Page 2

savannah

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I don’t dare look over my shoulder as I fly down the stairs. Chloe better be done flirting her cute little ass off because we’re out of here. I can barely clear the stairs with all the bodies that have gathered here in the last hour since I snuck off.

“Where were you?”

I whirl around, heaving a sigh of relief when I find my best friend yelling at me.

“I was outside risking frostbite so you could talk to that guy.” I furrow my brows, looking over her shoulder for said guy.

“That guy? He looked like a Victorian child who would not have made it through the winter.”

I stare at her for a minute and then burst into a fit of laughter. “This place is out of control, let’s get the fuck out of here.” I grab her hand and pull her behind me as I start to shove my way to the front door.

“I saw a guy sleeping on the toilet naked.”

I look back at her, sure that I heard her wrong considering the casual way in which she just told me she walked in on someone naked. She nods her head with wide eyes, her face saying, ‘yeah bitch. You heard that right.’ I laugh again and turn, running straight into a door.

“Fuck!” I slap my hand to my forehead finding no door in sight but rather the guy I just kissed on the balcony.

Noah Fucking Kingston.

“What the hell was that?” His furrowed brows are practically kissing as he shouts at me.

“You tell me. You’re the one that almost just knocked me out,” I say while holding my neck and rotating my head. “Just because you play hockey doesn’t mean you can go around concussing people.”

If running into me wasn’t bad enough, he now has the audacity to laugh. I narrow my eyes, and his amused look suddenly straightens.

“I was referring to that kiss outside.”

“Kiss? Who was kissing?” Chloe pipes up behind me.

“She was kissing me.”

“You were kissing him?” Her voice raises three octaves.

“Kissed! Not kissing. I kissed you,” I clarify for both of them.

“Damn, dude. He’s not even your type.” Chloe settles back down onto the whole of her foot, rather than trying to jump over my shoulder.

I roll my eyes and focus my attention back on an even more confused Noah. “I only did that because you were shaking in your boots and clearly wanted that girl off of your back. You should be thanking me, not trying to knock my block off.”

“I wasn’t shaking in my boots.” He scoffs. “Who says that anyway?”

“You were hiding on your balcony from a pretty girl. I don’t think you get to be the one judging here.”

His eyes bore into mine and despite the thumping in my forehead, I stare right back.

My scowl deepens because two things about me are, and will always remain true.

The first is that I’m stubborn as hell. I’m not going to let this man with his chiseled jaw, or lips that are turning up at the side intimidate me.

“I’m going to go warm up your car. Keys?”

I drop my keys into Chloe’s waiting hand without taking my eyes off Noah. I can feel her gaze bouncing between the two of us, but I don’t acknowledge her as she slides out the door.

Noah’s eyes drop to my mouth for the quickest moment, but when he looks back into my eyes, I can still feel the warmth from his gaze on my lips. His expression changes again and his body relaxes.

“Why are you leaving already?”

“Because one hour was about sixty minutes too many for me.”

“We could go someplace more quiet.” He’s already as close as I thought he could possibly be in this crowded room, but when he dips his head towards me, he feels infinitely closer. “Back outside? Or I could show you my room, which you so quickly ran from.”

I bite the corner of my bottom lip and unfortunately, I don’t have any alcohol to blame for the weird dance happening in my stomach right now.

“What do you say?”

Noah and I have exchanged exactly zero words prior to tonight; however, with how many times I’ve reached out and touched him, you would most definitely think there was something going on between us.

It’s all the more evident now when my hand goes rogue, and I suddenly feel the soft waves of his dark hair beneath my fingers.

I drag my hand along the side of his head once, and despite the music being so loud, I swear I can hear a groan rumble deep inside him.

Unfortunately for him, the second thing about me that will always be true: I will never date a hockey player .

“Sorry, captain. I only pretend to date hockey players.” I drop my hand, smile sweetly at his look of disbelief, and close the front door behind me.

The mid-morning sun that reflects through the bay window is usually one of my favorite sights. This morning, with a pulsing headache, I hate it.

“There’s ibuprofen on the floor,” Chloe says.

I lift my head enough to find her curled up on the other side of the couch, watching reruns of her comfort show.

Her long, blonde hair is tied up in a messy bun on top of her head.

Her thick, black-rimmed glasses tell me she hasn’t gotten up to put her contacts in yet, and I’d be willing to bet she’s wearing nothing but underwear and an oversized T-shirt from a random bar under that blanket.

I welcome the fluffy cushions beneath me as I lay back down, drop my hand beside the couch, and find both bottles immediately.

“It’s fucked up that I didn’t even drink last night and I still wake up feeling like I got hit by a train.”

“Not a train, babe. Noah Kingston.” She doesn’t take her eyes off the TV but I can hear the teasing smile in her voice.

Unfortunately, not even the throbbing of my brain is enough to make me forget that I kissed Linden Creek’s all-star hockey captain.

What. An. Idiot.

I can’t even lie and say that I didn’t know who he was, but I can honestly say that I didn’t think he would come running after me, or should I say— into me. I rub my forehead and pull myself up just as the doorbell rings.

“Brekky,” Chloe says in an impressive Australian accent while pausing her show.

I feel around for my phone knowing damn well I went straight from my car to the couch, so it can’t be in my room, or anywhere else. The coffee table is bare, minus one of Chloe’s giant homemade candles, a small vase of flowers, and my water bottle. I dig in the cushions once before giving up.

“Woof. I am salivating!” Chloe sets the food on the coffee table and begins pulling take-out boxes from the paper bag. “And this is just what the doctor ordered.”

The rumble that comes from my stomach is so loud that if she were anyone else, I might be embarrassed. She distributes a hefty serving of crepes and waffles between the two take out containers and I sit up when she hands me a slice of extra crispy bacon.

“Have you heard from the girls? I can’t find my phone.”

“I texted Christina last night letting her know we bailed early,” she says, before licking her thumb. “And then she sent me a picture of a naked guy sleeping beside her this morning.”

My eyes bulge out, but Chloe just shakes her head, unphased.

Christina and her roommate, Simone, were our dorm neighbors freshman year.

We liked them enough. We went to parties together, but often left on our own.

And even though we no longer live in the dorms, going places together and leaving separately is a tradition we still share from time to time—hence how I ended up at a party thrown by the LCU hockey team.

To be fair, even though I drove, I wasn’t informed of where we were going to end up.

“Do you have anything on your agenda today?” I ask.

“Finishing the rest of this season,” she says, pointing a piece of her bacon at the TV. “I won’t rest until Opie gets his revenge. Then I’ll probably order some more food and start the next season because that cliffhanger is a Bitch with a capital B.”

I smile around a mouthful of crepe. “No writing today?”

“Sav. Be serious.” She looks at me for the first time .

“What?”

“It’s the last day before the new semester starts. It’s like the Sundayest Sunday there ever was. I’m not moving from this couch, except to answer the door when more food comes later.”

I know she can be a little sensitive about her writing, so I don’t ask if it has more to do with Sunday or her book. Instead, I take another bite of my food and settle back into the couch. “I love a good rot day.”

“Amen, sister.”