Saving Us by Wendy Million
Chapter Four
They moved past me into the house, and Johnny scooped Annika into a hug. I pictured her heart beating a million miles a minute. Please let him be a good guy. I turned away from the door to ease it closed, and then I felt resistance. Frowning, I re-opened it and peeked around the edge.
“Oh, hey, Nattie. I got left behind.” Sebastian grinned, a case of beer in his arms. He took me in from head to toe, but unlike when Clay did it, this perusal sent my heart into overdrive. “Not a football fan, but you own an ancient jersey?” He made a tsking noise as he angled past me.
I jerked my thumb over my shoulder toward Annika. “Super fan over there has like one thousand jerseys. She gave me one she didn’t care about anymore.”
He chuckled, and the sound moved like a wave across my body. Having him around was something I could get used to. “Oh, I doubt she doesn’t care anymore. That guy’s going into the hall of fame this year. I bet that jersey is worth serious coin.”
I examined my shirt with new appreciation. “So, what you’re saying is that spilling salsa and nacho cheese dip on it would be a bad thing?”
Annika swung her arm around my shoulders. “It means, roomie, that I trust you to take good care of my things.” She grinned at Sebastian. “You can put the beer in the fridge.”
When he angled past us, Annika dragged my head to her ear. “Why is Clayton here sitting on our couch, mooning over Johnny? That’s my job. My job is mooning over Johnny.”
“He invited himself before I could make it clear and not super awkward that he wasn’t invited.”
“He’s drinking our beer. You broke up with him months ago.” She took a swig from her own bottle and released my head.
“And he’s wearing his best outfit.” His dark hair was visible over the back of the couch. “He said he came to check up on me because I didn’t text him, but I’m not sure.”
“Nat, he wanted to marry you. He wanted you to bear his babies. He’s not hanging around because he wants to be your friend. You need to cut him off at the knees.”
Johnny half-turned on the couch, and he caught Annika’s attention. He patted the seat beside him. She gave me a triumphant smile and flounced over to sit next to him.
In the kitchen, Sebastian and one of the other guys were talking, leaning against the counter. When I bent over to get a beer from the fridge, Sebastian’s gaze burned into me. The other guy was definitely checking out my ass too, and I didn’t even know his name. Grabbing the beer, I closed the fridge with a bump from my hip. Taking the bottle opener off the counter, I popped the top and took a swig.
“I’m Natalie,” I said, holding out my hand. “I’m the person attached to the ass you were just admiring.” With a sassy grin, I raised my bottle to my lips.
Sebastian choked on his beer and started coughing. The other guy, who I'd nicknamed Steroids in my head, grinned.
“I’m Troy.” He laughed and shook my hand. “A fine ass has to be admired. Not my fault.” He held up his hands, a beer still clutched in one of them. He clapped Sebastian on the shoulder. “Nice jersey,” he said to me before going to the living room.
His comment was probably meant to be a peace offering, but it only annoyed me more. “Troy’s the kind of guy who grabs a girl’s ass in a bar and then gets offended when the girl gets angry.” Troy wasn’t who I was upset with; it was Clay. His voice kept drifting into the kitchen, and I wished he wasn’t here.
Sebastian eyed me. “I could be wrong, we only met last night, but you don’t seem like yourself today.”
I drained my beer and put the empty in the sink, leaning down for another. When I glanced over my shoulder, Sebastian’s gaze was averted. He wasn’t risking another peek with my mood.
“My ex-boyfriend is here.” The bottle top popped, and I tossed it toward the garbage. It hit the rim and tipped in.
“Ah,” he said. We drank in silence for a beat. “So, he broke up with you but still comes around to hang out with Annika and watch football?” He squinted as though this was the only logical explanation his brain could formulate.
I laughed, and the tension eased out of me. “No, sort of the opposite. I broke up with him, and he showed up today, dressed in his Sunday best. I’m not sure what’s going on.” I leaned my hip against the kitchen counter but faced Sebastian. If a man could be described as beautiful, this guy nailed it.
He put his bottle to his lips and grinned. “You want me to explain it to you?”
“I don’t know. Are you going to do it with a football analogy?” I raised my eyebrows and took a sip of my beer.
He chuckled and shook his head. “He wants you back.”
“I was hoping you’d go with the football analogy so I could pretend I didn’t know what you were talking about.” I pressed my lower back into the counter.
“What are you going to do about it?”
When I glanced at Sebastian, the urge to touch him was almost overwhelming. Letting Clay catch me making out with a football player in the kitchen would pound the final nail into our relationship coffin. A cruel thing to do, even if it was efficient.
“Annika thinks I should cut him loose.” I rubbed my finger along the edge of the counter instead of reaching for him. We were close enough that the faint whiff of his cologne caressed my senses whenever he shifted his feet. A guy who understood the right amount of cologne to put on? Priceless.
We drank our beers in companionable silence before I asked, “If you were him, would you want to be cut loose?”
One side of Sebastian’s mouth quirked up, and I was mesmerized. Not good, Nat. Not good. A crush was fine, but full on I want to have your babies was not cool. I’d have to join a line. Women probably lined up to be with him.
