Remember When (Remember Trilogy #1) Page 17

  I crammed a few in my mouth and was chomping away as she added, “Coop said that was the first time he’d ever really noticed me, because of what you said. He said that he never had the nerve to ask me out until Heather and I showed up to Rymer’s grad party the other night.”

  My first thought was that Coop was so tied up in my BS and that’s why he hadn’t asked her out until then. But then I realized she wasn’t trying to thank me for the compliment, but for the fact that she and Coop had finally gotten together, however indirectly, because of me. Wasn’t I the one who insisted Heather and she go to Rymer’s? Would they have ever shown up on their own to one of our parties otherwise? The honest answer was no. Only because, in the four years we’d gone to school together, that was the first appearance those two girls had ever made within our social stratosphere. I didn’t want to throw my arm out patting myself on the back or anything, because truth be told, I wasn’t the only one who deserved credit. When I connected the dots from Becca and Heather to me, there was still one degree of separation between us.

  “You know,” I started, nodding my head in the direction of the table, “the person you should really be thanking is Trip. I wouldn’t have even met you girls if it weren’t for him.”

  We both watched as Trip got to his feet, aimed an elbow at Cooper and yelled “Consume! Consume!” at the top of his lungs.

  I shot a look at my new friend. “As you can see, clearly this is a man entirely capable of masterminding your fate.”

  That made us both crack up. I grabbed my beer can and held it out to hers, she tapped her drink against mine and we both took a swig.

  Chapter 29

  AFTER DARK, MY SWEET

  I spent the bulk of my night hanging with Becca and Heather, seeing as “our men” were preoccupied with their drinking games all night. After Quarters came Beer Pong, and then Coop broke out a deck of cards to play Asshole. I talked the girls into joining in, and after explaining the game rules, Heather proceeded to kick each and every one of our butts.

  Lisa and Pick had been anti-social all night, spending most of their evening out on the porch arguing, which wasn’t normally their style. I wondered what was going on. By midnight, they were totally MIA anyway, and I figured they must have decided to turn in. I couldn’t very well blame them for sneaking off to bed so early. We were all still trying to catch up on our shuteye since the allnighter after graduation.

  By the time Rymer slurringly suggested that we play Strip Poker, I decided it was time to turn in, too. We’d been drinking since dinnertime, and even at my nursing pace, I was definitely feeling a little buzzed. Whatever snacks we had in the house had long since been demolished, our dinner sandwiches a distant memory, leaving no absorption in my stomach for all that beer.

  The guys were flat-out drunk, singing along to “Comfortably Numb” when I stood up to take my leave. I gave a stretching yawn, apologized for being the turd in the punch bowl and went upstairs. I brushed my teeth and started to head into my room, but my feet had other ideas, succumbing to the tractor beam of Trip’s room instead.

  All the bedrooms had window fans, but they didn’t serve as much defense against the day’s blazing heat. The only areas that had air-conditioning were the kitchen and the living room, and after spending the past few hours downstairs, the warmth on the second floor was almost unbearable. I slipped under the sheets anyway, seeing as I was wearing only my bra and panties. Even though I was executing a pretty bold plan for Trip to find me undressed in his bed, I still wanted to maintain some semblance of mystery.

  Whether the party broke up within minutes of my departure or Trip realized there might be a chance for an even better party upstairs, I have no idea. But I had just barely settled myself into his bed when I heard his footsteps coming up the stairwell.

  The cocky bastard didn’t even bother peeking his head into my room before strolling into his own, a sly grin playing at his lips as if he wasn’t even the least bit surprised to find me there.

  “Hi,” he drawled, before swaying the few steps over and placing his hands at the foot of the mattress. He clutched the sheet over my toes with one hand and leisurely pulled it toward him, revealing my waiting form one excruciating inch at a time. The painstaking slide of the sheet skimmed across my skin, teasing me with the promise of what was to come. It was torture, having to wait, wanting only to get my hands on him, feel his lips crushing me. But he continued his unhurried motion, his eyes never leaving mine.

