Page 13 of Matched (LSU #5)

C harlie was quiet next to me, focused on eating his ice cream. My gaze kept flicking to him, taking in the way he licked up the dripping cream from the cone, and I hoped he didn’t notice, because I had no explanation for why I was looking at him.

“Wanna go on the pedal boats?” I suggested when we’d finally finished our ice creams. We’d been here for hours already, but I was having fun hanging out with Charlie. I wasn’t ready for it to end yet.

“Are you gonna pedal me around?” He shot me a wide grin.

Nudging him with my elbow, I returned his smile. “Remember, I beat you in our bike race. You can pedal me around.”

We bickered all the way to the boat hire place, nudging and elbowing each other and generally acting like kids on a sugar high. When we were seated in our pedalo, next to each other, Charlie tipped his head back, letting the sun shine directly onto his face.

“This is nice.”

“Yeah.” Following his lead, I twisted my cap around so the brim was at the back and lifted my face to the sun, closing my eyes behind my shades.

Nice was an understatement. The sun was warm, not too hot, there was a fresh breeze cooling my skin, and the sound of the birds mingled with chatter from the people dotted around the shore.

Out here, it was easy to forget we were in the centre of the city—if I ignored the tall buildings visible when I looked in certain directions.

The boat was an e-pedalo, so thanks to the electronic assistance, it took hardly any effort to manoeuvre us into the centre of the lake.

I glanced over at Charlie to find him already looking at me, his mouth curved upwards.

The breeze was ruffling his hair, and his posture was relaxed, his legs stretched out in front of him as he let me do all the work of pedalling.

My breath caught in my throat. He was so fucking good-looking. Cute and fucking sexy.

My jaw clenched. There was no way I’d just had that thought about my platonic friend.

Tearing my gaze away, I stared out across the lake. “Are you coming to our match next weekend? If we win the next two, we’ve got a chance of winning the southern division cup.”

“Yeah. I wouldn’t miss it,” Charlie said instantly. “Training with the team has been— I dunno, I knew you were good, but you’ve got some really strong players.”

“Including me, I hope.”

“Fishing for compliments?” He tutted. “As if your head wasn’t big enough already.”

“It could always do with being bigger.”

A loud, exaggerated sigh came from next to me. “Fine. You’re a very talented…mugger.”

“Fuck off.”

He hummed. “Okay, okay. You’re great at pinball. Not as good as me, because we both know your win was a fluke, but you’re still great.”

“Not what I was asking, Charlie B. Compliment my ball-handling skills.”

“I wouldn’t know about those,” he shot back and then gasped. “Uh—I didn’t mean— That didn’t come out right— Fuck.”

“Charlie.” Turning to him, I reached out, squeezing his bicep. “I’d be happy to show you how well I can handle balls anytime.”

The second the words were out of my mouth, I wanted to take them back, but it was too late. I’d been aiming to lighten the moment with a joke, but fucking hell, my voice had sounded way too sincere.

“Um.” He coughed, then swallowed. “Yeah. A one-on-one training session would be good. My footwork could do with, uh, some refining.”

“Yeah. Your footwork. Okay. Want me to book the training pitch one evening in the week?”

There was a pause, and I could see him clenching his fists, his knuckles whitening, but then he exhaled unsteadily and nodded. “That would be good. Um. Wednesday?”

“I’ll log in now and see if it’s free.” Fishing my phone from my pocket, I opened the booking app for the LSU sports facilities.

We had a short training session on Wednesday, but the pitch was normally empty after we’d finished.

“Uh…it looks like it’s fully booked this upcoming week, but it’s free after our Wednesday training session the week after.

Want to do it then? We’ll be warmed up from training, so we can get straight into it. ”

“Yeah. That—that sounds good. Yeah.” Charlie cleared his throat. “Yeah. Okay.”

We fell silent as we slowly pedalled the boat across the lake, both of us lost in our own thoughts.

“Shhh,” Charlie warned me. “I don’t wanna have to explain to my housemates why I’m bringing a boy home.”

My laughter was immediately stifled by his hand clapping over my mouth.

We were both a bit tipsy, and it was possible that I was a little delirious from my lack of sleep at this point.

Attempting to focus myself, I did my best to tiptoe quietly through Charlie’s student house, following him up the stairs to his bedroom.

After we’d had enough of hanging out in Hyde Park, we’d come back to the LSU campus and left our bikes in his backyard because it was closest. We’d grabbed some burgers from the cafeteria, and then one thing led to another, and we’d mutually decided that burgers should be followed by beers. And more beers.

I’d come back to Charlie’s house to get my bike, but he wanted me to sober up before I rode home, so he’d invited me inside so he could feed me water and snacks, apparently. It was kind of sweet that he was looking out for me. Normally, I was the one looking out for other people.

“Here it is. You’ve seen one student room, you’ve seen them all,” Charlie announced with a sweep of his hand after he’d flipped on a lamp and closed the door firmly behind us.

I glanced around me. The small bedroom was on the top floor of the house, in the eaves, so part of the ceiling was sloped.

Plain magnolia walls surrounded us, decorated with a couple of football posters and a small noticeboard, and there was a double bed pushed up against one wall with a tiny bedside table to the left.

A chipped pine laminate desk piled with textbooks stood below the window, which was cracked open, letting in the cooler evening breeze.

