Extra Credit

by Sarina Bowen

  “Didn’t seem like it. A little surprised, maybe.”

  She stirs her tea, a worried expression on her face. “This town doesn’t make it easy. As much as I’d like to have Michael nearby after graduation, I understand why he’s applying for jobs in big cities.”

  “That’s where the jobs are,” I point out.

  “I hope this interview in D.C. works out for him.”

  “D.C.?” I know nothing about this.

  She winces. “He just got the email. Hasn’t even set a date for the interview. I’m sure he was going to tell you about it.”

  “Sure,” I echo lamely.

  D.C. is awfully far from Harkness. I keep hoping he’ll get something in New York, which is just a commuter-rail trip away from Harkness, Connecticut. Visiting him next year could get expensive.

  Ah, well. No point in worrying about it yet.

  “How was your Christmas?” I ask, steering her from the topic.

  She tells me about the pageant at her new church, with the live donkey for Mary to ride. “The sanctuary smells like a barnyard now, but it was quite impressive.” She smiles at me. “Honey, you look tired. I should let you go to sleep.”

  “That’s probably a good idea,” I admit. This day needs to end right away. “Okay if I take Lori’s room?”

  “You can do that, or stay in Michael’s room. Whatever you want.”

  That’s nice of her to say, except for one problem. “He’s a roller, though.” And that bed in his room is only a double. At school we have two twins pushed together into a makeshift king-sized bed. But even a queen-size is dicey with Graham.

  “Still?” She cackles. “When we went on family vacations, we’d flip coins to see who had to share a hotel bed with him.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me at all,” I say, getting to my feet and gathering up my milk glass and used napkin.

  Mrs. G corners me near the sink where I’m putting my glass into her dishwasher. “I’m so sorry your visit didn’t go smoothly, honey. I would do anything to make it easier for you.”

  I close the dishwasher and turn around. “It’s really okay,” I say quietly.

  “No.” She shakes her head. “It really isn’t.”

  “But I’m okay,” I clarify.

  She doesn’t argue. She just hugs me.

  Chapter 9

  Graham

  In the morning, I wake up alone.

  Groggy and mildly head-achey, I get up to brush my teeth and drink cup after cup of water. When I’m finished, I stand in the upstairs hallway, listening to the sounds in the house. My father is gone to work already, and Mom’s podcasts are playing downstairs.

  The door to my sister’s bedroom is shut, so I walk past it and go downstairs.

  “There’s coffee,” Mom says. She’s seated at the kitchen table, a shopping list in front of her. “What should I make for dinner?”

  “Steak?” I suggest hopefully. It’s a splurge.

  “Sure,” she says immediately. “With mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli. And chocolate cake!” She looks up and smiles at me. “That would cheer anyone up, right?”

  My heart turns to mush, because I know just what she’s up to. “Mom, John is okay.”

  “I know,” she says, scribbling on her shopping list. “But I’m going to spoil him anyway. Someone should.” She caps her pen and stands up. “Any last requests? I’m heading to D&W.”

  “I’m sure you thought of everything.”

  “Want to come along?” she tries. “You could pick out a red wine that goes with steak.”

  “Like I’d know which one goes with steak. I’ll shower instead.”

  “Fine.” She kisses me on the cheek. “Back in a jif. I hope you’ll let John sleep.”

  “Of course I will,” I assure her, pouring myself a cup of coffee.

  The minute her car rolls down the driveway, I leave the cup on the counter and head back upstairs. I tiptoe toward my sister’s bedroom. Inside, Rikker is asleep, face down in Lori’s bed, his strong arms framing his mussed head.

  That’s all the invitation I need. I lock the door and drop all my clothes on the rug, then slip into bed with him.

  Having my boyfriend sleep over is all new territory. A year ago I would have burst into flames at the thought of getting naked at home with Rik. But now I’m kissing his bare back and running my hands through his messy hair.

  Have I come a long way, or what?

  He lets out a sleepy groan. But then his warm hand reaches up to skim my arm with happy fingers.

