“Hey,” I said, just smiling softly and taking her in. Her hair was straight, and swept over one shoulder. She was wearing tight black pants and a dark blue sweater that hung off one shoulder. Her exposed skin drove me wild instantly, and I just wanted to take a bite out of it, but I had to take baby steps, so after giving her a once over, I forced myself to keep my gaze up high, at her eyes.

“Hi,” she said softly, unsure of herself. I noticed the slight tremble when my hand touched hers as I handed her the flowers, and I took it as a good sign. “These are amazing. Thanks, I don’t get a lot of living things in here. I mean…unless you count the mold I’m growing on my bread.”

She giggled at her words, my heart leaping from my chest at the sound. I laughed at her joke, trying to set her at ease. “I wasn’t sure if you had a vase or anything. I think they’re okay in a cup or whatever,” I said, looking around her room. It looked the same, everything still in its place. But somehow, it seemed darker, lifeless. It made me sad. Nolan found an empty cup near her sink and filled it with water, setting the flowers on her night table. It made me feel good to know that she’d wake up to such a vivid reminder of me, and of tonight. Now all I had to do was not f**k things up. “Easier said than done,” I thought.

I held out my arm and guided her from her room out to the Jeep. We were both quiet, and with each minute that passed without conversation, the more nervous I became, my palms actually sweating.

“So…do I get to know where we’re going?” she asked, flittering her lashes at me just like she used to do in high school. God, I was done. I took a deep breath, and turned to her with a full smile.

“Sort of. I’ll fill you in as we go. Like, right now? We’re going bowling,” I said, buckling up and starting the engine. Nolan’s face lit up a little. She liked bowling, but we’d only ever been once. Tonight was going to be about doing all of those stupid little things we never did, or didn’t do enough. And bowling made my girl smile, which was the first thing on my list.

The drive to the bowling alley was dead quiet. I tried to fill the air with my constant flipping through the various radio stations, and when I caught Nolan tapping her leg to the rhythm of one of the oldie stations, I stopped. I loved that she liked the old songs. She had an old soul. That’s what Pops always said. And something about hearing some doo-wop band sing, while I looked at Nolan’s smile in the moonlight, seemed right.

I thought about reaching for her hand when we walked into the bowling alley, but she had grabbed her jacket and purse, and was hugging them close to her chest, I think partly to shield herself from me. She wasn’t herself anymore, and she was so damned uncomfortable around me. It was killing me. I hadn’t kissed her in weeks, and all I wanted was to taste her lips, crush my mouth to hers and make her drop her purse to the ground, reaching for neck and hair. God, the way she used to tug at my hair and wrap her legs around my waist like I was some sort of tree, and she was the spider monkey…I had to quit thinking about it, because tonight was about taking it slow. And right now, I was seconds from throwing that theory out the window.

We picked up our shoes and headed to our lane. I found a ball right away, but Nolan was always picky. She wanted the perfect weight, the perfect thumbhole, and the perfect color. She finally settled on an ugly lime-colored ball and set it on our return.

“Really? All that time, and you come back with the slime ball?” I teased her. Her smile was refreshing, and I watched her shoulders relax while she swapped out her boots for her retro black-and-white bowling shoes.

“Hey, fancy-ass quarterback. You might be able to throw a pigskin, but I bet me and slime ball can school you out here,” she sassed at me as she lifted her ball and propped it on her hip like a six-shooter. Slow was going to be really f**king hard tonight.

I considered her wager for a bit, and it gave me an idea. “Okay, let’s have some fun with this,” I said, lifting my ball now and mimicking her pose. “If you win, you get to pick what we do next. But if I win, we go skinny dipping.”

This marked the first time ever—in the history of my knowing Nolan Lennox—that I saw her jaw actually drop. I also knew she didn’t like to back down from a bet. I raised the bar with this one, and probably threw my whole plan to shit, but I didn’t care. She was chewing on her bottom lip and wiggling it side-to-side when she finally nodded once. “Okay, you’re on,” she said, a flash of passion in her eyes. I hadn’t seen this side of Nolan in months, and if I had to throw 10 strikes in a row to keep it alive, I was going to summon everything I had.