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Nick had gone to friends’ houses before. Parents would either be home, or there’d be plenty of evidence they existed. Parental involvement was a reality. Even his own house had Gabriel’s sports equipment stacked in a corner of the garage, or Michael’s bills and papers always left on the kitchen counter, or Chris’s laundry flung at the bottom of the basement stairs. Always a reminder that no matter what, being alone was practically impossible.
ft Nick looking down at him. The position was casual and nonthreatening.
And kind of hot.
Nick told his eyes to stay on his frigging notebook, but they found Adam’s feet, following the line of his calves to his knees and thighs and—
Up. Up. Look up, before you get yourself in trouble.
Nick looked at his face. The darkness of Adam’s eyes, the barely-there start of shadow across his jaw. The crooked scar that dragged his lip away from perfection.
Nick flashed on what it had felt like to kiss him. He jerked his gaze back to his book. “Hey.”
Hey. Wow. Suave. Maybe Quinn should be videotaping this.
“What are you studying?” said Adam, his voice gently teasing, almost provocative. It made him sound like he wasn’t talking about studying at all.
If it had been a girl, Nick could have flirted back. You, he would have said.
Say it. Say it, say it, say it.
“Physics,” he said instead.
Ugh. Suddenly he felt like such a dork. Next he’d say he needed to get home to his bug collection.
He cleared his throat. “I enjoyed your class.”
“Thanks. They’re good kids.” Adam paused. “Did you come to watch Quinn?”
No, I came to watch you.
But he couldn’t say it.
“Come on,” Quinn called from the floor. “You guys can make out later. Let’s get this done.”
Nick slammed his textbook closed. “Damn, Quinn.”
Adam uncurled from the bench. He was smiling. “I forgot you were such an easy blush.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Adam started to move away, but then he paused and leaned back to whisper. “It’ll make for interesting conversation later.”
Nick studied the whole time Adam and Quinn rehearsed.
No. That wasn’t true.
He pretended to stare at his textbook the whole time. In reality, he never turned a page, he never took a note, and he didn’t take his eyes off Adam.
This was ridiculous. Any minute now, he’d be doodling hearts down the margin of his notebook.
An easy blush. He wasn’t usually. But he could feel his cheeks warming just thinking of Adam’s last comment.
He wasn’t the only one blushing, either. Some younger girls were clustered and giggling in the doorway, whispering about Adam.
Nick couldn’t blame them. Adam and Quinn made an eye-catching pair as they spun across the floor. His dark hair and olive skin seemed to shadow her blue-eyed-blond-peaches-and-cream complexion. Nick wondered if Adam played to that, if he’d choreographed the dance to highlight their differences.
The routine was powerful, putting Quinn in the air as often as she was on the ground. She’d told Nick she was trying to live on lettuce and saltines to spare Adam’s biceps.