  As I study long eyelashes pointing down at his handsome cheekbones, my heart breaks just a little more. This man’s mother can’t love him just the way he is? There is nobody more beautiful. She’s just insane.

  There are moms all over the world struggling to help their violent sons, or drug-addicted sons. Or lazy ones. John Rikker is a hard-working, successful, handsome man. He’s a good friend, a loving grandson, and a generous lover. There is nothing in the world I wouldn’t do for him.

  His eyelids flutter open. He squints up at me. “Everything okay?” he whispers.

  My voice is low and husky. “So much better than okay. Mom just went to the grocery store.”

  He gives me a sleepy smile, and his feet find mine under the covers. “We’re home alone, huh?”

  “For thirty minutes, at least.”

  “It’ll have to do,” he says with a lazy smile. “Just like high school, right?”

  “Right.” We share a conspiratorial grin. There’s never been a more perfect moment than this one. We’re safe and together. That’s all I ever wanted. “You know what the most exciting moment of my life was?”

  “No,” he whispers, brushing my pecs with his palm. “Tell me.”

  “In the basement, sophomore year of high school…”

  His smile grows wider, because we did a lot of surreptitious fooling around in the basement.

  “…my mother left for a shift volunteering at the church supper.” I move closer and cup his face, my thumb stroking his cheekbone.

  “That wasn’t the first time we fooled around,” he whispers.

  “I know.” As if I could ever forget. Our first kiss was an accident, right in the middle of a wrestling match. Our second kisses happened when my mother went to the grocery store. “It was our third time.” I lean in and press a kiss to his lips. It’s mostly chaste, but slow. I want to really feel the slide of my lips over his warm ones.

  “Why was the third time so exciting?” he asks, and we’re so close I can feel his breath on my skin.

  “Because…” I let the back of my hand brush his bare chest, before sifting through his happy trail. “It’s the first time you ever put your hand down my pants.”

  His eyes take on an amused glint as I tease his abs with my knuckles.

  “I’m not kidding,” I whisper, tracing the skin just above the elastic on his briefs. “You slipped your hand…” I breach the elastic and slide my own hand slowly down, avoiding his dick, just touching his belly as it descends into his groin. “Right here. I was dying, wanting your touch so bad. Going out of my mind while you kissed me.”

  Our lips meet again, and this time the kiss is hot and sweet. Our teeth click as we both lean in for more. His pubic hair tickles my fingertips. His moan is so quiet that I feel it more than I hear it.

  “And then you took me in hand,” I say, finally wrapping my hand around his girth. The hot weight of him against my palm is everything. All these years later, I’m still amazed at how he makes me feel. “Just like this.” My thumb sweeps over his tip and he hisses, his head tipping back. “I nearly came on the spot. Nobody had ever touched me before. I wanted it so bad.”

  Rikker reaches for me, finding lots of bare skin. “Can’t believe you’re naked right now,” he whispers against my lips. “Can we be quick?”

  “We’ll be qui—” I can’t even finish the sentence because he wraps a hand around my cock, and I moan instead.

  He pushes me onto
my back, then climbs on top of me, kicking his underwear out of the way. Our mouths fuse for a kiss that’s deep and dirty. Skin to skin, we began to move, our dicks sliding together. The weight of his body on mine is delicious. “We never did this in your basement,” he whispers.

  Unghh. “Woulda blown my poor little mind.”

  Rikker smiles down at me, warmth in his eyes. His family is cruel, but that smile never dies. If I were ever as strong as Rikker, I’d be a worthy man.

  He takes my mouth in another hungry kiss. I sink into the bed and spread my legs, letting him urge me closer to orgasm. Usually we try to make it last. But today—just like in high school—the need for stealth and a quick release wins out.

  The bed thumps once against the wall as he picks up the pace. Rikker stretches out his arm and braces it against the wall, preventing a repeat of that sound. I’m caged beneath him, held in place by his arms and his muscular body.

  My favorite place in the world.

