Parting Chances (Fighting Chance #1) Read online

  I shouldered my overnight bag and lifted the tray of brownies Kyler insisted on making off my seat and carried it into the house. As I neared the door Eli came bursting back out, brushing against me as he went to gather the rest of the stuff. Fire erupted in my belly.

  Damn it! I am never going to survive the weekend.

  I dropped my overnight bag in the corner of the living room and found Kyler in the kitchen unloading the groceries. I placed the brownie pan on the counter and lifted the lid to get my chocolate fix.

  “Hi, Hales!” Kyler grinned when she saw me, only to frown at the brownie in my hand. She covered the tin and placed it on the other side of the kitchen. “You can’t eat all of those before anyone else gets some.”

  I was too busy taking in the chaos that was the kitchen to respond. There wasn’t bare counter space available. We really would never have to leave the house, which I’m sure was her plan. Kyler was having an issue getting stuff into the fridge, so I knew that was stocked too.

  “I feel like we’re getting ready for the apocalypse.” I laughed as Kyler slammed the fridge door shut and stood back against it.

  “I may have gone slightly overboard. But now the guys won’t have to go shopping for a while.”

  Eli came in, dropping the rest of the bags on the floor. As he headed out of the kitchen, his hand skimmed mine, and our fingers locked for all of two seconds. Then he was gone. I tried hard not to stare after him, but Kyler had no issue doing just that.

  “What did you do to him?” She arched an eyebrow at me. “He was completely…normal before you got here.”

  I groaned and leaned against the counter. My voice was low when I continued. “I have no idea what’s going on. Before Thanksgiving, I told him everything, and he said he’d talk to me when we got back to school. About us.” I used air quotes around the last word. “Because apparently there is an us.”

  Kyler barked out a laugh and shook her head. “Well, we all knew that.”

  My eyebrows creased and I pointed an annoyed glare at her, which only caused her to laugh harder.

  “Anyway,” I continued, “we are back, and we have talked… but we never talk about that! So every time we hang out it’s incredibly awkward and amazing at the same time. I mean, we flirt so much now—”

  “So much more now…” Kyler interrupted. My glare at her intensified and she just waved at me to continue.

  “So we’ve had class every day this week. We had our study date. We flirt. We talk to each other every night on the phone. But he still hasn’t made a damn move.” I had to remind myself to keep my voice low, when all I wanted to do was scream it at the top of my lungs. That’s how frustrated I was.

  Kyler knew me better than I probably knew myself and was at my side in an instant, wrapping her arms around me. Though, she did so with a laugh. “Oh, Hales. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh. But come on. Why don’t you make that first move? This guy has been pining after you since freshman year. When you finally tell him you’re in, I’m sure he’s probably just a little iffy still. So of course he’s not going to make the move first. He’s going to make sure you’re completely ready.”

  Why did she have to sound so logical about it?

  “So maybe let him know you are ready,” she said. “You have all night together, I’m sure you can think of some way to fix it.”

  She was right. Of course she was right. But the question was how was I going to let him know I was all in? I mean, flirting I could do, but it just didn’t seem like he was really getting that. And I wasn’t the type of girl who put out the same night something… happened. We were stuck working together for eight hours. Maybe I could get something through to him. I glanced at the clock, noting it was a little after five, so I had two hours before trivia to figure something out.

  “Do you need any more help?” I stepped out of Kyler’s grasp and glanced around the kitchen. It looked like chaos…but organized chaos.

  “Nope. Everything is settled in here.” She hooked her arm through mine and led me out of the kitchen. Noah and Eli were sitting on the couch when we entered the living room. She nudged my arm, gave me a wink and turned to the guys. “Eli, would you mind running with Haley to get the pizzas?”

  “I can get them myself.” Eli stood and headed for the door. I stared after him, hurt that he didn’t even want to be alone with me. Was he still just trying to give me space? Or did he finally realize that I was more trouble than he wanted?

  “Well, I know you could. But I need Haley to stop at the store…I forgot something.” Kyler nudged my arm again, tilting her head slightly in the direction of the door.