He glanced over, and the air between us electrified. “You mean if I was chasing a girl who wasn’t interested? Would I want to be cut loose?”
“Yes,” I whispered. Were we still talking about Clay and me?
He faced me with an intense gaze. “I enjoy the thrill of the chase. I’m not sure I could be easily deterred if I wanted someone.”
He was a hair’s breadth from me now. The tart bitterness of the beer he’d chosen from the fridge mingled in the air with his cologne. I glanced at him under my lashes, almost willing him to kiss me.
“Oh, ah, I was just—I’m just grabbing a beer.” Clay stood at the side of the kitchen closest to the living room. I jumped back from Sebastian as though Clay dumped cold water on us. I could only imagine how Sebastian and I looked right now, standing so close, electricity sparking between us. Clay’s interruption was both wonderful and awful. I didn’t want to start something with Sebastian. The worst idea.
I pushed off the counter without a word and wandered into the living room. Avoiding Sebastian for the next little while was the best plan. Instead, I studied Annika and Johnny bonding over plays and strategy as the game progressed. She’d told me she’d dated football guys before, but Johnny was different. He was eligible for the draft at the end of this school year. Annika was sure someone would pick him up; he was that good.
“So, you and the football guy? That transferred junior superstar?” Clay sidled up beside me, his annoyance on full display.
“Me and Sebastian what?” I refused to look at him. Letting him believe what he already thought was an exit strategy. Most of the time, I was a horrible liar. In the year we’d been together, I’d never told more than the tiniest white lie and that had been about my weight, which had almost felt truthful. Who tells their boyfriend how much they weigh, anyway?
“Is he why you’re wearing a football jersey and out of your room during one of Annika’s football parties?” Apparently, he wouldn’t assume. He wanted me to say it.
“There’s nothing going on between me and Sebastian.” But I couldn’t help glancing in Sebastian’s direction when I said it. “I just met him last night.” There was a smattering of freckles across Clay’s cheeks, and I focused on those instead of making eye contact. In a minute, I’d see his one crooked tooth when he spoke. I forced myself to meet his gaze. “There’s nothing there.” I hesitated. “You know there’s nothing here anymore either, right?” I tried to keep my voice quiet and gentle.
Clay let out a strangled laugh. “Yeah, you’ve been pretty clear. I told you I was worried. If I’m not allowed to be worried, maybe we shouldn’t be friends.” His voice was tinged with bitterness.
His tone made pieces of me curl up in shame and then unfurl in rage. “If you don’t want to be friends with me, that’s your choice. But if I go to a frat party or out with Annika somewhere, it’s not your job to make sure I get home safe.”
He chugged the rest of his beer, his Adam’s apple working as he tipped the last bit back. His eyes blazed when they met mine. “Noted.” He headed into the kitchen with purpose.
Please tell me he didn’t drive here. I didn’t want his hungover, sorry ass coming tomorrow to get his keys and car.
“That looked smooth.” Sebastian took Clay’s spot beside me.
“Like glass.” I nodded at the TV. “You don’t seem to be watching the game as intensely as other people.”
“Not my team.” He angled his head at Annika and Johnny. “Speaking of intense.”
“Every team is Annika’s team, I think.” I shrugged. “I have heard more times than I can count that there is always something to learn whenever I criticize her for watching yet another game.”
A hint of a grin peeked out around the rim of his beer bottle. That was starting to be one of my favorite things about him—his concealed amusement. “Annika seems intense.”
“Two speeds.” I held up two fingers. “Everything always and nothing ever.”
“I saw that,” Annika called over the back of the couch. She laughed, and the sound floated around the room. “You’re giving your Annika speech again.”
“You couldn’t have seen that,” I said.
“Reflection in the TV. Today is an everything always day.” She grinned at me in the reflection as the commercial played.
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. It’s true. You’re the tortoise and the hare.”
Sebastian chuckled at our easy banter, but then his smile faded. “You didn’t drop the hammer hard enough on your ex. He’s still staring us down.”
“He didn’t believe me when I said nothing was going on between us.” I gave Sebastian a sideways glance.
The same amused look crossed his face. He shook his head once and took a drink. “Strange.”
Our eyes connected for a beat too long. “I know, right? I just met you.” I didn’t sound convincing, even to myself.
The game ended and people milled around us, gathering up empties, putting away food, but we were still standing next to each other. Finally, Sebastian leaned over and said, “If you were still his girlfriend, he’d be right to be worried.” He kissed my cheek and finished his beer as he sauntered into the kitchen.
My brain shouted yes, yes, yes and oh shit, oh shit, oh shit like dueling personalities, and my fingers skimmed the place on my cheek his lips had just been.
Everyone started to pile out of the house, but Clay hung around until the bitter end to deliver a parting shot. “Nothing going on, huh? Whatever, Natalie. I thought you’d at least be honest with me.”
As he walked down the path, Annika put her arm around my waist and pulled me close. “Out with the old and in with the new.”
