hoped I sounded gracious, because I was, but it was hard not to feel bitter or resentful. It sucked having to depend on others for things I should be able to manage on my own. “I mean, I appreciate it, but I’ve had to accept enough charity in my life already. I made a promise to myself that I’d make my own way.”
Sean nodded thoughtfully. “I can respect that.” He glanced at his watch and then smiled at Libby. “You about done, squirt? We were thinking dinner at seven. Kendrick got the design mockups, and we need your help.”
“Sweet,” Libby said. “Yeah. Give me a ride home? I need a shower if we’re going to dinner.”
“We were headed back to the shop, but—”
I interrupted without thinking. “I’ll walk her home, sir.”
I must have sounded a little too eager, because everyone standing around heckled the crap out of me—hooting and catcalling so obnoxiously that Libby and I both turned red. Sean’s grin was the worst of all. When he started to say something, Libby groaned and stopped him before he could embarrass us. “Don’t even think about it, Dad. He’s just being nice. Actually, not even that. He probably has some lecture he wants to give me that he’s been saving for me all week.”
She didn’t wait for anyone to respond before she grabbed me by the sleeve of my shirt and started dragging me away from the park. “Respect my daughter, young man!” Sean called after us. “I have a shotgun, and I know how to use it!” I didn’t take the threat seriously, considering he was falling apart with laughter. “Nothing more than kissing, Libby Garrett! You come to dinner with any hickies tonight, and you’ll be grounded!”
Now he was just torturing his daughter for the fun of it. She whirled around and shrieked at him, and then hit me on the arm when I laughed. “It’s not funny,” she whined. “The man is unbalanced.”
I rubbed my arms where she hit me, as if it had hurt. “I think he’s cool.”
Libby snorted. “Of course you do. He’s not your dad.”
Adam
When Libby and I left the park, she stopped at the main intersection and glanced down the street. “You don’t have to walk me home.”
“I don’t mind.”
“Your apartment is the other way.”
“Libby.” I used my stern voice and met her eyes. “I’m taking you home.”
“Uh oh. The Coffee Man Staredown. I’m in trouble now.”
When I frowned, she rolled her eyes. Grumbling to myself under my breath so that I wouldn’t yell at her, I pushed my skateboard off down the sidewalk toward her neighborhood. She caught up quickly and sighed. “I’m just kidding. Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Mr. Grumpy Pants. I get it, you’re a gentleman.”
I glared at her. “I am, if the girl deserves it.”
Whatever she’d been about to say died on her lips, and instead she smirked. “So you’re saying I deserve it? I’m not just a cheap hooker?”
“I didn’t call you a cheap hooker. I said Owen treated you like one.”
Libby scoffed. “Same difference.”
“No, it’s not.” I pulled her to a stop, pushed my skateboard aside, and stepped close to her. “Have you ever been treated with respect? Have you ever been on a date with a guy who was proud of you and treated you like a lady?”
She snorted, but there was a hiccup of nerves behind it. Her voice was a little unsteady as she said, “I’m not exactly a lady.”
“You still deserve to be treated like one. Part of your problem, Libby, is that you don’t believe you deserve respect. You settled for Owen because you didn’t think you deserved better. But you do. You’re smart, confident, funny, and a hell of a freeboarder.”
I pulled her even closer to me, close enough that our breaths mingled. My heart raced as I took her helmet off her head and pushed her scraggly bangs away from her eyes. “You’re beautiful.”
She sucked in a breath, and I swallowed a thick lump in my throat. I wanted to kiss her. I wanted more than anything to prove to her just how beautiful she was by kissing her until she collapsed in my arms. I wanted to make sure she couldn’t deny her self-worth ever again. The moment was almost perfect. But she was trembling slightly and staring up at me with wide, confused eyes. Cursing my stupid intensity, I took a step back from her and raked a hand through my hair. “You ever enter in any snowboarding competitions?” I asked, just to break the tension.
She let out a breath and picked up her skateboard. I kicked mine into my hand and we walked down the street on foot. “Not much,” she said. “I’ve done all right at a few small-time local things. I’m not quite good enough for the big professional competitions, though.”
“What about freeboarding?”
“I wish. The sport hasn’t gained enough popularity yet. There’s only like one pro team so far, and there aren’t really any competitions.”
“You could put a team together. Get some exposure. Your dad has the right connections. Maybe if you got enough interest, you could get some kind of competition going. It could be a good project for you. Something else to focus on this summer, you know?”
“Maybe.” Libby kicked a rock out of her path. “That could be fun, but it wouldn’t really help with my problem. Losing myself in freeboarding isn’t the same as having a boyfriend.”
