Full Count (17 page)

“Now for your surprise,” Dylan
whispered into my ear, just slightly brushing his lips against the shell. I
watched him as he walked into the kitchen and saw that several of Kitty’s
cousins were doing the same thing.

 He was looking extra sexy in a
black button up shirt, with the sleeves rolled at the elbows and a pair of snug
khakis. I think he had tried to tame his hair today by slicking it back, but
his dark locks were already sticking up every which way. Well I guess Kitty’s
cousins could look all they wanted, but when those dimples flashed, they were
only flashing for me.

“Here we go.” Dylan sat down a cake
in front of me and Susanne came up behind him to stick candles in. “Happy early
birthday.”  My birthday was only two days away and I knew I hadn’t brought it
up at all. I couldn’t believe he actually remembered. Kitty led everyone in
singing happy birthday to me and I blew out the candles without making a wish,
I truly had everything I wanted.

I took a bite of the cake and it
melted in my mouth. “Oh my god Dylan, this is amazing. You’re really getting
good at this whole baking thing. What kind of cake is it? This tastes so…familiar.”
I took another bite and Dylan leaned over to lick a speck of the butter cream
frosting that had landed on my lips. “Probably because the key ingredient is
pop, I knew you would be able to figure it out pretty easily.” Really, could he
get any sweeter?

The conversations all picked up
again around the table as desserts were dished out. Dylan tugged on my hand and
pulled me to my feet. “C’mon Sparky.”

I followed behind him through the sliding
glass doors and onto the wide balcony that overlooked the ocean, but we didn’t
stop there. He leaned down to remove my heels and my feet instantly sunk into
the sand.

“I figured it was time for some
peace and quiet.” He pulled on my hand and our feet made footprints in the
empty sand. “Thanks, I didn’t think it would happen but it did. The Chapmans
are definitely a big family. It’s been me and my dad for so long, I’m just not
used to it.”

“I know the feeling. I never
experienced holidays until I came here.” We stopped our walk and I turned to
look out at the soft gentle waves that were rolling in. Dylan wrapped an arm
around my waist and I leaned my head against his side. This right here was a
perfect holiday.

“I’ve missed the beach so much.
Living in Florida, you’re almost always just about an hour’s drive away from
the beach. Jake and me used to drive to one every weekend and just hang out for
the day. Too bad it’s a little cold to go swimming.”

“We could always sneak out to the
heated pool after everyone crashes tonight.” His lips moved to my forehead and
I could feel his lips curving into a smile. “Have you talked to Jake lately? I
haven’t heard you mention him lately.”

“Well…we’ve both been pretty busy
lately.” Truthfully, I felt guilty for pushing Jake away. I hadn’t told him
that I was dating Dylan and I was talking to him less and less. I just didn’t
want to make things awkward between the two of us. I never mentioned to Dylan
how Jake really felt about me and I wasn’t planning on it. Dylan was a pretty
trustworthy boyfriend, but I don’t know how he would feel about my best friend
being in love with me.

“Paige, I need to tell you
something.” My heart dropped at his words and he turned me so his hands were
resting on my shoulders so I couldn’t look away. His brown eyes darted all over
my face and I could tell he was nervous about something. I was just worried
about what that something was.

“Just spit it out then, Rookie, I
can handle whatever it is.” Yeah, that’s a lie. Was he breaking up with me? Was
there another girl? I always told him I wanted us to be honest with each other,
but I didn’t know if I could handle that kind of honesty.

“Calm down, Paige. It’s nothing
bad.” His hands uncurled my clenched fists that I hadn’t even noticed and he
laced our hands together.

“It’s just hard…it’s hard for me to
say this because, really I’ve never said it to anyone before. I swear from the
first moment that I saw you, I really felt it. And then I got to know you even
more and it just kept growing till my chest was about to explode. At first, I
wasn’t really sure what the hell I was feeling and I thought you had put some
weird hex on me or something. But then we kept spending more and more time
together, and you would just give me this look that shot straight to my heart.”

