Love Is In the Air Volume 1

by Susan Stoker

  This is a terrible idea.

  When Ellie sets a hand on the doorknob to the room she shares with Nicki, I blurt, “Can we talk a second?”

  Her hand slips from the doorknob and her brows dip as she fixes her gaze on me. “About what?” She studies me a beat then narrows her eyes. “Is this about the alcohol? Because I don’t need a lot but a couple bottles of rum and vodka should do the trick. Just buy them at different stores so nobody gets too suspicious that you’re supplying your underage sister with liquor.”

  I laugh. Leave it to Ellie to break the ice. At least some of the nerves in my chest have dissipated. “Nah, it’s not about the alcohol.”

  “Then...what?”

  I shake my head. “Never mind.”

  She shrugs as if to say suit yourself and opens the door without warning, and my heart feels like it might explode. Those nerves are back, and they’re rattling around as my eyes search the small room for Nicki.

  It’s empty.

  Where’s Nicki?

  I want to ask. Maybe she’s just out for lunch or something. Out at a friend’s. At the gym. It’s not like she’s waiting around here for me.

  “You can take Nicki’s bed. She went home for the weekend.”

  My heart drops as my chest aches a little. “She went home for the weekend?”

  Ellie nods. “Yeah. She’s been seeing this guy and he lives up there. She’s been commuting back and forth every weekend, but I’d rather have her go there than him come here.” She pulls a face like she just got a whiff of something gross.

  My hackles rise as I think about Nicki with someone else...someone who isn’t me. “You don’t like him?”

  Ellie shakes her head. “He’s okay. He’s just...he’s not the right guy for her.” She slides onto the chair at her desk, and I collapse on the futon that sits under Nicki’s lofted bed.

  “How do you know?”

  She studies me a long time, and then she sighs. “Never mind.”

  “No, Elle. Not never mind. Tell me.”

  She lifts a shoulder. “It’s stupid.”

  My brows dip. “What is?”

  “I just...I guess I always pictured her with...I don’t know.”

  “With what?” I prod.

  She draws in a deep breath. It’s not unlike my sister to string me along a little, but this is pure torture. “With someone like you,” she finally says.

  I want to revel in those words for a minute, but the sweet feeling of victory is far from my grasp knowing that she’s with somebody else.

  My jaw slackens as I think about admitting how I feel about Nicki to my sister, but ultimately I stop myself. If she knows, it will become her life’s mission to do something about it. And if Nicki’s dating somebody and she’s happy with him...

  I let that thought trail off. I just want her to be happy.

  But I want her to be happy with me.

  I’m two months away from my life potentially changing forever. Rumor has it that a pro football team will select me to play for them in the first round of this year’s draft in April, and if that’s true, then there’s a good chance that pretty much overnight I’ll go from college boy to pro football superstar.

  Every time I think of that, I get a little anxious. Every time I get a little anxious, I think of the same person I’ve thought of for four years when I need something to pull me out of it.

  And that person is my little sister’s best friend.

  Only she has no idea.

  And neither does my sister.

  But I think that has a lot to do with the current timing of my feelings. I don’t want to be the guy who sleeps with a different woman every night just because I’m on television every Sunday. I want to be the guy who settles down with one girl. One girl who I trust. One girl who has been part of my life for four years. One girl who doesn’t care about fame and contracts and how much time I get on the field.

  I’ve already met a few of those and I don’t even have a contract yet.

  “Someone like me?” I repeat, my hand bumping into my own chest in surprise.

  She shrugs. “She’d kill me for saying this, but she’s always had a massive crush on you. She thinks you’re, as she puts it, one decadent slice of man cake.”

  “Man cake?” I repeat, shock flitting through me at my sister’s admission.

  She giggles and slaps a hand over her mouth. “I can’t believe I told you that.”

  I laugh. “I can’t, either.” I try to categorize this new information, but I’m having a hard time reconciling man cake with the pretty blonde girl who smells like mint.