My stomach twisted into a tight knot at the perfect opening. I took a deep breath so that my next sentence would come out sounding calm. “Is that what you need?”
“Doesn’t everyone?”
I shrugged. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”
She stopped walking and gave me a defiant stare. “But you want one, don’t you?”
Not just any one. I wanted her. I wondered if she could see the truth in my e
yes.
She started walking again. “No offense to the twelve-step program, but I don’t think I’m going to get over Owen until I have someone else to fill the void. And as great as freeboarding is, it’s not going to hold me when I have a bad day or take me to the prom. Which, by the way, is next weekend, and I don’t have a date because Owen was too embarrassed to be seen with me to take me. This year and last.” She let out an angry breath. “Jerk.”
“I’m so glad you finally see it,” I teased. She slid me a sideways glance that made me laugh. “You really want to go to your prom that bad?”
“Hell yes, I do!” I flinched back from the amount of passion suddenly being slung my direction. “Prom is a girl’s right of passage. You bet your gluteus maximus I want to go. I even bought a sick dress when I thought Owen would take me.”
Her enthusiasm made me smile. I could only imagine her all dressed up and going crazy on the dance floor. Something like that would be wasted on me, but I had no doubt Libby would have the time of her life. “So wear it,” I suggested. “You don’t need Owen to go to your prom.”
“Oh, no,” she scoffed. “There’s no way in Hades I could go without a date.”
That surprised me. Libby didn’t seem the type to be afraid to go stag. “Too self-conscious?”
“Please, Coffee Man. I just don’t want to be Avery and Grayson’s third wheel.” She shook her head, scrunching up her face. “Those two are so in love it’s disgusting.”
I laughed at that. The girl had a point.
We turned the corner onto Libby’s street, and I was bummed that our night was almost over. We reached her house, and I walked her to her door. This hadn’t been a date, but it still felt like that moment at the end of one. We were still saying good-bye. Everything inside of me was screaming to kiss her. Before I could work up the nerve to do it, she opened her door and said, “Come in for a minute. I’ve got something for you.”
She grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me inside before I was over the surprise of her offer. After shutting the door behind me she said, “I’ll be right back,” and dashed up the stairs.
I stood in the entryway, feeling a little awkward but also extremely curious as to what she was up to. With Libby, it could be anything. She came back a minute later, dragging a huge black garbage bag stuffed to the max on the ground behind her. It thumped behind her down the stairs, falling into the back of her legs several times and threatening to knock her over. I could have gone to help, but it was too entertaining to watch her struggle. “Do I dare ask what’s in there?”
Grinning, she lugged the bag across the room and dropped it at my feet. “It’s a present for you, oh great intervention master. It’s all my slut clothes. I am now officially Owen free. Please accept this token of my dedication and do with it what you will.”
I looked her over with a smile. Her hair was still bleached blonde, but she wasn’t dressed terribly. Aside from the short appearance of the kitten-space-tacos T-shirt last weekend, this was the first time in months that I’d seen her in clothes that covered her and actually fit her properly. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a pink T-shirt that said Talk Nerdy To Me. Simple, but perfectly Libby.
“Token of dedication accepted.” I hefted the bag over my shoulder. “Come on; I have the perfect place for this.”
Going back out the front door, I walked around to the side of her house where I’d seen her garbage cans. “Would you like to do the honors?” I asked as I lifted the lid.
She snorted. “I would, if I could lift that bag enough to toss it over the side. Unfortunately, strength is not one of my strengths.”
Laughing, I tossed the bag into the garbage. Dusting my hands, I turned to find Libby eyeing me with inexplicable intrigue. When I questioned her stare, she said, “You lifted that bag like it was weightless.”
“It wasn’t that heavy.”
“Yes, it was. You have some serious muscles hiding beneath that shirt, don’t you, Coffee Man?”
I cocked an eyebrow at her—partly because of what she said, and partly because I knew she liked it when I did that. “Trying to get me to take my clothes off again?”
She grinned. “I do love a good anatomy lesson.” I’d been walking her back toward the front of the house, but stopped and looked at her. As I fought to keep from smiling, she waved a hand at my body. “You’d make for a fascinating study buddy, if I do say so myself.”
I couldn’t hold back any longer. Shaking my head with laughter, I walked her to her front door for the second time. “You are insane. Do you know that?”
Libby smiled. “Yup. I know. Makes life interesting.”
I laughed again. “Very true.”
