Ch.27-Love 'Ain't Easy

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Grace

I was so frustrated I wanted to cry.

I sat in the corner of Coach Wilkins’ office, waiting for all the guys to clear out. The last thing I wanted was for him to see the tears in my eyes. I was hurt and maybe kind of happy . . . But most of all I just didn’t know what to feel. I didn’t understand Cole’s sudden personality switch. I thought he was angry with me and now . . . Now he just wants to get together? Why?

I heard the voices grow farther away before disappearing altogether. I stood up from my pathetic huddled mess and swiped the back of my hands across my cheeks. I slung my backpack over my shoulders and inched out of the room, mind elsewhere. I was pretty sure that was why I didn’t hear or see him sitting in the locker room.

“Grace.”

My heart skipped a beat, like it did every time I heard his voice. Or at least, as of recently. Why did I have to react that way around him? It didn’t make any sense to me!

I did my best to ignore him, walking right up to the door. I turned the door knob to go out but his hand shot out of nowhere and shut it again. I sighed.

“Cole, let me go,” I stated calmly. “My mom just made dinner and I don’t want it to be cold.”

“Turn around and look at me, Grace.”

I swallowed hard. “Why?”

“Look at me.”

His voice pulled at something deep inside of me that begged to hear it. I spun and stared right into his eyes, trying to stay strong but feeling myself crumble within. I wanted to trust him so bad. I had never felt this thing sweeping over me before, and I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know what to say or what move to make. I was walking in foreign territory and I was scared.

He trailed his fingertips along the side of my face, over the edge of my jaw. It was a feather-light touch that left sparks of heat behind.

“Please stop,” I pleaded, fighting a losing battle not to close my eyes and soak his touch in.

“No,” he replied. “And you want to know why? Because I don’t think you want me to.”

“You don’t know what I want,” I whispered.

“Don’t I?”

I shook my head, but my mind was all fuzzy. The edges of reality were all blurring together. Where were we, again? I couldn’t remember.

“I don’t understand why you keep fighting it,” he continued, still brushing my face with his fingers. “You like this, don’t you?”

I didn’t respond.

He moved closer, obviously determined to get the response he wanted. His breath washed over my cheek. His lips skimmed the flesh. I shivered. “Do you like this, Grace?”

“Cole,” I whimpered.

He pressed his lips harder, kissing down my jawline. “Tell me, Grace.”

At the moment, the only thing I wanted to do was kiss him. And that was mind-blowing in itself, if for the sole reason that I was me and I didn’t attract that kind of attention. Because I didn’t want that kind of attention . . . Or so I had thought. And then I came to Heart, North Carolina. And I had been told to tutor Cole Winters. And then it all spiraled out of control after that.

I never allowed myself even the opportunity to think of getting close to anybody. But with Cole it felt so natural, like an act similar to breathing. It wasn’t hard, not as much as I thought it would be. But I didn’t like the emotional side-effects. That confusion I could live without.

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