  Once the sheet had cleared my lacy white bra, his lip curled up into a sneer. By the time he’d slid it down past my hips, he was practically licking his chops. By that time, I was feeling pretty worked up, but still a bit self-conscious.

  I laid there, trying to look perfectly at home sprawled out half-naked on his bed as he snickered, “Well, look what we have here.” His words were slightly garbled around the edges and he staggered a bit during his climb onto the mattress.

  He crawled so incredibly slowly over me, kissing my ankles, shins, knees, thighs, along the way. It was taking him forever to make his way to my lips, but somehow, the waiting was turning me on almost more than the actual doing. He pushed my knees apart and filled the space with his kneeling form, running his hands along the outside of my legs, sending electric charges up my entire length. I let out a small moan which earned me a throaty chuckle from Trip. He moved further up, grabbing my hips, holding them pinned to the bed as his lips and tongue hit my navel, and I was finally able to put my hands on him. I combed my fingers through his golden hair and arched my back toward him, dragging a low growl from his throat as he laughed out, “Oh, no you don’t.”

  He slid his body on top of mine, the weight of him pushing me back down into the mattress. He grabbed my wrists in one hand, forcing them up, imprisoning my arms above my head. His other hand was skimming across my collarbone, his mouth hovering an inch over mine. I tried to close the gap and kiss him, but he pulled back, denying me, a wicked smile on his devilish face, deliberately teasing me.

  I could feel him harden against me; not quite the steel rod from that afternoon, but surely promising an appearance nonetheless. He buried his face in my neck, running his lips along the side, down to the hollow of my throat, between the lacy cups of my bra, back to my throat. My heart was threatening to burst its way out of my chest, Trip driving me insane without even having kissed me yet.

  He was so hot, so completely male in everything he did, from the way he looked to the way he was looking at me. The sensory overload was almost unbearable. Trapped immobile, my arms pinned to the pillows above my head, my body imprisoned beneath his, those sweet, full lips just an inch away from my own, the delectable sensation of his hardened body pressing in just the right spot... Oh God, what could be better?

  He released my hands and wrapped his arms around me, finally allowing me to touch him. I tried to tease him back, dusting my lips along his hairline slowly, cradling his mussed head against my neck. I could feel his lips brushing against my skin so softly, the full weight of him practically threatening to crush me, almost not even moving at all...

  I registered his steady breathing which quickly turned to snoring and realized he had passed out.

  Was he kidding?

  He must have been drunker than I thought. Now this was dejection. No acting going on here.

  I laid there, feeling all worked up and completely let down, when suddenly, I just started laughing. If this was how I was feeling about it now, I couldn’t imagine what Trip was going to be feeling in the morning. I looked down at the sleeping beauty in my arms, wondering how hard he was going to be kicking himself the next day. After he’d seen the goods on the beach, I knew he’d been waiting out the minutes to get his hands on the merchandise. It’s not like I had any designs on going too far with him that night, but I’m sure we could have had a helluva time working on some variables.

  And now just look at him.

  “Sorry, pal. You snooze, you lose.”

  I slithered out
from under the dead weight of him, scooped up my clothes and headed into my room. I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw Lisa lying on one of the bottom bunks.

  “Oh my God!” I whisper-shouted. “You scared the hell out me!”

  Lisa swiped a hand across her face and apologized. “I’m sorry. Hey, is it alright if I sleep in here tonight?”

  “Yeah, of course. But Lis-” My eyes had better adjusted to the light and I could see that she’d been crying. “I just assumed you’d be sleeping in Pick’s room. What’s going on?”

  “Oh my God, I don’t even know if I can talk about it.” She sat up in the bed just then, intending to, in fact, tell me all about it, but she took one look at me and asked, “Um, Layla, why are you naked?”

  I’d been standing there holding my shirt and shorts in front of me, not bothering to put them on for the short walk between Trip’s room and mine. The rest of the guys wouldn’t have had any reason to come upstairs and I’d assumed Lisa and Pickford were already long asleep, so I’d made a break for it. Thankfully, it was only Lisa who busted me.

