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“A little?”
“My mouth is burning,” I confessed.
Jesse burst out laughing as I reached for the nearest glass of water. After downing half of it, I set it down and looked at my friends. Janelle and Cristina were wearing looks of hope and excitement that could only be attributed to what they’d just witnessed between Jesse and me.
Faye, on the other hand, was giving me an ‘I told you so’ look. Clearly, she’d missed the part where her cousin had just fed me food.
Before I knew it, I felt Jesse’s hand on my shoulder. “Good job, Sawyer. I’m proud of you. It looks like there’s only one hotter than that. Are you going to do it?”
Be courageous, I thought.
“Are you?” I countered.
Jesse didn’t hesitate to pluck a tender off the plate and dip it in the sauce. I did the same.
“Ready?” he asked.
I nodded.
The next thing I knew, I found it impossible to focus on the fire in my mouth, because Jesse was watching my mouth as I chewed. We held each other’s gazes for a long time after we both swallowed.
Finally, he blurted, “Okay. You win.”
Then, he reached for my glass of water and downed the rest of it.
I felt like I was in the middle of a desert, dying of thirst, and for some strange reason, I knew it had nothing to do with the hot sauce I’d just consumed and everything to do with the boy standing in front of me.
Even an hour after he left, well after I’d consumed several glasses of water, I found I still couldn’t quench that thirst.
TWO
Sawyer
One month.
One whole month had passed since I first met Jesse Hale—I learned his last name about a week later.
One month since he’d picked a chicken tender up off my plate, dipped it in hot sauce, and fed it to me.
Despite the fact that it had felt like an eternity since I’d had that experience, it didn’t mean that I hadn’t thought about him.
I did.
In fact, I thought about him more than was probably normal, considering I barely knew the guy. I mean, we’d only spoken a handful of words to each other, and even though Janelle and Cristina made mention later that evening after he’d left for practice of the interaction I’d had with him, the conversation was never brought up again.
So, I was stuck not knowing anything about him. Or, I was stuck not knowing much about him beyond the fact that he was cute, confident, and constantly on my mind.
It seemed that today would give me the opportunity to change all of that.
Because today was Faye’s birthday, and she’d decided she wanted to have a bigger celebration that included both her family and friends. I’d arrived earlier than the start of the party, along with Janelle and Cristina. The three of us had wanted to help with any preparations.
Initially, I’d been caught up in decorations with my friends while Faye’s parents worked on the food. Faye had been lucky enough to have a summer birthday and a house with a pool. I thought it was the perfect combination.
The moment the party started, I found myself holding my breath, waiting for Jesse to show up. We’d all been in the backyard, playing volleyball or swimming in the pool, and every time the sliding glass door opened, my eyes shot in that direction.
When he still hadn’t arrived more than an hour after the party started, I finally concluded that he wasn’t going to make it. Making that even more apparent was the fact that his mom had arrived. I’d only realized who she was because Faye had introduced me to her, sharing that Aunt Jackie was her mom’s sister. I would have had to question my observation skills if I couldn’t take one look at Aunt Jackie and know that she was Jesse’s mom. He looked so much like her.
Feeling so disappointed, I decided I needed to do something to liven things up. Faye’s party wasn’t exactly a drag, and everyone was having a fantastic time, but I needed more than just unlimited access to party food and conversation if I was going to forget about my disappointment at not seeing Jesse.