  “Don’t tell her I told you,” she says.

  “It’s not like she’s here for me to ask her what the hell that means anyway.” I sigh. Maybe next time I come visit I can ask what, exactly, a man cake is.

  2

  We can’t go to the bar since my sister is only nineteen, so instead she takes me to a party at some off-campus house. It’s rowdy when we walk in, and she walks me right over to the keg, where we each give the guy standing next to it a five-dollar bill to offset the cost of the beer and grab a red Solo cup. I fill the first cup to the brim, an expert in getting beer from a keg without that thick head on top, and hand it over to my sister.

  Aside from my moves on the football field, a good, clean cup of beer from a keg is one of my talents in life.

  I fill the second cup for myself and gulp down half of it in a few sips. It tastes like piss-water, which tells me it’s not one of my preferred brands. But it’s cheap beer and I’m here to hang with my sister, so I don’t mention it.

  My sister is one of my best friends, and our parents would be glad to see us hanging out together even though we attend different schools. I’ve tried letting go of the little cloud that settled over me the moment Ellie told me about Nicki and the guy she’s seeing, but I’ve been unable to shake it.

  Ellie introduces me to some of her friends, and one of the dudes recognizes me.

  “Holy shit!” he says. “You’re Josh Nolan!”

  “That I am,” I say.

  “That catch you made at the end of that game against Nebraska...it was in-fucking-human, dude!” he says. He’s an exclaimer.

  “Thanks, man.”

  “I heard you’ll go in the first round of the draft. Is that true?” he asks.

  “We’ll both find out in April,” I admit. I’m confident someone will pick me up, even if I don’t go in the first round.

  “Who are you hoping for?”

  I’d love for it to be my hometown team, the Bears. I won’t admit that to this guy, though, or else it’ll be all over the news. I may not have a publicist yet, but I’m no dummy. Plus Coach has trained us for questions like these, and he helped me find my agent, who has also been training me. “I’ll be happy if any team picks me. I’m ready to work and I’m honored to even be considered.”

  “Sounds like an agent’s already gotten to you,” he says, and I just press my lips into a smile.

  More guys approach me with their questions, their women give me eyes they shouldn’t be since they’re here with boyfriends, and I even get a few invitations from single ladies, but I can’t seem to get my mind off the one girl who isn’t here. I don’t want any of these women.

  I want Nicki.

  We have a few more beers before we head back to Ellie’s dorm at my request. I’m a big dude at six-feet-five inches and a little under two hundred pounds, but I’m coming off a season where I didn’t drink much, so my tolerance isn’t what it used to be.

  I’m not wasted or sloppy, just tired and a little disappointed, so when we get back, I climb into Nicki’s bed to just pass the hell out.

  The sheets smell like mint, and a wave of arousal washes over me.

  Dammit.

  Then another emotion crashes into me, too. That familiarity that comes with someone you’ve known a long time...that feeling of warmth and comfort. I breathe in the scent, boners be damned. I can take care of that when I’m b
ack home.

  Ellie’s phone rings, and the guy on the other end is talking loudly. The din of the party we just left is still in full swing in the background. “Why’d you leave?” he yells.

  “My brother was tired,” she says quietly, like I won’t be able to hear her even though I’m literally ten feet away.

  “What?” he yells.

  She repeats her words but louder, and I sigh.

  “Do you want to go back?” I ask, forcing one eye open.

  She shrugs, and now I feel bad for taking her from the party where she was having fun.

  I sit up and bang my head on the ceiling. “Goddammit,” I mutter. I swing my legs over the side. “I’ll walk you back if you can find a way home.”

  She says a few more things over the phone and hangs up. “Thanks, Josh. Trevor is coming to walk me back.”

  “And we trust Trevor?” I ask.

  She smiles. “We trust Trevor. He’s just a friend.”

  “Sure he is,” I tease.

  I lie back down and I’m pretty sure I pass right out.