  I’m fluent in Kyler non-verbal gestures, and clearly, she was telling me to get out that front door. But my feet paused at the look Eli flashed Kyler. His eyes shone uncertainly. His gaze flicked to me quickly, but I caught the softness in them before they darted back to Kyler.

  “What is it? I can pick that up too.” He plucked his keys from the table and propped himself up against the doorframe, waiting for Kyler to finish.

  “Oh, well…I um forgot… I um…need some tampons.” She blurted out. I swear every single face in the room turned red.

  Noah looked Kyler up and down before opening his mouth. “But I thought…” Kyler held up a hand to stop him and gave him a short glare before turning back to Eli.

  “So did you want to pick those up? I’d have to write it down. Haley knows what kind I use, so it’d be easy for her to just grab them. But if you want to go at it alone—”

  Eli interrupted her. “No, that’s okay. I could use Haley’s help.” He rushed out the door before Kyler could continue on about her feminine needs.

  “Didn’t you just have your period?” My question hit Kyler’s smirk. I didn’t even need her to reply since I knew the answer. We were roommates after all.

  Kyler winked at me again, before she pushed me toward the door. “You’re welcome!” I heard her say as I exited the house.

  Eli already had his car running in the driveway. He was tapping the steering wheel with his thumbs, glancing in every other direction but at me. Before I could even buckle my seatbelt completely, Eli was backing out of the driveway. If I hadn’t known any better, I would have sworn he was trying to get us to our destination as fast as possible so he wouldn’t have to be alone with me anymore.

  But, I knew something was still there for him. I just needed to get him to stop being such a gentleman about my feelings. I was ready. So, how was I going to make him realize I wasn’t as fragile as he was currently treating me?

  His arm propped up on the center console, his hand dangling off the edge slightly. His close proximity to me made every nerve in my body tingle. My tongue darted out to lick my lips before I pulled the bottom one between my teeth as I let the idea form in my head. Before I could talk myself out of it, I propped my arm next to his, keeping only centimeters of space between us. The hairs on my arm stood at attention, trying with all their might to touch him. As I released my bottom lip, my breath came out shaky, but I managed to inch my fingers close to his. With one more shaky inhale, I lifted my pinky and hooked it with his. A sharp breath released from his mouth, and I saw his eyes dart down to our hands.

  I sucked up whatever courage I still had and spoke up, ignoring the flames licking up my arm as he laced all his fingers through mine.

  “So, where are we getting the pizza from?” I risked peeking at Eli out of the corner of my eye. His gaze was staring straight ahead, his left hand loosely controlling the steering wheel and that adorable lopsided grin he usually saved for me appeared on his face. He didn’t answer right away, just gave my hand a squeeze, which let the butterflies loose in my stomach.

  “The Brew Pub.” His voice was soft, but still held a slight uncertainty to it. I released the breath I didn’t realize I was holding and turned to face him.

  “They have the best pizza.” My stomach rumbled at just the mention of it. Eli nodded but said nothing. “I hope they put in the order earl
y enough. That place is going to be so busy tonight.” On a typical Friday night, you had to call at least an hour in advance to pick up a pizza. But with it being trivia weekend, the wait was going to be up to at least two hours long.

  “I think Noah called it in a little over an hour ago. They said it’d be done by six.” His thumb traced small circles on the back of mine, which made me almost miss what he had said. The tension in this car was suffocating. We had forty-five minutes before the pizza would be ready. Forty-five minutes for this insane tension to continue. I was hoping by now Eli would have gotten the point that I was all in, but he hadn’t said a thing about our hands. But honestly, who talks about holding hands?

  Third graders, that’s who, Haley.

  “So stopping at the store first?” I wasn’t sure if I should still continue Kyler’s charade since it seemed like we were already making progress, but seeing his cheeks turn a slight blush made my question worth it. A giggle escaped my lips before I could help myself.

  “What?” Eli glanced at me, eyebrows raised.

  “You! Embarrassed at even the mention of going to get…” I dropped my voice in a hushed whisper. “Tampons.”