  Rik’s breathing quickens. I love that sound—proof that I have the same effect on him as he does on me. His lips track from my mouth to my ear. “Baby,” he says so softly that I only hear the “B” sounds.

  I slap his hip, giving him a nudge. He makes room for my hand between our bodies. I wrap my hand around us both, as best I can. Rik is leaking for me. I slide my thumb through his slickness and feel all his muscles tense. He buries his face in my neck and shudders, erupting into my hand in hot bursts.

  And...winning! My slick hand needs only a couple more strokes before I push my head back into the pillow and come hard.

  Yesssss. Achievement unlocked.

  Breathing hard, I lay back and smile up at my boyfriend. “Good morning.”

  He kisses me on the nose. “We made a mess.”

  “Totally worth it,” I whisper back. “Had to do what I can to save your shitty week.”

  The next kiss I get is on the mouth, and it’s a good one. “It wasn’t so shitty.”

  “Seriously?”

  He shakes his head. “I’ve been dreading this trip. The conflict. Now I don’t have to anymore. And I found out my dad is a little more solid than I thought. Your high school teammates aren’t superturds. And you’re cute when you’re accidentally wasted. Your mom fed me cookies, just like old times. And then we fooled around. I’ve had worse weeks.”

  “Superturds?”

  He grins.

  “I don’t know how you do it.”

  “Do what?”

  “Stay so fucking cheery. I’ve come a long way, but you’re in a whole different league.”

  In answer, he leans down and licks my cheek. Now, there are hot moments in bed when that would be super sexy. But this is more like being slobbered on by a St. Bernard. I squirm, and he laughs. “Get up.”

  “We’re sticky.”

  “Yeah, I noticed. Let’s have a quick shower.” He sits up.

  I swing my legs off the bed and open the door to Lori’s en suite bathroom. My parents actually gave my sister the master bedroom because she and I used to fight over her extraordinary use of the other bathroom. I hated her for it. It’s really handy right now, though.

  “Come here. Time’s a wasting.” I pull the curtain back and turn on the water. As soon as it warms up, I hop in and wet my hair.

  Rikker follows me. “You know that barely took the edge off.” He runs his hands all over my chest. “Any chance your parents are going out again tonight? To, say, a four-hour opera?”

  I laugh, getting water up my nose. “Not likely. Mom is making you a steak dinner and chocolate cake.”

  “Really?” Wordlessly, we switch sides of the shower so that he can have a turn under the water. “Did you tell her not to be so worried?” He puts his handsome face under the spray.

  “Oh, I did. But I can’t control her. And who am I to say no to steak and cake?”

  He puts a possessive hand on my ass and squeezes. “I guess this will have to wait.”

  “Stop. I don’t want to spend the whole day trying to hide my boner.”

  “I know exactly where I want to hide mine,” he says with a sigh.

  And I laugh.

  Chapter 10

  Rikker

  Finally, we’re in the car, headed for Chicago. It’s my rental, but Graham is driving. I’m staring out the window at the dirty snowbanks, feeling blue.

  “It was nice of your dad to buy us breakfast,” Graham says quietly.

  “Yeah,” I grunt. “I mean, no. Isn’t it the least he can do?” We’ve just left the cafe where he’d met us for eggs and conversation.

  It was stilted, everyone trying too hard. I’d survived it, but I’m just done with this place. I want to reach over and press Graham’s leg down on the accelerator. The faster we leave town, the more normal I’ll feel.

  “Your dad tried,” Graham says gently. “He was nice to me.”

  “Yeah,” I admit with a sigh. “He was.”

  The car eats up more highway toward Chicago. And even though I’m almost free of Michigan, it still hangs over me like a cloud. The place will never feel like home again. It will always make me feel like the penguin chick left to die in the ravine.

  “Will it be weird to be at Skippy’s wedding?” Graham asks carefully, after another of my long silences.

  “What?” I haven’t thought about Skippy for days. Even though he is my ex. “No. I mean—no weirder than any other wedding. Why?”

  He shrugs. “The road not taken.”

  “Oh, I drove that road all the way to its end. He’s Ross’s problem now.” I chuckle. “Will it be weird for you?”

