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I cross my arms over my chest. “Why is that interesting? Lots of people choose to focus on school or work instead of dating.”
“Oh, I’m aware,” he says. “Wyatt—”
His friend slaps Heath in the chest. “Shut up.”
“What is it?” I push across the hot tub, getting between them so Wyatt doesn’t slap Heath again, and I give him an earnest, you can trust me look. “Are you not interested in dating either?”
“I wasn’t in the past. But that changed this spring.”
My heart flips upside down. Why does that distress me so much? Who did you find? “Oh.”
He searches my face. “I haven’t acted on it yet. I’ve never been with a woman before.”
“Really?” I squeak out the word in absolute shock, which makes Heath laugh out loud, good-naturedly.
I sputter and shake my head. “I don’t mean that to be a criticism. That would be hypocritical of me. Wow. But you must be curious?”
I have a wild idea to seduce him, so he doesn’t pursue whomever he fell in love with in the spring. If he’s never been with anyone else, then my own inexperience won’t matter.
“Of course he’s curious,” Heath says.
Heath.
Guilt floods my chest. I can’t seduce Wyatt while Heath is here. And how am I so sure Wyatt would be the right person to take my virginity anyway, when Heath’s praise makes me feel like I’m walking on air?
I nod nervously. “Well, it’s kind of nice to find someone who has also decided to wait—and it’s not like I’m waiting for marriage or anything.”
Wyatt shakes his head. “No, of course not. Not me either. But it’s just, it has to be…”
And then we say it at the same time, “Right.”
Heath grunts and heaves himself out of the water. “I’m going to find some drinks. Anyone want a beer? Pop?”
Before either of us can answer, he’s grabbed a towel and gone inside.
I feel awful. “Wyatt, I—”
“You’re fine,” he says quickly. His eyes are wide as his gaze darts down to where my body is mostly hidden under the bubbling surface, then back up to my face. He takes a deep breath. “Emily, I don’t know how to tell you this, but in all that time that Heath and I were aware of you, both of us thought you were real pretty.”
“Oh!”
“The thing is, you caught our eye at the same time. Our first day on campus, I saw you coming back from class and…” He looks a little embarrassed. “My feelings were obvious to him. He reamed me out. But later that day, I found him growling at some kid from your lab who was coming around your dorm room.”
I gasp. I remember that. Not the growling, exactly, but my nemesis used to come to my room to irritate me and then that stopped.
Wyatt has no idea he and Heath are my heroes. He keeps going. “And one of the reasons you didn’t know about us until today was neither of us wanted to get in front of the other guy. I could never compete with a man like him, and he is too much of a good guy to stop me from my first crush.”
“Your first crush was…me?”
“You’re the smartest, prettiest girl I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
“So…I’m the girl you noticed in the spring?”
“The only girl I’ve ever set my most impure thoughts to, that’s right.”
I can’t breathe. Wyatt actually has feelings for me? But that wasn’t all he said. “What are the other reasons? You said that was one of the reasons. What else? Why didn’t you approach me?”
“Heath owns the construction company. He signed a code of conduct agreement with the college. None of his employees could act inappropriately toward the students. And neither could he.”