  Once the giggles started, I couldn’t turn them off. At least Eli joined in and let out a small laugh.

  “Like you wouldn’t be if you were me?”

  I relaxed back into the seat, relieved that we had our back and forth banter back. He wasn’t acting like I was fragile anymore. We were making headway.

  “I don’t know. Noah picks up stuff for Ky all the time.” I nudged his arm, and his grip on my hand got tighter.

  “They’ve been dating since they were five!” Another laugh came from him as he pulled into a parking spot.

  “Not quite, but I guess you have a point.” I smiled as we untangled our hands and got out of the car. He came around to my side and wrapped his arm around my waist, bringing me close to him as we walked in together.

  “Do we need to get anything else while we’re here?” I asked as I stepped out of his grasp to pick up a basket and lead the way to the health and beauty section.

  “Did you see what Kyler brought? I doubt we’ll need to go shopping for a month now.” He bumped his arm into mine before lacing our fingers back together. My breath whooshed out as tingles exploded through my body.

  I turned down the aisle I needed and stopped in front of the assortment of tampons. Eli let go of my hand and stood at the end of the aisle, his back facing me and hands in his back pockets. Laughing at his ridiculousness, I grabbed the kind I knew Ky used, though she didn’t need any anytime soon, and started back to him to put him out of his misery.

  “It’s a part of life, you know.” I held the basket toward him and giggled as he backed away from it.

  “Sure. For you ladies.”

  “Your future girlfriend will be very upset knowing you won’t even walk down that aisle, much less purchase the products for her.” In my mind that sounded like the best thing to say. But maybe it was too soon to start with the girlfriend references. Or maybe Eli thought I was saying he was going to have a different girlfriend, not me.

  Maybe he didn’t hear me? Please let him not have heard me!

  Eli turned down the soap aisle without saying a word. He eyed the body wash in front of him, before finding the one he wanted and taking it from the shelf. He removed the basket from my hand, threw the soap in it, and wandered down the aisle to the shampoo.

  Oh great, Haley. Good job on ticking him off again.

  He paused for a second again, searching out his usual before adding that to the loot, then took off down the main aisle. I had no choice but to follow, my mind coming up with ways to retract what I’d said. He stopped abruptly near the toothpaste, and with my mind occupied, I ran straight into his back. He turned and stared down at me, chewing on his bottom lip. He played with the handle of the basket for a moment before speaking. “Would you be upset if I didn’t get these for you?”

  Holy hell. My heart took off at rocket speed. Had he just insinuated that he was going to be my boyfriend? Maybe I was being immature and overreacting about all the touches and flirting, but after months of sexual tension, the smallest things now seemed monumental.

  My mouth opened and closed a few times before I could form some words. “No, but I’m pretty low maintenance.”

  Eli gave me that lopsided grin, and my stomach blew up with butterflies. “Good. Then I have nothing to worry about.” He turned and started walking to the self-checkout. He ran the items through before I could even register what he had said. My heart hammered away in my chest as I approached him. He paid and grabbed the bag with one hand and my hand with his other. “Oh, and the low maintenance part is just one of the many things I like about you.” I stared at him dumbstruck as he winked and laced his fingers through mine and led me toward the door.

  Well, I guess I would say he knew I was finally ready for this.

  Eli, Owen, and I hunched over our respective computers, typing away furiously to try and answer the latest trivia question. We were in hour seven of our eight-hour shift and anyone could tell we had started to slow. The kitchen table we were at was littered with empty soda cans and coffee mugs, but the caffeine had lost effect hours ago. I was running on what little adrenaline I had left from the beginning. My mouth opened, releasing a big yawn. I did nothing to stifle it. They were getting worse as time progressed.

  “Found it!” Owen yelled out, making me jump. He dialed the number and gave the answer he found to the person on the other line. Eli and I had given up long ago searching to make sure Owen’s answers were correct. After the tenth correct one it was pointless, and we dubbed Owen the trivia ninja. He was quick and always right. It made our night easier, but even he was losing speed as the night went on. His accuracy was still spot on, though, so that was helpful.

