A small part of me wants to focus on this unveiling and ask a dozen more questions about why they would do this, and why he’d allow it, but a larger piece of my mind has begun contemplating my own situation.
“What are you thinking?” Max asks.
“I don’t know.” I carefully try to articulate my feelings and concerns. “I knew you were experienced, Max. I knew that before anything started. It’s just these insecurities I suddenly have are intimidating the hell out of me.” He doesn’t understand what I’m trying to hint at as his brows knit together.
“What if I’m bad? What if you start thinking of one of your ex’s? I don’t like the idea of being compared to—”
Max pulls the car onto the shoulder of the road, unbuckles his seat belt, and leans forward grasping my face in both of his hands. He holds me with gentleness, but firmly so I can’t move as he stares directly into my eyes.
“Ace, stop. This is why you have nothing to worry about.” He presses his lips to mine. The instant pull fills me with heat and yearning that is so strong I know it’s coming from both Max and me. It hasn’t managed to dim at all in the past few days, rather it’s even more potent.
He pulls back and stares into my eyes as his breathing comes out in gasps. His eyes silently search mine in confirmation and I understand exactly what he means. I haven’t slept with other guys, but I’ve dated more than I’d like to admit, so I know that what I feel with Max is different; the tingles, the racing hearts, the haggard breathing, we’re like active live wires that when we connect—ignite.
“You have nothing to be insecure about. Nothing.” He stares into my eyes for a long moment before kissing my forehead, the tip of my nose and then my lips. “Nothing,” he repeats.
I take his hands from my face and press a kiss to the inside of each of his palms and nod as I focus on his eyes, confirming that I understand.
His lips spread wide in a smile as he sits back and puts his Jeep back into gear. He reaches over and takes my left hand in his right and holds it securely as we pull back out into traffic.
Saturday we spend our first day apart when Max goes to see his friend Wes, a guy that he has known from baseball for years. Max is thrilled to see him and invited me to tag along, but I declined knowing that he’ll have a better time without worrying about me being entertained. I invite Abby over instead.
She and Jesse both come over and the three of us hang out for a while until Jameson and Kendall arrive home from having gone to San Diego to take a load of stuff to Kendall’s apartment.
“Hey, guys, this is Jesse. Jesse this is my sister Kendall and her boyfriend, Jameson.”
“Nice to meet you,” Jameson says, offering his hand to Jesse who shakes it with an easy smile as Abby begins discussing classes with Kendall.
“Where’s Max?” Jameson asks.
“He’s hanging out with his friend Wes. I think he’ll be back soon though.”
“Alright, well you guys want to play some basketball, then? We can warm up until he gets here. I’m dying in this heat.” Jameson pulls his shirt from his body.
We bob in the water and talk, getting acquainted. I still don’t know much about Jesse; he seems nice but rather quiet, and I’m working to break down a layer of his outer shell as Jameson and Kendall flirt and grope at one another, occasionally joining in on our conversation.
“I’m seriously going to miss these moments,” Abby says from where she’s sprawled across a float with her eyes closed.
A giant splash rains down on us as Jameson plunges into the water, emerging with a satisfied grin as Abby shrieks at him.
“You were a little too dry to be in a pool. Plus you’re starting to get freckles,” he says with a laugh.
“Just because I don’t want to be ass-white like you!” she yells, running a hand carefully under each of her eyes.
“Ass-white? I’m pretty sure my ass is whiter than the rest of me,” he says, turning around and gripping the edge of his shorts, “Here, you guys tell me.”
“No one wants to see your white ass.” I turn, hearing Max’s voice and see him shaking his head at Jameson, obviously curious as to how our conversation has landed here, though not looking overly surprised.
“Some people seem to really enjoy seeing my white ass.” Jameson leers at Kendall, earning a round of laughs.
Max quickly peels off his T-shirt and slides into the water, raising his arms up to guard me as I shoot the basketball that has floated over to my side.
“What’s that?” Max asks as the ball leaves my hand. He holds my arm up, peering at my side.
“You got inked?”
“What?” Abby cries, swimming over.
“We all did.” I explain.
Max shakes his head. “Who’s we? When?”
“My sisters. We got them when you guys went fishing.” Max looks over to Jameson as if to confirm this.
“You never said anything.” Max’s wounded expression fills me with guilt.
“You? She never said anything to me either!” Abby wades over to me, her light brown eyes narrowed on me.
“We kind of forced her,” Kendall offers. “We decided we wanted to get a tattoo together and thought she might say no so we kind of just brought her.” Max carefully lifts the band of my bathing suit to reveal the entire piece and nothing more. “We all got the same thing.”
“Did that hurt?” Abby asks, touching it lightly with her finger. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me, Harper Jo!”
“It’s not that I was keeping it from anyone. It just wasn’t that big of a deal,” I say, feeling slightly indignant. “Now that it’s healed I kind of forget about it because I don’t really see it.”
“Where’s yours, Kendall?” Abby asks.
Kendall turns around and pulls her bathing suit down to reveal her hip.
“They look so sexy!” Abby cries. “I want one now!”
“Ace hated it, said it was cliché.”
“It is cliché,” I correct her, going to retrieve the basketball.
“Max, this is Jesse. Jesse, this is my boyfriend Max,” I say, swimming back to them. Jesse looks from me to Max and a look of curiosity crosses his face that I ignore as Jameson starts the game by separating teams.
Max and I lie on his bed watching a movie. My parents are off at a fundraiser, and we both still have a hint of chlorine dancing on our skin. I snuggle in closer to him, trying to get some sort of reaction. All evening he’s seemed a bit distant.
After watching far too much of the movie without incurring any distractions or interruptions, I reach over and press pause on the remote. “Talk to me. Please.” I grip one of his hands within mine. Max looks up at me and then lets out a deep sigh. “What’s wrong? Is this because I didn’t tell you about the tattoo?” I ask. “Really, I wasn’t trying to keep it from you.”
“I don’t know. It’s not that I didn’t know, it’s that I found out at the same time some other dude did. He looked at me like I’m either the biggest asshat or doesn’t think we’re serious.”
“Max, I’m sorry. Really, I am. But who cares about Jesse? He doesn’t even know you. Hell, he barely knows me.” I tighten my grip on his fingers. “When you got home I was just distracted with trying to distinguish if you had feelings for me, and what those feelings were, that it kind of got moved to the back burner. Hell, if I’d have thought about it, I probably would have shown you in an attempt to flirt with you.”
“I know, I was too, and I understand it all. It’s just the look he gave me.” He pauses, running a hand over his head a couple of times. “It just pisses me off.”
I nod in understanding and sit up to straddle Max’s waist. His hands come up to rest on my thighs. “It’s probably a good thing I was distracted by being pissed off though. That bikini you wore today should be framed. That’s why Paul’s such a creeper. If I didn’t want to bash in his face, I might actually feel a little bad for him.” A slow grin turns the corners of his lips up before I playfully shove him against the pillows.