  But I wake up when the light flicks on and the door slams. It seems like four seconds have passed since I teased Ellie about Trevor, but a quick, bleary-eyed glance at Nicki’s clock tells me it’s been more like two hours.

  I squint down in the bright lights, and my heart races as my eyes focus.

  That’s not Ellie.

  Blonde hair flies around as the most gorgeous girl I’ve ever seen wrestles out of her coat. She slams it down onto her desk, huffing her way around the room. She’s angry, and if I don’t say something, she’ll have the daylights scared out of her when she climbs into her bed and finds me in it.

  “I don’t want to interrupt whatever you’re doing,” I say, my deep voice breaking into the quiet of the room as she jumps, startled, “but I wanted you to know I’m here.”

  She spins around and looks up as her terrified eyes meet mine. “Holy crap,” she says, clutching her chest. “You scared the shit out of me.”

  I chuckle. “Sorry. I was trying to avoid that.”

  “What are you doing here? I figured since Ellie was still out, you would be, too.”

  I sit up, and—you guessed it. “Goddammit!” I say, rubbing my head where I hit it on the ceiling again.

  Nicki giggles. “Not a lot of clearance up there.”

  “Especially not when you’re six-five.” I climb down from her bed. “Sorry for making your bed smell like me. I’ll take the futon tonight.” I close the gap between us and give her a quick hug in greeting.

  She lingers for a beat, mint pressing into my senses, and I want to pull her into me and hold her. I want to calm the angry crease that still rests between her brows. I want to be the reason she smiles as I take away her frown.

  “Don’t be silly. Your six-five frame won’t fit on the futon. You can take my bed.”

  Only if you’re in it with me.

  “It’s all right. What are you doing back here?” I ask. “Ellie said you were with your boyfriend.”

  She smacks her lips together and sticks a hand on her hip. “He is not my boyfriend. We were kind of seeing each other, but we’re not anymore.”

  A pang of relief hits me in the chest. “Is that why you’re slamming doors and throwing your coat like it did something wrong?”

  “You saw that?” she asks sheepishly.

  I lift a shoulder.

  “Yeah, that’s why,” she admits. She moves to pick up her coat and she hangs it while I slide onto the futon. “I wanted to kick the chair, too, but I realized it’s not the chair’s fault that Cam is a dickhead.”

  “Maybe it’s because his name is Cam.” Northwestern’s cornerback is named Cam, and he’s a real douchebag. Big as a house and always trying to flatten me.

  I pat the empty futon seat beside me. “Come sit and tell me what happened.”

  I toss my arm casually over the back of the futon, but ultimately, if she sits next to this piece of man cake, I can easily slip my arm down and around her shoulders. Goals.

  She narrows her eyes for a beat, and my breath catches in my throat. She’s so pretty, so kind, and she deserves better than whatever just happened. She walks toward me and sits, curling her legs under her frame and turning in my direction. I shift to turn toward her, too, even though my preference was to leave my arm across the back of the futon and pull her into me.

  “I drove all that way, over two hours to see him and surprise him, and get this. He had some other girl over. In bed. Naked.”

  “I’ll kill him,” I mutter.

  She chuckles. “Thanks for the support.”

  “Were you exclusive with him?”

  She shrugs. “I guess we never defined it, but I wasn’t seeing anybody else and we’ve spent just about every weekend together for the last two months. Usually with me driving up there.”

  “How’d you meet him?” I ask.

  “He’s a friend’s cousin. He was down visiting one weekend and we hit it off.” She ducks her gaze like she doesn’t want to admit exactly what hit it off means, and it’s okay because I’m not sure I want to hear it.

  “He’s an idiot.” My words are plain and simple. He’s an idiot for hurting Nicki. She deserves more.

  She chuckles mirthlessly.

  “I’m serious. I’ve just never understood the concept of sleeping around. Why risk sticking your dick in a bunch of different places when being in a relationship feels so much better?”

  Her eyes meet mine, and hers are a little dreamy.

  My dick starts to protest painfully in the basketball shorts I chose to sleep in.

