Up for Everything (Up for Grabs #3)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  “I’m not going to do anything.”

  I finished eating before they did and got the hell out of there so I wouldn’t be late meeting Miriam. I wasn’t late but she was early.

  “Hey,” I said finding her on the bench outside the hotel. “Have you been waiting long?”

  “Nah,” she said hopping up. “I like being outside. I like the ocean.” She nodded her head toward the water. “So, what are we doing today?”

  “You’ll see.”

  I took her hand to lead her away. I could have grabbed a cab, but we had time so we walked, weaving through the other pedestrians until we arrived at my destination.

  “Yay.” She bounced while clapping her hands. “I seriously have always wanted to do this. Have you done it before?”

  “Earlier this week. With Cain.”

  She pulled me forward into the parasailing hut where we signed the waivers and paid. Luck was with us because a boat had been ready to leave but could accommodate two more. About halfway through the lineup, Miriam and I stepped up, got harnessed in and floated away from the boat.

  I’d asked them to let us up as high as we could go.

  “This is amazing, Sam.” The smile on Miriam’s face got so big I thought it couldn’t grow any larger. I liked seeing it there.

  “It is.”

  Miriam gazed out at the view the same way I had the first time I was up there. I watched Miriam. I’d seen the island before. I’d seen the horizon. But I hadn’t seen this girl look so taken with anything, and it made me want to find something else to put that look of awe on her face. Then I remembered she had to leave the next morning.

  This would be our last chance to hang out.

  The heavy weight that lodged in my chest stomach wouldn’t budge no matter how I tried to rationalize whatever I felt.

  I finally meet a girl I like for more than a night, and she’s leaving in the morning. Of course.

  Once we were back on the ground, walking away from the dock, Miriam launched herself into my arms. I had no other choice than to hold her tightly just so she wouldn’t fall.

  “Thank you for that,” she said, her breath feathering against my neck. “I haven’t had this much fun in…I don’t know how long.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  The sound of my voice took me by surprise. It was me, obviously, but…tender, caring.

  “I’m taking you to the airport in the morning,” I said suddenly.

  “You don’t have to do that.” She shook her head. “It’s too early.”

  “Miriam.” I cupped the sides of her face. “I’m taking you.”

  Again she gave me that great smile.

  “Ok,” she said softly.

  I pressed my lips against hers gently, acutely aware that if I did anything more we’d get caught up for hours, and I knew she needed to do some things like pack before she went to her shoot tonight. I wanted to get caught up with her for hours and thought she probably wouldn’t stop me. What I didn’t know was what would happen after that. She didn’t come across as a girl who has flings, she’d said as much. Now we knew each other better but if we fucked one time and never saw each other again, that would be the same thing.

  I didn’t want to put her in that position.

  That night she had to pack but didn’t want to call it a night. Miriam kept hold of my hand after I kissed her and dragged me to her room where I dropped onto the bed to watch her work before she left for the shoot. It surprised me how little she brought with her. Or rather how she could fit everything into one suitcase with wheels. The only thing she left out was her outfit for the airport and her pajamas for the night. She said she didn’t plan on wearing make-up on the plane.

  God, she reminded me of Flannery. No wonder they’d hit it off right away.

  Once she finished, she dropped onto the bed, propping herself against the headboard, grabbed the remote and found something for us to watch.

  My fingers itched to touch her skin, but we hadn’t gone that far and I didn’t want to right before she left for California. It was like being in middle school again, which pissed me off. Chaste wasn’t me.

  Watching Miriam with her eyes on the TV, I memorized every feature as if I wasn’t going to see her again. I already decided I would. But I’d also already decided it was time to move back to Michigan. Though California with her might not be so bad either.

  My head was fucked up.

  Finally, she glanced over at me with that cute little grin. Maybe because she felt me watching her, I don’t know.

  On a whim, I leaned down and kissed her. At first it was soft like it’d been every day since the first time she’d kissed me. It wasn’t enough for either of us. I slid my hand from the curve of her waist, up her body until I could cup the side of her head. This time when her lips parted, I accepted the invitation.

  I’d been playing it safe, and I was so fucking done with that. When my tongue touched hers I groaned, hoping she didn’t catch it. Who was I kidding? Miriam caught everything, and she smiled against my mouth in response.

  We shifted down the bed so I could lie next to her, my lips never once leaving hers as we moved. Because if they did I might not get another chance. Damn, I wanted another chance. Miriam must have felt the same way because those tiny model hands sure pulled me forcefully against her. Fuck. My control was slipping.

  Since I didn’t want to screw things up with her I was determined not to sleep with her right away. That’s what I always did. That’s what I was good at. With her I wanted to work on the other stuff.

  And when those deft fingers slid up under my T-shirt and lightly touched my back, skin that already felt too tight, my brain fried. We hadn’t made much skin to skin contact and for some reason, whenever it happened it felt like an electrical current running through my body. I came alive. Damn, I might have liked it too much.

  When I noticed my skin wasn’t the only thing becoming too tight, I broke away from her lips, dropped my forehead to hers and tried to catch my breath. Thankfully, she needed to as well.

