Page 7 of Scoring Chances
I feel the color drain from my face. “No!”
He pouts. And it might be more dangerous than his freakin’ smile by what it does to my heart rate.
“That’s a shame.”
Wait… what? Is he seriously flirting with me? Is my new boss… flirting with me?
“Joshua Hicks,” he extends his hand and I stare at it, dumbfounded. “In case you forgot.”
How could anyone possibly forget that face? I just stare at his hand, unable to make a move because I’m annoyingly fan-girling at the moment. Despite wrongfully convincing myself that I wouldn’t.
He lets his hand fall to the side and then brings up the other to rub the back of his neck.
"Look, Fergie told me you're not my biggest fan. And that's okay. I hope to convince you otherwise, but I'm really glad you're here."
It did take a lot of convincing me to be here.
Not because I don't like Joshua Hicks, though I could see why they would think that. But more because I wasn't sure if I could trust myself to be around him and not do stupid things. Something that I'm proving to myself I was right to assume as I stare at him for what feels like way too long to be socially acceptable before I look finally away.
Again, he’s shirtless, and I’m shameless in letting my eyes do what they want at the moment.
"All that to say, thanks for coming, Cassie," he continues, when I don't say anything."Can I call you Cassie?"
"Most people call me Sid," I admit, words finally come out of my mouth, and I try to look anywhere but his eyes.
"Sid?" He cocks his head again, inspecting me. I feel my body heat under his assessing gaze. "Why?"
"We have a Cassie." I finally look at him. "My sister Cassandra. We also have a Casey. My mom had a thing with C names. Kind of like the Kardashians."
"But with Cs," he says, nodding as if he understands. "So what's your mom's name then? Claire?"
"Donna,” I say. “Claire's my younger sister."
He pauses before chuckling to himself. "How many siblings do you have?"
"Enough to have to claim a nickname," I say.
"My condolences," he says with a sly grin.
"Uh… thanks?"
He watches me squirm, and I feel my cheeks flush.
“Well, shall we?” he motions toward the massive black double doors.
“Yeah… sure.” I tug on the straps to my backpack and he clocks the motion.
“You a student?” he asks, leading me up the steps to the mansion.
“Uh… yes. I'm attending community college right now, but I’m transferring to U of H in the fall.”
He smiles. “What’s your degree in?”
I nearly forget. Why does he have to look so good doing something so mundane as smiling?
“Um… I… uh,” I shake my head to come back to my senses. Get it together, Sid. “Teaching. I’m working towards getting a Masters of Science in Education.”
He pushes the door open and looks back at me. “So you’re not only ridiculously cute, you’re also a nerd.”