  “Don’t ask,” I replied, and threw the clothes onto the nightstand between our two bunkbeds. I scrounged around in my bag for a Ginny-T and cotton shorts, flashdanced the bra from under my top and climbed into the bed opposite Lisa. “Okay, so I’m not naked anymore, so spill it. What’s going on between you and Pick?”

  “What do you think?” She flopped back down on her bed and sighed dramatically, posing a question to the heavens, “God, why are you taking him away from me?” her words filtered on their way to Him through the bed above her.

  I propped my head on an elbow so I could face her. “Come on, Lis. Not this again. You gotta cut it out. Why are you doing this to yourself?”

  Lisa mirrored my pose. “I know, I know. I just can’t stop thinking about it, you know? I just can’t stop thinking about the fact that he’ll be gone soon.” She pulled the sheet up under her neck, warding off a chill even though the room was an oven. “What am I going to do without him?”

  I knew that Lisa and Pick were pretty serious, but I’d always registered it as high-school-serious, not like life-or-death-serious. They were eighteen, for godsakes. I thought my friend was being overly dramatic. Like, okay, you’re assigned a locker next to someone, but what are the odds that that person is actually your soulmate?

  Then again, high school sweethearts got married all the time, didn’t they? The DeSantos were a good example. My parents... not so much. But happy or not, married people had to meet somewhere. Why not high school?

  Just then I thought about Trip, snoring away in the next room and my heart lurched. What a total hypocrite I could be. I made myself remember that my poor friend’s world was coming apart.

  “I don’t know, Lis,” I said, trying to come up with something positive to contribute. “I guess you guys will figure it out if it’s meant to be.”

  I felt my eyelids getting heavy and added through a yawn, “But you gotta stop spending what little time you two have left together being miserable. There’ll be plenty of time for that after he leaves, okay?” I snuggled down into the mattress and added, “And hey, when that happens, you’ll still have me, right?”

  Lisa yawned too. “Yeah. Some consolation that’ll be.” I let out a tired snicker. If I wasn’t half-asleep, I would have busted out laughing at her next line, because the last thing I remember her saying was, “Ya gonna grow a dick for me, too?”

  Chapter 30

  DELIRIOUS

  That night, I had a dream that Trip was hovering over me. I could feel his hands braced on either side of my head, his sandy hair brushing my cheek as he nuzzled into my neck, running heated kisses along my collarbone. My arms went around him and pulled his body on top of mine, my legs wrapping around his waist, his hand sliding up my shirt, my fingers raking down his bare back, down to his thighs, pulling him tighter against me...

  When I heard his laugh against my throat, I woke up and realized it was dawn. There he was, actually tangled in my arms, better than any dream could ever be. I looked over at the other bed and saw that Lisa was already long gone. I made a mental note to check in on her the first chance I got. Well, the second chance I got.

  “Good morning,” he whispered into my neck, the full weight of him pressing me into the pillows.

  “Mmm. Good morning,” I answered back, smelling the sleepy warmth of his skin. We twisted to our sides, facing each other, my one leg still draped across his hip.

  The wakeup call would have been perfect if not for the word “DICKNOSE” written across Trip’s forehead in black marker. I guessed Cooper at long last had found an opportunity to seek out his revenge.

  I started laughing. “I’m gonna go out on a limb here and assume that you haven’t seen a mirror yet this morning.”

  Trip looked at me like I was nuts before vaulting out of bed and heading for the bathroom. One second later, I heard him spit, “Sonofabitch!” which made me just crack up.

  I heard the sink running and figured that Trip would come back to bed smelling not only soapy, but minty, too, and followed him into the bathroom. I thought it’d be best to brush the morning breath out of my mouth before we got too chummy.

  He’d spent a considerable amount of time at the sink, but after he’d toweled off, there was still a grey shadow- along with a big, splotchy red spot- across his forehead. He threw the towel on the counter and leaned against the door frame, watching me as I finished brushing my teeth. “You’re burned up pretty bad, huh?”

