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“It’s all good. I stare at you too, only I don’t get caught.” He winked, his gaze drifting to her lips. They looked soft, plush and he wondered how they would feel on his.

“Hey,” she said, breaking his stare. “You have another dimple by your eye. I didn’t notice that before.”

“That’s because you’re too busy staring at my mouth, probably wondering if I’m a good kisser or not.”

Alyssa picked up a fry and threw it at John. “I was not!”

He dodged it. “Yeah, right. If you’re lucky, I’ll let you find out.”

“Oh, you are just so full of yourself, country boy. And who said I wanted to find out anyway?”

“You didn’t have to, your eyes—“

“John!” a female voice carried in the wind, cutting him off.

John turned around. “Hey, Sarah.” Sarah ogled John as she sauntered over to him. Her hips swayed as if she was on the cat walk, her pouty red lips and mountain of cleavage were the only things that he could seem to focus on.

“Have you met Alyssa?”

Sarah looked at Alyssa as if she had no idea she was even there. “Hi.”

“Hey,” Alyssa responded, and Sarah focused her attention back on John. “I’ve been trying to find you. Are you heading home soon? I usually ride with Chelsea but she wants to stay in the library and study, and I have to work today. Any way you can give me a lift home?”

Alyssa’s mouth gapped open. Did Sarah even take a breath with all of that?

“Yeah, that’s cool. Are you ready now?”

Sarah batted her eyelashes at John. “I’m ready when you are.”

Looking at Alyssa, John said, “I’ll be back when your class is over to get you.” The way he said sugar was like warm honey rolling over her.

“It’s okay—I can call my mom.” The last thing she wanted to do was inconvenience him.

“I’ll be back to get you. Later, sugar,” he stated, leaving Alyssa gawking in his dust.

A few minutes before class let out, Alyssa felt a vibration coming from her back pocket. Pulling out her phone, she spotted two text messages—one from her mother apologizing for not waking sooner to drive her to school, and the other from Yours Truly.

Yours Truly? Oh, just wait until she got her hands on him.

Yours Truly: Meet me in the courtyard.

She stepped out of class and walked to the front of the school and around the maze of people conversing with one another until she spotted the tall dirty blonde head she was looking for. With a good-natured shove, John stumbled.

“Yours truly?” she said, holding up her phone.

John spun around, a huge grin plastered on his face as he pinned her with his incandescent eyes. “I knew you’d like it. I have you as Babe in mine”

“In your dreams, country boy. I’m changing it.”

John reached over to snatch the phone from her hands. “Alyssa … you better not!” he laughed as he held it high and out of her reach. Her tiny little body was pressed into his as she tried to wrestle the phone from his hands. As aggravated as she appeared to be with him, a little laugh rolled off her lips.

“John, you better stop! Give me back my phone!”

“Only if you leave it.”

“No way!”

“Then you can’t have it back.”