He Will Be Mine (New Horizon Book 1)

Just Friends Who Flirt

Aly

Once Tyler and I make it down to the lake, I am pleased to see that there aren’t many other people here yet. We lay claim to a little piece of the sandy shore by laying out our towels, then start to strip down to our bathing suits.

I kind of love the look that comes over his face after I pull my top over my head and wiggle out of my shorts. It feels good to have a guy look at me like he wants me, even if it isn’t the guy I’d prefer to have looking at me like that. Tyler is cute and easy to get along with. I’m enjoying him, and I hope that we can find some way to be friends when this is all over.

I’m still on the fence about how far I plan to take things with him because he seems like a sweet guy and I don’t want to hurt him in the process of making Matt jealous. I’m starting to get a sense that there’s a shy, sensitive side to him and if he’s developing feelings, it would be cruel of me to give him so much only to take it away. Maybe it would be better to keep things casual for now.

I watch as he pulls his t-shirt over his head, leaving him in just his swim shorts. Okay, this guy is a bit drool-worthy, I have to admit. Now that he has his shirt off, I can see that he has toned pecs, nicely defined abs, and a hint of a v-line that just barely peaks over the top of his shorts. I like the curves and grooves of his biceps, too. Mostly I appreciate that he is fit without it being too over-the-top. I like it so much that I find myself reconsidering my plan to seduce him.

“See something you like?” he asks me with a smirk, and I realize my drooling must have been more obvious than I intended.

“Honestly, yes. You look hot, Tyler,” I admit to him. “I didn’t realize you were hiding all that under your t-shirts.”

He smiles at me crookedly and reaches for my hand.

“All yours anytime you want it, sexy,” he offers suggestively, and I grin back at him.

We run hand-in-hand to the water and wade through the shallower parts until it is deep enough for swimming. He lets go of my hand and shoots me a look that I can’t quite read, and the next thing I know his arms are around my middle and I’m under the water with him. I fight him off and kick my legs to take me back up, spitting and sputtering.

“So that’s how it’s going to be?” I demand, splashing him vigorously with the water once his head emerges again. “You will regret that.”

Our water battle goes on for quite a while, and by the end of it there isn’t a clear victor. He puts up a good fight and is a worthy opponent, I decide. More importantly, it was fun and I was able to forget for a moment that my mate isn’t mine yet.

Speaking of my mate, once we decide to take a break from the water and return to the area where we left our towels, Matt and the rest of his posse are there sprawled out on towels of their own. Jessica and Meredith are reclined back sunbathing, while Matt and Trevor are sitting together chatting. I'm disappointed that Matt still has his shirt on, so I can't ogle whatever is under there.

Tyler carries me to our spot on his back, and we’re still laughing and giggling with each other when we get there. Matt and Trevor stop talking as we approach and just sit and watch us. Trevor is grinning, seeming amused by us.

“Did you have fun in the pool, kids?” he teases.

“Yes, papa,” Tyler teases back, gently dropping my legs and setting me back on my feet. “You should get in there. The water feels nice.”

“I can’t even swim,” Trevor admits, which floors me. How can someone his age not know how to swim? Maybe it’s different for humans, though.

“I’m going to head to the restrooms for a minute,” I announce, grateful that I saw on our way here that there are some close by. I don’t know why, but I almost always have to pee after I’ve been in the water for a while.

“Me too, actually,” Matt says. I notice Jessica turn her head to look at him, but she doesn’t move or say anything for once, so I guess he has her permission.

It’s stupid how my heart starts beating more rapidly just because Matt is walking to the bathroom with me. To the bathroom, of all places. How romantic. My stupid heart doesn’t seem to care about the romance, though. It’s just glad to be near enough to my mate for a minute that I can feel a hint of the mate-bond tingles from how close his arm is to mine.

I’m focused in on that sensation and trying not to grin like an i***t over basically nothing when his voice breaks through the silence.