“Yeah, that look right there.” His
finger brushed across my cheek and he leaned down to nip at my lip before
pulling back. “I am so in love with you, Paige Brinton, it fucking hurts. I
didn’t know this is how love could really feel until I met you. I had never
felt it before and it was so foreign, it had me so confused. But this right
here, I never want this feeling gone. I love you.”

I swear I could feel my heart
practically jumping out my chest at his words. I had known that I felt this way
about Dylan for awhile, but I guess I was just as scared as him, though I guess
for different reasons.

“I love you too, Dylan Turner.” I
stood on my tiptoes to wrap my hands around his neck to bring him closer. “So
much. But don’t ever think that you’re not loved. Everyone up there loves you
too. Susanne and Tim think of you as one of their own. I don’t know why you
haven’t realized that, but you know what love feels like. It’s just different
between us. Everything feels so different between us.”

The rest of the weekend passed
quickly and before I knew it, we were loading up the cars and heading back to
campus. This time Kitty and I both arrived back at the dorms around the same
time and we collapsed in our beds the minute we were dropped off.

“Ugh. I can’t believe we have to go
back to school tomorrow. How ‘bout we skip classes?” Kitty moaned out from
underneath her pillow. My eyes were already shut tightly and I answered back
with something that was even incoherent to me. “Nighty, night sis. Glad you
came home with us.”

                                                       
*********************

“I can’t believe this is the last game
of the season.” Kitty looped her arm through mine while we walked across campus
for our last tailgating with her parents for the year. I can’t believe Dylan
isn’t here is what wanted to come out of my mouth, but I bit it back. I promised
myself and him that I would have fun tonight. Somehow, he got stuck working
while everybody on campus was packed into the stadium.

At least, we got to go to the Tiger
Burn last night together. Dylan thought it was hilarious when we showed up and
me being so naïve, thought there was an actual tiger being roasted. I wasn’t
sure how something like that could be legal and I was weary to go.

When we showed up and I saw the
twenty foot tall
fake
tiger being set ablaze, I instantly relaxed. That
was one tradition that I would definitely never forget. Dylan would probably
never let me live it down.

“Paige so good to see you,
sweetie.” Susanne wrapped me in a tight hug the minute we stepped into the
Cockaboose and pulled back to smooth my hair. “And how have you been treating
my boy? I’m so sad I don’t get to see him tonight.”

“He’s doing good. He’s excited
about baseball season coming up.” I wasn’t sure where our relationship would go
once that started up. Dylan was basically going to be busy 24/7 when practice
started in February, between that, school, and work. I was a little worried
about where that would leave us.

“Well, you make sure you take good
care of him. Not many people expect it since he keeps up such a tough boy
exterior with that mouth of his, but he’s a real softy.”

“I know, trust me.” Sometimes I
couldn’t believe the things that came out of his mouth, but then he would
always follow them up with something sweet. He was always finding new ways to
surprise me. I worried that he would get bored with our relationship, but he
seemed content.

“Here, try this, it’s Ground
Clemson Dip.” Tim shoved two bowls towards me one with the dip and one filled
with chips. “It’s a tradition to make it every year for this game specifically.
Susanne will have to send you home with a tub of it for Dylan. That boy will
lick the bowl clean.”

Susanne must have noticed my wary
expression because she laughed and nudged me with an elbow. “Don’t worry Paige,
I heard all about your dilemma last night. The ‘ground tiger’ is actually
turkey, add in a little Velveeta, picante sauce, and jalapeños for some heat,
and you got yourself a scrumptious dip.”

I swear Dylan talked to this woman
more than me sometimes, but I didn’t mind. He never really wanted to talk about
his birth mother and I didn’t blame him. There wasn’t much to tell since she
just abandoned him at the hospital, but I think there was a part of him that at
least wanted to know who she was. Susanne made for probably the best substitute
there could be.

“Hey Paige, you want to head over
to the stadium?” Kitty grabbed onto my arm after Susanne turned away to talk
with some of their alumni friends. I swear they knew just about everyone on
campus.

