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She backed up a little more, her arms dropping from his shoulders to rest her hands on his biceps. Her smile brightened. “Can you believe we’ve been friends for ten years?”

“ Best friends,” Quinn corrected.

“You’re not allowed to replace me,” said Rae. “If I hear you have a new best friend, I’m not going to be happy. You can call him your college best friend, but not your real best friend.”

“What if my new best friend is another girl?” Quinn questioned. He wanted her to get defensive, even possessive. Give him some clue that she felt like she had a claim on him the way he did with her.

“Bitch better step aside. That’s not happening,” said Rae, completely straight-faced.

Quinn laughed, feeling satisfied with her response, “Deal. No girl best friends. No new best friends. Just college friends. And probably teammates.”

“And I promise not to have any new guy best friends. I don’t think college works that way anyway. I’m pretty sure if a guy expresses interest in you in college, it’s strictly because he wants sex.”

The thought of Rae spending her days on campus and in the dorms with some other guy, laughing and talking, close like Quinn was with her, made his stomach tie in knots. Even more so was the thought of that new friend actually having the guts to say and do what he never has. It made him sick.

“I’d fly back up here just to knock his teeth in,” said Quinn.

Rae grinned brightly. “You do realize we will probably both be having sex in college. It’s a whole different ball game. I don’t think people just hook up for hand stuff.”

“Is that what you’ve been doing with everyone?” Quinn teased.

She laughed and sighed, “It’s funny that you think I do anything with anyone. ”

Quinn looked at her curiously. He’d endured enough locker room talk about this girl to fill his head with all sorts of jealousy and envy toward the guys who bragged about going out with her.

Though now that he thought about it, he realized Rae had never mentioned anything about them.

Would she have told him what goes on when she’s out with guys?

Quinn sure as hell didn’t tell her about anything he’d done.

The rumors were exaggerated, but he’d always been adamant about avoiding any discussion of the things he did with other girls while wishing he could be doing them with her.

Truthfully, he hadn’t even been out with a girl in a long time.

Several months, in fact. After the new semester began the previous year, he’d been completely zeroed in on baseball and deciding on a college.

Between training, which he’d been thrilled Rae had offered to help with, and school, and actually playing the game, he really hadn’t had time for anything or anyone else.

And over the summer, well, that’s when he got Rae to himself.

No other guys gawking at her, no shoving his anger down when someone made crude comments about her in front of him.

“Nate O'Reilly said you guys sixty-nined in his Escalade. I didn’t think that sounded like something you’d do,” Quinn said, remembering how he’d wanted to knock the guy out, and then go puke after hearing this random brag.

“Ew,” Rae scrunched up her face. “False.”

“Bryan Wilmot? He said you gave him a hand job when you met up to tutor him for French.”

“If you’re going to lie about a hookup, why not make it a little better than a hand job?” Rae asked. “Also false. What else?”

“Drake Vaughn-”

“Absolutely not.”

Quinn laughed. “Yeah, I didn’t really believe that one either. Um...Greg Mink?”

“The guy wears eyeliner, Quinn- What do you think?”

Laughing again, he shrugged. “I don’t know, some girls like that Jack Sparrow look. ”

“Not this girl,” Rae said. “Okay, how about you? Kimberly and Olivia Brooks? You were making out with Kim in their hot tub and Olivia joined?”

“Nice- but no. I did go out with Olivia, but nothing particularly exciting happened.”

“Did you hook up with Hallie Thomas?”

“Nope.”

“Rachel Price?”

“Also no.”

“Nina Parks said her dad caught you guys fooling around.”

Quinn winced. “True.”

Rae gasped. “Quinn Casey...Did she really have your dick in her hand?”

“Why do girls share these things?” Quinn groaned.

Rae laughed. “Isn’t her dad a pastor?”

“Mhmm.”

She let out another high laugh. “That’s brilliant.”

“Most of the rumors are false though,” Quinn sighed. “I just sort of...fuel the fire. I think it’s funny, so I go along with it. Encourage it, even. It seemed a lot easier than fighting the rumors.”

“Interesting strategy,” Rae said. “Maybe I should do that.”

“That might attract the wrong kind of attention,” Quinn replied, shaking his head. No way did he want the guys at school thinking those stories were true.

Rae was looking at Quinn curiously now, her eyes searching his own.

