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His lips quirked with amusement. “I can’t what? Can’t steal a moment alone with you, tell you I like you, or I can’t like you, period?”
“What about Leticia?” I blurted, feeling like a moron as soon as I spoke the words. Because, honestly, I didn’t care a lick ab
out Leticia. If Julian wanted to tell me he liked me, I was all for it.
Julian paused and cocked his head to the side. “What about her?”
“Well, I just sat out there and watched as she basically asked you out.”
“Then, you must’ve also been sitting there and watching when I basically turned her down,” Julian countered, arching an eyebrow and grinning mischievously. Then he stepped toward me again. “Turns out, I have my eye on someone else. Someone shorter, and curvier, and pretty much the only girl I can actually dance with.”
My breath caught, and the hope inside me exploded into a shower of euphoria. “Really?” I asked, still not daring to believe what I was hearing.
“Really,” he murmured, slipping his finger under my chin so I’d lift my face for him. Then he pressed his mouth to mine, and life suddenly became amazing. I clutched the front of his shirt as he cupped my face and deepened the contact.
Chapter Five
Julian
So, I made the football team.
It was the most embarrassing tryouts of my life, but also the most awesome. Even though no other player’s family showed up to watch, my entire family did, and when I say entire, I mean even extended members, like my mom’s cousin’s sister-in-law’s six-year-old daughter, Haven, along with her parents, Sarah and Brandt, and Aunt Reese herself, sitting next to Uncle Mason and their twins, and just everyone. Yeah, little Haven might also be the coach’s niece, but still… They all sat with my family in the bleachers and clapped, hollering encouragingly whenever it was my turn to run the fifty-yard dash or throw the ball. Skylar had made signs that said shit like “You can do it, Julian,” and all my siblings and cousins held them up to cheer me on.
It kind of made me a little emotional. I’d come a long way from being that abandoned baby, left with a stepdad who didn’t know shit about kids. Made me love my crazy, huge concoction of relatives all the more. I glanced up at everyone, focusing on my parents as Dad slung his arm around Mom’s shoulders and rested his temple against hers in a prideful way only parents did when watching their kid succeed at something. And I spotted my nine-year-old brother, Trick, as he flirted with Nia, and—wait!
Even Nia was here?
I faltered, blinking at her. When she caught my gaze, she shrugged ruefully and waved back before pointing at Skylar as if to tell me my sister had been the one to orchestrate her presence. I chuckled, deciding I owed Sky big-time as I blew a kiss Nia’s way and jogged over to get into line for the tire run.
The tire run was going to be the biggest test for me, since it involved more foot-eye coordination than anything else we’d be evaluated on. I knew I could run, and I knew I could throw. But I could only cross my fingers and hope that I’d gotten good enough with all the drills and dance steps I’d practiced with Nia that I could tire run too. If I could make it through this obstacle course in a decent time and without falling on my face, I knew I’d be in.
And it’d all be because of my wonderful suck buddy.
Once it was my turn, I met Coach’s gaze at the other end of the row of tires. He held a stopwatch as he scrutinized me intently, nodding to let me know he had faith in me. Then he blew his whistle and I took off, my feet dancing through the hole of each tire, so rapidly and gracefully it was like someone else had taken control of my body and was moving for me. Once I was finished, I couldn’t help it, I threw my head back and shot my fists into the air, shouting out my joy. I’d done it. I’d fucking done it. And I hadn’t fallen once.
Noel gave me my time, and holy God, it was good. It wasn’t just good for me alone, either, it was good enough to get me on the team.
Afterward, the family took me out to eat in celebration, and Nia came along. She got a pretty big dose of my world, but she handled it perfectly as if she came from a big family herself, even though for her, it was basically just her and her mom now.
And speaking of her mom, today was Nia’s big day to surprise her mother with the anniversary dance she’d been practicing all summer.
I texted her, anxious and nervous and excited for her. She’d really wanted to make this special for her mom; it made me wish I could’ve sat up in some stands and watched the way she’d watched me the day before to cheer me on.
When she finally responded, her message confused the hell out of me.
Nia: She’s on a date.
Julian: She’s what?
Nia: Um, yeah. I was all ready to surprise her after she got off work. But she just called to tell me some guy whose hair she cut asked her out for drinks after hours, and she said yes, so… She’s not coming home any time soon.
My mouth fell open. I almost got ticked at her mom for doing this to Nia after she’d worked and slaved and really put herself out there to do something special to cheer the woman up, but then, if she was moving on from her ex-husband and accepting a date from some other guy, I guess she wouldn’t even need to be cheered up on what Nia had worried would be a sad day for her.
But how had this affected Nia?
Julian: For real?
Nia: Yeah. I know. This was the last thing I was expecting. But it’s good. It’s great. I just wanted her to be happy today, and she sounded happy.