  “Nah,” he says easily. “No weirder than any other wedding.” He turns to give me a quick smile. “Remind me why it’s in Chicago?”

  “Skippy has an older sister, and her husband owns the venue. Skippy is getting his wedding reception basically for free, because the hotel just got a big renovation and it hasn’t reopened all the way yet.”

  “Handy,” Graham says.

  “Yeah, if you’re into that kind of thing.” The idea of planning a wedding is so foreign to me. Spending my life with someone isn’t, though. And that reminds me of something else I’m grumpy about. “G, your mom said you got an interview in Washington, D.C.”

  He nods quickly. “Right. I haven’t even set it up yet.”

  “Were you going to tell me?”

  “Yeah.” He sighs. “D.C. is still a long shot, though. And I was hoping to tell you I’d gotten a job offer close to Harkness.”

  “You shouldn’t factor that in when you’re choosing a job.” I play that back in my head and wince. “I mean—I’m only in Connecticut for one more year. Nine months, really. It’s not enough time to plan your life around.”

  “I like New York, though,” he says. “And the Rangers are looking at you.”

  “We might as well buy a lottery ticket,” I grumble. “What are the odds of me playing for the Rangers?”

  “Good, actually,” he says calmly. “Do you not want me in New York?”

  “Of course I do.” But it comes out sounding angry. “I just wouldn’t want you to rein in your search. You should take the most amazing job you can find, no matter where.”

  Now it’s Graham who goes silent. It’s so quiet in the car that the engine noise is all I hear. We roll forward for a few miles, and I wonder why I’m fucking everything up. “If you got a job in New York, that would be pretty cool,” I say. “But I’ll come see you wherever you are.”

  I reach across the console and put my hand on his thigh. “You can count on that.”

  “Can I?” he asks, voice strained. “You don’t really talk about life after graduation. But it’s all I can think about right now.”

  “I don’t talk about it because we don’t know what it looks like yet. But I’ll still want to be with you, G.”

  “You say that,” he says slowly. “But you’ve done long distance before, and I know you didn’t like it much.”

  I prop my elbow against the win
dow, and then put my forehead into my palm. I don’t even know why we’re having this depressing conversation right now. “It’s not easy, I’ll give you that. But it’s not impossible.”

  There’s another strained silence that I fear might last forever. But then Graham puts on the turn signal and takes the next exit. He pulls into a truck-stop gas station, so I expect him to get out and take a pee break. But he just kills the engine and turns to me. “Listen,” he says. “I know the timing is terrible, and you’re kind of a mess today. But there’s something I have to say.”

  “What is it?” I ask as ice slides into my gut, because I don’t like the sound of that.

  “I’ve been trying to figure this job thing out without involving you. I wanted to have it all solved and bring you a plan. ‘Here’s where I’m working and here’s what we’ll do.’ Because I didn’t want to give you any reason to say, ‘You know, maybe it’s just better if we go our separate ways.’”

  “But…”

  He holds up a hand. “And I haven’t always found it easy to say how I feel, because I don’t want to be rejected. But here goes. I love you, and I’m never going to stop. Not even if the only job I find is in Alaska. I love you and I want to be with you, no matter how hard it is. And I will wait for you to sort out your own shit as long as it takes. Any questions?”

  “No,” I croak, because there’s suddenly a giant lump in my throat. “Wait, I got one. How did you become the high-functioning person in this relationship?”

  Graham lets out a burst of nervous laughter. “I know, right?” He turns toward me on the seat. “Come here.” I lean in, letting him wrap me into a hug. “Everything I know I learned from you.”

  “Not true,” I say, trying to swallow. This has been the most emotionally overwrought week of my life.

  “It is so. Now let’s go to Chicago so we can blow off some steam by doing a couple other things you taught me.”

  “Now you’re talking.” I pat him on the back and take a deep breath. “Just in case it needs saying, I love you, and I want to make it work no matter what.”

  He doesn’t let go yet. “Hang in there, Rik. Everything is just fine.”