  I twisted a shoulder toward the mirror. “Yeah. Think I’ll skip the beach today and just stay inside.”

  A wicked smile decorated his face. “Want some company?”

  I stepped back across the hall and slumped down on his bed in answer. He flopped back down half on top of me and groaned, “Remind me to kill Cooper.”

  I readjusted myself more comfortably underneath him before snuggling into his arms. The skin on my face and shoulders was feeling tight and raw, sunburned the day before and settled into its full damage while I was sleeping, and I was finding it somewhat hard to spoon with Trip. Which goes to show you how badly I was hurting!

  After some breakfast in bed (Froot Loops), we declined the invitation to join everyone on the beach. Instead, we spent the entire day on that mattress; talking about godonlyknows and laughing our asses off.

  The fact that he could barely touch me without me wincing kept our fooling around to a minimum. But neither of us minded too much. It was just awesome enough to be there with him, have him all to myself for a little while, just the two of us, no clock to watch, no time or space beyond that queen-sized bed. We only left to grab something to eat or use the bathroom, to change the radio station on his boombox or throw on a CD.

  By the time everyone came back for dinner, we were surprised that it had gotten so late. We reluctantly came downstairs and helped to demolish the pizzas waiting on the kitchen table.

  The weather had been cooling off considerably all day, so we decided to join everyone for a sunset game of wiffleball back at the beach, and Trip was astounded at how well I could play. He seemed more impressed than put off when I struck him out- twice- which made me laugh to myself at my own, private joke; my athletic abilities had at long last become an advantage to me in the boy department.

  We got back to the house and cracked a few beers before picking numbers out of a hat for the shower schedule.

  When it was my turn, I grabbed a change of clothes and a towel and headed in. I had to shampoo twice to get all the sand out of my hair and was just rinsing off when I heard the door open. Guess who.

  I poked my head out from behind the curtain to see Trip leaning against the counter, eyebrows raised.

  I gave him a warning look. “Don’t even think about it.”

  He started laughing. “Aww, c’mon, Lay-Lay. You’re no fun.”

  I disappeared behind the curtain and said, “I mean it, Chester. Please don’t.”

  It must h
ave been the “please” that registered, because he acquiesced without further argument. “Fine, I’ll just wait out here until you’re done.”

  “Promise?”

  “Yeah, sure. I promise. But at least give me the play-by-play of what I’m missing out on.”

  He was so bad.

  I laughed out, “Well, right now, I’m rinsing the shampoo from my hair!”

  If he really needed a rundown of what I was doing in there, I could have just continued with a basic explanation of my shower ritual. I could have chosen to say nothing at all. But I quickly came to the realization he had proposed an offer that was just too good to pass up. After how he’d teased me into oblivion the night before, I couldn’t resist a little payback. Some wicked force overtook my body and turned me into a madwoman.

  I dropped the joking tone and tried on a sultry voice. I wasn’t quite the actor he was, but was able to suggest slowly, breathily, deliberately, “Actually, the water is so hot and it’s sooo steamy in here. Mmm... I’m so wet, and God, it feels so good.”

  I thought I heard Trip choke.

  I grabbed the bar of Ivory from the ledge, continued my commentary at a snail’s pace, “Now, I’m soaping myself down, running my hands all. Over. My body. My neck, my shoulders... If only there was someone who could help me wash my back... or my front... Hmmm...”

  When I didn’t hear anything from Trip, I poked my head back out. He was standing there white as a ghost, his bottom lip slack and his eyes wide. “Layla, what the fuck?”

  I giggled more to myself than at him. Oh, the power! It was thrilling, to say the least, being completely naked only one thin shower curtain away from Trip, knowing I was driving him crazy. How could I stop now?

  “It’s so slippery!” I continued. I took a deep breath and exhaled, adding, “And it smells like heaven... I’m rinsing off now, the hot water spraying me everywhere.”

  “That’s it. I’m coming in.”