“Aly, can I ask you something?” he says quietly. He seems embarrassed.

“Sure,” I say simply, really, really hoping he is about to ask me something profound that will let me know he feels our connection.

“I don’t even know if you will remember this, but I saw you before. Before we saw you yesterday, I mean. I know it was you. It looked just like you, and it was by that same driveway where we met you yesterday.”

I can feel my heart pounding rapidly in my chest. He remembers. He saw me too. He feels it.

“Oh?” is all I say in response, not sure what else to say that won’t distract him from wherever he is going with this.

“Yeah, it was years ago. I was in the car with my parents, and we were on our way here, oddly enough. Well, I suppose it’s not that odd, considering that we only ever drive around here when we’re coming camping.”

He is sort of just rambling now, and I love it. I love the sound of his voice and how cute he is when he is nervous.

I don’t know what to say, though. I don’t know how to tell him that I know exactly when he is talking about because I smelled his scent.

He takes a breath to compose himself and continues his story. “So, we were driving by where you live, and you were out there running. Just running, fast, like you were going somewhere important and couldn’t wait to get there.”

I was. I was running to get to you. But I don’t say that. Instead, I just listen.

He continues, “And then after we passed you, I turned around, and it looked like you were trying to wave us down. I wanted to go back and see what you wanted, but my dad was determined to get here and set up camp. I don’t even know if you remember that day, but I have always wondered why you did that. Where you were running. What you wanted from us.”

We made it to the restroom, but fortunately, there is a small line formed outside the building, so we still have a minute to talk. I stop and turn to face him, meeting his gaze and his expression that seems to be searching for long sought-after answers from me.

I could confess everything, but my dad’s warning about human mates is swimming around in my head, and I decide not to. It’s too risky, and he’s still in love with someone else. It would be naïve of me to assume that he would accept me and leave her just because he’s showing signs that he feels something. He probably doesn’t even know that he’s drawn to me in an extraordinary way. He probably just thinks he finds me interesting because I was behaving strangely when he first saw me.

I take a breath, quickly composing an answer for him. I decide to tell a partial truth rather than an outright lie.

“If it’s when I’m thinking of it was the day my dad threw this party and invited all of these guys he wanted me to meet, hoping I would hit it off with one of them. It creeped me out, so my friend Ryan and I went to our little hangout spot by the highway to blow off some steam. There wasn’t a lot of traffic that day, and on a whim, I decided when I heard a car approaching to try to see if the driver would pick me up and take me away from there. I didn’t care where, I just didn’t want to be there. So, I ran, trying to make it to the road before the car passed me by, but I was too late.”

He is quiet for a moment, taking that in and chewing it over, and then he smiles at me. His smile seems sad and wistful, and I have this urge to reach out to him, but I fight it, not knowing what his response might be.

“So, I guess if I could have convinced my dad to turn around, you might have come camping with us back then, too,” he says, and I think I detect a hint of regret in his voice.

“Yeah, honestly if I had known it was you in that car and that you were coming here, I would have just kept running all the way here. I like you, and I love camping,” I tell him.

The intense look he is giving me makes me wonder if I’m having more of an effect on him than I realized. I start to reach my hand out to touch his, but just as my fingers graze the side of his pinky, he pulls away.

“Looks like the men’s room is available,” he says, stepping away with an apologetic smile.

Damn. So close. 

-

-

Tyler

“You know, it would be okay with me if we keep our suits on while we shower,” I offer to Aly, who is sitting next to me on the air mattress grabbing stuff to take down to the public showers. We just came back from our swim in the lake, and now we’re getting ready for that shower she promised me.

I’ve been trying to play it off like I’m experienced and incredibly comfortable in my own skin, but I’m neither of those things. Even Matt and Trevor don’t know that I don’t get as much action as I pretend I do. Try none.

I don’t know why, but people always seem to perceive me as this cocky, confident jock-type who is good with the ladies. It happens before I ever even open my mouth. It might be because I have the body of someone who works out and takes care of himself, because I do, but shy, nerdy guys can do that too.