It was rare that he didn’t know what to make of her expression.

Today had been a bit of an anomaly, between Rae coming out like some kind of Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, and the horrible moment of watching Jett- fucking Jett!

- lick her finger. Quinn didn’t think he’d ever let him live that down.

“Are you staying at your house tonight?” Rae asked.

“Probably should since tomorrow’s the first day of school,” said Quinn. He nodded toward the pile of opened boxes on the patio. “ Although, I think your parents got me a whole new wardrobe, so maybe it doesn’t matter where I stay.”

“I see Mom talked Dad out of buying that car for you,” said Rae, looking over her shoulder toward the gifts, too.

“I don’t know what I would’ve done. You guys do too much for me as it is.”

Rae shrugged. “You deserve it.” Her gaze floated down to where her hands were still resting on Quinn’s arms. He had almost forgotten he was still holding her like this, with his arms hanging loosely around her hips.

He wanted to pull her closer and inhale her again.

“Why don’t you just stay?” she suggested.

“Stay?” Quinn questioned, his mind wandering from their conversation and floating off to a dream land where holding Rae like this meant they were more than friends.

“Here, I mean,” Rae said. “Tonight.”

“If you want me to.”

Her responding smile was contagious. He grinned down at her, wondering for what was likely the millionth time in his life why this girl wanted to be close to him, why she was letting him hold her like this.

“You know I love you, right?” she asked after a few silent beats. She was looking up at him from beneath her long lashes and he felt his heart flutter, and his stomach must’ve done some sort of backflip.

“You might’ve mentioned it before,” said Quinn, his voice low. Of course she just meant it as her friend. Rae told all of her friends she loved them. He always struggled to say the words back to her because she had no idea what weight they held for him.

For the second time that day, Rae reached up on her tip-toes and planted a kiss to his cheek, though with this one she lingered a moment or two before stepping back out of his arms. One of these days he was going to see those cheek kisses coming and turn his head to “accidentally” catch her lips on his.

All right, probably not. But it was a nice thought .

Everyone had comfortably posted up in the lawn on chairs, blankets, towels, and pillows for the movie viewing on the large projector screen.

It hadn’t been much of a race between Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Superbad , and in the end, Superbad won out.

Rae was particularly displeased, having been the only one to vote for the Harry Potter movie, but made Quinn promise to watch a marathon with her the next weekend they both had available.

In a mass of pillows and blankets, Quinn and Rae had essentially made themselves a nest from which to watch the movie.

Several others were coupled up, but actually coupled, and it was hard to ignore the fact that many of them were making out rather than watching the film.

Rae and Quinn were loudly commenting and laughing at the movie and whispering to each other about the unlikely pairings that had come together, making bets on how long some of them would last.

After the show, Quinn said his goodbyes and thank-yous to everyone.

He let Chris know he didn’t need a ride home because he’d be staying with Rae.

He’d given Jett a back-slapping hug and whispered threateningly into his ear, “Fucking put your mouth on her again, man,” before pulling away and laughing at the wide-eyed expression on his friend’s face.

Jett’s look of worry cracked into a grin, and he shoved Quinn’s shoulder, insisting he’d told Rae that he didn’t want to do it.

Quinn started cleaning up but Charlie waved him off, assuring him they’d get the rest later.

He and Rae grabbed all the gift bags and hauled them up to the guest room across the hall from Rae’s bedroom before taking turns in the shower, cleansing themselves of chlorine and sunscreen and the remnants of summer.

There was a vanity dresser in the guest room that had socks, underwear, t-shirts, and even a pair of blue jeans he’d left behind.

Some nights he had very little notice that he’d be staying at the DeRoses’ and after the third or fourth surprise stay, Margaux had reserved the drawers for him.

She’d also made sure there were always new toothbrushes and tubes of toothpaste, even razors, shave cream, and any other toiletries he may need in the guest bathroom for these occasions .

Fresh out of the shower, wearing only a pair of gray sweatpants, Quinn folded his new clothes, trying to figure out what to wear the next day. He looked up at the sound of a knock on the frame of the open bedroom door.

Rae was leaning in the doorway, hair still wet, in a pair of pajama shorts and a spaghetti-strap top. His pulse tripped and his chest inflated. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen her like this, but it never seemed to be an image he could get used to.