The doors of the wardrobe next to the small bookcase on the far wall were hanging at an angle, and when Charlie caught me eyeing them, he sighed.

“Yeah. I’ve been meaning to get those doors fixed. ”

“Nah. It adds to the aesthetic,” I told him, crossing the room to take a seat on the edge of his bed.

“If you say so.” Toeing off his trainers, he placed the pint glass of water and bags of crisps he’d brought up with us on the bedside table. “Want to watch TV or something?”

“Yeah, okay.” I took off my own trainers and shifted back to lean against the wall with my legs stretched out across the bed. Charlie handed me the water, and I downed a third of it while he was getting his laptop set up. After placing the glass down, I patted the space next to me. “Sit here.”

He laughed. “You’re inviting me to sit on my own bed? Wow, thanks, Nate. That’s so kind of you to offer.”

“Shut it, Charlie B.” I flicked his thigh, and he shot me a wounded look before retaliating with a light punch to my ribs that I wasn’t expecting.

I gasped, shoving his laptop across the bed so it was out of the danger zone before I tackled him, sending us both sprawling over the mattress with me on top of him.

He stilled beneath me, and I suddenly realised just how close we were.

Close, as in half of my torso was plastered against his, and I could feel the rapid rise and fall of his chest underneath mine.

He blinked up at me, his ridiculously long lashes fluttering and his light eyes darkening as his pupils expanded.

“I—” Cutting himself off, he bit down on his lip.

“What?”

His lip was still tugged between his teeth, and I watched my own hand lift from where it had been braced against the mattress, my finger brushing over his mouth where he was biting down. Fuck, his lips were so fucking soft.

“Don’t do that,” I said in a low voice, and he exhaled, parting his lips slightly, sending hot breath skittering across my fingertip. I fucking shivered. Shit .

“N-Nate?” he whispered, a clear question in his tone.

“Fuck,” I said, rolling off him. My dick was half-hard, and I knew he’d noticed.

Pushing myself upright, back in my original position, I grabbed one of his pillows in a futile attempt to hide my hard-on.

I pointedly kept my gaze averted from him, not ready to see if he was in the same predicament I was.

The mattress dipped. “Uh. TV,” he eventually croaked out. I nodded, and after thirty-seven seconds of awkward silence—not that I was counting—we were both seated with a respectable distance between us and the laptop on a pillow on Charlie’s lap, angled towards me.

“Have you seen that BBC documentary about Glevum FC? We could watch that,” I suggested.

Charlie instantly grinned, wide and bright. “Yeah! I didn’t know it was out already.”

And just like that, everything was back to normal between us.

Or it was…for forty minutes. Forty minutes during which I relaxed so much, I was on the cusp of falling asleep right where I was, my sleepless night finally catching up with me.

Then Charlie got a text from my sister.

He shielded his phone from me, but I’d already seen her name appear on the screen. “Charlie. You don’t have to hide the fact that you’re texting my sister.”

His gaze flew to mine, and he studied me for a long moment before dropping his eyes back to his phone. “Yeah. Sorry. I dunno, I just— Uh. She wants to meet up.”

Oh. “For a date or to study?”

He chewed on his lip. “Uh…for a date. We didn’t— I invited her to go to the club with us, but you were both away in Swindon, so I said at the time that we’d do something when she got back.”

My fingers curled tightly into the duvet, bunching up the fabric, and I reminded myself to breathe. “Oh, okay. Yeah.”

“Nate. Do you want?—”

“You should go. I think she really likes you. And you like her, don’t you? You seem to get on. I—I don’t have a problem with it,” I rushed out.

“Right.” He stared down at his screen, still chewing on his fucking lip, before he lifted his head. His gaze slid to mine. “Are you sure I should meet up with her? You don’t have a problem with that?” He exhaled shakily. “Is there any reason I shouldn’t go?”

I swallowed hard. “No. No, you should go. I’ve—I’ve got a date myself, too.

Jonas persuaded me to give the app one last go.

Third time lucky, right?” Forcing an unconvincing laugh, I added, “If it doesn’t work out, I’ll use my tried and tested method of going to a bar and catching a hot girl’s eye. ”

Charlie’s mouth set in a flat line as he nodded briskly. Pausing the documentary, he quickly tapped out a message on his phone and then threw it down on the bed next to him. “Done. Looks like I’m going on a date with your sister.”

“Good.” This was Charlie, my friend, and my sister—the most important person in the world to me.

I was happy for them. Or I would be, after I got my fucking head sorted out.

I needed sleep. Rubbing my hand across my face, I blew out a heavy breath.

Charlie was eyeing me cautiously, so I forced myself to continue.

“Soph’s great, and the two of you have a lot in common.

Just…treat her well, and I won’t have a problem. ”

“Of course I will.” He gave me a small smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “C’mon. Let’s finish watching this.”

“Actually. I think I’m gonna go. I’m falling asleep here. I should be in my own bed before that happens.”

“You sure? There’s only ten minutes left.”

“I’m sure.” I needed to get out of here. Away from Charlie.

Climbing off the bed, I shoved my feet into my trainers. When I looked back at Charlie, he was sitting with his shoulders slumped, staring down at his hands.“I guess I’ll see you at the training pitch,” he muttered.

“Yeah.” My fingers curled around the handle of his door. “Bye, Charlie.”

“Bye.”

There was a finality to the way he said that one word. Steeling myself, I opened the door and walked away.