  Not tonight, big boy. She’s hurting. Just be there as a friend.

  But tomorrow...I’ll tell her tomorrow.

  Maybe.

  “You’re like...” she sighs as she glances around the room, and I hang onto her words as I silently urge her to finish that sentence. “Just like the perfect guy.” She shakes her head. “One of a kind. Most guys aren’t like you. They’re like Cam. But you’re not just hot as hell. You’re so sweet and you’re funny and—”

  I cut her off when I lean in to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, her fresh minty scent striking my senses. She stops talking at the movement as her gaze lifts to mine.

  “Hot as hell?” I repeat, my voice a deep, low murmur, and I’m treated to a delicious coloring of her cheeks as the meeting of our eyes turns into something hot and nearly indecent. Her eyes flick to my lips, an open invitation if I’ve ever seen one.

  Kiss her you idiot!

  I can bend down to the line of scrimmage facing off against some of the largest opponents, future NFL prospects, and not feel the same type of fire racing through me right now.

  And that’s what tells me that this is my chance.

  I need this woman in my life. She somehow calms the tempest, and it’s going to get stormy over the next few months. She’s the perfect person to hold my hand through it all—the only person—and she doesn’t even know it yet.

  But she will.

  Nerves rattle around in my chest as I slowly lean in, closing the gap between us so I can brush my lips to hers, and I’m inches from the promised land when the door opens.

  I jump back like I’m guilty of something even though I’m not, and Ellie prances into the room. Her brows dip when she sees the two of us sitting together on the futon. “What are you doing back?” she asks Nicki. “And what are you doing awake?” she asks me.

  I heave out a sigh, and if I’m not mistaken...so does Nicki beside me.

  “Cam’s a dickface and I’m already over him so I came back here,” Nicki admits.

  “Oh my God! What happened?” Ellie squeals as she bolts across the room to sit on the floor in front of Nicki like she didn’t just interrupt a moment between the two of us.

  Nicki shrugs. “We just had different ideas about what we were, I guess. And I woke up your poor brother when I came bounding into the room. I figured you two would still be out so I wasn’t quie
t about it.” She glances at me again, and I sense the disappointment in her eyes. I think it’s because we were interrupted, not because of what went down with Cam, but maybe I’m projecting my wishes onto the situation. “Sorry about that.”

  “No problem.” I stretch my arms up and hit the bottom of the lofted bed above me—Nicki’s bed, where I was sleeping not so long ago. Where I want to be tonight...but not with my sister in here. And speaking of my sister, I direct my attention to her. “How’d your night end up?”

  She blushes. “Good. Really good.”

  Nicki raises a brow. “Really good?”

  “Well, not that good,” Ellie admits. “I mean I did come home, so there’s always room for improvement. But Trevor finally kissed me and it was ahhhh-mazing.” She’s all dreamy and shit and I’m sure there’s more details an older brother doesn’t want to know that will grace my presence anyway.

  “I thought Trevor was just a friend,” I protest.

  Ellie laughs then rolls her eyes. “That’s just something you say to your big brother so he doesn’t go all caveman protective.”

  “Caveman protective?” Nicki asks, nudging my leg with hers. “That’s sweet.” I don’t miss the repetition of her term of endearment—a reference to our earlier conversation.

  “I’ve been told I’m a delectable piece of man cake, too,” I say, and that might be the beer talking.

  Nicki’s eyes widen as they turn on my sister, her cheeks filling with color again. Ellie looks sheepishly at Nicki. “Sorry!” she says. “It slipped out.”

  Nicki covers her face with both hands, and I can’t help my rumbling laugh.

  God, do I want to hold her in my arms tonight.

  I force that thought away. She just broke up with another guy. Tonight’s not the night.

  Tomorrow, though...all bets are off.

  3

  My neck is stiff when I wake in the morning, and it’s likely from sleeping on a futon...something I haven’t done since...well, since the last time I visited my sister, I suppose.