“Sure, isn’t it a little early
though?” I followed her outside, patting myself on the back for my choice of
outfit tonight. I had ditched the usual black dress for a pair of black
leggings and a long sleeved black shirt. I figured the night would be cooler
and it definitely was. Plus, it only felt right to put on those cowboy boots
when Dylan was around. They held some special memories.

“Yeah, I just wanted to meet up
with Grant and a few of his friends before the place started to get too
crowded. And I wanted to get away from Kylie, god what was I thinking when I
invited her for tailgating. Her voice is like frickin’ nails on a chalkboard
and I swear she has a thing for Grant, even though he would never look at her
twice.”

“Mmhm, I know exactly what you’re
talking about. She’s the same way around Dylan; maybe you should’ve banned her
from the Cockaboose. No reason you should have to leave your own tailgate. It’s
like she has a thing for wanting taken guys or something.”

“Yeah, it’s a little weird,” I
answered back. We climbed down the staircase to the metal seats where we
usually met up. Sure enough, Grant was already waiting with a few of his
friends that I had already met.

Kitty’s face lit up with a wide
smile as soon as she locked eyes with him and her footsteps picked up. “I swear
she was even flirting with Jared today right in front of Maddie , and of course
Maddie didn’t say anything. She’s too sweet for that. Maybe we should gang up
and kick her ass or claw her eyes out.”

“Yeah, totally,” I sarcastically
replied. A chick fight was definitely not something that I wanted in my future.
Maybe Maddie could just move in with us, although the room would be a little
crowded.

Thoughts of Kylie were forgotten as
the stadium filled up. The air was even more electric tonight since we were
playing one of our biggest rivals. As soon as the team entered the stadium to
2001: Space Odyssey, Grant and his friends stripped off their shirts.

 Wow, I really wasn’t expecting
that one. Kitty let out a giggle as she ran a hand over Grant’s muscled stomach
that had the letter G painted in black on it. Together they spelled out
Gamecocks. I had no idea how they were surviving in the cool air. Yeah, it
wasn’t 20 degrees out or anything, but it was still freakin’ cold!

I felt an elbow in my ribs and I
looked over, trying to contain my eye roll when I saw Kylie had somehow found a
seat on the other side of me. “What a nice view, huh?” She wiggled her eyebrows
at me, her blonde curls bouncing up and down while she jumped in place, all out
staring at Grant. I was pretty sure I saw drool rolling down her chin. Oh this
was gonna be a fun night.

Dylan

Finally, I was done with what was
probably the slowest night of my life. Halloween probably came in second place,
but that night was a whole lot more fun when Sparky was here to reward me for
being such a good boy.

After I was finally able to clock
out, I made my way to the empty parking lot. Thankfully, I didn’t run into much
traffic on my way home since the game had ended about an hour before I got off.
I’m sure the house was jam packed with people since Chris planned an after
party.

The only thing I was looking
forward to was seeing Paige. I was afraid that our relationship would get stale
after a while since I wasn’t used to being in one. But that had yet to happen
and I knew it wasn’t going to anytime soon.

Things were really getting serious
since I was going to meet her dad in a few weeks. Spending the holidays with a chick’s
family was even more serious. But I didn’t mind, I would marry Paige tomorrow
and be happy for the rest of my life.

I pushed open the front door, my
eyes immediately seeking out that head of sandy brown hair. It was like we were
magnets whenever we were together and I instantly spotted her, tucked into a
corner with her legs crossed, sipping on a drink, and looking bored out of her
mind. That wouldn’t last for long.

I scooped her out of the chair and
devoured her mouth with mine. She was more than enthusiastic, hungrily
returning my kisses while tugging at my hair to bring me closer. From the taste
of it, she had plenty to drink before I got here.

“Mmm, I’m so glad you’re finally
here.” She giggled out while licking her lips. “You taste like yummy
bubblegum.” I laughed as I sat her down, but kept an arm wrapped her waist. Her
knees wobbled as soon as her feet touched the ground. Yup, she was definitely a
little tipsy.

“What are you drinking?” I asked
over my shoulder, heading towards the kitchen so I could start a buzz of my
own. It had been a long fucking week. Two research papers due and an assload of
studying for final exams that were coming up.