The Bad Boys of Summer Anthology(104)

“It must have been nice to come here with just your mom,” Maddie continued and squeezed my hand as if she realized how hard it was for me to be here.

“It was nice.” I nodded. “Let’s go.” I pushed through the bushes next to the rocks and held them open for Maddie as much as I could. She squeezed through and we took a few more steps and then I stopped and stared. There in front of us was the largest field of sunflowers I had ever seen in my life, it seemed to go on and on, and each sunflower seemed to shine even brighter than the next.

“Wow, this is amazing.” Maddie’s eyes shone with appreciation. “This is so beautiful.” She gazed around and gingerly touched the petals of a sunflower in front of her. “I understand why Van Gogh painted sunflowers now.”

“They all look so similar, but if you study them, they are all so unique. The yellows in their petals, the oranges of the florets, all so unique if you stop to study them carefully.”

“I don’t really know much about flowers.”

“Me, either.” I laughed. “Sad, really, but I couldn’t name half of them for you.”

“So are sunflowers your favorite flower then?”

“Why, of course. What about you?”

“Is it cliché if I say roses?” She blushed. “Red roses are my absolute favorite.”

“They are the flower of love.” I grinned at her.

“No one has ever given me roses before.”

“Not even a boyfriend?” I teased, trying to ignore the slight stirring of jealousy inside.

“Not a one of them,” she laughed. “And I gave them plenty of hints as well.”

“What sort of hints? Maybe they didn’t understand. You know how you girls can be.”

“Hints like, oh, it’s my birthday coming up. I’d love it if someone got me roses.”

“Oh.” I laughed.

“Yeah, exactly. Anyone who was listening should have known I would have loved to have received some roses.”

“Good things come to those who wait.”

“I sure hope so.”

“So,” I asked casually. “Are you dating anyone right now?”

“Is that a joke?” She gave me a weird look.

“No.” I looked away from her. A part of me was wondering why I was going down this road of questions. I didn’t want to go down this road, because I knew where it would end up. It would end up with her asking where we were going, and what did I want, and I didn’t want to answer that. Though I did want to know more about Maddie. What was it about me that attracted her? What guys had she dated before? Did she have a history of choosing bad boys? Was she one of those girls whose goal was to fix her man? I knew I didn’t want to be that guy to her, though I didn’t know exactly what role I wanted to play in her life.

“Well, no, Logan. I’m not dating anyone. I certainly wouldn’t be sleeping with you if I was sleeping with someone else.”

“So, you don’t sleep around?” I knew the words came out wrong. I knew she may interpret my tone as disbelief that she wasn’t easy. Even though that wasn’t what I meant, I really wanted to know if she was interested in anyone else aside from me, but I didn’t want to voice it that way.

“I know it’s hard for you to believe, but no, I am not sleeping around.”

“So there’s no one.”

“There’s no one.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m just a single girl, having some fun.”

“I see.”

“You’re such an idiot.” She pushed me slightly. “I like you, Logan. Don’t you understand that?”

“What?” I couldn’t stop the smile on my face. “You like me?”

“Like that is really news to you.”

“Well, you know,” I laughed, “I’m a guy, I’m a bit slow.”

“Just a bit?”

“You know how it can be sometimes.”

“So what about you?”

“What about me?”

“So do you like me as well?”

“Hmm, that’s a bit of a hard question.”

“Logan Martelli!”

“I think I can say that I like you.” I smiled at her warmly. “I think I can say that I like you quite a lot.” I laughed at the words. If my brothers could see me now, telling a girl I liked her like some pussy.

“A lot, huh?” She grinned back at me. “Even though you were shouting at me just a few hours ago.”

“Well, you were shouting at me as well.”

“Only because you were shouting at me.”

“I’m new to situations like this, Maddie.”

“Have you been in a relationship before?”

“Of course. I’m not a monk.” I laughed at the disappointment in her eyes. “I’m sure you appreciate the benefit of sleeping with a man with experience.”

“I don’t want to think about you sleeping with anyone else.” She wrinkled her nose.

“Just think about me sleeping with you, then.” I pulled her towards me. “Just think about the feel of me as I fill you up and pound you so energetically that you can think of nothing other than the feel of my cock in you.”

“Logan.” She laughed delicately against me. “Are you trying to turn me on?”

“Did it work?” I winked at her and watched as she licked her lips. I wanted to feel her tongue on me, and I groaned as I realized how turned on I was.

“I’m not going to tell you.” She shook her head and stepped away from me.

“I see the way you are.” I adjusted myself and stifled another groan. “So tell me about your last boyfriend.”

“Are we going to do this now, then?” She looked at me with a question in her eyes, and I wanted to tell her no. I didn’t want to think about her with anyone else. I didn’t want to picture her lips kissing another man’s cheek, her hair trailing along another man’s face, her fingers running through another man’s hair, her eyes adoring another man’s presence.

“Just curious, but if you don’t want to,” I shrugged, “no skin off my back.”

“It’s fine. I’d like to share with you, if you’ll do the same.”

“So who’s the last guy you dated?”

“Brandon Howell III.” She laughed. “His father was from Texas and in oil. And he loved steak. Like, really loved steak. Every date we had was in a fancy steakhouse.”

“Nice.” I smiled weakly, not wanting to hear about Brandon Howell the Third, jerkoff of steakhouses.

“He was tall, about six feet, with a really nice body. He went to the gym a lot. He had blond hair and blue eyes. His mom was from Sweden.” She babbled on and I already regretted getting into this conversation. I really didn’t want to hear about her perfect ex. “He just graduated from UT Austin, and he is starting the MBA program at Penn in the fall. He’s not that smart, though, so I’m not really sure how he got in, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that his father donated a few million to ensure he was accepted.”

“Nice.” I knew I sounded irritated, but I couldn’t help it. The more she spoke, the more I realized that this could go nowhere. I couldn’t take her anywhere fancy, I’d never be able to buy myself into a grad program. Shit, my brother wouldn’t even be able to go to community college next semester if I didn’t come up with a plan to make some money.

“Sorry.” She looked at me, worried. “I know that was too much information. Basically we dated for about two months and then I found out he had a cocaine problem and I dumped him.”

“I see. Did you sleep with him?”

“We messed around.” She looked down. “Though we never had intercourse.”

“Do you still talk to him?”

“Not really, but he does call me every now and then to hang out.”

“Okay.” My voice was short and I turned away from her to look at the sunflowers. The warmth of the sun on my face soothed me a little bit as we stood there in silence, and I was thankful Maddie didn’t try and ask me what was wrong. I was overwhelmed with unfamiliar emotions, and I was already worried enough as it was. I really didn’t need this additional stress. But somehow standing here calmed me. I felt like my mom was looking down from heaven, telling me to just relax and take it one day at a time, like she used to when I was a kid. I turned to Maddie and smiled. “When I was a kid, my mom always used to tell me that I looked like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. And that one day, if I wasn’t careful, the load was going to be too much to bear and I would collapse. She always said if it starts feeling like it’s too much, just look around you, Logan. Just stop and go somewhere and look around you. And then, for a moment, everything will seem manageable.”

“Is that why you like going to fields?”

“And to the pier.” I nodded. “I love the ocean, it reminds me of myself.”

“Oh?”

“The ocean is deceptive. Some days it looks calm and peaceful, and other days it looks dark and murky. Yet you never really know what’s going on underneath. What are the currents like, the undertow, the waves? I feel like I’m the ocean to a lot of people, they don’t really see me. They see what they want to see.”