It surprised me when I first started college and showed up at the dorms that the other guys there saw me that way. If they had gone to high school with me, they would have known better. I started out a scrawny, lanky, awkward kid who stumbled over his words when talking to people I didn’t know, but then I started working out with the football team in the tenth grade. My cousin played, but I didn’t, and since our moms wanted us to stick together and not walk home alone, it just made sense for me to stay after with them. It helped with my self-confidence once I started to notice the changes in my body, and it helped with my social life once other people noticed.

And now here I am years later, and most of what people think they know about me is a lie. I hate that part of it. I hate that I’m that desperate to be validated by other people that I can’t just be myself with the people I consider to be my best friends. Instead, I play the role of the guy they think I am.

I also hate that it has become such a habit that I can’t just be real with Aly. I could just tell her that I’m the one feeling shy and insecure because I've never done this before, but instead I’m trying to make it seem like I’m just being considerate. And you know, I would be, if she needed me to be, but I’m starting to think she is completely comfortable while I’m the one freaking out.

“Okay,” she agrees, and I exhale the breath I was unconsciously holding.

“I appreciate that you’re always such a sweetheart, Tyler,” she adds.

Her compliment warms me all the way from my toes to my brain. I turn and look at her with the grin I can’t seem to keep off my face while she’s around, and I can feel myself blush. Thankfully, she’s not looking because she’s busy.

“It’s easy with you,” I tell her, and then cringe internally when I realize how cheesy that sounds.

“I like being around you, and I don’t want to ever make you feel uncomfortable,” I add, hoping it helps clarify what I meant.

“I like you too, Tyler,” she looks up at me and returns my sentiment. Then she looks more carefully at what I’m doing, or not doing, and her face scrunches up adorably in confusion.

“Aren’t you going to take anything to shower with?” she asks, referring to the fact that I have yet to grab my body wash or anything.

She doesn’t know it, but I was too busy freaking out at the prospect of getting naked with her so soon to even consider that. I try to brush it off like it was intentional.

“I was hoping you would share some of your stuff with me. It all smells so amazing.”

I think I did good. She looks pleased.

“Yeah sure," she readily agrees, "but it’s all homemade stuff my mom makes for me. Nothing fancy and probably not what you’re used to.”

“Even better,” I say with an eager smile, and quickly reach in my bag and grab out the first outfit I come across to change into after our shower.

I actually do like how she always smells, and that bug repellent she lets me borrow works really well. We seem to be the only two who are unbothered by the bugs so far, so I’m betting Matt regrets listening to Jessica on that one. I think it’s kind of awesome the way Aly’s family lives and how they make all their own stuff and go hunting for food and whatever else they do. I don’t mind at all that she’s going to let me try out more of her natural stuff, and maybe I’m winning brownie points with her in the process.

Or maybe I’m annoying her always wanting to do everything she’s doing. Well, great. I don’t know why that had to pop in my head just now when I was finally relaxing a little.

Get a grip, Tyler. She likes you, she said as much, and it’s just a shower between friends. Friends who flirt. Friends who make suggestive comments to each other. She’s just my friend, my friend with gorgeous green eyes, kissable lips, a nice butt, and legs for days. Crap. That stirring in my shorts is certainly going to make that shower a hell of a lot more uncomfortable.

“Ready?” she asks, looking at me expectantly.

“I’m always ready for you, gorgeous,” I shoot back automatically.

Cringe. I wish words didn’t dump straight from my brain out my mouth before I get a chance to think about them.

She laughs and takes my hand. At least she doesn’t seem put off by my idiotic comments. I don’t know how I got this lucky to go from the only single one here with nothing to keep me from being that awkward fifth wheel to my friends’ couply outings again, to now having this amazing girl to hang out with. I know this is temporary and she’s leaving us tomorrow, but I sure wish I could find some way to keep her around.