Full Coverage: Boys of Fall (3 page)

But in twelve years, he hadn’t forgotten about that ladybug tattoo.

The door to Pitchers shut behind them, leaving them alone in the suddenly quiet night.

“Nolan? Why did you call me Ladybug?” she asked.

He cleared his throat. “Your tattoo.” What was the point in lying about it?

She lifted a brow. “You remember my tattoo?”

She really had no idea how much he knew and remembered about her. And to keep from freaking her out, he decided to downplay. “If it was on your ankle, I might have forgotten.” There was no way in hell he would have forgotten. “But it was on your hip. Kinda low, if I remember right.” He definitely remembered right. “You were wearing purple panties the night you showed me too.”

There was a tiny smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “You remember the color of my panties?”

He shrugged. “If they’d been white cotton and boring, probably not.” He totally would have. “But they were purple silk. That stuck.”

The tiny smile grew a little bigger. “They had a big white heart on the front.”

Nolan felt a flash of heat go through him. From talking about a white heart on the panties that she’d worn twelve years ago. Jesus, he was in huge trouble.

“I would have definitely remembered
that
if I’d seen it,” he told her.

“If you would have seen that, I think you would have been remembering a lot of other things too,” she said with a twinkle in her eyes and a smile that made everything male in Nolan go on high alert.

“How about we go make some memories now?” he asked.

He wasn’t going to mess around here. This wasn’t a one-night stand waiting to happen. He and Randi had known each other all their lives. There had never been any of this heat between them before, but it was there now. He was one of the smartest guys in Quinn. He was getting Randi Doyle naked tonight.

“Sounds good.” She stepped close and wrapped her arms around his neck. She put her lips to his ear and said huskily, “Know what I’ve been thinking about since you were here last?”

Nolan’s hands were on her hips and he swore that if he didn’t get his hand full of breast within the next three seconds, he was going to spontaneously combust. He slid a hand up her side until his thumb skimmed over the outer curve of one breast. “What?” he asked, his voice rough.

“The high school newspaper office.”

The words took a second to sink in. “What about it?”

“I want to go there. With you.”

He didn’t move his hand, his thumb very happy resting against the fullness of her right breast, but he pulled back to look at her. “You want to go to the high school newspaper office? Now?”

She nodded, giving him a smile that should have been sweet, but was very naughty.

“Why?”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yeah. Why there?”

There was light out here but the night shadows fell over them so that he couldn’t tell for sure, but he thought she might be blushing.

“Forget it. It’s stupid.” She ducked her head. “We can go to my place.”

She started to move back, but that would have taken her breast away from his thumb, so he gripped her hip with his other hand. “Hang on.”

She looked up at him. “What?”

He turned them so the front light from Pitchers shown on her face. Then he reluctantly moved his hand from her side to her cheek, tipping her head slightly. Yep, she was blushing.

“What are you thinking about the newspaper office, Randi?” he asked.

“Nothing. It was a dumb idea. I didn’t think.”

Why did their conversations always have to be so damned weird?

Nolan swallowed his frustration and ran the pad of his thumb over her jaw. “I’d love to know. That newspaper office meant a lot to me in high school.”

He’d been king there. He hadn’t been an all-state football player—or anything player. He hadn’t been Homecoming king or team captain or Mr. Popularity, but he’d been the editor of the school newspaper and the school’s correspondent to the town newspaper. That meant he had something very important that the rest of them didn’t, something more important than trophies, crowns and votes—he had control over information.

“I know it was,” Randi finally said. “I shouldn’t have suggested we have sex there.”

Surprise and a major dose of lust rocked through him. “You were suggesting we go have sex there?”

Now the blush was easy to see even without direct lighting. “That’s ridiculous, right?” she asked. “I know. I’m sorry. Maybe I did have more tequila than I thought.”

She tried to duck her head again, but he cupped her face, forcing her to maintain eye contact. “You’re not drunk.”

