Chapter 21
Landon
Present
I’ve wantedto know how it would feel to be kissed by Ainsley Morgan since the moment I laid eyes on her when we were fifteen.
My whole body reacted to her in a way that I’d never felt. My heart raced, my palms got sweaty, and I don’t think I have to explain what happened below my belt as a pubescent teen—at the most inopportune times, might I add.
My friends told me to go for it. Kiss her, and see what happens. But I didn’tjustwant to kiss Ainsley. I wanted to be kissedbyAinsley. There’s a very big difference. I wanted her towantto kiss me. To feel the way I did, the insatiable need to put her lips on mine.
We masked our feelings with competition, flirting through our rivalry, but little by little, I saw it in her eyes. She felt the same. Until everything fell apart.
But yesterday, seventeen years later, it finally happened.
Ainsleywantedto kiss me.
I saw it. Saw it in the way her lips parted. The way her eyes zeroed in on my mouth. The flush of her skin, the rapid rise and fall of her chest. But as confident and outspoken as she is, she’s like a scared animal when it comes to intimacy. She only lets people get so close before she shuts them out. And I’ve burned her once before, so her guard is all the way up, despite the incredible kiss we shared.
So, I’m giving her some time to sit with it. Let her digest her feelings, and come to me when she’s ready.
And she will be. She just needs some time.
“Delgado, sit down and buckle up.” Ainsley checks off something on her clipboard and tosses it onto the seat beside me. “All right, everyone. You should know how to behave on a bus by now. You know the drill. Get your head in the game and prepare to kick some butt on that field when we arrive.”
The girls cheer, and then break out into their private conversations. Our bus is full, so Ainsley and I are sharing a seat at the front while Quinn and Raymond sit in the back. I asked Quinn to do me a solid and arrange the seating to get me some alone time with Ainsley.
I said she needed time. I didn’t say I’d make it easy on her.
Ainsley slumps into the seat beside me, stuffing her clipboard into her backpack. Her scent surrounds me, a sugary sweet smell, like vanilla. She sticks an earbud in her right ear—the side I’m sitting on—and leaves out the left one. I watch over her shoulder as she selects a playlist on her phone, and hits shuffle.
I dig into my backpack and pull out a bag of Nerds gummy clusters, and set it in her lap. Then, I snag the loose earbud hanging over her chest, and stick it in my ear to listen with her. Taylor Swift’sAre You Ready for It?pounds through the speaker.
Ainsley’s eyes snap to mine, lifting the candy bag. “What’s this?”
I press my index finger to my lips. “Shh, I’m trying to listen.”
She rolls her eyes, but I don’t miss the small smile that tugs her lips as she peels open the bag and pops a handful of clusters into her mouth.
Us athletes take road trip snacks very seriously, and she all but broke Patrick’s arm one day when he tried to steal her Nerds.
Phase one of my plan is complete.
Now, on to phase two.
I slip my hand into my pocket, and pull out a beaded bracelet. Taking Ainsley’s hand, I roll the bracelet onto her wrist.
She turns over her arm as she gazes down at the teal and navy beads on either side of the word ADMIRABLE.
“Who made this?” she asks, pulling out the earbud.
“I did.”
Her eyebrows jump. “This is what you were working on yesterday that you wouldn’t show me?”
While the teams were making friendship bracelets in my backyard, I made one of my own. We had to pick one motivational word that best described a teammate. I made one for Shreeya that said FEARLESS, and I made a secret one for Ainsley.
She gazes down at it before those hazel eyes flick to mine. “Whyadmirable?”