  With my elbows propped on the table, I pushed my fingers against my eyes and rubbed. One more hour. I just had to make it one more hour before I could crawl into bed. I wasn’t entirely sure where I’d be sleeping tonight, since the guest room was given to all the guys who didn’t live there. I thought I’d be crawling into Noah’s bed when he and Kyler got up, but found out right before they went upstairs that they were taking the third shift, so they’d likely still be sleeping when I was done with mine. Heck the couch sounded just fine with me. I could pop in my ear buds and tune out the chatter of the new crew. It wasn’t ideal, but it beat driving across town to my apartment.

  Eli’s arm wrapped around my shoulders, breaking me from thoughts of sleep. He rubbed up and down my arm, sending those ever present sparks coursing through my body.

  I could just sleep right there, and I’d be one content girl.

  “Not much longer. Think you can make it fifty minutes? Then you can crawl into bed.” Eli’s voice rumbled through my body as he spoke.

  “Or the couch.” I groaned into his chest as the announcer gave us the countdown to the next question, then pushed myself off him and back to my computer.

  “You can have my bed.”

  And just like that, I was wide awake, and I completely missed what the next question was. Eli and Owen typed away at their computers, but my hands stayed hovering over the keys. Had he just said I’d be sleeping in his bed? Would he be sleeping in his bed too? There was no way I would be able to fall asleep if we were in the same bed. The tension was bad enough while we were vertical. I wasn’t sure what would happen if we got horizontal.

  My mind kept wandering over the possibility of sleeping with Eli, and I barely noticed as Owen, once again, phoned in the answer.

  I caught Eli smirking at me out of the corner of my eye.

  “What?”

  “Stop overthinking it. I mean, we have slept in the same bed before, but I’ll sleep on the floor.” He turned to the computer as the next question was read. My mind was still reeling that I missed it again.

  Clearly I’m bringing so much to the team right now. I pretended to type something into the Goo
gle search box, but it didn’t matter; Eli had found the answer and was calling it in.

  “I can’t let you sleep on the floor,” I said as he ended the call. I look a long drink of water to keep my hands occupied, so I didn’t do or say anything embarrassing. You know, like how I really wouldn’t mind sleeping with him.

  “Great. Then I’ll sleep with you.”

  Water sprayed from my mouth and landed all over Eli. My eyes widened, and I felt my cheeks heat. Please let the Earth open up and suck me in right now. Please! My hands pressed over my mouth as I willed myself to both stop the giggling that was about to escape and the tears that were threatening to form. Owen was also trying to contain his chuckle from across the table, while Eli just sat there shocked.

  This is it. This is when he tells me to leave. I braced myself as his mouth opened, but the only sound that came out was laughter. I sat frozen while Eli and Owen doubled over their computers laughing hard. My embarrassment swelled to an all-time high. Before I could keep my pity party going, Eli reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze.

  “If you didn’t want me to sleep with you, you only had to say the words.” His chuckles continued, and I just wanted to hide. Why did all the embarrassing things have to happen in front of Eli?

  Somehow the two guys composed themselves and answered the last few questions of the shift. When the three guys on the next shift arrived, I was met with relief and panic. Eli and I never had come to a decision on where he would be sleeping, and it was go time. We closed our computers and moved them from the table so the next shift could have our spots. I gathered our trash from the table and threw it in the garbage. Eli was waiting for me at the foot of the stairs when I reemerged from the kitchen.

  “Ready for some sleep?” he asked with that lopsided grin of his.

  Yeah, right. Keep giving me smiles like that, and I’ll never be able to sleep.

  “Um, yeah.” I mumbled as he grasped my hand and led me up the stairs. My heart thumped hard and fast against my chest the closer we got to his room. The first thing I noticed upon entering was my duffel bag sitting on his bed. I had no idea when it got moved or by who, but it was clear that it had been known I was sleeping in here…by everyone but myself. I lifted the bag from the bed and hurried into the bathroom with it. When the door closed behind me, I leaned against it in semi-relief. I’d have a few minutes alone to calm myself before I had to face Eli again.