  “I knew you had it in you,” she said between puffs of air.

  “What?” I pulled back so I could see her face.

  “I knew you could kiss like that. You just seemed the type.” Yeah, I was the type all right. “We don’t have to stop.” Her words were like music to my ears.

  “Yeah, we kind of do.”

  “I have a feeling that you could keep going,” she said with a smile while rubbing her leg over the massive hard-on I now sported.

  “I could. But I won’t.”

  “Why?”

  Falling onto my back, I didn’t even care that she’d see the pup tent my pants had become, and when she snuggled in beside me, I knew it wasn’t going anywhere soon.

  “You’re leaving tomorrow.”

  “And?”

  I blew out a breath slowly.

  “Miriam, that’s what I always do. I don’t date. I usually hook-up or whatever but that’s it. And I like you. I don’t want to screw this up. I want to see you when I get back home. I want to see you a lot actually. I don’t want to ruin this by moving too fast.”

  Who the hell had I become? None of what I’d just said was me.

  “Wow, you must be really bad at sex.”

  I barked out a laugh so hard it made my chest hurt.

  “What? If you think that would ruin everything.”

  “Trust me, Sweetheart, I know what the fuck I’m doing. That’s not what I meant.”

  Her giggle made my stomach clench.

  “Ok, fine, boy scout. Will you at least stay the night?”

  My eyebrows shot sky high.

  “I have to be at the airport early and want every minute I can get with you. So I could let you know when I’m back from the photo shoot, and we could cuddle.”

  She gutted me right there. Mostly because I felt the same way.

  I couldn’t say no. I felt like that was going to be a thing in this relationship…situationship.

>   She left for work, and I went back to my own room to calm the fuck down.

  Miriam sent a text around ten thirty telling me she was back. When I got to her room, she’d already changed into a tank top and shorts so I changed into my pajama pants—no shirt. Her eyelids were heavy, she was moving slower than normal. The girl was obviously exhausted.

  We curled up onto the bed, and I wrapped her in my arms.

  “How was it tonight?” I asked.

  “Fine. The photographer was a nut. He never seemed satisfied with the shot.”

  “Was he being an asshole?”

  “Not really. More like he wanted something too artsy.” She shrugged against me.

  I didn’t really understand what her job entailed which was my fault because we hadn’t talked much about it. But obviously it was tiresome for her.

  At some point she drifted off to sleep cuddled up into my side. There was a moment my flight instinct kicked in. I blamed years of wanting to chew off my own arm rather than share a bed with someone. But the idea that she’d wake up and find me gone killed me.

  So I stayed.

  And slept better than I had in years.

  Chapter Six

  If Miriam’s alarm went off, I didn’t hear it. I was content to stay right there in the bed with her beside me, but even I couldn’t ignore her pushing my shoulder and calling my name. Plus she really did have to get to the airport.

  Forcing my eyes open, they responded slowly as if even the lids knew once I woke up, these last five days would come to an end. I hadn’t spent five days with a girl since high school unless it was Flan or Kendra, and I haven’t enjoyed hanging out with a girl as much either. If my repeated hard-ons weren’t so present, I’d think I wanted to be friends with her.

  Which I did. I wanted to be her friend but I wanted to be more. I needed to come to grips with that idea because it was a foreign one. A theory more in abstract than in reality. Her leaving Hawaii and me staying would give me perspective.

  “Come on, sleepy head.” She pushed me again. “I can’t miss my flight.” When I didn’t move, she sighed. “I’ll leave without you.”

  Those words were all I needed.

  “I’m up,” I said hopping up off the bed and glancing at the clock. “Let me brush my teeth.” I’d thought ahead and brought a change of clothes and toothbrush with me when I came to her room last night. I’d meant to be up early enough to go back to my room but I’d slept through the seven o’clock alarm by an hour.

  “Why don’t you drop your clothes off in your room while I check out then I can meet you in the lobby.”

  I jogged from the elevator to my room, tossed my clothes into the air, then pulled the door shut, and hit the button for the lobby as soon as the elevator doors opened again. I didn’t want to make her any later than I already had.

  I found Miriam as soon as the elevator door opened. She was leaning against the wall by the front desk and glanced at her phone twice without seeing me forage a path toward her through the smattering of people already moving around. Damn, she was cute as hell standing there tapping her foot, chewing on her bottom lip while scowling at the screen like she thought I might actually make her miss her flight. No chance.

  “I’m here. Calm down.”

  My fingers slid into hers, and I took her rolling suitcase out to the waiting cab. I thought about how many times she must have done this by herself. I didn’t want her doing this shit alone yet was proud as hell that she could.

  I was proud of her? That was new.

  “OK,” she said settling into the seat as the driver maneuvered us away from the hotel. “Will I be hearing from you once you’re back on the mainland?”

  “Why would you even have to ask that?”

  “I don’t know, Sam.” She shrugged. “You seem into me but you’ve been…mmmm…distant. Yeah. Distant, that’s the word. Like you don’t want to get too close. Now I’ve only known you like a week so I could be reading you all wrong.”

  “Call me when you land. No need to wait until I get back, right?”