She wet her lips and he almost groaned. He hadn’t kissed her for months but he could still remember the exact feel and taste of her.

“Randi,” he said. “You’re not drunk.” He wanted to hear it again.

“No.”

“Then this isn’t about tequila.”

“It’s…” She sighed heavily. “I say the stupidest things around you.”

He supposed that he knew she was aware of the awkwardness when they talked one-on-one, but that was the first time they’d really acknowledged it. “Things do get…”

He wasn’t sure what word to use.

“Weird,” she filled in.

He nodded and felt a smile forming. It was the best word. “Yeah. Why do you think that is?”

She wrinkled her nose and focused on his cheek instead of his eyes. “Me.”

“You what?”

“It’s because of me.”

He frowned. “Our conversations get weird because of you?”

Her eyes came back to his. “Yeah.”

“Why do you think that?”

She wet her lips again. “You know how when you’re having a normal conversation with someone, even if your mind really
is
on what you’re both saying, you have other thoughts going through you mind too? Like if they have a button missing or if it’s hot in the room or that you only have five more minutes before you need to leave…things like that?”

He nodded. He thought he was following. But just like she said—his mind was on the conversation, but his thoughts included things like the shape of her mouth and the fact that he loved peaches and remembering the first time he’d seen her in her cheerleading uniform.

“Well, since we have almost nothing in common, we run out of normal conversation really fast, and then all that’s left are all those extra random thoughts. And I can keep them inside with everyone else except you. I mean, I just
leave
other conversations when I run out of things to say,” she told him, clearly exasperated. “But I can’t leave you. And I can’t keep all the stupidity inside, apparently.”

Nolan just watched her, processing that. He liked it. Yes, their interactions were…memorable. But he liked that he affected her differently than anyone else did. Her explanation about the random thoughts in their heads made sense. He supposed he was surprised that showing him her tattoo and her peach-flavored body powder were two of her random thoughts when she talked to him.

“See?” she said. “Even this is weird. This is why I was hoping we’d stick with dancing and kissing.”

“You turned me down for the dance,” he said, still thinking about what she’d revealed.

“Yeah, until you wanted to talk.”

He focused. “You pulled me on the dance floor to avoid talking?”

She nodded. “I like dancing with you.”

“But not talking?”

“I feel like an idiot when we talk. Like right now.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You don’t need to feel like an idiot.”

“Why not? I’m saying idiotic things.”

“Do you want to see my tattoo and my body powder is peach flavored are not
idiotic
,” he told her.

Her cheeks heated again and she stepped back until he had no choice but to let his hand drop.

“Dammit, Nolan. Do you remember every dumbass thing I ever said to you?”

He wouldn’t categorize them as dumbass, but yeah, he probably did. “I have a really good memory. It’s not you, it’s me,” he told her.

That got a tiny smile. “Well, that’s definitely not true,” she said. “But that’s cute.”

“Cute enough to go back to the newspaper office idea?” he asked. But he knew the moment was past. He tucked his hands into his pockets.
Fuck
.

“Sorry.” She took a big breath and shrugged. “I can’t explain it, Nolan,” she said, her eyes full of a strange combination of confusion and frustration and maybe a touch of regret. “I get worked up around you and my mouth runs away with me—either saying the dumbest stuff I’ve ever said to anyone or I’m kissing you like I’m some desperate, horny lush.”

Something about all that made him step forward and take her upper arms in his hands. “You are not dumb and you’re not desperate. And I don’t care if we’re talking or kissing—I
like
when your mouth runs away with you.”

Then he sealed his lips over hers and kissed her with all the pent-up emotions he’d been carrying around since the last time.

It took only two seconds for her to moan and press closer. He moved his hands to her ass and her arms went around his neck. Their tongues stroked, their breathing grew ragged and their hands began wandering. Nolan walked her back until she was against the side of Pitchers. His hand went back to the breast that he’d barely brushed earlier, now cupping it, reveling in how fucking perfect it felt, and playing with the hard tip through her shirt and bra. Randi made a soft, needy sound in her throat, and he nearly ripped her clothes off right then and there.

