Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 71915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
“Have you seen your brother?” Derek asked around a bite of burger.
“Here and there. That swim practice schedule is not for the faint of heart.”
“True.” Derek wiped his mouth. “I never understood it.”
Dad showed up to most of Bailey’s swim meets, and everyone was amicable as if he hadn’t left scorch marks on all our hearts.
I shrugged. “Guess when you love it, you love it.”
“I would not love constantly being damp.”
I laughed and clinked Derek’s glass. “Or smelling like chlorine.”
Still, you had to admire their dedication. We used to mess around at the lake before Bailey and Alex got serious and joined the high school team. I thought Bailey might quit after hearing how demanding the program was, but here he was, on a swimming scholarship. Alex too. I could only imagine that the college program was even more rigorous.
“Wait until I show up at his swim meets just to mess with him,” I said, and Derek snickered, knowing full well how much it would irritate Bailey.
Despite my beef with my brother, he was still family, and I planned to support him regardless of his spitefulness. It would also be nice to see Alex, maybe even catch up with him. I’d always noticed him checking me out in high school, but he was so self-conscious about it that he never realized I noticed him too.
Since our hot hookup on the dock—a first for both of us—I’d kept up with his life on social media. I’d still see him in passing at the house, but our conversations were always brief and never private.
Bailey had drawn a line in the sand between us. I didn’t cross it to reach out to Alex, and neither did he, which was just as well. I had college, and he had high school, and soon enough, we felt worlds apart. But now that they were on my turf, so to speak, it felt surreal.
“You want company?”
I looked up to see two women, a blonde and a redhead, standing near our booth. I recognized the blonde from my Life Sciences class last year.
Derek nudged me under the table, so I knew he was all in. “Sure, why not?”
We ended up talking to them until midnight, but I wasn’t in the mood for a hookup. In fact, I needed to get up early to study for an Aesthetics exam.
When Derek and the redhead left the bar, I turned to her friend and shrugged. “Gonna head out. Got an early morning.”
She didn’t seem to mind, which was fine by me. We left Shenanigans together and even walked partway back to campus until I turned the opposite direction and headed home.
My eyes shut as soon as my head hit the pillow, but my mind swirled with too many thoughts. Unfortunately, Alex still lived rent-free in my head. Even more so now that he was on campus and so close. Almost too close.
Some nights I replayed that moment between us, my hand on my dick, my heart in my throat. It’d been sloppy and desperate but so damned good. I hadn’t found that same sublime feeling with anyone since, but more than likely, I’d only built it up in my brain. Everything about that weekend was amplified, even my feelings after what I’d done to my parents and with Alex. Besides, he was my first guy experience too.
Not gonna lie. I’d worried Alex would also think less of me after hearing what I’d done to my family. But all I saw in his gaze was sympathy for us both.
When my alarm blared way too early in the morning, I grumbled and hit the Snooze button, hoping to get a little more time.
I hadn’t heard Derek come home last night, but as I stumbled out of bed to make a pot of coffee, I could hear him snoring through his closed door. Christ. At least someone had a good time.
2
Alex
The first morning alarm went off at five-twenty, the second at five-thirty, but it wasn’t until Bailey’s five-forty alarm rang that I opened my gritty eyes with a groan. You’d think I’d be used to this routine from high school swim practice, but the college schedule was something that would take me more than a couple of weeks to adjust to. If all else failed, our teammates from the same floor would undoubtedly knock loudly on their way out, which was always fun for the other students.
My voice was hoarse when I muttered to Bailey, “You go first.”
I heard him roll out of bed and shuffle out of the room to use the bathroom, my eyes squinting in the soft glow from his desk lamp. I yawned and sat up, remembering how I’d tried getting to sleep earlier last night, but it was nearly impossible with our schedule and Bailey’s constant chattering. As if he’d gotten a second wind after midnight or something.