Summer Fling - Players of Marycliff University, Book 1

Chapter 6

Lance was startled when his raised hand met empty air. He looked down to see Abby standing in the doorway, hair down, with a light sheen of gloss on her lips.

"Megan's sleeping. I'd rather you didn't wake her."

Lance let his hand drop. "Of course. Hangover?"

Abby smiled at him and pulled the door closed behind her. "Of course. Megan almost always has a hangover on the weekends."

"I'll keep that in mind." Lance ran his hand down her arm to turn her to him and then dropped a kiss on her mouth. Her lip gloss tasted like strawberries. Abby's brows rose in surprise, but she didn't say anything. "Ready?"

Abby nodded. Lance held her hand as they walked to his car, where he opened the door for her. She didn't even try to reach for the door first. He seemed to be making progress. He watched her pull her bare legs into the car one at a time. He was glad she'd worn shorts again. He liked that she didn't wear Bermuda shorts or capris. He didn't understand capris. To him they looked like pants that weren't long enough. Why did girls wear those? They weren't shorts and they weren't pants. They were just weird. But Abby wore short shorts, allowing him to admire the full expanse of her legs.

Every time she'd been in his car, he'd restrained himself from running a hand from knee to thigh, wondering if her skin was as soft as it looked. Since she'd been shy of him, he didn't want to scare her off by moving too fast. Even the kiss at the door might have been pushing things a little. But he'd already crossed that line, so he was confident she wouldn't slap him for kissing her now. Well, he'd been pretty sure, and since she didn't, that only proved him right. He was used to moving a lot faster than this when he was attracted to a girl. If she wasn't up for his pace, he usually just let her go. For some reason he didn't want to analyze, he didn't want to let Abby go. For her he'd slow down, give her a little space and time to get used to him. He wanted to get to know her better. But that didn't mean he wouldn't try to push the edges of her comfort zone.

Lance buckled his seatbelt and started the car. Glancing at Abby, he noticed her playing with her lower lip.

She dropped her hand in her lap and looked at him. "So, where are we going?"

He maneuvered out of his parking spot before answering. "You don't want to be surprised?"

Abby shook her head. "I don't like surprises."

"Really? Why not?"

Abby paused for a moment before answering, like she needed to think about how to answer. "Let's just say that in my experience, surprises are rarely good." Her voice was light, but her face was troubled, like she was remembering some particularly nasty surprises.

Lance thought about asking more, but decided he didn't really want to start their date off with heavy or depressing subjects. "Fair enough. I thought we'd go to the Peacock Lounge."

Abby scrunched her eyebrows and started playing with her lip again. "I haven't heard of that. Where is it?"

"It's the restaurant in the Davenport Hotel. You haven't been there?"

Abby shook her head. "I've never had a reason to go there. I haven't stayed at the hotel before or anything."

Lance laughed. "It's a nice restaurant. You don't have to stay at the hotel to eat there. And it's a really nice historic hotel. You haven't even gone to the Christmas Festival they host every year?"

"No. Have you?"

Lance nodded. "Yeah. I like to go see all the decorated trees. I usually go right after finals are over before I head home for Christmas break."