  “Right.” She tried not to let me see the smile that she had no chance of hiding when we stepped out of the taxi at the airport. We’d cut it close but I still wanted to walk her in.

  “Wait for me,” I called out to the cabbie. He didn’t seem to hear me but didn’t pull away so I figured I was good.

  “Ok, well, I don’t have any time for chit chat because someone wanted to sleep. I’ll talk to you later.” She pushed up onto her toes to kiss my cheek but I wasn’t letting her get away with that.

  I turned my head so my lips could capture hers. I held her there. I just wanted a small taste before she got on that god damned plane. When she pulled back her tongue traced her bottom lip. The same place my tongue had just touched.

  “All right then.” Her words came out a bit breathless which made me a bit cocky. We hadn’t kissed for long and yet it affected her as much as it affected me. The blush on her skin was a thing of beauty.

  Fuck, it turned me on.

  Another quick peck and she headed toward security.

  I watched her until she got lost in the crowd.

  Without Miriam to fill my time when I got back to the hotel, I went straight to my room, changed for the beach and went back out.

  Thirty minutes later another person dropped down beside me. Flannery was alone which surprised me. Cain hadn’t let her out of his sight other than when she stayed back at the hotel to sleep.

  “Sunscreen my back, please?” She smiled over at me with that great, full faced smile she gave out like candy. The one that had a way of making everyone feel better.

  Nodding, I grabbed the bottle, squirted some into my hand and went to work.

  “Thanks. I’m prone to the sizzle.” She did have fair enough skin that I believed she would burn after about fifteen minutes.

  As I covered all her exposed skin, a couple of guys walking by couldn’t keep their eyes off her.

  Flannery didn’t notice. She just went on to rub the lotion into her legs, but I could read their minds as if I was inside their brain myself.

  “Hey!” I snapped at the guys. “Eyes on your own paper.” They quickly turned their attention from Flannery to ocean.

  Flannery giggled but the dudes turned away and walked a little faster.

  “My mom says that,” Flannery said with a smile.

  “I know. I heard her say it once senior year.” Jennifer, Flannery’s mom reminded me a lot of my own. Neither of them had much of a filter on their mouths. “Where’s Cain?”

  “Sleeping. I’ve worn the poor guy out.”

  “I don’t want to hear that,” I said shaking my head.

  We sat there in the sun for all of two minutes before she began asking me about Miriam. I expected it and gave her the same vague answers I’d given her for two years when she asked about a girl. Miriam was not different than the others, I said. I wasn’t about to acknowledge that I liked her a hell of a lot more than any of the others.

  Not out loud anyway.

  “Just don’t fuck her over. I like her. We’ve been texting all week, and I plan on staying in touch with her. I also plan on Kendra staying in touch with her once they meet. She’s going to be our third musketeer so don’t make it weird.”

  “You can’t know that she’ll be your third. You just met her.”

  “Ha.” She barked a little too loudly. “You don’t understand girls.”

  Well, that’s an understatement.

  “Have you met her? She’s perfect for me and Kendra.”

  “Are you sure you want to be friends and not sister wives.”

  “Positive. I’m not sharing Cain.”

  We sat out there for almost an hour before my lazy ass best friend decided to join us. Then they got all lovey and shit so I got the hell out of Dodge.

  ***

  It was a much longer four days until our flight home. Or rather my flight home and the first stop on Cain and Flannery’s flight home.


  Time to face reality.

  I’d done most of what I wanted in Hawaii and fuck me if I was going to be the third wheel any more than I already had been. That would’ve been pathetic. Instead I climbed anything I could get to and took more surfing lessons. In between all the fun, Miriam called or texted several times a day.

  Twice in those five days we talked on the phone like fucking teenagers. About anything and everything. Like the fact that she’ll eat just about anything. Boy did I comment on that one. Miriam took it like a champ only threatening to kick my ass twice.

  We landed in California on time. An all too familiar weight settled into my chest as I knew the decision I’d already made had sort of been remade, and I needed to return to work.

  “You didn’t book a flight back to Michigan did you?” Cain asked once we were off the plane and into the airport.

  “Not this time but I’ll be visiting soon.”

  “Think that’ll help whatever’s going on?” Our entire group knew I hated living so far away but none of us really talked about it.

  “Remains to be seen.”

  I wasn’t about to have that kind of conversation in an airport. Or public. Or in front of a fucking girl even if that girl was Flannery.

  “There she is.” Flannery squealed the way only girls knew how to. At a frequency only dogs should be able to hear.

  I turned the direction she was moving and found her face to face with Miriam doing the girl hug thing.

  What the hell?

  Neither of them said anything about her meeting us at the airport. I clamped my jaw shut and kept my stride steady beside Cain. It’s not like I wasn’t happy to see her, but I suddenly had no idea how to act. I turned into the socially awkward kid who couldn’t talk to a girl. There was something seriously wrong with me.

  “I invited Miriam here since we have a ridiculous four hour layover,” Flannery explained when we came up behind them. “Now I must be fed.”

  My eyes fell to Cain who only shrugged.

  “If my wife’s hungry, she’s hungry.” Tucking Flannery under his arm they waited. For me, I think.