He tore his mouth away from hers. “The back door of the school still broken?”

She nodded. “You ever get a blowjob in that office?”

Nolan choked on the breath he’d been trying to take. He’d never gotten a blowjob within the Quinn city limits. “You want to—”

The door to Pitchers whacked Nolan in the back.

“Oh my God, I’m sorry!” Annabelle apologized as she walked through and let the door swing shut behind her.

Nolan slowly straightened away from Randi, taking his hand from her breast long before he was ready. Again.

Just then, Jackson came striding up the front walk. “What’s up, everyone?”

It was a casual question but when Nolan turned, he saw Jackson’s sharp gaze taking in every detail.

“I thought you guys had already left,” Annabelle said.

“Yeah, we were…talking,” Randi said.

Nolan glanced at her. She looked frustrated. He wasn’t sure if it was the reminder of yet another strange one-on-one interaction with him or if it was their making out getting interrupted, but it made him want to pull her close and tell her it was okay.

“I love
talking
,” Jackson said, his emphasis on the last word making it clear he knew they hadn’t been only talking.

Annabelle peered at Randi. “You okay?”

Randi ran a hand through her hair. “I’m fine.”

Nolan really hoped that wasn’t true. Because
he
definitely wasn’t fine.

“Need a ride?” Jackson asked Randi.

“Nope. Totally sober,” she told him. “Really, really sober,” she added on a mutter.

Nolan almost grinned at that.

“Okay, you ready to go?” Jackson asked his fiancée.

Anabelle shot Randi another look but nodded. “Yeah.”

“You two,” Jackson said, pointing at Nolan. “Be good.”

Nolan sighed. Yeah. He had a feeling he was going to be good for the rest of the night. And alone. And horny.

* * *

“’
N
ight
, Nolan,” Randi said, slipping around him. “I’ll see you.”

He reached out and snagged her wrist before she could escape. She groaned and turned to face him.

She just kept making an ass out of herself with him. She really wanted it to stop. Now. And the only way that seemed possible was if she just stayed away.

“I still have a question for you.”

“But see, asking and answering questions will require talking. And we’re not very good at that.”

Okay,
she
wasn’t very good at that. She was the one who sounded like an idiot. Why had she said that about the newspaper office? Just because it had occurred to her as kind of fun and naughty, didn’t mean it wasn’t totally stupid.

He smiled. “Maybe we just need more practice.”

“More practice than the twenty-some years we’ve had?”

“It’s not like we’ve had a lot of in-depth conversations in those twenty years,” he reminded her.

She supposed that was true. She didn’t remember starting to act crazy around him until about their junior year of high school. She’d always known him. She’d always liked him, for that matter. But either they hadn’t had one-on-one conversations before their junior year or she hadn’t been self-conscious about them until then, for whatever reason.

Randi remembered the first time she’d shoved her foot in her mouth. They’d been at a party at Carter’s parents’ house, their junior year, football season. They’d ended up by the stereo together, alone. They’d said awkward hi’s and then she’d said something about the football game. That topic lasted about three seconds. Nolan covered the games for the paper but she knew he didn’t really
care
. Not like she did. She’d loved football her entire life and could go on and on about it. With anyone else in the room, that would have been fine, great even. A lot of the guys thought her love and knowledge of the game was sexy. But she knew Nolan didn’t want to talk about the game. So she’d clenched her teeth together and told herself to just shut up. To fill the stupid silence, he had said something about geometry. Geometry was a horrible class. She hated it and it was tough for her. She had been barely pulling her C at that point. But she didn’t want Nolan to know that she wasn’t very smart. So she’d tried to distract him. Or something. She still wasn’t sure
why
she’d asked if he wanted to see her tattoo. But it had worked to stop the conversation train that was barreling toward a massive wreck.