Love Me

“He says he’s sorta over all this high school bullshit.”

Aiden narrows his eyes at me. “You’re mine today. You promised.”

“I know. But I’ll probably be sitting with him to watch. I promised his brother and they’re together.” I smile at him. I mean, how can I not? He looks like a real god.

I hold the marker in front of him.

“What’s that for?”

I smile, pull the lid off, and grab his arm. “Luck, Aiden,” I reply as I draw a four-leaf clover on his bicep.

He catches my neck in his hand, pulls my face close to his, and kisses my forehead. “Now, I can’t lose.”

I go back up in the bleachers, my mind a jumbled mess of thoughts about Aiden’s kisses, Cooper’s sister, and Vincent.

Embry is bouncing in her seat, excitedly waiting for the first race to start. She hands me a goodie bag. “Here, I got you one!”

“Thanks! Are you having fun?”

“Are you kidding? This is the best place ever. I wish I didn’t have to wait until next year. I don’t want to go home.”

“Neither do I,” Pressley says, giving her a hug.

“I don’t want to go home either,” Braxton fake cries from behind the girls, wrapping an arm around each one of their shoulders in a little group hug. “So, there’s this party tonight, ladies.”

“Braxton!” I bug my eyes out at him. “There’s no party.”

Braxton shakes his head. “Obviously, Keatyn doesn’t have this place wired like I do.”

I turn to Dawson and give him a what-the-hell-are-you-going-to-do-with-your-brother look. He shrugs.

Maggie says to the girls, “Keatyn’s right. You can’t go to a party. If you want to come here next year, you shouldn’t jeopardize that.”

Pressley sticks out her bottom lip. “But we like parties.”

Thankfully, the a

Riley wins the first heat, beating out Jake and Ace.

Aiden’s heat is next. As he’s getting lined up, Aiden winks at me. How he knows that I’m looking at him from this far away is a little u

I let out a little sigh. That is wooing.

Maybe there’s hope for us yet.

A hot, godly, tongue-kissing kind of hope.

“Brad’s go

“Aiden’s faster than Brad,” A

Contestants. On your marks. Get set. Go! 

Aiden is the first one out front, but Brad quickly closes the gap.

“That’s the shirtless goalie, isn’t it?” Pressley says reverently. “He’s going to win. He has on gold shoes. Like that god. Was it Hermes? The one that was so fast?”

“He looks like a god too,” Embry snickers under her breath to Pressley. They put their heads together and giggle as Aiden kicks it into high gear and crosses the finish line first.

I don’t care that Dawson is sitting here. I stand up and cheer.

After all the races, there’s a break while the scores get tallied.

“I smell cotton candy,” I say out loud.

“I fucking love cotton candy!” Braxton exclaims.

“Pussy,” Dawson says, hitting him on the shoulder. “You eating pink chick food now?”

Braxton flips him off then stands up, puts his hand to his chest, and yells at the top of his lungs. “To quote Aristophanes, the ancient Greek playwright, ‘ To blurt it out in a word—we want laying!’”

I cover my mouth with my hand, trying not to laugh. I can’t believe he just yelled that from the stands!

He stays in the stands, amidst cheers, while I follow my nose to the cotton candy.

“Hey, wait up,” Maggie yells from behind me. “I’m glad Logan won his heat.”

“Yeah, me too. I heard he’s a really good wrestler.”

She sighs. “He looks really good out there.”

“Why don’t you talk to him?” I ask, while thinking fate needs to figure out a way to get these two back together.

“I tried. I gave up. Part of me feels for Dawson, you know. I know what it feels like to do something and wish more than anything you could take it back.”

Shark bumps Maggie’s shoulder. “You two haven’t bet yet.”

I dig in my bag for some coins and hand them to him. “I’m putting it all on Logan. He needs to win.”

Maggie squints her eyes at me, understanding that I’m not talking about the contest.

He punches my bet into his phone. Then he says, “Oh, here,” and hands me back a temporary tattoo. Of a four-leaf clover.

I shake my head and laugh. “Did everyone get these?”

“A tattoo, yeah,” Shark says, holding out his forearm and showing me a panther with a rose in its mouth.

“Classy,” Maggie laughs.

He reaches in his jacket pocket and hands us his flask. “Ladies?”

“Most definitely,” Maggie says, grabbing it from him and taking a gulp. “In fact, can I have the whole thing?” She pats the other side of his chest. “You always have a spare.”

“You know me too well, Maggie,” Shark flirts.

I shove the tattoo into my pocket and drag Maggie to the cotton candy. We’re holding shots of vodka in our mouth and letting chunks of cotton candy dissolve in it, when Aiden and Logan beeline toward us.

“Shit,” Maggie curses under her breath.

“Congrats!” I tell them both.

Aiden pulls me into his arms. “You look like a goddess and smell like cotton candy. Reminds me of the Ferris wheel.”

“I didn’t look like a goddess then.”

“You always look like one,” he whispers.

I realize that Maggie and Logan are standing there awkwardly.

“Um, so good luck on the rest of the events. We’ll be cheering. Maggie and I have to get back to our students.”

“That’s okay,” Aiden says, patting a tight set of abs. Abs I really want to lick. “We have to go fuel up these bodies.”

I try not to drool but can’t keep from saying, “Yes. Yes, you do.”

“That was awkward,” Maggie says, shoving more cotton candy into her mouth.

We watch the rest of the field competitions. The wi

After watching all of the wrestling matches, we’re down to Jake and Logan for the championship.

Aiden takes my hand and leads me over to Logan’s side of the mat. It feels odd not being on the same side as Jake and Dawson.

While Aiden fills up Logan’s water bottle, I take the four-leaf clover tattoo out of my pocket and hand it to Logan. “I want you to have this.”

“A tattoo?”

“Yeah. It's for luck.”

“Aiden has been into shamrocks lately,” he says, eyeing me suspiciously, and not taking the tattoo.

“We both want you to have luck.”

“Jake is your friend.”

“Yeah, well, I hope eventually you’ll be my friend too.”

He grins at me.

“I think you should forgive her, Logan.”

“She won’t forgive me.”

“Was she good for you?”

“She was the best thing ever.”

Aiden comes back and hands him the water bottle.

I raise my eyebrows at Logan and shake the tattoo at him. “I’ll even put it on you.”

“Fine,” he says, a little smile playing on his lips.

He stands still while I dump water on a towel, place the tattoo on his arm, and then hold the wet towel against it. After a few seconds, I pull the towel and the paper off and look at the clover now on his arm. “Perfect.”

Logan fist bumps Aiden as he goes out on to the mat. “Wish me luck.”

Aiden puts his hands on my waist and looks straight into my eyes. “Why did you do that?”

“I see how he looks at Maggie.”

“She destroyed him.”

“He said she was the best thing ever.”

Aiden nods. “I was kind of jealous of their relationship last year. They were amazing together. Always happy.”

“Until they weren’t.”

He nods sadly. “Yeah.”

“If they’re meant to be, they’ll get back together, don’t you think?”

“I think he never should’ve let her go in the first place.”