The laughter died and suddenly things got tense—as if Libby finally realized I was standing there at her door, stalling because I didn’t want to leave. I shoved my hands in my pockets and rocked back on my heels, trying to force myself to walk away from her. But I couldn’t do it. My feet wouldn’t move. “If it makes you feel any better, I’d take you to your lame-ass dance, if I could afford it. But if you’d like to chill with me that night instead, I’ll let you rent some stupid chick flick about going to the prom and you can live vicariously. I’ll even let you wear the dress.”
I threw the suggestion out there as a joke, but she pulled her brows together in serious thought. Folding her arms over her chest, she looked up at me, considering. “Would you dance with me?”
I laughed. “Not a chance. I’ve never danced in my life. I can’t dance. But I’d let you dance,” I added, when her face fell. “Hell, I’d install a pole for you, if you wanted one.”
I waited for her to groan at my perverted suggestion, but she ignored it completely and took my hands in hers. “How do you know you can’t dance if you’ve never tried it?”
I stopped breathing when she placed my hands on her waist and slid her own up my chest to rest behind my neck. She started to sway us from side to side, and I clammed up into a completely stiff mess. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. If I relaxed even the slightest bit, I was going to throw her against her front door and cover her from head to toe in all those hickies her dad had warned her not to get.
She slid a little closer and pressed her body against mine. I really hoped her dad was kidding about the shotgun thing. Just as I was about to break, Libby laughed and stepped back. “You’re right. You’ve got no moves, Coffee Man. Still, the idea has potential.”
“Potential for trouble,” I muttered, letting out a hard laugh that may have sounded slightly crazy. I took a long breath, trying to calm down. It didn’t work. I was still on the verge of losing control. I stepped back, just to be safe. “Well, let me know if you don’t find anyone else willing to let you molest them on the dance floor.”
She started to say something, then paused. “Anyone else? Are you saying you’d be willing to let me molest you?”
I didn’t care that she was just teasing. I couldn’t hold back anymore. Stepping forward again, I moved so close to her that she stepped back. Her back bumped against the front door and I took advantage of her trapped position, leaning over her with my hand on the door beside her head. “Libby Garrett, I’ve been dreaming up fantasies about you for so long, I’d let you do whatever the hell you wanted to me.”
My chest heaved. I couldn’t seem to keep enough air in my lungs. There was less than an inch of space between us. Libby stared up at me with her mouth hanging open, but I refused to move a muscle. She was going to be mine. Right now. My gaze zeroed in on her mouth, she sucked in a breath, and that was it. I captured those perfect lips in a desperate, hungry kiss.
I was well past the point of being gentle—didn’t want to be gentle. I pulled her against me, crushing our bodies together, and drove the kiss deep. She responded with equal passion, and took control of the kiss as she thrust her hands into my hair. Fueled by her eagerness, I slammed her back against the door and let my hands explore her curves. Her hands did the same, finding their way beneath my shi
rt. I smiled a little as her fingers explored my abs. She was getting that anatomy lesson she’d wanted.
Everything inside me pounded and burned, and when the only thing left for me to do was to start removing clothing, I ripped myself away from her. My body shook with the desire to take her inside and finish what I’d started, but I couldn’t. We weren’t ready for that. Libby leaned back against the door, eyes closed, gasping for breath, and whispered a faint, “Holy guacamole.”
Holy guacamole was an understatement. I think. Once I recovered enough breath to speak, I stepped close again and took her hand in mine. “I’ve wanted you for years, Libby.”
“You can have me,” she said, without opening her eyes. “Take me now.”
I tried to keep my head on straight, but she wasn’t making it easy. She reached out with her free hand and grabbed my shirt, pulling me in again. I freed myself from her grip and squeezed both of her hands. When she opened her eyes to see what the holdup was, I shook my head. “I like you, Libby. Very much.”
She seemed pretty focused on getting the sparks going again, but she paused and smirked up at me. “I fail to see the problem with that.”
“The problem is that this”—I gestured between the two of us—“isn’t casual for me. Not even close.” Her eyes widened as she realized this was about more than just hormones. I smiled and gave her hand another squeeze. “I’m not going to waste my one chance with you by being a booty call or a rebound, so I’m not going to kiss you again until you’re ready for a relationship.”
After absorbing my confession, she grinned. “I’m game.”
I wished she were, but she wasn’t. I shook my head again. “I’m not talking about a relationship for the sake of being in one, or with anyone who isn’t Owen, but a real relationship. With me, specifically. You have to want me. Only me. Because you like me the way I like you.”
I’m not the most articulate guy in the world, but I think she understood what I was trying to say. She studied me for a minute, chewing on her upper lip as she thought it over. Finally, she said, “Are you sure?”
