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“Come with me for one hour. I miss you. I don’t want to go home and leave things like this.”
“Okay,” she whispers, peeking up at me with wide blue eyes. “One hour and then I have to study and pack.”
“I’ll walk you back to your dorm in one hour,” I promise.
She smiles.
One hour is all I need to get her back.
Chapter Nine
DEAN
When we walk into the game room, my teammates are engaged in several heated air hockey tournaments with the football team. Of course, none of the tables are open, all of them booked for the next hour. Per school rules, each team of players has to reserve a table. The clipboard on the wall indicates I won’t be playing at all. Not unless I want to come back after dinner.
I hold out my hand to Kat, and she takes it without a fight. “I need a drink. Walk with me to the cafeteria.”
She glances up at the clock on the walk to check the time.
“We have forty more minutes.” I lead her out of the room. “I even set the alarm on my phone to get you back to your dorm on time.”
“You’re taking this hang serious, huh?”
I nod. “I’m a man of my word.”
“That you are,” she mutters.
“I still need to talk to you, Kitten.”
“Can we do that later? Let’s not spoil this.”
Confused, I shake my head. “Spoil what? I just want to talk to you.”
“I know what you’re going to say.”
“Unless you’ve developed the ability to read minds in the past two weeks of ignoring me, then I doubt you know what I want to say.”
“Two weeks ago, that was a mistake. I shouldn’t have asked you to… I wish we never went into that stupid basement… Kissing you changed everything.”
“I wanted to be with you. I don’t regret anything we did.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “You don’t?”
“No, not at all. What I regret is losing you over a kiss. You know me better than anyone. I don’t go around campus and hookup with any girl who talks to me.”
She chuckles. “Don’t let anyone hear you say that. It might ruin your street cred.”
“Let people think what they want,” I snap. “I don’t care what they say about me behind my back. The only opinion I care about is yours.”
Once we reach the cafeteria, I grab two cups and hand one to Kat.
“I’m not sure what to say, Dean. After what we did, I feel differently about you. I have no idea how to process everything.”
She slips in front of me to add every brand of fountain soda on tap to her cup.
“Gross,” I say, filling my cup. “Why can’t you choose one brand of soda like a normal person?”
“Because I can never make up my mind.” She turns around, with the cup in her hand, and takes a sip from the straw. “Maybe you would like it. You don’t know until you give it a try.”
“I didn’t know how much I would like you until we gave it a try.”
A blush creeps up her neck and to her cheeks. “Dean,” she whispers as I brush my fingertips along hers and move closer. “We graduate in a few days. It’s too late.”
“We should’ve had this conversation sooner.” I sigh. “Please don’t shut me out. I’m not some random guy you hooked up with at a party.”
“I’ll tell you what,” she says, our mouths only a few inches apart. “If by some miracle we end up in the same city after the NHL Draft, then we can see what happens. I grew up with a dad who traveled from city to city and was never home. I can’t handle the constant disappointment that will come from you never being around.”
“We don’t even know if I’m getting drafted. Do I have a good chance? Yeah, of course, I do. But there’s no guarantee.”
“It’s a definite, Dean. My dad said there’s no way you won’t get picked up. You have a few teams that want you. You could end up anywhere.”
“We still have the summer together,” I point out.
She shakes her head. “No, we don’t. You have to go back home to help your mom, and I have an internship waiting for me.”
She’s right. I already have a job lined up with the plumbing company I work for every summer. Digging ditches in the hot Florida summer sun is no joke. It’s hard fucking work, and it pays very little. But my mom needs the money.
I lead Kat toward the register. On our way, she grabs a bag of Cheetos from the rack and adds them to our order.
“We can still be friends,” I say. “Don’t let a kiss change our friendship. I still need you in my life. You’re my best friend.”
“I need you, too,” she says in a hushed tone. “But now I want you in ways I never did before. I can’t handle seeing you with other women. In that regard, our relationship has changed.”
