Filed to story: My Life with the Walter Boys Book (I & II) PDF Free
“You mean astronomy.”
“That’s what I said.”
“No,” I corrected him. “You said astrology.” Finally tearing my gaze away from the sky, I looked at Cole, my eyes roving across his face as I tried to determine if he was joking. The easy smile he wore made it difficult to tell, so I added, “They’re two different things. One is a science; the other is divination.”
His face lit up in understanding. “Oh, like horoscopes? I’m a Scorpio born in Gatorade or something like that,” he said with a comical amount of confidence. “It means I’m kind, mysterious, and protective.”
I rolled my eyes. “Urassus Major is full of shit.”
Cole made a sound of objection. “Is not!”
“You were born in May,” I said, enunciating each word slowly. “That makes you a Gemini.” Not to mention the bullshit traits he’d made up about himself. Kind and mysterious, my ass.
He shrugged. “I’ll stick with Scorpio. It sounds cooler.”
“You can’t just pick whatever sign you like best!” I said in protest, very nearly slopping cocoa over the brim of my mug. I set it aside so I wouldn’t spill in frustration. “That’s not how it works.”
“Says who?”
“I don’t know,” I answered wearily. “History? Everyone? It’s common knowledge.”
His dimple made an appearance, and it was the only warning I received before he lunged forward and wrapped an arm around my torso. I tried to squirm away from his fingers, but he held my body against his own and used his free hand to torture me. “I knew you’d be ticklish.” He sounded delighted.
“Cut it out!” I gasped, tears welling up in my eyes.
He didn’t listen, so I continued to flail about until my hand accidentally connected with the mug and sent it flying. Most of my drink spilled into the grass, but some of it splashed on me.
“Shit,” Cole said and let go so I could twist away from the spreading puddle.
“Do you have a towel or something else I could use to clean up with?” I asked, shaking off the liquid dripping down my fingers. I considered the blanket, but the material was fluffy, and I knew it would cover me in fuzz.
“Here, let me.” Cole grasped my wrist, then lifted it up with deliberation, giving me all the time in the world to pull away. I didn’t, and our eyes stayed locked on each other as his mouth closed around one of my fingers.
It all happened so quickly, I didn’t register the switch, but one moment, Cole was sucking hot chocolate off my skin, and in the next, he was capturing my lips in a deep, tender kiss. When his hand came up to cradle my face, I wrapped an arm around his neck and tangled my fingers in his soft hair; it was the perfect length—long enough to always look effortlessly tousled, especially if I played with it, but short enough for ease of maintenance.
Without his mouth ever leaving mine, Cole guided me down onto the blanket and covered my body with his. I let out a little, breathless gasp, and he immediately pulled away.
“Is this okay?” he asked, carefully studying my face.
“Yes.” My response came out huskier than I expected, but it made Cole smile.
“Good.” His eyes burned into mine. “Let me know if that changes.”
Then he kissed me again, rougher and more fervent than before. Everything fell away except for the slight sting of his teeth sinking into my bottom lip, the taste of cocoa on his tongue, and the feel of his weight pinning me to the ground. Even my faculties receded as pleasure clouded my mind, which explained why I could barely remember my name when he finally pulled away from me five minutes later.
After pressing one last kiss to the tip of my nose, Cole rolled off me and collapsed against the blanket. I stared up at the sky again as my chest heaved up and down. Other than my hammering heart, the only sound that filled the small clearing was our labored breaths.
“If you guys didn’t study astronomy when you were out here, then what did you do?” I asked, finally breaking our silence once my breathing returned to normal.
“Took turns giving the stars made-up names,” he replied impishly. “Will always came up with the most ridiculous ones.”
“Like Urassus Major?” I guessed.
A laugh rumbled in his throat. “Exactly.”
The thought of Will entertaining his younger siblings as they watched the night sky reminded me of Lucy. “There’s a skylight in my sister’s room,” I told him in a near whisper. “It’s directly over her bed. Whenever I had a nightmare, I’d crawl under the covers with her, and she’d make up these wild stories as we stared out the window.”
“What kind of stories?” he asked, tucking an arm behind his head.
“Space operas. Always about the same characters—Lexa, Jenny, and the Star Guards.”
“Star Guards?” he repeated. “What’s that?”
“A group of aliens sworn to protect the galaxy from evil.” My voice wavered as all the little details my sister wove together came rushing back to me, but I continued explaining. “Lexa and Jenny were astronauts who were saved by the Star Guards after getting lost in space. Instead of returning to Earth, they decide to join them on their adventures.”
“Lexa and Jenny, huh?” he said, brushing his hand against mine.
I smiled. “They were sisters.”
“That’s cute.” He gave my arm a comforting squeeze, then shifted the subject to something less painful. “So what do you think—is there life out there, or are you a nonbeliever?”
We spent the next few minutes arguing over the existence of extraterrestrial life before moving on to Bigfoot, wendigos, and the Loch Ness Monster. That turned into a discussion about conspiracy theories—which ones we thought were real and which were our favorites, Cole’s being that the reason the Louisiana Purchase was so cheap was that the land was overrun with werewolves. When we ran out of silly things to talk about, our conversation took a serious turn.
“Hey, Jackie? I’m really sorry about last night.” For the first time this evening, his apology sounded sincere. “I never should have left you behind like that.”
Finally.
I pulled away from the warmth of Cole’s body and propped myself up on an elbow to look at him. “So why did you?”
An emotion I couldn’t place flickered in his eyes. “Just something Nick said. It doesn’t matter.”
Obviously, it did, especially since his reaction was to ditch me. We wouldn’t be having this conversation otherwise. “It matters to me, though, and I think you owe me the truth. Were you…I don’t know, embarrassed or something?”
He released a defeated sigh. “Yeah, kinda.”
“No one made you hang out with us, Cole,” I said, my heart shrinking inside my chest. Although we ran in different crowds, his more popular than mine, I never thought he cared enough about his reputation to be ashamed of being seen with my friends.